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diff --git a/22762.txt b/22762.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4350d7b --- /dev/null +++ b/22762.txt @@ -0,0 +1,26207 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2), by +Henry Martyn Baird + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2) + +Author: Henry Martyn Baird + +Release Date: September 24, 2007 [EBook #22762] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RISE OF THE HUGENOTS *** + + + + +Produced by Sigal Alon, Daniel J. Mount, Taavi Kalju and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +HISTORY OF THE + +RISE OF THE HUGUENOTS. + +_VOLUME I._ + + + + +A REVIEW OF THIS WORK, + + +_Occupying nearly four columns, appeared in the_ NEW YORK TRIBUNE _of +Dec. 30th, 1879, from which the following is extracted._ + + "It embraces the time from the accession of Francis I. in 1515, to + the death of Charles IX. in 1574, at which epoch the doctrines of + the Reformation had become well-grounded in France, and the + Huguenots had outgrown the feebleness of infancy and stood as a + distinct and powerful body before the religious world. In preparing + the learned and elaborate work, which will give the name of the + author an honourable place on the distinguished list of American + historians, Professor Baird has made a judicious use of the + researches and discoveries which, during the last thirty years, + have shed a fresh light on the history of France at the era of the + Reformation. Among the ample stores of knowledge which have been + laid open to his inquiries are the archives of the principal + capitals of Europe, which have been thoroughly explored for the + first time during that period. Numerous manuscripts of great value, + for the most part unknown to the learned world, have been rescued + from obscurity. At the side of the voluminous chronicles long since + printed, a rich abundance of contemporary correspondence and + hitherto inedited memoirs has accumulated, which afford a copious + collection of life-like and trustworthy views of the past. The + secrets of diplomacy have been revealed. The official statements + drawn up for the public may now be tested by the more truthful and + unguarded accounts conveyed in cipher to all the foreign courts of + Europe. Of not less importance, perhaps, than the official + publications are the fruits of private research, among which are + several valuable collections of original documents. While the + author has not failed to enrich his pages with the materials + derived from these and similar sources, he has made a careful and + patient study of the host of original chronicles, histories, and + kindred productions which have long been more or less familiar to + the world of letters. The fruits of his studious labours, as + presented in these volumes, attest his diligence, his fidelity, his + equipoise of judgment, his fairness of mind, his clearness of + perception, and his accuracy of statement. + + "While the research and well-digested erudition exhibited in this + work are eminently creditable to the learning and scholarship of + the author, its literary execution amply attests the excellence of + his taste, and his judgment and skill in the art of composition. + His work is one of the most important recent contributions to + American literature, and is entitled to a sincere greeting for its + manifold learning and scholarly spirit." + + + + +HISTORY OF THE + +RISE OF THE HUGUENOTS. + +BY + +HENRY M. BAIRD, + +PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. + + +_IN TWO VOLUMES._ + +VOL. I. + +_FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE FRENCH +REFORMATION TO THE EDICT OF +JANUARY (1562)._ + + +London: +HODDER AND STOUGHTON, +27, PATERNOSTER ROW. +MDCCCLXXX. + +Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The period of about half a century with which these volumes are +concerned may properly be regarded as the formative age of the Huguenots +of France. It included the first planting of the reformed doctrines, and +the steady growth of the Reformation in spite of obloquy and +persecution, whether exercised under the forms of law or vented in +lawless violence. It saw the gathering and the regular organization of +the reformed communities, as well as their consolidation into one of the +most orderly and zealous churches of the Protestant family. It witnessed +the failure of the bloody legislation of three successive monarchs, and +the equally abortive efforts of a fourth monarch to destroy the +Huguenots, first with the sword and afterward with the dagger. At the +close of this period the faith and resolution of the Huguenots had +survived four sanguinary wars into which they had been driven by their +implacable enemies. They were just entering upon a fifth war, under +favorable auspices, for they had made it manifest to all men that their +success depended less upon the lives of leaders, of whom they might be +robbed by the hand of the assassin, than upon a conviction of the +righteousness of their cause, which no sophistry of their opponents +could dissipate. The Huguenots, at the death of Charles the Ninth, +stood before the world a well-defined body, that had outgrown the +feebleness of infancy, and had proved itself entitled to consideration +and respect. Thus much was certain. + +The subsequent fortunes of the Huguenots of France--their wars until +they obtained recognition and some measure of justice in the Edict of +Nantes; the gradual infringement upon their guaranteed rights, +culminating in the revocation of the edict, and the loss to the kingdom +of the most industrious part of the population; their sufferings "under +the cross" until the publication of the Edict of Toleration--these offer +an inviting field of investigation, upon which I may at some future time +be tempted to enter.[1] + +The history of the Huguenots during a great part of the period covered +by this work, is, in fact, the history of France as well. The outlines +of the action and some of the characters that come upon the stage are, +consequently, familiar to the reader of general history. The period has +been treated cursorily in writings extending over wider limits, while +several of the most striking incidents, including, especially, the +Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, have been made the subject of special +disquisitions. Yet, although much study and ingenuity have been expended +in elucidating the more difficult and obscure points, there is, +especially in the English language, a lack of works upon the general +theme, combining painstaking investigation into the older (but not, +necessarily, better known) sources of information, and an acquaintance +with the results of modern research. + +The last twenty-five or thirty years have been remarkably fruitful in +discoveries and publications shedding light upon the history of France +during the age of the Reformation and the years immediately following. +The archives of all the principal, and many of the secondary, capitals +of Europe have been explored. Valuable manuscripts previously known to +few scholars--if, indeed, known to any--have been rescued from obscurity +and threatened destruction. By the side of the voluminous histories and +chronicles long since printed, a rich store of contemporary +correspondence and hitherto inedited memoirs has been accumulated, +supplying at once the most copious and the most trustworthy fund of +life-like views of the past. The magnificent "Collection de Documents +Inedits sur l'Histoire de France," still in course of publication by the +Ministry of Public Instruction, comprehends in its grand design not only +extended memoirs, like those of Claude Haton of Provins, but the even +more important portfolios of leading statesmen, such as those of +Secretary De l'Aubespine and Cardinal Granvelle (not less indispensable +for French than for Dutch affairs), and the correspondence of monarchs, +as of Henry the Fourth. The secrets of diplomacy have been revealed. +Those singularly accurate and sensible reports made to the Doge and +Senate of Venice, by the ambassadors of the republic, upon their return +from the French court, can be read in the collections of Venetian +Relations of Tommaseo and Alberi, or as summarized by Ranke and Baschet. +The official statements drawn up for the eyes of the public may now be +confronted with and tested by the more truthful and unguarded accounts +conveyed in cipher to all the foreign courts of Europe. Including the +partial collections of despatches heretofore put in print, we possess, +regarding many critical events, the narratives and opinions of such apt +observers as the envoys of Spain, of the German Empire, of Venice, and +of the Pope, of Wurtemberg, Saxony, and the Palatinate. Above all, we +have access to the continuous series of letters of the English +ambassadors and minor agents, comprising Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Nicholas +Throkmorton, Walsingham, Jones, Killigrew, and others, scarcely less +skilful in the use of the pen than in the art of diplomacy. This English +correspondence, parts of which were printed long ago by Digges, Dr. +Patrick Forbes, and Haynes, and other portions by Hardwick, Wright, +Tytler-Fraser, etc., can now be read in London, chiefly in the Record +Office, and is admirably analyzed in the invaluable "Calendars of State +Papers (Foreign Series)," published under the direction of the Master of +the Rolls. Too much weight can scarcely be given to this source of +information and illustration. One of the learned editors +enthusiastically remarks concerning a part of it (the letters of +Throkmorton[2]): "The historical literature of France, rich as it +confessedly is in memoirs and despatches of the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries, possesses (as far as I am aware) no series of +papers which can compare either in continuity, fidelity, or minuteness, +with the correspondence of Throkmorton.... He had his agents and his +spies everywhere throughout France." + +Little, if at all, inferior in importance to governmental publications, +are the fruits of private research. Several voluminous collections of +original documents deserve special mention. Not to speak of the +publications of the national French Historical Society, the "Societe de +l'Histoire du Protestantisme Francais" has given to the world, in its +monthly Bulletin, so many hitherto inedited documents, besides a great +number of excellent monographs, that the volumes of this periodical, now +in its twenty-eighth year, constitute in themselves an indispensable +library of reference. That admirable biographical work, "La France +Protestante," by the brothers Haag (at present in course of revision and +enlargement); the "Correspondance des Reformateurs dans les Pays de +Langue Francaise," by M. Herminjard (of which five volumes have come +out), a signal instance of what a single indefatigable student can +accomplish; the collections of Calvin's Letters, by M. Jules Bonnet; and +the magnificent edition of the same reformer's works, by Professors +Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss, a treasury of learning, rich in surprises for +the historical student--all these merit more particular description than +can here be given. The biography of Beza, by Professor Baum, the history +of the Princes of Conde, by the Due d'Aumale, the correspondence of +Frederick the Pious, edited by Kluckholn, etc., contribute a great deal +of previously unpublished material. The sumptuous work of M. Douen on +Clement Marot and the Huguenot Psalter sheds new light upon an +interesting, but until now obscure subject. The writings of Farel and +his associates have been rescued from the oblivion to which the extreme +scarcity of the extant copies consigned them; and the "Vray Usage de la +Croix," the "Sommaire," and the "Maniere et Fasson," can at last be read +in elegant editions, faithful counterparts of the originals in every +point save typographical appearance. The same may be said of such +celebrated but hitherto unattainable rarities as the "Tigre" of 1560, +scrupulously reproduced in fac-simile, by M. Charles Read, of Paris, +from the copy belonging to the Hotel-de-Ville, and the fugitive songs +and hymns which M. Bordier has gathered in his "Chansonnier Huguenot." + +No little value belongs, also, to certain contemporary journals of +occurrences given to the world under the titles of "Journal d'un +Bourgeois de Paris sous le regne de Francois Ier," "Cronique du Roy +Francoys, premier de ce nom," "Journal d'un cure ligueur de Paris sous +les trois derniers Valois (Jehan de la Fosse)," "Journal de Jean +Glaumeau de Bourges," etc. + +The revival of interest in the fortunes of their ancestors has led a +considerable number of French Protestants to prepare works bearing upon +the history of Protestantism in particular cities and provinces. Among +these may be noted the works of MM. Douen and Rossier, on Picardy; +Recordon, on Champagne; Lievre, on Poitou; Bujeaud, on Angoumois; +Vaurigaud, on Brittany; Arnaud, on Dauphiny; Coquerel, on Paris; Borrel, +on Nismes; Callot and Delmas, on La Rochelle; Crottet, on Pons, Gemozac, +and Mortagne; Corbiere, on Montpellier, etc. Although these books differ +greatly in intrinsic importance, and in regard to the exercise of +historical criticism, they all have a valid claim to attention by reason +of the evidence they afford of individual research. + +Of the new light thrown upon the rise of the Huguenots by these and +similar works, it has been my aim to make full use. At the same time I +have been convinced that no adequate knowledge of the period can be +obtained, save by mastering the great array of original chronicles, +histories, and kindred productions with which the literary world has +long been acquainted, at least by name. This result I have, accordingly, +endeavored to reach by careful and patient reading. It is unnecessary to +specify in detail the numerous authors through whose writings it became +my laborious but by no means ungrateful task to make my way, for the +marginal notes will indicate the exact line of the study pursued. It may +be sufficient to say, omitting many other names scarcely less important, +that I have assiduously studied the works of De Thou, Agrippa d'Aubigne, +La Place, La Planche; the important "Histoire Ecclesiastique," ascribed +to Theodore de Beze; the "Actiones et Monimenta" of Crespin; the memoirs +of Castelnau, Vieilleville, Du Bellay, Tavannes, La Noue, Montluc, +Lestoile, and other authors of this period, included in the large +collections of memoirs of Petitot, Michaud and Poujoulat, etc.; the +writings of Brantome; the Commentaries of Jean de Serres, in their +various editions, as well as other writings attributed to the same +author; the rich "Memoires de Conde," both in their original and their +enlarged form; the series of important documents comprehended in the +"Archives curieuses" of Cimber and Danjou; the disquisitions collected +by M. Leber; the histories of Davila, Florimond de Raemond, Maimbourg, +Varillas, Soulier, Mezeray, Gaillard; the more recent historical works +of Sismondi, Martin, Michelet, Floquet; the volumes of Browning, +Smedley, and White, in English, of De Felice, Drion, and Puaux, in +French, of Barthold, Von Raumer, Ranke, Polenz, Ebeling, and Soldan, in +German. The principal work of Professor Soldan, in particular, bounded +by the same limits of time with those of the present history, merits, in +virtue of accuracy and thoroughness, a wider recognition than it seems +yet to have attained. My own independent investigations having conducted +me over much of the ground traversed by Professor Soldan, I have enjoyed +ample opportunity for testing the completeness of his study and the +judicial fairness of his conclusions. + +The posthumous treatise of Professor H. Wuttke, "Zur Vorgeschichte der +Bartholomaeusnacht," published in Leipsic since the present work was +placed in the printer's hands, reached me too late to be noticed in +connection with the narrative of the events which it discusses. +Notwithstanding Professor Wuttke's recognized ability and assiduity as a +historical investigator, I am unable to adopt the position at which he +arrives. + +I desire here to acknowledge my obligation for valuable assistance in +prosecuting my researches to my lamented friend and correspondent, +Professor Jean Guillaume Baum, long and honorably connected with the +Academie de Strasbourg, than whom France could boast no more +indefatigable or successful student of her annals, and who consecrated +his leisure hours during forty years to the enthusiastic study of the +history of the French and Swiss Reformation. If that history is better +understood now than when, in 1838, he submitted as a theological thesis +his astonishingly complete "Origines Evangelii in Gallia restaurati," +the progress is due in great measure to his patient labors. To M. Jules +Bonnet, under whose skilful editorship the Bulletin of the French +Protestant Historical Society has reached its present excellence, I am +indebted for help afforded me in solving, by means of researches among +the MSS. of the Bibliotheque Rationale at Paris, and the Simler +Collection at Zurich, several difficult problems. To these names I may +add those of M. Henri Bordier, Bibliothecaire Honoraire in the +Department of MSS. (Bibliotheque Rationale), of M. Raoul de Cazenove, of +Lyons, author of many highly prized monographs on Huguenot topics, and +of the Rev. John Forsyth, D.D., who have in various ways rendered me +valuable services. + +Finally, I deem it both a duty and a privilege to express my warm thanks +to the librarians of the Princeton Theological Seminary and of the Union +Theological Seminary in this city; and particularly to the successive +superintendents and librarians of the Astor Library--both the living and +the dead--by the signal courtesy of whom, the whole of that admirable +collection of books has been for many years placed at my disposal for +purposes of consultation so freely, that nothing has been wanting to +make the work of study in its alcoves as pleasant and effective as +possible. + +UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, +September 15, 1879. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Meantime I am glad that we may expect before very long, +from the pen of my brother, Charles W. Baird, the history of the +Huguenot emigration to the American colonies in the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries--a work based upon extensive research, that will +afford much interesting information respecting a movement hitherto +little understood, and fill an important gap in our historical +literature.] + +[Footnote 2: Of the different modes of spelling this name, I choose the +mode which, according to the numerous fac-similes given by Dr. Forbes, +the worthy knight seems himself to have followed with commendable +uniformity.] + + + + +CONTENTS + +OF + +VOLUME FIRST. + + +BOOK I. + +CHAPTER I + Page +FRANCE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 3 + Extent at the Accession of Francis I. 3 + Gradual Territorial Growth 4 + Subdivision in the Tenth Century 5 + Destruction of the Feudal System 5 + The Foremost Kingdom of Christendom 6 + Assimilation of Manners and Language 8 + Growth and Importance of Paris 9 + Military Strength 10 + The Rights of the People overlooked 11 + The States General not convoked 12 + Unmurmuring Endurance of the Tiers Etat 13 + Absolutism of the Crown 14 + Partial Checks 15 + The Parliament of Paris 16 + Other Parliaments 17 + The Parliaments claim the Right of Remonstrance 17 + Abuses in the Parliament of Bordeaux 19 + Origin and Growth of the University 20 + Faculty of Theology, or Sorbonne 22 + Its Authority and Narrowness 23 + Multitude of Students 24 + Credit of the Clergy 25 + Liberties of the Gallican Church 25 + Pragmatic Sanction of. St. Louis (1268) 26 + Conflict of Philip the Fair with Boniface VIII. 27 + The "Babylonish Captivity" 28 + Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438) 29 + Rejoicing at the Council of Basle 31 + Louis XI. undertakes to abrogate the Pragmatic Sanction 32 + But subsequently re-enacts it in part 33 + Louis XII. publishes it anew 35 + Francis I. sacrifices the Interests of the Gallican Church 35 + Concordat between Leo X. and the French King 36 + Dissatisfaction of the Clergy 37 + Struggle with the Parliament of Paris 37 + Opposition of the University 39 + Patronage of the King 41 + The "Renaissance" 41 + Francis's Acquirements overrated 42 + His Munificent Patronage of Art 42 + The College Royal, or "Trilingue" 43 + An Age of Blood 44 + Barbarous Punishment for Crime 45 + And not less for Heresy 46 + Belief in Judicial Astrology 47 + Predictions of Nostradamus 47 + Reverence for Relics 49 + For the Consecrated Wafer 50 + Internal Condition of the Clergy 51 + Number and Wealth of the Cardinals 51 + Non-residence of Prelates 52 + Revenues of the Clergy 52 + Vice and Hypocrisy 53 + Brantome's Account of the Clergy before the Concordat 54 + Aversion to the Use of the French Language 56 + Indecent Processions--"Processions Blanches" 59 + The Monastic Orders held in Contempt 60 + Protests against prevailing Corruption 61 + The "Cathari," or Albigenses 61 + Nicholas de Clemangis 63 + John Gerson 64 + Jean Bouchet's "Deploration of the Church" 65 + + * * * * * + + Changes in the Boundaries of France during the 16th Century 66 + + +CHAPTER II. + +1512-1525. + +THE REFORMATION IN MEAUX 67 + Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples 67 + Restores Letters to France 68 + Wide Range of his Studies 68 + Guillaume Farel, his Pupil 68 + Devotion of Teacher and Scholar 69 + Lefevre publishes a Latin Commentary on the Pauline Epistles (1512) 70 + Enters into Controversy with Natalis Beda (1518) 71 + The Sorbonne's Declaration (Nov. 9, 1521) 71 + Briconnet, Bishop of Meaux 72 + His First Reformatory Efforts 72 + Invites Lefevre and Farel to Meaux 73 + Effects of the Preaching of Roussel and others 74 + De Roma's Threat 76 + Lefevre publishes a Translation of the New Testament (1523) 77 + The Results surpass Expectation 79 + Bishop Briconnet's Weakness 80 + Forbids the "Lutheran" Doctors to preach 81 + Lefevre and Roussel take Refuge in Strasbourg 84 + Jean Leclerc whipped and branded 87 + His barbarous Execution at Metz 88 + Pauvan burned on the Place de Greve 89 + The Hermit of Livry 92 + Briconnet becomes a Jailer of "Lutherans" 92 + Lefevre's Writings condemned by the Sorbonne (1525) 93 + He becomes Tutor of Prince Charles 94 + Librarian at Blois 94 + Ends his Days at Nerac 95 + His Mental Anguish 95 + Michel d'Arande and Gerard Roussel 96 + + +CHAPTER III. + +1523-1525. + +FRANCIS I. AND MARGARET OF ANGOULEME--EARLY REFORMATORY + MOVEMENTS AND STRUGGLES 99 + Francis I. and Margaret of Angouleme 99 + The King's Chivalrous Disposition 100 + Appreciates Literary Excellence 101 + Contrast with Charles V. 101 + His Religious Convictions 102 + His Fear of Innovation 102 + His Loose Morality 103 + Margaret's Scholarly Attainments 104 + Her Personal Appearance 105 + Her Participation in Public Affairs 106 + Her First Marriage to the Duke of Alencon 106 + Obtains a Safe-Conduct to visit her Brother 106 + Her Second Marriage, to Henry, King of Navarre 107 + Bishop Briconnet's Mystic Correspondence 108 + Luther's Teachings solemnly condemned by the University 108 + Melanchthon's Defence 109 + Regency of Louise de Savoie 109 + The Sorbonne suggests Means of extirpating the "Lutheran + Doctrines" (Oct. 7, 1523) 110 + Wide Circulation of Luther's Treatises 112 + Francois Lambert, of Avignon 112 + Life among the Franciscans 113 + Lambert, the first French Monk to embrace the Reformation 113 + He is also the First to Marry 114 + Jean Chatellain at Metz 114 + Wolfgang Schuch at St. Hippolyte 115 + Farel at Montbeliard 117 + Pierre Caroli lectures on the Psalms 118 + + * * * * * + + The Heptameron of the Queen of Navarre 119 + + +CHAPTER IV. + +1525-1533. + +INCREASED SEVERITY--LOUIS DE BERQUIN 122 + Captivity of Francis I. 122 + Change in the Religious Policy of Louise 123 + A Commission appointed to try "Lutherans" 124 + The Inquisition heretofore jealously watched 125 + The Commission indorsed by Clement VII. 126 + Its Powers enlarged by the Bull 128 + Character of Louis de Berquin 128 + He becomes a warm Partisan of the Reformation 129 + First Imprisonment (1523) 130 + Released by Order of the King 130 + Advice of Erasmus 131 + Second Imprisonment (1526) 131 + Francis from Madrid again orders his Release 132 + Dilatory Measures of Parliament 132 + Margaret of Angouleme's Hopes 133 + Francis violates his Pledges to Charles V. 134 + Must conciliate the Pope and Clergy 135 + Promises to prove himself "Very Christian" 137 + The Council of Sens (1528) 138 + Cardinal Duprat 138 + Vigorous Measures to suppress Reformation 139 + The Councils of Bourges and Lyons 139 + Financial Help bought by Persecution 140 + Insult to an Image and an Expiatory Procession 141 + Other Iconoclastic Excesses 143 + Berquin's Third Arrest 143 + His Condemnation to Penance, Branding, and Perpetual Imprisonment 145 + He Appeals 145 + Is suddenly Sentenced to Death and Executed 146 + Francis Treats with the Germans 147 + And with Henry VIII. of England 148 + Francis meets Clement at Marseilles 148 + Marriage of Henry of Orleans to Catharine de' Medici 148 + Francis Refuses to join in a general Scheme for the Extermination + of Heresy 149 + Execution of Jean de Caturce, at Toulouse 150 + Le Coq's Evangelical Sermon 151 + Margaret attacked at College of Navarre 152 + Her "Miroir de l'Ame Pecheresse" condemned 152 + Rector Cop's Address to the University 153 + Calvin, the real Author, seeks Safety in Flight 154 + Rough Answer of Francis to the Bernese 155 + Royal Letter to the Bishop of Paris 156 + + * * * * * + + Elegies on Louis de Berquin 157 + + +CHAPTER V. + +1534-1535. + +MELANCHTHON'S ATTEMPT AT CONCILIATION, AND THE YEAR OF + THE PLACARDS 159 + Hopes of Reunion in the Church 159 + Melanchthon and Du Bellay 160 + A Plan of Reconciliation 160 + Its Extreme Concessions 161 + Makes a Favorable Impression on Francis 162 + Indiscreet Partisans of Reform 162 + Placards and Pasquinades 163 + Feret's Mission to Switzerland 164 + The Placard against the Mass 164 + Excitement produced in Paris (Oct. 18, 1534) 167 + A Copy posted on the Door of the Royal Bedchamber 167 + Anger of Francis at the Insult 167 + Political Considerations 168 + Margaret of Navarre's Entreaties 168 + Francis Abolishes the Art of Printing (Jan. 13, 1535) 169 + The Rash and Shameful Edict Recalled 170 + Rigid Investigation and many Victims 171 + The Expiatory Procession (Jan. 21, 1535) 173 + The King's Speech at the Episcopal Palace 176 + Constancy of the Victims 177 + The Estrapade 177 + Flight of Clement Marot and others 179 + Royal Declaration of Coucy (July 16, 1535) 179 + Alleged Intercession of Pope Paul III. 180 + Clemency again dictated by Policy 181 + Francis's Letter to the German Princes 182 + Sturm and Vore beg Melanchthon to come 182 + Melanchthon's Perplexity 183 + He is formally invited by the King 184 + Applies to the Elector for Permission to go 184 + But is roughly refused 185 + The Proposed Conference reprobated by the Sorbonne 187 + Du Bellay at Smalcald 188 + He makes for Francis a Protestant Confession 189 + Efforts of French Protestants in Switzerland and Germany 191 + Intercession of Strasbourg, Basle, etc. 191 + Unsatisfactory Reply by Anne de Montmorency 193 + + +CHAPTER VI. + +1535-1545. + +CALVIN AND GENEVA--MORE SYSTEMATIC PERSECUTION BY THE KING 193 + Changed Attitude of Francis 193 + Occasioned by the "Placards" 194 + Margaret of Navarre and Roussel 195 + The French Reformation becomes a Popular Movement 196 + Independence of Geneva secured by Francis 197 + John Calvin's Childhood 198 + He studies in Paris and Orleans 199 + Change of Religious Views at Bourges 199 + His Commentary on Seneca's "De Clementia" 200 + Escapes from Paris to Angouleme 201 + Leaves France 202 + The "Christian Institutes" 202 + Address to Francis the First 203 + Calvin wins instant Celebrity 204 + The Court of Renee of Ferrara 205 + Her History and Character 206 + Calvin's alleged Visit to Aosta 207 + He visits Geneva 208 + Farel's Vehemence 209 + Calvin consents to remain 210 + His Code of Laws for Geneva 210 + His View of the Functions of the State 210 + Heretics to be constrained by the Sword 211 + Calvin's View that of the other Reformers 212 + And even of Protestant Martyrs 212 + Calvin longs for Scholarly Quiet 213 + His Mental Constitution 214 + Ill-health and Prodigious Labors 214 + Friendly and Inimical Estimates 214 + Violent Persecutions throughout France 216 + Royal Edict of Fontainebleau (June 1, 1540) 218 + Increased Severity, and Appeal cut off 218 + Exceptional Fairness of President Caillaud 219 + Letters-Patent from Lyons (Aug. 30, 1542) 220 + The King and the Sacramentarians 221 + Ordinance of Paris (July 23, 1543) 221 + Heresy to be punished as Sedition 222 + Repression proves a Failure 222 + The Sorbonne publishes Twenty-five Articles 223 + Francis gives them the Force of Law (March 10, 1543) 224 + More Systematic Persecution 224 + The Inquisitor Mathieu Ory 224 + The Nicodemites and Libertines 225 + Margaret of Navarre at Bordeaux 226 + Francis's Negotiations in Germany 227 + Hypocritical Representations made by Charles, Duke of Orleans 228 + + +CHAPTER VII. + +1545-1547. + +CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE VAUDOIS OF MERINDOL AND CABRIERES, AND + LAST DAYS OF FRANCIS I. 230 + The Vaudois of the Durance 230 + Their Industry and Thrift 230 + Embassy to German and Swiss Reformers 232 + Translation of the Bible by Olivetanus 233 + Preliminary Persecutions 234 + The Parliament of Aix 235 + The Atrocious "Arret de Merindol" (Nov. 18, 1540) 236 + Condemned by Public Opinion 237 + Preparations to carry it into Effect 237 + President Chassanee and the Mice of Autun 238 + The King instructs Du Bellay to investigate 239 + A Favorable Report 240 + Francis's Letter of Pardon 241 + Parliament's Continued Severity 241 + The Vaudois publish a Confession 242 + Intercession of the Protestant Princes of Germany 242 + The new President of Parliament 243 + Sanguinary Royal Order, fraudulently obtained (Jan. 1, 1545) 244 + Expedition stealthily organized 245 + Villages burned--their Inhabitants murdered 246 + Destruction of Merindol 247 + Treacherous Capture of Cabrieres 248 + Women burned and Men butchered 248 + Twenty-two Towns and Villages destroyed 249 + A subsequent Investigation 251 + "The Fourteen of Meaux" 253 + Wider Diffusion of the Reformed Doctrines 256 + The Printer Jean Chapot before Parliament 256 + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +1547-1559. + +HENRY THE SECOND AND THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANT + CHURCHES 258 + Impartial Estimates of Francis the First 258 + Henry, as Duke of Orleans 259 + His Sluggish Mind 260 + His Court 261 + Diana of Poitiers 262 + The King's Infatuation 262 + Constable Anne de Montmorency 263 + His Cruelty 264 + Disgraced by Francis, but recalled by Henry 265 + Duke Claude of Guise, and John, first Cardinal of Lorraine 266 + Marriage of James the Fifth of Scotland to Mary of Lorraine 268 + Francis the Dauphin affianced to Mary of Scots 268 + Francis of Guise and Charles of Lorraine 268 + Various Estimates of Cardinal Charles of Lorraine 270 + Rapacity of the new Favorites 272 + Servility toward Diana of Poitiers 273 + Persecution to atone for Moral Blemishes 274 + "La Chambre Ardente" 275 + Edict of Fontainebleau against Books from Geneva (Dec. 11, 1547) 275 + Deceptive Title-pages 275 + The Tailor of the Rue St. Antoine 276 + Other Victims of Intolerance 278 + Severe Edicts and Quarrels with Rome 278 + Edict of Chateaubriand (June 27, 1551) 279 + The War against Books from Geneva 280 + Marshal Vieilleville refuses to profit by Confiscation 282 + The "Five Scholars of Lausanne" 283 + Interpositions in their Behalf ineffectual 284 + Activity of the Canton of Berne 286 + Progress of the Reformation in Normandy 287 + Attempt to establish the Spanish Inquisition 287 + Opposition of Parliament 288 + President Seguier's Speech 289 + Coligny's Scheme of American Colonization 291 + Villegagnon in Brazil 292 + He brings Ruin on the Expedition 293 + First Protestant Church in Paris 294 + The Example followed in the Provinces 296 + Henry the Second breaks the Truce 297 + Fresh Attempts to introduce the Spanish Inquisition 298 + Three Inquisitors-General 299 + Judges sympathize with the Victims 300 + Edict of Compiegne (July 24, 1557) 301 + Defeat of St. Quentin (August 10, 1557) 302 + Vengeance wreaked upon the Protestants 302 + Affair of the Rue St. Jacques (Sept. 4, 1557) 303 + Treatment of the Prisoners 304 + Malicious Rumors 305 + Trials and Executions 307 + Intercession of the Swiss Cantons and Others 308 + Constancy of Some and Release of Others 311 + Controversial Pamphlets 311 + Capture of Calais (January, 1558) 312 + Registry of the Inquisition Edict 312 + Antoine of Navarre, Conde, and other Princes favor the Protestants 313 + Embassy of the Protestant Electors 313 + Psalm-singing on the Pre aux Clercs 314 + Conference of Cardinals Lorraine and Granvelle 315 + D'Andelot's Examination before the King 317 + His Constancy in Prison and temporary Weakness 318 + Paul IV.'s Indignation at the King's Leniency 320 + Anxiety for Peace 321 + Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis (April 3, 1559) 322 + Sacrifice of French Interests 323 + Was there a Secret Treaty for the Extermination of Protestants? 324 + The Prince of Orange learns the Designs of Henry and Philip 325 + Danger of Geneva 320 + Parliament suspected of Heretical Leanings 329 + The "Mercuriale" 330 + Henry goes in Person to hear the Deliberations (June 10, 1559) 332 + Fearlessness of Du Bourg and Others 334 + Henry orders their Arrest 335 + First National Synod (May 26, 1559) 335 + Ecclesiastical Discipline adopted 336 + Marriages and Festivities of the Court 338 + Henry mortally wounded in the Tournament (June 30, 1559) 339 + His Death (July 10, 1559) 340 + + * * * * * + + "La Facon de Geneve"--the Protestant Service 341 + Farel's "Maniere et Fasson" (1533) 342 + Calvin's Liturgy (1542) 343 + + +CHAPTER IX. + +JULY, 1559-MAY, 1560. + +FRANCIS THE SECOND AND THE TUMULT OF AMBOISE 346 + Epigrams on the Death of Henry 346 + The Young King 347 + Catharine de' Medici 348 + Favors the Family of Guise 350 + Who make themselves Masters of the King 351 + Constable Montmorency retires 352 + Antoine, King of Navarre 354 + His Remissness and Pusillanimity 355 + The Persecution continues 359 + Denunciation and Pillage at Paris 360 + The Protestants address Catharine 362 + Pretended Orgies in "La Petite Geneve" 365 + Cruelty of the Populace 366 + Traps for Heretics 367 + Trial of Anne du Bourg 368 + Intercession of the Elector Palatine 370 + Du Bourg's Last Speech 371 + His Execution and its Effect 372 + Florimond de Raemond's Observations 374 + Revulsion against the Tyranny of the Guises 375 + Calvin and Beza discountenance Armed Resistance 377 + De la Renaudie 379 + Assembly of Malcontents at Nantes 380 + Plans well devised 381 + Betrayed by Des Avenelles 382 + The "Tumult of Amboise" 383 + Coligny gives Catharine good Counsel 384 + The Edict of Amnesty (March, 1560) 385 + A Year's Progress 386 + Confusion at Court 387 + Treacherous Capture of Castelnau 388 + Death of La Renaudie 389 + Plenary Commission given to the Duke of Guise 389 + A Carnival of Blood 391 + The Elder D'Aubigne and his Son 393 + Francis and the Prince of Conde 393 + Conde's Defiance 394 + + * * * * * + + An alleged Admission of Disloyal Intentions by La Renaudie 394 + + +CHAPTER X. + +MAY-DECEMBER, 1560. + +THE ASSEMBLY OF NOTABLES AT FONTAINEBLEAU, AND THE CLOSE OF + THE REIGN OF FRANCIS THE SECOND 397 + Rise of the Name of the Huguenots 397 + Their Sudden Growth 399 + How to be accounted for 400 + Progress of Letters 400 + Marot's and Beza's Psalms 402 + Morality and Martyrdom 402 + Character of the Protestant Ministers 402 + Testimony of Bishop Montluc 403 + Preaching in the Churches of Valence 404 + The Reformation and Morals 406 + Francis orders Extermination 406 + Large Congregations at Nismes 407 + Mouvans in Provence 407 + A Popular Awakening 408 + Pamphlets against the Guises 409 + Catharine consults the Huguenots 409 + Edict of Romorantin (May, 1560) 410 + No Abatement of Rigorous Persecution 411 + Spiritual Jurisdiction differing little from the Inquisition 411 + Chancellor Michel de l'Hospital 412 + Continued Disquiet--Montbrun 414 + Assembly of Notables at Fontainebleau (Aug. 21, 1560) 415 + The Chancellor's Address 416 + The Finances of France 416 + Admiral Coligny presents the Petitions of the Huguenots 416 + Bishop Montluc ably advocates Toleration 418 + Bishop Marillac's Eloquent Speech 420 + Coligny's Suggestions 421 + Passionate Rejoinder of the Duke of Guise 422 + The Cardinal of Lorraine more calm 423 + New Alarms of the Guises 424 + The King of Navarre and Conde summoned to Court 425 + Advice of Philip of Spain 426 + Navarre's Irresolution embarrasses Montbrun and Mouvans 427 + The "Fashion of Geneva" embraced by many in Languedoc 428 + Elections for the States General 430 + The King and Queen of Navarre 431 + Beza at the Court of Nerac 432 + New Pressure to induce Navarre and Conde to come 433 + Navarre Refuses a Huguenot Escort 434 + Disregards Warnings 435 + Is refused Admission to Poitiers 435 + Conde arrested on arriving at Orleans 436 + Return of Renee de France 437 + Conde's Intrepidity 437 + He is Tried and Condemned to Death 439 + Antoine of Navarre's Danger 440 + Plan for annihilating the Huguenots 441 + Sudden Illness and Death of Francis the Second 442 + + * * * * * + + The "Epitre au Tigre de la France" 445 + + +CHAPTER XI. + +DECEMBER, 1560-SEPTEMBER, 1561. + +THE REIGN OF CHARLES THE NINTH, TO THE PRELIMINARIES OF + THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY 449 + Sudden Change in the Political Situation 449 + The Enemy of the Huguenots buried as a Huguenot 450 + Antoine of Navarre's Opportunity 451 + Adroitness of Catharine de' Medici 452 + Financial Embarrassments 453 + Catharine's Neutrality 453 + Opening of the States General of Orleans 454 + Address of Chancellor L'Hospital 455 + Cardinal Lorraine's Effrontery 457 + De Rochefort, Orator for the Noblesse 457 + L'Ange for the Tiers Etat 458 + Arrogant Speech of Quintin for the Clergy 458 + A Word for the poor, down-trodden People 459 + Coligny presents a Huguenot Petition 461 + The States prorogued 461 + Meanwhile Prosecutions for Religion to cease 462 + Return of Fugitives 463 + Charles writes to stop Ministers from Geneva 463 + Reply of the Genevese 464 + Conde cleared and reconciled with Guise 465 + Humiliation of Navarre 466 + The Boldness of the Particular Estates of Paris 467 + Secures Antoine more Consideration 467 + Intrigue of Artus Desire 468 + General Curiosity to hear Huguenot Preaching 468 + Constable Montmorency's Disgust 469 + The "Triumvirate" formed 471 + A Spurious Statement 471 + Massacres of Protestants in Holy Week 474 + The Affair at Beauvais 474 + Assault on the House of M. de Longjumeau 476 + New and Tolerant Royal Order 476 + Opposition of the Parisian Parliament 477 + Popular Cry for Pastors 479 + Moderation of the Huguenot Ministers 479 + Judicial Perplexity 481 + The "Mercuriale" of 1561 481 + The "Edict of July" 483 + Its Severity creates extreme Disappointment 484 + Iconoclasm at Montauban 485 + Impatience with Public "Idols" 487 + Calvin endeavors to repress it 487 + Re-assembling of the States at Pontoise 488 + Able Harangue of the "Vierg" of Autun 489 + Written Demands of the Tiers Etat 490 + A Representative Government demanded 492 + The French Prelates at Poissy 493 + Beza and Peter Martyr invited to France 494 + Urgency of the Parisian Huguenots 496 + Beza comes to St. Germain 497 + His previous History 497 + Wrangling of the Prelates 498 + Cardinal Chatillon communes "under both Forms" 499 + Catharine and L'Hospital zealous for a Settlement of Religious + Questions 499 + A Remarkable Letter to the Pope 500 + Beza's flattering Reception 502 + He meets the Cardinal of Lorraine 503 + Petition of the Huguenots respecting the Colloquy 505 + Informally granted 507 + Last Efforts of the Sorbonne to prevent the Colloquy 508 + + +CHAPTER XII. + +SEPTEMBER, 1561-JANUARY, 1562. + +THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY AND THE EDICT OF JANUARY 509 + The Huguenot Ministers and Delegates 509 + Assembled Princes in the Nuns' Refectory 510 + The Prelates 511 + Diffidence of Theodore Beza 512 + Opening Speech of Chancellor L'Hospital 512 + The Huguenots summoned 513 + Beza's Prayer and Address 514 + His Declaration as to the Body of Christ 519 + Outcry of the Theologians of the Sorbonne 519 + Beza's Peroration 520 + Cardinal Tournon would cut short the Conference 521 + Catharine de' Medici is decided 522 + Advantages gained 522 + The Impression made by Beza 522 + His Frankness justified 524 + The Prelates' Notion of a Conference 526 + Peter Martyr arrives 527 + Cardinal Lorraine replies to Beza 528 + Cardinal Tournon's new Demand 529 + Advancing Shadows of Civil War 530 + Another Session reluctantly conceded 531 + Beza's Reply to Cardinal Lorraine 532 + Claude d'Espense and Claude de Sainctes 532 + Lorraine demands Subscription to the Augsburg Confession 533 + Beza's Home Thrust 534 + Peter Martyr and Lainez the Jesuit 536 + Close of the Colloquy of Poissy 537 + A Private Conference at St. Germain 538 + A Discussion of Words 540 + Catharine's Premature Delight 541 + The Article agreed upon Rejected by the Prelates 541 + Catharine's Financial Success 543 + Order for the Restitution of Churches 544 + Arrival of Five German Delegates 544 + Why the Colloquy proved a Failure 546 + Catharine's Crude Notion of a Conference 547 + Character of the Prelates 547 + Influence of the Papal Legate, the Cardinal of Ferrara 548 + Anxiety of Pius the Fourth 548 + The Nuncio Santa Croce 549 + Master Renard turned Monk 551 + Opposition of People and Chancellor 551 + The Legate's Intrigues 552 + His Influence upon Antoine of Navarre 554 + Contradictory Counsels 555 + The Triumvirate leave in Disgust 556 + Hopes entertained by the Huguenots respecting Charles 557 + Beza is begged to remain 559 + A Spanish Plot to kidnap the Duke of Orleans 559 + The Number of Huguenot Churches 560 + Beza secures a favorable Royal order 560 + Rapid Growth of the Reformation 561 + Immense Assemblages from far and near 562 + The Huguenots at Montpellier 563 + The Rein and not the Spur needed 565 + Marriages and Baptisms at Court "after the Geneva Fashion" 565 + Tanquerel's Seditious Declaration 566 + Jean de Hans 567 + Philip threatens Interference in French Affairs 567 + "A True Defender of the Faith" 568 + Roman Catholic Complaints of Huguenot Boldness 570 + The "Tumult of Saint Medard" 571 + Assembly of Notables at St. Germain 574 + Diversity of Sentiments 575 + The "Edict of January" 576 + The Huguenots no longer Outlaws 577 + + + + +BOOK FIRST. + +_FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE FRENCH REFORMATION TO THE EDICT OF JANUARY +(1562)._ + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +FRANCE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. + + +[Sidenote: Extent of France at the accession of Francis the First.] + +When, on the first day of the year 1515, the young Count of Angouleme +succeeded to the throne left vacant by the death of his kinsman and +father-in-law, Louis the Twelfth, the country of which he became monarch +was already an extensive, flourishing, and well-consolidated kingdom. +The territorial development of France was, it is true, far from +complete. On the north, the whole province of Hainault belonged to the +Spanish Netherlands, whose boundary line was less than one hundred miles +distant from Paris. Alsace and Lorraine had not yet been wrested from +the German Empire. The "Duchy" of Burgundy, seized by Louis the Eleventh +immediately after the death of Charles the Bold, had, indeed, been +incorporated into the French realm; but the "Free County" of +Burgundy--_la Franche Comte_, as it was briefly designated--had been +imprudently suffered to fall into other hands, and Besancon was the +residence of a governor appointed by princes of the House of Hapsburg. +Lyons was a frontier town; for the little districts of Bresse and Bugey, +lying between the Saone and Rhone, belonged to the Dukes of Savoy. +Further to the south, two fragments of foreign territory were completely +enveloped by the domain of the French king. The first was the sovereign +principality of Orange, which, after having been for over a century in +the possession of the noble House of Chalons, was shortly to pass into +that of Nassau, and to furnish the title of William the Silent, the +future deliverer of Holland. The other and larger one was the Comtat +Venaissin, a fief directly dependent upon the Pope. Of irregular shape, +and touching the Rhone both above and below Orange, the Comtat Venaissin +nearly enclosed the diminutive principality in its folds. Its capital, +Avignon, having forfeited the distinction enjoyed in the fourteenth +century as the residence of the Roman Pontiffs, still boasted the +presence of a Legate of the Papal See, a poor compensation for the loss +of its past splendor. On the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, the +Spanish dominions still extended north of the principal chain of the +Pyrenees, and included the former County of Roussillon. + +[Sidenote: Territorial development.] + +But, although its area was somewhat smaller than that of the modern +republic, France in the sixteenth century had nearly attained the +general dimensions marked out for it by great natural boundaries. Four +hundred years had been engrossed in the pursuit of territorial +enlargement. At the close of the tenth century the Carlovingian dynasty, +essentially foreign in tastes and language, was supplanted by a dynasty +of native character and capable of gathering to its support all those +elements of strength which had been misunderstood or neglected by the +feeble descendants of Charlemagne. But it found the royal authority +reduced to insignificance and treated with open contempt. By permitting +those dignities which had once been conferred as a reward for +pre-eminent personal merit to become hereditary in certain families, the +crown had laid the foundation of the feudal system; while, by neglecting +to enforce its sovereign claims, it had enabled the great feudatories to +make themselves princes independent in reality, if not in name. So low +had the consideration of the throne fallen, that when Hugh Capet, Count +of Paris, in 987 assumed the title of king of France, basing his act +partly on an election by nobles, partly on force of arms, the +transaction elicited little opposition from the rival lords who might +have been expected to resent his usurpation. + +[Sidenote: Excessive subdivision in the tenth century.] + +France contained at this time six principal fiefs--four in the north and +two in the south--each nearly or fully as powerful as the hereditary +dominions of Hugh, while probably more than one excelled them in extent. +These limited dominions, on the resources of which the new dynasty was +wholly dependent in the struggle for supremacy, embraced the important +cities of Paris and Orleans, but barely stretched from the Somme to the +Loire, and were excluded from the ocean by the broad possessions of the +dukes of Normandy on both sides of the lower Seine. The great fiefs had +each in turn yielded to the same irresistible tendency to subdivision. +The great feudatory was himself the superior of the tenants of several +subordinate, yet considerable, fiefs. The possessors of these again +ranked above the viscounts of cities and the provincial barons. A long +series of gradations in dignity ended at the simple owners of castles, +with their subject peasants or serfs. In no country of Europe had the +feudal system borne a more abundant harvest of disintegration and +consequent loss of power.[3] + +[Sidenote: Decline of the feudal system.] + +The reduction of the insubordinate nobles on the patrimonial estates of +the crown was the first problem engaging the attention of the early +Capetian kings. When this had at length been solved, with the assistance +of the scanty forces lent by the cities--never amounting, it is said, to +more than five hundred men-at-arms[4]--Louis the Fat, a prince of +resplendent ability, early in the twelfth century addressed himself to +the task of making good the royal title to supremacy over the +neighboring provinces. Before death compelled him to forego the +prosecution of his ambitious designs, the influence of the monarchy had +been extended over eastern and central France--from Flanders, on the +north, to the volcanic mountains of Auvergne, on the south. Meanwhile +the oppressed subjects of the petty tyrants, whether within or around +his domains, had learned to look for redress to the sovereign lord who +prided himself upon his ability and readiness to succor the defenceless. +His grandson, the more illustrious Philip Augustus (1180-1223), by +marriage, inheritance, and conquest added to previous acquisitions +several extensive provinces, of which Normandy, Maine, and Poitou had +been subject to English rule, while Vermandois and Yalois had enjoyed a +form of approximate independence under collateral branches of the +Capetian family. + +The conquests of Louis the Fat and of Philip Augustus were consolidated +by Louis the Ninth--Saint Louis, as succeeding generations were wont to +style him--an upright monarch, who scrupled to accept new territory +without remunerating the former owners, and even alienated the affection +of provinces which he might with apparent justice have retained, by +ceding them to the English, in the vain hope of cementing a lasting +peace between the rival states.[5] + +[Sidenote: France the foremost kingdom of Christendom.] + +The same pursuit of territorial aggrandizement under successive kings +extended the domain of the crown, in spite of disaster and temporary +losses, until in the sixteenth century France was second to no other +country in Europe for power and material resources. United under a +single head, and no longer disturbed by the insubordination of the +turbulent nobles, lately humbled by the craft of Louis the Eleventh, +this kingdom awakened the warm admiration of political judges so shrewd +as the diplomatic envoys of the Venetian Republic. "All these +provinces," exclaimed one of these agents, in a report made to the Doge +and Senate soon after his return, "are so well situated, so liberally +provided with river-courses, harbors, and mountain ranges, that it may +with safety be asserted that this realm is not only the most noble in +Christendom, rivalling in antiquity our own most illustrious +commonwealth, but excels all other states in natural advantages and +security."[6] Another of the same distinguished school of statesmen, +taking a more deliberate survey of the country, gives utterance to the +universal estimate of his age, when averring that France is to be +regarded as the foremost kingdom of Christendom, whether viewed in +respect to its dignity and power, or the rank of the prince who governs +it.[7] In proof of the first of these claims he alleges the fact that, +whereas England had once been, and Naples was at that moment dependent +upon the Church, and Bohemia and Poland sustained similar relations to +the Empire, France had always been a sovereign state. "It is also the +oldest of European kingdoms, and the first that was converted to +Christianity," remarks the same writer; adding, with a touch of +patriotic pride, the proviso, "if we except the Pope, who is the +universal head of religion, and the State of Venice, which, as it first +sprang into existence a Christian commonwealth, has always continued +such."[8] + +[Sidenote: France contrasted with England.] + +Other diplomatists took the same view of the power and resources of this +favored country. "The kingdom of France," said Chancellor Bacon, in a +speech against the policy of rendering open aid to Scotland, and thus +becoming involved in a war with the French, "is four times as large as +the realm of England, the men four times as many, and the revenue four +times as much, and it has better credit. France is full of expert +captains and old soldiers, and besides its own troops it may entertain +as many Almains as it is able to hire."[9] + +[Sidenote: Assimilation of language and manners.] + +Meantime France was fast becoming more homogeneous than it had ever been +since the fall of the Roman power. As often as the lines of the great +feudal families became extinct, or these families were induced or +compelled to renounce their pretensions, their fiefs were given in +appanage to younger branches of the royal house, or were more closely +united to the domains of the crown, and entrusted to governors of the +king's appointment.[10] In either case the actual control of affairs was +placed in the hands of officers whose highest ambition was to reproduce +in the provincial capital the growing elegance of the great city on the +Seine where the royal court had fixed its ordinary abode. The provinces, +consequently, began to assimilate more and more to Paris, and this not +merely in manners, but in forms of speech and even in pronunciation. The +rude _patois_, since it grated upon the cultivated ear, was banished +from polite society, and, if not consigned to oblivion, was relegated to +the more ignorant and remoter districts. Learning held its seat in +Paris, and the scholars who returned to their homes after a sojourn in +its academic halls were careful to avoid creating doubts respecting the +thoroughness of their training by the use of any dialect but that spoken +in the neighborhood of the university. As the idiom of Paris asserted +its supremacy over the rest of France, a new tie was constituted, +binding together provinces diverse in origin and history. + +[Sidenote: The nobles flock to Paris.] + +The spirit of obedience pervading all classes of the population +contributed much to the national strength. The great nobles had lost +their excessive privileges. They no longer attempted, in the seclusion +of their ancestral estates, to rival the magnificence or defy the +authority of the king. They began to prefer the capital to the freer +retreat of their castles. During the reign of Francis the First, and +still more during the reign of his immediate successors, costly palaces +for the accommodation of princely and ducal families were reared in the +neighborhood of the Louvre.[11] It was currently reported that more than +one fortune had been squandered in the hazardous experiment of +maintaining a pomp befitting the courtier. Ultimately the poorer +grandees were driven to the adoption of the wise precaution of spending +only a quarter of the year in the enticing but dangerous vicinity of the +throne.[12] + +[Sidenote: The cities.] + +The cities, also, whose extensive privileges had constituted one of the +most striking features of the political system of mediaeval Europe, had +been shorn of their exorbitant claims founded upon royal charters or +prescriptive usage. The kings of France, in particular, had favored the +growth of the municipalities, in order to secure their assistance in the +reduction of refractory vassals. Flourishing trading communities had +sprung up on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and of the ocean, and +on the banks of the navigable rivers emptying into them. These +corporations had secured a degree of independence proportioned, for the +most part, to the weakness of their neighbors. The policy of the crown +had been, while generously conferring privileges of great importance +upon the cities lying within the royal domain, to make still more lavish +concessions in favor of the municipalities upon or contiguous to the +lands of the great feudatories.[13] + +[Sidenote: The capital.] + +No sooner, however, did the humiliation of the landed nobility render it +superfluous to conciliate the good-will of the proud and opulent +citizens, than the readiest means were sought for reducing them to the +level of ordinary subjects. Paris especially, once almost a republic, +had of late learned submission and docility.[14] By the change, however, +the capital had lost neither wealth nor inhabitants, being described as +very rich and populous, covering a vast area, and wholly given up to +trade.[15] In the absence of an accurate census, the number of its +inhabitants was variously stated at from 300,000 souls to nearly thrice +as many; but all accounts agreed in placing Paris among the foremost +cities of the civilized world.[16] + +[Sidenote: Military resources.] + +With the military resources at his command, the king had the means of +rendering himself formidable abroad and secure at home. The French +cavalry, consisting of gentlemen whose duty and honorable distinction it +was to follow the monarch in every expedition, still sustained the +reputation for the impetuous ardor and the irresistible weight of its +charges which it had won during the Middle Ages. If it had encountered +unexpected rebuffs on the fields of Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt, the +chivalry of France had been too successful in other engagements to lose +courage and enthusiasm. The nobles, both old and young, were still ready +at any time to flock to their prince's standard when unfurled for an +incursion into Naples or the Milanese. Never had they displayed more +alacrity or self-sacrificing devotion than when young Francis the First +set out upon his campaigns in Italy.[17] The French infantry was less +trustworthy. The troops raised in Normandy, Brittany, and Languedoc were +reported to be but poorly trained to military exercises; but the +foot-soldiers supplied by some of the frontier provinces were sturdy and +efficient, and the gallant conduct of the Gascons at the disastrous +battle of St. Quentin was the subject of universal admiration.[18] + +[Sidenote: Foreign mercenary troops.] + +What France lacked in cavalry was customarily supplied by the Reiters, +whose services were easily purchased in Germany. The same country stood +ready to furnish an abundance of Lansquenets (Lanzknechten), or pikemen, +who, together with the Swiss, in a great measure replaced the native +infantry. A Venetian envoy reported, in 1535, that the French king +could, in six weeks at longest, set on foot a force of forty-eight +thousand men, of whom twenty-one thousand, or nearly one-half, would be +foreign mercenaries. His navy, besides his great ship of sixty guns +lying in the harbor of Havre, numbered thirty galleys, and a few other +vessels of no great importance.[19] + +[Sidenote: The rights of the people overlooked.] + +[Sidenote: The States General an object of suspicion.] + +The power gained by the crown through the consolidation of the monarchy +had been acquired at the expense of the popular liberties. In the +prolonged struggle between the king, as lord paramount, and his +insubordinate vassals, the rights of inferior subjects had received +little consideration. From the strife the former issued triumphant, with +an asserted claim to unlimited power. The voice of the masses was but +feebly heard in the States General--a convocation of all three orders +called at irregular intervals. Upon the ordinary policy of government, +this, the only representative body, exercised no permanent control. If, +in its occasional sessions, the deputies of the _Tiers Etat_ exhibited a +disposition to intermeddle in those political concerns which the crown +claimed as its exclusive prerogative, the king and his advisers found in +their audacity an additional motive for postponing as long as possible a +resort to an expedient so disagreeable as the assembling of the States +General. Already had monarchs begun to look with suspicion upon the +growing intelligence of untitled subjects, who might sooner or later +come to demand a share in the public administration. + +[Sidenote: And rarely convoked.] + +[Sidenote: A long break in the history of representative government.] + +[Sidenote: Compensating advantages.] + +It was, therefore, only when the succession to the throne was contested, +or when the perils attending the minority of the prince demanded the +popular sanction of the choice of a regent, or when the flames of civil +war seemed about to burst forth and involve the whole country in one +general conflagration, that the royal consent could be obtained for +convening the States General. During the first half of the sixteenth +century the States General were not once summoned, unless the +designation of States be accorded to one or two convocations partaking +rather of the character of "Assemblies of Notables," and intended merely +to assist in extricating the monarch from temporary embarrassment.[20] +The repeated wars of Louis the Twelfth, of Francis the First, and of +Henry the Second were waged without any reference of the questions of +their expediency and of the mode of conducting them to the tribunal of +popular opinion. Thousands of brave Frenchmen found bloody graves beyond +the Alps; Francis the First fell into the hands of his enemies, and +after a weary captivity with difficulty regained his freedom; a new +faith arose in France, threatening to subvert existing ecclesiastical +institutions; yet in the midst of all this bloodshed, confusion and +perplexity the people were left unconsulted.[21] From the accession of +Charles the Eighth, in 1483, to that of Charles the Ninth, in 1560, the +history of representative government in France is almost a complete +blank. So long was the period during which the States General were +suspended, that, when at length it was deemed advisable to convene them +again, the chancellor, in his opening address, felt compelled to enter +into explanations respecting the nature and functions of a body which +perhaps not a man living remembered to have seen in session.[22] Yet, +while the desuetude into which had fallen the laudable custom of holding +the States every year, or, at least, on occasion of any important matter +for deliberation, might properly be traced to the flood of ambition and +pride which had inundated the world, and to the inordinate covetousness +of kings,[23] there were not wanting considerations to mitigate the +disappointment of the people. Chief among them, doubtless, in the view +of shrewd observers, was the fact that the assembling of the States was +the invariable prelude to an increase of taxation, and that never had +they met without benefiting the king's exchequer at the expense of the +purses of his subjects.[24] + +[Sidenote: The endurance of the Tiers Etat.] + +[Sidenote: Absolutism of the crown.] + +Meanwhile the nation bore with exemplary patience the accumulated +burdens under which it staggered. Natives and foreigners alike were lost +in admiration of its wonderful powers of endurance. No one suspected +that a terrible retribution for this same people's wrongs might one day +overtake the successor of a long line of kings, each of whom had added +his portion to the crushing load. The Emperor Maximilian was accustomed +to divert himself at the expense of the French people. "The king of +France," said he, "_is a king of asses_; there is no weight that can be +laid upon his subjects which they will not bear without a murmur."[25] +The warrior and historian Rabutin congratulated the monarchs of France +upon God's having given them, in obedience, the best and most faithful +people in the whole world.[26] The Venetian, Matteo Dandolo, declared to +the Doge and Senate that the king might with propriety regard as his own +all the money in France, for, such was _the incomparable kindness of the +people_, that whatever he might ask for in his need was very gladly +brought to him.[27] It was not strange, perhaps, that the ruler of +subjects so exemplary in their eagerness to replenish his treasury as +soon as it gave evidence of being exhausted, came to take about the same +view of the matter. Accordingly, it is related of Francis the First +that, being asked by his guest, Charles the Fifth, when the latter was +crossing France on his way to suppress the insurrection of Ghent, what +revenue he derived from certain cities he had passed through, the king +promptly, replied: "_Ce que je veux_"--"_What I please._"[28] + +[Sidenote: Fruits of the abasement of the people.] + +Yet it must be noted, in passing, that the studied abasement of the +_Tiers Etat_ had already begun to bear some fruit that should have +alarmed every patriotic heart. It was, as we have seen, impossible to +obtain good French infantry except from Gascony and some other border +provinces. The place that should have been held by natives was filled by +Germans and Swiss. What was the reason? Simply that the common people +had lost the consciousness of their manhood, in consequence of the +degraded position into which the king, and the privileged classes, +imitating his example, had forced them. "Because of their desire to rule +the people with a rod of iron," says Dandolo, "the gentry of the kingdom +have deprived them of arms. They dare not even carry a stick, and _are +more submissive to their superiors than dogs_!"[29] No wonder that all +efforts of Francis to imitate the armies of free states, by instituting +legions of arquebusiers, proved fruitless.[30] Add to this that trade +was held in supreme contempt,[31] and the picture is certainly +sufficiently dark. + +[Sidenote: Checks upon the king's authority.] + +Yet, while, through the absence of any effectual barrier to the exercise +of his good pleasure, the king's authority was ultimately unrestricted, +it must be confessed that there existed, in point of fact, some powerful +checks, rendering the abuse of the royal prerogative, for the most part, +neither easy nor expedient. Parliament, the municipal corporations, the +university, and the clergy, weak as they often proved in a direct +struggle with the crown, nevertheless exerted an influence that ought +not to be overlooked. The most headstrong prince hesitated to disregard +the remonstrances of any one of these bodies, and their united protest +sometimes led to the abandonment of schemes of great promise for the +royal treasury. It is true that parliament, university, and chartered +borough owed their existence and privileges to the royal will, and that +the power that created could also destroy. But time had invested with a +species of sanctity the venerable institutions established by monarchs +long since dead, and the utmost stretch of royal displeasure went not in +its manifestation further than the mere threat to strip parliament or +university of its privileges, or, at most, the arrest and temporary +imprisonment of the more obnoxious judges or scholars. + +[Sidenote: The Parliament of Paris] + +The Parliament of Paris was the legitimate successor of that assembly in +which, in the earlier stage of the national existence, the great vassals +came together to render homage to the lord paramount and aid him by +their deliberations. This _feudal_ parliament was transformed into a +_judicial_ parliament toward the end of the thirteenth century. With the +change of functions, the chief crown officers were admitted to seats in +the court. Next, the introduction of a written procedure, and the +establishment of a more complicated legislation, compelled the +illiterate barons and the prelates to call in the assistance of +graduates of the university, acquainted with the art of writing and +skilled in law. These were appointed by the king to the office of +counsellors.[32] In 1302, parliament, hitherto migratory, following the +king in his journeys, was made stationary at Paris. Its sessions were +fixed at two in each year, held at Easter and All Saints respectively. +The judicial body was subdivided into several "chambers," according to +the nature of the cases upon which it was called to act. + +[Sidenote: Becomes the supreme court.] + +From this time the Parliament of Paris assumed appellate jurisdiction +over all France, and became the supreme court of justice. But the burden +of prolonged sessions, and the necessity now imposed upon the members of +residing at least four months out of every year in the capital, proved +an irksome restraint both to prelates and to noblemen. Their attendance, +therefore, began now to be less constant. As early as in 1320 the +bishops and other ecclesiastical officers were excused, on the ground +that their duty to their dioceses and sacred functions demanded their +presence elsewhere. From the general exemption the Bishop of Paris and +the Abbot of St. Denis alone were excluded, on account of their +proximity to the seat of the court. About the beginning of the fifteenth +century, the members, taking advantage of the weak reign of Charles the +Sixth, made good their claim to a life-tenure in their offices.[33] + +[Sidenote: Provincial parliaments.] + +The rapid increase of cases claiming the attention of the Parliament of +Paris suggested the erection of similar tribunals in the chief cities of +the provinces added to the original estates of the crown. Before the +accession of Francis the First a provincial parliament had been +instituted at Toulouse, with jurisdiction over the extensive domain once +subject to the illustrious counts of that city; a second, at Grenoble, +for Dauphiny; a third, at Bordeaux, for the province of Guyenne +recovered from the English; a fourth, at Dijon, for the newly acquired +Duchy of Burgundy; a fifth, at Rouen, to take the place of the inferior +"exchequer" which had long had its seat there; and a sixth, at +Aix-en-Provence, for the southeast of France.[34] + +[Sidenote: Claim to the right of remonstrance.] + +To their judicial functions, the Parliament of Paris, and to a minor +degree the provincial parliaments, had insensibly added other functions +purely political. In order to secure publicity for their edicts, and +equally with the view of establishing the authenticity of documents +purporting to emanate from the crown, the kings of France had early +desired the insertion of all important decrees in the parliamentary +records. The registry was made on each occasion by express order of the +judges, but with no idea on their part that this form was essential to +the validity of a royal ordinance. Presently, however, the novel theory +was advanced that parliament had the right of refusing to record an +obnoxious law, and that, without the formal recognition of parliament, +no edict could be allowed to affect the decisions of the supreme or of +any inferior tribunal. + +[Sidenote: Indulgence of the crown.] + +[Sidenote: The Chancellor's oath.] + +In the exercise or this assumed prerogative, the judges undertook to +send a remonstrance to the king, setting forth the pernicious +consequences that might be expected to flow from the proposed measure if +put into execution. However unfounded in history, the claim of the +Parliament of Paris appears to have been viewed with indulgence by +monarchs most of whom were not indisposed to defer to the legal +knowledge of the counsellors, nor unwilling to enhance the consideration +of the venerable and ancient body to which the latter belonged. In all +cases, however, the final responsibility devolved upon the sovereign. +Whenever the arguments and advice of parliament failed to convince him, +the king proceeded in person to the audience-chamber of the refractory +court, and there, holding a _lit-de-justice_, insisted upon the +immediate registration, or else sent his express command by one of his +most trusty servants. The judges, in either case, were forced to +succumb--often, it must be admitted, with a very bad grace--and admit +the law to their records. We shall soon have occasion to note one of the +most striking instances of this unequal contest between king and +parliament, in which power rather than right or learning won the day. In +spite, however, of occasional checks, parliament manfully and +successfully maintained its right to throw obstacles in the way of hasty +or inconsiderate legislation. In this it was often efficiently assisted +by the Chancellor of France, the highest judicial officer of the crown, +to whom, on his assuming office, an oath was administered containing a +very explicit promise to exercise the right of remonstrance with the +king before affixing the great seal of state to any unjust or +unreasonable royal ordinance.[35] + +[Sidenote: Abuses in the administration of justice.] + +Not that either the Parliament of Paris or the provincial parliaments +were free of grave defects deserving the severe animadversion of +impartial observers. It was probably no worse with the Parliament of +Bordeaux than with its sister courts;[36] yet, when Charles the Ninth +visited that city in 1564, honest Chancellor L'Hospital seized the +opportunity to tell the judges some of their failings. The royal +ordinances were not observed. Parliamentary decisions ranked above +commands of the king. There were divisions and violence. In the civil +war some judges had made themselves captains. Many of them were +avaricious, timid, lazy and inattentive to their duties. Their behavior +and their dress were "dissolute." They had become negligent in judging, +and had thrown the burden of prosecuting offences upon the shoulders of +the king's attorney, originally appointed merely to look after the royal +domain. They had become the servants of the nobility for hire. _There +was not a lord within the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Bordeaux but +had his own chancellor in the court to look after his interests_.[37] It +was sufficiently characteristic that the same judicial body of which +such things were said to its face (and which neither denied their truth +nor grew indignant), should have been so solicitous for its dignity as +to send the monarch, upon his approach to the city, an earnest petition +that its members _should not be constrained to kneel_ when his Majesty +entered their court-room! To which the latter dryly responded, "their +genuflexion would not make him any less a king than he already +was."[38] + +[Sidenote: The University of Paris.] + +Among the forces that tended to limit the arbitrary exercise of the +royal authority, the influence of the University of Paris is entitled to +a prominent place. Nothing had added more lustre to the rising glory of +the capital than the possession of the magnificent institution of +learning, the foundation of which was lost in the mist of remote +antiquity. Older than the race of kings who had for centuries held the +French sceptre, the university owed its origin, if we are to believe the +testimony of its own annals, to the munificent hand of Charlemagne, in +the beginning of the ninth century. Careful historical criticism must +hesitate to accept as conclusive the slender proof offered in support of +the story.[39] It is, perhaps, safer to regard one of the simple schools +instituted at an early period in connection with cathedrals and +monasteries as having contained the humble germ from which the proud +university was slowly developed. But, by the side of this original +foundation there had doubtless grown up the schools of private +instructors, and these had acquired a certain prominence before the +confluence of scholars to Paris from all quarters rendered necessary an +attempt to introduce order into the complicated system, by the formation +of that union of all the teachers and scholars to which the name of +_universitas_ was ultimately given. + +If the origin of the University of Paris, like that of the greater +number of human institutions, was insignificant when viewed in the light +of its subsequent growth, the meagreness of the early course of +instruction was almost incredible to those who, in an age of richer +mental acquisitions, listened to the prelections of its numerous and +learned doctors. The _Trivium_ and the _Quadrivium_ constituted the +whole cycle of human knowledge. Grammar, logic, and rhetoric were +embraced in the one; music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy in the +other. He was indeed a prodigy of erudition whose comprehensive +intellect had mastered the details of these, the seven liberal arts, or, +to use a familiar line of the period, + + Qui tria, qui septem, qui omne scibile novit. + +But the ignorant pedagogues of the eleventh century gave place, in the +early part of the twelfth, to instructors of real merit--to Peter +Abelard, among others, and to his pupil Peter Lombard, the fame of whose +lectures attracted to Paris great crowds of youth eager to become +proficient in philosophy and + +[Sidenote: The four nations.] + +Hitherto there had been but one faculty--the Faculty of Arts; but among +the students a distribution into four "nations" had been effected. The +_Nation of France_ embraced the students coming from the royal +dominions, which then comprised a limited territory, with Paris as its +capital, together with the students of Italy, Spain, and the east. The +_Nation of Picardy_ consisted of students from the province of that name +and from the neighboring County of Flanders. The _Nation of Normandy_ +received youths belonging to the rich provinces of Normandy and +Brittany, and to the west. The _Nation of England_ gathered those who +came from the British Isles, as well as from the extensive territories +in southwestern France long held by the kings of England. After the +reconquest of Guyenne, however, the German students became the +controlling element in the fourth nation, and the designation was +changed to the _Nation of Germany_. The _Rector_ of the university and +the four _Procurators_ of the nations were entrusted with the +administration of the general interests of the vast scholastic +community. + +[Sidenote: The faculties.] + +[Sidenote: Chancellor and rector.] + +With the rise of new branches of science to contest the supremacy of the +old, the institution of other faculties was called for. The demand was +not conceded without a determined struggle of so serious a character as +to require the intervention of two popes for its settlement. +Nevertheless, before the end of the thirteenth century, the three new +faculties of theology, medicine, and law had assumed their places by the +side of the four original nations. The faculties were represented in the +rector's council by three _Deans_, invested with power equal to that +enjoyed by the procurators of the nations. While the rector, always +chosen from the faculty of arts, was the real head of this republic of +letters in all that concerned its inner life and management, the +honorable privilege of conferring the degrees that gave the right to +teach belonged to the chancellor of the university.[40] The former, +elected every three months, began and ended his office with solemn +processions, the first to invoke the blessing of heaven upon his labors, +the second to render thanks for their successful termination. The +chancellor, holding office for life, was an ecclesiastic of the church +of Paris, originally the bishop or some one appointed by him, who, if he +enjoyed less direct control over the scholars in their studies, was yet +the chief censor of their morals,[41] and the representative of the +university in its dealings with foreign bodies, and especially with the +Roman See.[42] + +[Sidenote: The Sorbonne.] + +No other mediaeval seat of learning attained so enviable a reputation as +Paris for completeness of theological training. From all parts of +Christendom students resorted to it as to the most abundant and the +purest fountain of sound learning. In 1250, Robert de Sorbonne, the +private confessor of Louis the Ninth, emulating the munificence of +previous patrons of letters, founded a college intended to facilitate +the education of secular students of theology. The college took the +name of its author, and, becoming famous for the ability of its +instructors, the Sorbonne soon engrossed within its walls almost the +entire course of theological teaching given in the University of Paris. +Although the students in the colleges of Navarre and Plessis devoted +themselves to the acquisition of the same science, they had little +public instruction save that for which they resorted to the Sorbonne. By +reason of the prominence thus gained as the seat of the principal +instruction in theology, the Sorbonne became synonymous with the +theological faculty itself.[43] + +[Sidenote: Its great authority.] + +A body of theologians of admitted eminence necessarily spoke with +authority. In France the decisions of the Sorbonne were accepted as +final upon almost all questions affecting the doctrine and practice of +the Church. Abroad its opinions were esteemed of little less weight than +the deliberate judgments of synods. Difficulties in church and state +were referred to it for solution. In the age of the reformation the +Sorbonne was invited to pronounce upon the truth or falsity of the +propositions maintained by Martin Luther, and, a few years later, upon +the validity of the grounds of the divorce sought by Henry the Eighth of +England. But, unhappily, the reputation of the faculty was tarnished by +scholastic bigotry. Slavish attachment to the past had destroyed freedom +of thought. With a species of inconsistency not altogether without a +parallel in history, the very body which had been active in the +promotion of science during the Middle Ages assumed the posture of +resistance the moment that the advocates of substantial reform urged the +necessity of immediate action. Abuses which had provoked the indignation +of Gerson, once Chancellor of the University of Paris, and employed the +skilful pen of the bold Rector Nicholas de Clemangis, met with no word +of condemnation from the new generation of theologians. + +Such was the Sorbonne of the beginning of the sixteenth century, when +intriguing doctors, such as Beda and Quercu, ruled in its deliberations. +An enemy of liberal studies as well as of the "new doctrines," the +faculty of theology was as ready to attack Erasmus for his devotion to +ancient literature, or Jacques Lefevre for establishing the existence of +the "three Marys," as to denounce the Bishop of Meaux for favoring +"Lutheran" preachers in his diocese. Against all innovators in church or +state, the sentiments of the Sorbonne, which it took no pains to +conceal, were that "their impious and shameless arrogance must be +restrained by chains, by censures--nay, by fire and flame--rather than +vanquished by argument!"[44] + +[Sidenote: Number of students.] + +Meanwhile, in the external marks of prosperity the University of Paris +was still in its prime at the period of which I speak. The colleges, +clustered together in the southern quarter of the city--the present +_Quartier Latin_--were so numerous and populous that this portion +continued for many years after to be distinguished as _l' +Universite_.[45] The number of students, it is true, had visibly +diminished since one hundred years before. The crowd of youth in +attendance was no longer so great as in 1409, when, according to a +contemporary, the head of a scholastic procession to the Church of Saint +Denis had already reached the sacred shrine before the rector had left +the Church of the _Mathurins_ in the Rue Saint Jacques, a point full six +miles distant.[46] Yet the report of Giustiniano, in 1535, stated it as +the current belief that the university still had twenty-five thousand +students in attendance, although this seemed to be an exaggerated +estimate. "For the most part," he added, "they are young, for everybody, +however poor he may be, learns to read and write."[47] Another +ambassador, writing eleven years later, represents the students, now +numbering sixteen or twenty thousand, as extremely poor. Their +instructors, he tells us, received very modest salaries; yet, so great +was the honor attaching to the post of teacher within the university +walls, that the competition for professorial chairs was marvellously +active.[48] + +The influence of the clergy fell little short of that of the university +in moderating the arbitrary impulses of the monarch. + +[Sidenote: The Gallican liberties.] + +The Gallican Church had for many centuries been distinguished for a +manly defence of its liberties against the encroachments of the Papal +court. Tenacious of the maintenance of doctrinal unity with the See of +Rome, the French prelates early met the growing assumption of the Popes +with determined courage. At the suggestion of the clergy, and with their +full concurrence, more than one French king adopted stringent +regulations intended to protect the kingdom from becoming the prey of +foreigners. Church and State were equally interested in the successful +prosecution of a warfare carried on, so far as the French were +concerned, in a strictly defensive manner. The Papal treasury, under +guise of _annats_, laid claim to the entire income of the bishopric or +other benefice for the first year after each new appointment. It seized +upon the revenues of vacant ecclesiastical offices, which the king +specially affected. Every bull or brief needed to secure induction into +office--and the number of these articles was almost unlimited--was +procured at a heavy expense. Further sums were exacted for pronouncing a +dispensation in favor of those appointees whom youth or some other +canonical impediment incapacitated for the acceptance and discharge of +the requisite functions. + +[Sidenote: Objects of the Gallican party.] + +The main objects of both crown and clergy were, consequently, to secure +the kingdom from the disastrous results of the interference of Italians +in the domestic affairs of France; to preserve the treasure of the realm +from exhaustion resulting from the levy of arbitrary imposts fixed by +irresponsible aliens, and exacted through the terrors of ecclesiastical +penalties; to prevent the right of election to lucrative livings from +falling into the hands of those who would use the privilege only as a +means of acquiring riches; and to rescue clergymen themselves from +being hurried away for trial beyond the confines of their native land, +and possibly from suffering hopeless confinement in Roman dungeons. In a +word, it was the aim of the Gallican party to prove that "the government +of the church is not a despotism."[49] + +[Sidenote: Pragmatic Sanction of St. Louis.] + +It is a somewhat anomalous circumstance that the first decided step in +repressing the arrogant claims of the Papal See was taken by a monarch +whose singular merits have been deemed worthy of canonization by the +Roman Church. Louis the Ninth had witnessed with alarm the rapid strides +of the Papacy toward universal dominion. His pride was offended by the +pretension of the Pontiff to absolute superiority; his sovereign rights +were assailed when taxes were levied in France at the pleasure of a +foreign priest and prince. He foresaw that this abuse was likely to take +deep root unless promptly met by a formal declaration placing the rights +of the French monarch and nation in their true light. For this reason he +issued in 1268 a solemn edict, which, as emanating from the +unconstrained will of the king, took the name of the "_Pragmatic +Sanction_ of Saint Louis." + +The preamble of this famous ordinance, upon the authenticity of which +doubts have been unnecessarily cast,[50] declares the object of the king +to be to secure the safety and tranquillity of the church of his realm, +the advancement of divine worship, the salvation of the souls of +Christ's faithful people, and the attainment of the favor and help of +Almighty God. To his sole jurisdiction and protection had France ever +been subject, and so did Louis desire it to remain. The provisions of +the Pragmatic Sanction were directed chiefly to guarding the freedom of +election and of collation to benefices, and to prohibiting the +imposition of any form of taxes by the Pope upon ecclesiastical +property in France, save by previous consent of the prince and +clergy.[51] + +In this brief document had been laid the foundation of the liberties of +the Gallican Church, not under the form of novel legislation, but of a +summary of previous usage. + +[Sidenote: Philip the Fair and Boniface.] + +Political reasons, not long after the death of Louis, gave new vigor to +the policy of opposition to which this king had pledged France. His +grandson, the resolute Philip the Fair, found fresh incitement in the +extravagant conduct of a contemporary Pope, Boniface the Eighth. The +bold ideas advanced by Hildebrand in the eleventh, and carried into +execution by Innocent the Third in the thirteenth century, were wrought +into the very texture of the soul of Boniface, and could not be +concealed, in spite of the altered condition of mediaeval society. +Intolerant, headstrong, and despotic, he undertook to exercise a +theocratic rule, and commanded contending monarchs to lay down their +arms, and submit their disputes to his arbitrament. To such a summons +Philip was not inclined to submit. The crafty and unscrupulous prince, +whose contempt for divine law was evidenced by his shameless practice of +injustice, whose coffers were filled indifferently by the confiscation +of the rich spoils of the commanderies of the Templars, and by +recklessly debasing the national currency, did not hesitate to engage in +a contest with the most presumptuous of Popes. He appealed to the States +General, and all three orders indignantly repudiated the suggestion that +their country had ever stood to the Papacy in the relation of a fief. +The disastrous example of the English John Lackland had found no +imitator on the southern side of the channel. The Pope was declared a +heretic. Emissaries of Louis seized him in his native city of Anagni, +within the very bounds of the "Patrimony of St. Peter," and the rough +usage to which he was then subjected hastened his death. His successors +on the pontifical throne proved somewhat more tractable. + +[Sidenote: The Popes at Avignon.] + +During his short and unimportant pontificate, Benedict the Eleventh +restored to the chapters of cathedrals the right of electing their own +bishops. Upon his death, Philip secured the elevation to the pontifical +dignity of an ecclesiastic wholly devoted to French interests, the +facile Clement the Fifth, who, in return for the honor conferred upon +him, removed the seat of the Papacy to Avignon. Here for the seventy +years of the so-called "Babylonish Captivity," the Popes continued to +reside, too completely subject to the influence of the French monarchs +to dream of resuming their tone of defiance, but scarcely less exacting +than before of homage from other rulers. In fact, the burden of the +pecuniary exactions of the Popes rather grew than diminished with the +change from Rome to Avignon, and with the institution of rival claimants +to the tiara, each requiring an equal sum to support the pomp of his +court, but recognized as legitimate by only a portion of Christendom. +The devices for drawing tribute from all quarters were multiplied to an +almost insupportable extent. So effectual did they prove, that no +pontiff, perhaps, ever left at his death a more enormous accumulation of +treasure than one of the Popes of Avignon, John the Twenty-second. Much +of this wealth was derived from the rich provinces of France. + +[Sidenote: The Schism.] + +Close upon the "Captivity" followed the "Schism," during which the +generally acknowledged Popes, who had returned to Rome, were opposed by +pretenders at Avignon and elsewhere. A double incentive was now given to +the monarchs of Europe for setting bounds to the ambition of the Papacy. +For while the Popes, through the loss of a great part of their authority +and prestige, had become less formidable antagonists, their financial +extortions had waxed so intolerable as to suggest the strongest +arguments appealing to the self-interest of kings. Hence the frequency +with which the demand for "a reformation in the head and the members" +resounded from all parts of the Western Church. And hence, too, those +memorable councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basle, which, coming in rapid +succession at the commencement of the fifteenth century, bade fair to +prove the forerunners of a radical reformation. It does not belong here +to discuss the causes of their failure to answer this reasonable +expectation. Yet with one of these assemblages is closely connected a +very important incident in the history of the Gallican Church. + +[Sidenote: The Council of Bourges.] + +The Council of Basle had not yet concluded its protracted sessions when +Charles the Seventh summoned the clergy of France to meet him in the +city of Bourges. The times were troublous. The kingdom was rent with +intestine division. A war was still raging, during the progress of which +the victorious arms of the English had driven the king from his capital +and deprived him of more than one-half of his dominions. The work of +reinstating the royal authority, though well begun by the wonderful +interposition of the Maid of Orleans, was as yet by no means complete. +Undaunted, however, by the unsettled aspect of his affairs, Charles--the +"King of Bourges," as he was contemptuously styled by his +opponents--made his appearance in the national council convened in his +temporary capital. He was attended by the dauphin, the Dukes of Burgundy +and Brittany, the Count of Maine, and many other noblemen, as well as by +a goodly train of doctors of civil and canon law. Awaiting his arrival +were five archbishops, twenty-five bishops, and a host of abbots and +deputies of universities and chapters of cathedrals. In the presence of +this august convocation, in which all that was most prominent in church +and state was represented, Charles published, on the seventh of July, +1438, an ordinance which has become celebrated under the name of the +"Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges"--by far the more important of the two +documents of similar nature emanating from the French throne.[52] + +[Sidenote: The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges.] + +The Pragmatic Sanction, as it is often called by way of pre-eminence, is +the magna charta of the liberties of the Gallican Church. Founded upon +the results of the discussions of the Council of Basle, it probably +embodies all the reformatory measures which the hierarchy of France was +desirous of effecting or willing to accept. How far these were from +administering the needed antidote to the poison which was at work and +threatened to destroy all true religious life--if, indeed, that life was +not already too near extinction--may readily be understood when it is +discovered that, with the exception of a few paragraphs relating to +ecclesiastical discipline and worship, the following comprise all the +important provisions: + +The Pragmatic Sanction establishes the obligation of the Pope to convene +a general council of the church at least every ten years. The decisions +of the Council of Basle are declared to be of perpetual force. Far from +deriving its authority from the Holy See, the Oecumenical Council, it +is affirmed, depends immediately upon Christ, and the Pope is no less +bound than all other Christians to render due obedience to its +decisions. The right of appeal from the Pope to the future council--a +claim obnoxious in the last degree to the advocates of papal +supremacy--is distinctly asserted. The Pope is declared incapable of +appointing to any high ecclesiastical dignities, save in a few specified +cases; in all others recourse is to be had to election. The pontiff's +pretensions to confer minor benefices are equally rejected. No abuse is +more sharply rebuked and forbidden than that of _expectatives_--a +species of appointment in high favor with the papal chancery, whereby a +successor to ecclesiastical dignities was nominated during the lifetime +of the incumbent, and in view of his decease. + +The Pragmatic Sanction restricts the troublesome and costly appeals to +Rome to cases of great importance, when the parties in interest reside +at a distance of more than four days' journey from that city. At the +same time it prescribes that no one shall be vexed by such appeals after +having enjoyed actual possession of his rank for three years. Going +beyond the limits of the kingdom, it enters into the constitution of the +"Sacred College," and fixes the number of the cardinals at twenty-four, +while placing the minimum age of candidates for the hat at thirty +years. The exaction of the _annats_ is stigmatized as simony. Priests +living in concubinage are to be punished by the forfeiture of one-fourth +of their annual stipend. Finally the principle is sanctioned that no +interdict can be made to include in its operation the innocent with the +guilty.[53] + +So thorough a vindication of the rights of the Gallican Church had never +before been undertaken. The axe was laid at the root of formidable +abuses; freedom of election was restored; the kingdom was relieved of a +crushing burden of tribute; foreigners were precluded from interfering +with the systematic administration of the laws. The clergy, both regular +and secular, received the greatest benefits, for, while they could no +longer be plundered of so large a part of their incomes, their persons +were protected from arbitrary arrest and hopeless exile beyond the Alps. + +The council had not adjourned when the tidings of the transactions at +Bourges reached the city of Basle. The members were overjoyed, and +testified their approval in a grateful letter to the Archbishop of +Lyons. But their exultation was more than equalled by the disgust of +Pope Eugenius the Third. Indeed, the pontificates of this pope and his +immediate successors were filled with fruitless attempts to effect the +repeal of the Pragmatic Sanction. A threat was made to place France +under an interdict; but this was of no avail, being answered by the +counter-threat of the king's representative, who proposed to make a +practical application of the instrument, by appealing from his Holiness +to a future general council. So the Pope, having a vivid recollection of +the perils attending a contest with the French crown, wisely avoided the +hazardous venture.[54] + +[Sidenote: Louis XI. consents to its abrogation.] + +In Louis the Eleventh the papal court seemed to have found a more +promising prince to deal with. Animated by hatred of his father, and +disposed to oppose whatever had met his father's approval, Louis had, +while yet dauphin, given the Pope's agents flattering assurances of his +good intentions.[55] On ascending the throne, he permitted his father's +memory to be treated with disrespect, by suffering a nuncio to pronounce +absolution over the corpse for the heinous sin of originating the +Pragmatic Sanction. Later, on receiving the assurance of the Pope's +support for the house of Anjou in Naples, he consented to repeal the +hateful ordinance. A royal declaration for this purpose was published in +1461, contrary to the advice of the king's council.[56] It met with +universal reprobation. The Parliament of Toulouse would register the +document only with an accompanying note stating that this had been done +"by the most express command of the king." The Parliament of Paris +absolutely declined to admit it in its records, and sent a deputation to +Louis to set forth the pernicious results that were to be expected from +the overthrow of his father's wise regulations.[57] The University made +bold to appeal to a general council of the Church. + +[Sidenote: But subsequently re-enacts it.] + +Meanwhile it happened that Louis made the unwelcome discovery that his +Italian friends had deceived him, and that the prospect was very remote +of obtaining the advantages by which he had been allured. It was not +very difficult, therefore, to persuade him to renounce his project. Not +content with this, three years after his formal revocation of the entire +Pragmatic Sanction, he even re-enacted some of the clauses of the +document respecting "expectatives" and "provisions." + +[Sidenote: Parliament protests against the repeal.] + +But a few years later, in 1467, Louis again conceived it to be for his +interest to abrogate the Pragmatic Sanction. At the suggestion of +Cardinal Balue, the recent enactment against "expectatives" was +repealed. The Parliament of Paris, however, refused to record the +letters patent. Among other powerful arguments adduced was the fact that +a recent investigation had proved that, in the three years of the +pontificate of Pius the Second during which the Pragmatic Sanction had +been virtually set aside (1461-1464), Rome drew from the kingdom not +less than 240,000 crowns in payment of bulls for archbishoprics, +bishoprics, and abbeys falling vacant within this term; 100,000 for +priories and deaneries; and the enormous sum of 2,500,000 crowns for +"expectatives" and "dispensations."[58] This startling financial exhibit +was accompanied by statements of the indirect injury received by the +community from the great number of candidates thrown on the tender +mercies of relations and friends, whom they thus beggared while awaiting +a long deferred preferment.[59] Even when successful, "they received +only lead for gold." Frequently, when they were about to clutch the +coveted prize, a rival stepped in armed with documents annulling those +previously given. Cases had, indeed, been known in which ten or twelve +contestants presented themselves, all basing their claims upon the +pontifical warrant.[60] + +[Sidenote: Fall of Cardinal Balue.] + +Cardinal Balue was not slow in finding means to remove from office the +intrepid _Procureur-general_, who had been prominent in urging +parliament to resist the measure of repeal. But Saint-Romain's bold +stand had confirmed both parliament and university, and neither body +would acquiesce in the papal demands. Louis, however, was reconciled to +a second abandonment of the scheme by the opportune discovery of the +cardinal's treachery. The unhappy prelate met with deserved retribution, +for his purple did not save him from enduring his own favorite mode of +punishment, and being shut up in a great iron cage. The new Perillus was +thus enabled--to the intense satisfaction of many whom he had +wronged--to test in his own person the merits of a contrivance which he +was reputed himself to have invented.[61] + +A concordat subsequently agreed upon by Louis and the Pope fared no +better than the previous compacts. Parliament and university were +resolute, and the king, having no further advantage to gain by keeping +his word, was as careless in its fulfilment as was his wont. The +Pragmatic Sanction was still observed as the law of the land. The +highest civil courts, ignoring the alleged repeal, conformed their +decisions to its letter and spirit, while the theologians of the +Sorbonne taught it as the foundation of the ecclesiastical constitution +of France. Yet, public confidence in its validity having been shaken, it +was desirable to set all doubts at rest by a formal re-enactment. This +was proposed by the Dean of St. Martin of Tours, in the States General +held during the minority of Charles the Eighth; but, notwithstanding the +well-known opinion of all the orders, this reign passed without the +adoption of any decided action. + +[Sidenote: Action of Louis XII.] + +[Sidenote: His motto.] + +It was reserved for Louis the Twelfth to take the desired step. In 1499 +he published the Pragmatic Sanction anew, and ordered the exclusion from +office of all that had obtained benefices from Rome. In vain did the +Pope rave. In vain did he summon all upholders of the ordinance to +appear before the Fifth Lateran Council. The sturdy prince--the "Father +of his people"--who had chosen for his motto the device, "_Perdam +Babylonis nomen_," made little account of the menaces of Julius the +Second, whom death overtook, it is said, while about to fulminate a bull +transferring the title of "Very Christian King" from Louis the Twelfth +of France to Henry the Eighth of England.[62] + +[Sidenote: Concordat of Leo X. and Francis I.] + +Thirsting for military distinction, Francis the First had no sooner +obtained the throne than he entered upon the career of arms in northern +Italy, and the signal victory of Marignano, won less than ten months +after his accession (September 13, 1515), closed his first campaign. +This success was productive of more lasting results than merely the +temporary possession of the Milanese. It led to a reconciliation with +the Pope, and to a stately interview in the city of Bologna. All that +was magnificent and captivating to the senses had been studied to dazzle +the eyes of a young and imaginative prince; for Leo the Tenth, patron of +the arts and of artists, was an adept in scenic effects. Certainly never +did pomp and ceremony more easily effect the object for which they were +employed. The interview of Bologna paved the way for a concordat, in +which the rights of the Gallican Church were sacrificed, and the spoils +divided between king and pontiff.[63] Three cardinals took part in the +elaboration of the details of the instrument--two on the pontifical, the +third on the royal side. The last was the notorious Cardinal Duprat, +elevated by Francis to the office of chancellor--a minister of religion +who was soon to introduce venality into every department of government. +The source of the concordat determined tolerably well its character. + +Appreciating the strength of the opposition its pretensions had always +encountered in France, the papal court had resolved to renounce a +portion of its claims in favor of the king, in order to retain the rest +more securely. Under the pretext that the right of election vested in +the chapters had been abused, partly by the choice of illiterate and +improper men, partly through the practice of simony, the selection of +archbishops and bishops was taken from them and confided to the king. He +was empowered to choose a doctor or licentiate of theology or law, not +less than twenty-seven years of age, within six months after the see +became vacant. The name of the candidate was to be submitted to the Pope +for approval, and, if this first nomination was rejected, a second was +to be made by the king. Similar regulations were made respecting abbeys +and monastic institutions in general, a few exceptions being allowed in +favor of those patrons and bodies to whom special privileges had been +accorded. The issue of "expectatives" was prohibited; but, as no mention +was made of the "annats," it followed, of course, that this rich source +of gain to the papal treasury was to lie open, in spite of the +provisions of the Pragmatic Sanction to the contrary.[64] + +Such were some of the leading features of the concordat between Leo the +Tenth and Francis the First--a document introducing changes so violent +as to amount almost to a complete revolution in the ecclesiastical +constitution of the land. + +[Sidenote: Dissatisfaction of the French.] + +After receiving the unqualified approval of the Lateran Council, in a +session at which few prelates were present from outside of Italy, the +concordat, engrossed on white damask, and accompanied by a revocation of +the Pragmatic Sanction on cloth of gold, was forwarded to Francis, who +had now returned to his kingdom. The latter, not ignorant of the +discontent already engendered by the mere rumor of the transaction, +first submitted the concordat alone to a mixed assembly composed of +prelates and canons, of presidents and counsellors of parliament, +doctors of the university, and other prominent personages. But the +king's caution failed of accomplishing what had been intended. The +general dissatisfaction found expression in the speech of Cardinal +Boissy, demanding that the clergy be consulted by itself on a matter so +vitally affecting its interests, and suggesting the necessity of a +national council for that purpose. Francis angrily retorted that the +clergy _must obey_, or he would send its bishops to Rome to discuss with +the Pope. + +[Sidenote: Struggle with the parliaments.] + +Failing in the attempt to forestall the expression of disapprobation of +the judiciary by securing the favorable verdict of a picked assembly of +influential persons, the king, nevertheless, proceeded to carry into +execution that clause of the concordat which enjoined ratification by +the parliaments. Letters patent were first dispatched commanding all +judges to conform to its provisions, and these were followed shortly by +copies of the instrument itself and of the revocation of the Pragmatic +Sanction, for registry. At this point properly began one of the most +notable contests between the crown and parliaments of France. The +Parliament of Paris, taking the ground that so fundamental a change in +the national customs demanded mature consideration, deferred action. +With the view of exercising a pressure on its deliberations, Francis now +commissioned his uncle, the Bastard of Savoy, to be present at the +sessions. Against this unprecedented breach of privilege parliament sent +a deputation humbly to remonstrate; but all to no purpose. The irritated +prince, who entertained the most extravagant views of the royal +prerogative, declared his intention to satisfy himself concerning the +real disposition of his judges, and assured the deputies that he had +firmly resolved to despatch the disobedient to the inferior parliaments +of Bordeaux and Toulouse, and fill their places with "men of worth." "I +am your king," was his constant exclamation, and this passed with him +for an unanswerable argument in support of his views. But the members of +parliament were not easily moved. Undoubtedly the success attending +their previous resistance to the repeal of the Pragmatic Sanction, on +at least three occasions in the reign of Louis the Eleventh, emboldened +them in the present instance. Unawed by the presence of the Bastard of +Savoy, they refused to concede the registration of the concordat, and +declared that they must continue to observe the Pragmatic Sanction, +endorsed, as that ordinance had been, by the representatives of the +entire nation. Not only did they protest against suffering the Sanction +to be annulled, but they insisted upon the convocation of the clergy in +a body similar to that assembled by Charles the Seventh, as an +indispensable preliminary to the investigation of the matter. + +[Sidenote: Haughty demeanor of the king.] + +Francis, who happened to be at his castle of Amboise, on the Loire, now +sent word that parliament should appoint a deputation to convey to him +the reasons of its refusal. But when the delegates reached the +castle-gate, an entire month elapsed before Francis would condescend to +grant them audience. They were at length admitted, only to be treated +with studied contempt. "There can be but one king in France," was the +arrogant language of the young prince to the judges who had grown gray +in the service of Charles the Eighth and the good King Louis. "You speak +as if you were not my subjects, and as if I dared not try you and +sentence you to lose your heads." And when the indignity of his words +awakened the spirited remonstrance of the deputies, Francis rejoined: "I +am king: I can dispose of my parliament at my pleasure. Begone, and +return to Paris at break of day." + +A formal command was now addressed to the Parliament of Paris, and the +bearer, La Tremouille, informed that body, as it listened to the +message, that Francis had repeated to him more than ten times within a +quarter of an hour, "that he would not for half his kingdom fail of his +word to the Pope, and that if parliament rebelled, he would find means +to make it repent of its obstinacy." Under these circumstances, further +resistance from a body so completely dependent on the sovereign was not +to be thought of. Yet, even when compelled to yield, parliament, at the +suggestion of the _gens du roi_, coupled the registry of the concordat +with a declaration that it was made at the express command of the king +several times reiterated, that parliament disapproved of the revocation +of the Pragmatic Sanction; and that, in the adjudication of causes, it +would continue to follow the ordinance of Charles the Seventh, while +appealing to the Pope under better advisement, and to a future council +of the church. Thus the concordat, projected at Bologna in 1515, and +signed at Rome on the sixteenth of August, 1516, was registered by the +Parliament of Paris _de expressissimo mandato regis_, on the +twenty-second of March, 1518.[65] + +[Sidenote: The university remonstrates.] + +Even now Francis had not quite silenced all opposition. The rector of +the University of Paris, not content with entering a formal +remonstrance,[66] took a bolder step. Making use of a prerogative long +since conceded to the university, of exercising a censure over the +press, he posted a notice to all printers and publishers forbidding the +reproduction of the concordat on pain of loss of their privileges. The +dean and canons of the cathedral church of Paris also handed in a +protest. The preachers of several churches rivalled the rector in +audacity, by publicly inveighing against the dangers of the +ecclesiastical innovations introduced by the king. It is not surprising +that a prince impatient even of wholesome rebuke was enraged at this +monkish tirade. Parliament was ordered to bring the culprits to justice; +but, strange to say, none could be discovered--a circumstance certainly +attributable rather to the supineness of the judges than to any lack of +witnesses. To the university Francis wrote in a haughty vein, +threatening the severe punishment of any of its doctors that dared +preach against the government; while, by an edict from Amboise, he +forbade the rector and his associates from assembling for the discussion +of political questions. + +These were the closing scenes of the exciting drama. The king had +triumphed, but not without encountering a spirited opposition from +parliament, university, and clergy. If these had succumbed, it had only +been before superior strength, and each of the bodies reserved to itself +the right of treating the concordat as a nullity and the Pragmatic +Sanction as still the ecclesiastical constitution of the land. + +[Sidenote: The resistance not altogether fruitless.] + +Nor was this altogether an empty claim. Some of the provisions of the +concordat were never enforced, and that was a solid advantage gained +through the opposition. The parliaments persisted in rendering judgment, +in such cases as came before them, in conformity with the Pragmatic +Sanction. The Bishop of Albi, chosen by the canons, was confirmed in his +see, notwithstanding the pretensions of a nominee of the crown. And yet +the concordat was not merely maintained by the Pope and the king, but, a +few years later, its provisions were extended to monastic foundations +previously possessed of an undisputed title to elect. This was done to +gratify Francis on the marriage of his second son Henry to Catharine de' +Medici, niece of Clement, the reigning pontiff. The somewhat suspicious +story is told, that, to aid in carrying out this new act of injustice, +Cardinal Duprat, having ordered all ecclesiastical bodies to send him +the original documents attesting their right of election, at once +consigned the parchments to the fire, in order to destroy all memory of +these troublesome claims. If the tale be apocryphal, it at least +indicates sufficiently well the estimation in which the prelate's +character was held by his contemporaries. + +[Sidenote: Advantages gained by the crown.] + +The clergy reluctantly admitted the concordat into their books after the +lapse of two centuries, but solely, as they declared, for convenience of +reference. The restoration of the Pragmatic Sanction continued to be +demanded by one or all the orders of the States General, during the +reigns of Francis the Second, Charles the Ninth, and their successors, +not least on the ground that the day that witnessed its repeal also +beheld the introduction of the "heresy" that had since attained such +formidable proportions.[67] But, if opposed and denounced, the concordat +was carried into execution, so far as most of its provisions were +concerned, until the French revolution. The advantages gained by the +crown were too palpable to be voluntarily relinquished. Almost the +entire patronage of the church was thrown into the hands of the king, +who, in the reign of Louis the Fifteenth, held at his disposal eighteen +archbishoprics, 112 bishoprics, 1,666 abbeys for men, and 317 abbeys and +priories for women.[68] It must not be forgotten that the _annats_, or +first-fruits of benefices, now regularly falling into the pontifical +treasury, made the concordat scarcely less valuable to the Papal +See.[69] + +[Sidenote: Era of the Renaissance.] + +The most enviable distinction of the reign of Francis the First +consisted in the fact that it was the era of that extraordinary +development of the fine arts and of literature known as the +_Renaissance_. Illustrious during the Middle Ages, and foremost in the +pursuit of scholastic learning, France had unfortunately lost that proud +eminence when the revival of letters enkindled elsewhere a new passion +for discovery. Her adventurous sons had taken the lead in the crusades +of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, but three hundred years later no +expeditions were fitted out in her ports to explore and appropriate the +virgin territories beyond the western sea. The art of printing and the +impulse given to astronomical research originated abroad. The famous +mediaeval seat of learning seemed to have been suddenly visited with a +premature decay. Even the exiled scholars of the East, fleeing before +Turkish barbarism, disdained to settle in a country where the treasures +of ancient science which they had brought with them from Mount Athos and +Constantinople were so inadequately appreciated.[70] + +[Sidenote: Francis's attainments overrated.] + +[Sidenote: A munificent patron of art.] + +The reign of Francis the First, however, was destined to remove much of +the reproach which had been incurred by reason of this singular +tardiness in entering the path of improvement. Born of parents possessed +of unusual intelligence and yet rarer education, and stimulated by the +companionship of an elder sister whose extensive acquirements furnished +the theme of countless panegyrics, Francis early conceived the design of +making his court illustrious for the generous patronage extended to the +disciples of the liberal arts. His own attainments have been overrated, +and posterity has too credulously believed all that admiring and +interested courtiers chose to invent in his praise. But, if he was +himself ignorant of anything beyond the mere rudiments even of Latin, +the universal language of science, he possessed at least one signal +merit: he was a munificent friend of those whom poverty would otherwise +have precluded from cultivating their resplendent abilities. I shall not +repeat the familiar names of the eminent painters and sculptors whom he +encouraged and enriched, nor give a list of the skilful architects +employed in the construction of his magnificent palaces of St. Germain +and Fontainebleau, of Chambord and Chenonceaux. Poetry, not less than +painting and architecture, witnessed his liberality. Clement Marot, +whose name has been regarded as marking the first truly remarkable epoch +in the history of this department of French art,[71] was a favorite at +the court of Francis and Margaret of Angouleme, and repaid their gifts +with unbounded eulogy. The more solid studies of the philosopher and the +linguist were fostered with equal care. Vatable, Melchior Wolmar, and +other scholars of note were invited to France, to give instruction in +Greek and Hebrew. Erasmus himself might have been induced to yield to +the king's importunate messages, could he have been able to divest +himself of the apprehension of annoyance from the bigoted "Sorbonnists;" +while even Melanchthon was, at a later period, on the point of accepting +a pressing summons to visit the French court on a mission of +reconciliation. + +[Sidenote: Foundation of the College Royal.] + +Among the most notable achievements of this prince was the foundation of +a school of learning intended to supply the deficiencies of the +instruction given by the university. In the "College Royal" Francis +desired to leave a lasting token of his devotion to letters. Here he +founded chairs of three languages--of Greek and Hebrew at first, and +afterward of Latin--whence was derived the name of _Trilingue_, under +which the college was celebrated in the writings of the day. The +monarch's plan encountered the obstacles which prejudice always knows +how to set in the way of improvement. The university doctors, fearing +that their own prelections would be forsaken for the more brilliant +lectures of the salaried professors of the royal school, demanded that +the latter should submit to an examination before the more ancient body +of instructors; but parliament wisely rejected their pretensions. +Liberal men throughout the world rejoiced at the defeat of the Sorbonne +and its representative, Beda,[72] while Marot, alluding to the quarrel +in a poetical epistle to the king, poured out in verse his contempt for +the "Theologasters" of Paris: + + "L'ignorante Sorbonne; + Bien ignorante elle est d'estre ennemie + De la _Trilingue_ et noble Academie + Qu'as erigee.... + O povres gens de savoir tout ethiques! + Bien faites vray ce proverbe courant: + '_Science n'ha hayneux que l'ignorant!_'" + +It would be unfair to French scholarship to omit all notice of the fact +that there were not wanting natives of France itself whose sound +learning entitled them to rank with the most conscientious of German +humanists; such men as Lefevre d'Etaples, a prodigy of almost universal +acquirements; or Louis de Berquin, who furnishes a signal instance of a +nobleman of high position that did not shun the toil and danger of a +more than ordinarily profound investigation of theological truth. Both +will claim our attention again. + +[Sidenote: An age of blood.] + +Yet, by the side or these manifestations of a growing appreciation of +art, science, and letters, it must be confessed that there were +indications, no less distinct, of a lamentable neglect of moral +training, and of a state of manners scarcely raised above that of +uncivilized communities of men. It was still an age of blood. The pages +of chronicles, both public and private, teem with proofs of the +insignificant value set upon human life and happiness. In many parts of +France the peasant rarely enjoyed quiet for even a few consecutive +months. Organized bands of robbers, familiarly known as "Mauvais +Garcons," infested whole provinces, and laid towns and villages under +contribution. Not unfrequently two or three hundred men were to be found +in a single band, and the robberies, outrages, and murders they +committed defy recital. Often the miscreants were _aventuriers_, or +volunteers whose employers had failed to furnish them their stipulated +pay, and who avenged their losses by exactions levied upon the +unfortunate peasantry. Indeed, if we may believe the almost incredible +statements of one of the laws enacted for their suppression, they had +been known to carry by assault even walled cities, and to exercise +against the miserable inhabitants cruelty such as disgraces the very +name of man.[73] + +[Sidenote: Barbarous punishments.] + +The character or the punishments inflicted for the commission of crime +furnishes a convenient test of national civilization. If France in the +sixteenth century be tried by this criterion, the conclusion is +inevitable that for her the age of barbarism had not yet completely +passed away. The catalogue of crimes to which death was affixed as the +penalty is frightfully long; some of them were almost trivial offences. +A boy less than sixteen years of age was hung for stealing jewelry from +his master.[74] On the other hand, with flagrant inconsistency, a +nobleman, Rene de Bonneville, superintendent of the royal mint, for the +murder of his brother-in-law, was dragged to the place of execution on a +hurdle, but suffered the less ignominious fate of decapitation. A part +of his property was given to his sister, and the rest confiscated to the +crown, with the exception of four hundred livres, reserved for the +purchase of masses to be said for the benefit of the soul of his +murdered victim.[75] + +[Sidenote: Especially for heresy.] + +For other culprits extraordinary refinements of cruelty were reserved. +The _aventuriers_, when so ill-starred as to fall into the hands of +justice, were customarily burned alive at the stake.[76] The same fate +overtook those who were detected in frauds against the public treasury. +More frightful than all the rest was the vengeance taken by the law upon +the counterfeiter of the king's coin. The legal penalty, which is said +to have become a dead letter on the pages of the statute-book long +before the French revolution, was in the sixteenth century rigidly +enforced: on the 9th of November, 1527, a rich merchant of Paris, having +been found guilty of the crime in question, was boiled alive before the +assembled multitude in the _Marche-aux-pourceaux_.[77] Heresy and +blasphemy were treated with no greater degree of leniency than the most +infamous of crimes. Even before the reformation a lingering death in the +flames had been the doom pronounced upon the person who dared to accept +or promulgate doctrines condemned by the church. But when the bitterness +of strife had awakened the desire to enhance the punishment of dissent, +new or extraordinary tortures were resorted to, of the application of +which this history will furnish only too many examples. The forehead was +branded, the tongue torn out, the hand cut off at the wrist, or the +agonies of death prolonged by alternately dropping the wretched victim +into the fire and drawing him out again, until exhausted nature found +tardy release in death. + +But if we can to some extent account for the excess of cruelty which +blind frenzy inflicted on the inflexible martyr to his faith, it is +certainly more difficult to explain the severity exercised upon the more +pliable, whom the arguments of ghostly advisers, or the terrors of the +_Place de Greve_, had induced to recant. Generally the judge did nothing +more in their behalf than commute their punishment by ordering them to +be strangled before their bodies were consigned to the flames.[78] Yet +in one exceptional case--that of a servant whose master, a gentleman and +one of the men-at-arms of the Regent of Scotland, was burned alive--the +court went to such a length of leniency as to let the repentant heretic +off with the sentence that he first be beaten with rods at the cart's +end, and afterwards have his tongue cut out.[79] Even the clearest +evidence of insanity did not suffice to remove or even mitigate the +penalties of impiety. A poor, crazy woman, who had broken the +consecrated wafer when administered to her in her illness, and had +applied to it some offensive but absurd epithet, was unhesitatingly +condemned to the stake. An appeal to a superior court procuring no +reversal of her sentence, she was burned at Tours in the year 1533.[80] + +[Sidenote: Belief in astrology.] + +[Sidenote: Predictions of Nostradamus.] + +Other marks of a low stage of civilization were not wanting. The belief +in judicial astrology was almost universal.[81] Pretenders like +Nostradamus obtained respect and wealth at the hands of their dupes. All +France trembled with Catharine de' Medici, when the astrologer gave out +that the queen would see all her sons kings, and every one foreboded the +speedy extinction of the royal line. The "prophecy," as it was gravely +styled, obtained public recognition, and was discussed in diplomatic +papers. When two of the queen's sons had in fact become kings of France, +and a third had been elected to the throne of Poland, while the marriage +of the fourth with Queen Elizabeth was under consideration, Catharine's +allies saw grounds to congratulate her that the prediction which had so +disquieted her was likely to obtain a more pleasing fulfilment than in +the successive deaths of her male descendants.[82] + +A still more pernicious form of superstition was noticeable in the +credit enjoyed by charms and incantations, not merely among illiterate +rustics, but even with persons of high social station. No phase of the +magic art led to the commission of more terrible crimes or revealed a +worse side of human character than that which pretended to secure the +happiness or accomplish the ruin, to prolong the life or hasten the +death, of the objects of private love or hatred. While systematically +practising upon the credulity of his dupes, the professed master of this +ill-omened art frequently resorted to assassination by poison or dagger +in the accomplishment of his schemes. Sorcery by means of waxen images +was particularly in vogue. Thus, the Queen of Navarre, the sister of +Francis the First, in her singular collection of tales, the +"Heptameron," gives a circumstantial account of the mode in which her +own life was sought by this species of witchcraft.[83] Five puppets had +been provided: three, representing enemies (the queen being one of the +number), had their arms hanging down; the other two, representing +persons whose favor was desired, had them raised aloft. With certain +cabalistic words and occult rites the puppets were next secretly hidden +beneath an altar whereon the mass was celebrated, and the mysterious +"sacrifice" was believed to complete the efficacy of the charm. It was +no new superstition imported from abroad, but one that had existed in +France for centuries.[84] + +[Sidenote: Reverence for relics.] + +The French were behind no other nation in reverence for relics of saints +and for pictures and images representing them. In the partial list, +compiled by a contemporary, of the curiosities of this nature scattered +through Christendom,[85] the majority of the relics mentioned are +selected from the immense treasures laid up in the thousands of +cathedrals, parish churches, and abbeys within the domains of the "Very +Christian King." In one place the hair of the blessed Virgin was +carefully preserved; in another the sword of the archangel Michael, or +the entire body of St. Dionysius. It was true that the Pope had by +solemn bull, about a century before, declared, in the presence of the +French ambassador, that the entire body of this last-named saint was in +the possession of the inhabitants of Ratisbon; but, had any one been so +rash as to affirm at Saint Denis, near Paris, that the veritable remains +were not there, he would certainly have been stoned.[86] At Notre-Dame +de l'Ile, above Lyons, no little account was made of the _twelve combs_ +of the apostles![87] + +The reflecting man who found, by a comparison of the treasures of +different churches within his own personal observation, that some of the +pretended relics were frivolous or impossible, and that the same members +of some favorite saint were reproduced at points widely distant, might +well speculate upon the probable benefits to Christendom from a complete +inventory of the contents of the churches of two or three thousand +bishoprics, of twenty or thirty thousand abbeys, and of more than forty +thousand convents.[88] He might find difficulty in believing that our +Lord was crucified with fourteen nails; that "an entire hedge" should +have been requisite to plait the crown of thorns; that a single spear +should have begotten three others; or that from a solitary napkin there +should have issued a whole brood of the same kind.[89] He would be +scandalized on learning that each apostle had more than four bodies, and +the saints at least two or three apiece.[90] And his faith in the +genuineness of the objects of popular adoration would be still further +shaken, if, on subjecting them to a closer examination, he discovered +that, as was the case at Geneva, he had been worshipping a bone of a +deer as the arm of Saint Anthony, or a piece of pumice for the brain of +the apostle Peter.[91] + +But, whatever sceptical conclusions might be reached by the learned and +discerning, the devotion of the common people showed no signs of +flagging. In the parish church of St. Stephen at Noyon, it was not the +Christian proto-martyr alone that was decorated with a cap and other +gewgaws, when his yearly festival came around, but likewise the +"tyrants," as they were styled by the people, who stoned him. And the +poor women, seeing them thus adorned, took them to be companions of the +saint, and each one had his candle. The devil with whom St. Michael +contended fared equally well.[92] The very stones that were the +instruments of St. Stephen's death were adored at Arles and +elsewhere.[93] It was, however, to the Parisians that the palm in this +species of superstition rightfully belonged. The knife wherewith an +impious Jew had stabbed a consecrated wafer was held in higher esteem +than the wafer itself! And so marked was the preference that it aroused +the displeasure of one of the most bigoted doctors of the Sorbonne, De +Quercu, who reproached the Parisians for being worse than the Jews +themselves, "inasmuch as they adored the knife that had served to rend +the precious body of Jesus Christ."[94] + +[Sidenote: The consecrated wafer.] + +When such superstitious respect was paid to the relics of saints, it is +not surprising that the consecrated wafer or host received the most +extravagant marks of adoration. The king himself was often foremost in +public demonstrations in its honor. Louise de Savoie, mother of Francis +the First, relates in her quaint diary the pompous ceremonial observed +in restoring to its original position a pyx containing the host which +had been stolen from the chapel of the palace of St. Germain-en-Laye. +The culprit had suffered the customary penalty, having had his hand cut +off and being afterward burned alive. In the expiatory procession which +took place a few days later, Francis himself walked with uncovered head +and carrying a lighted taper in his hand, from Nanterre to St. Germain. +If we may credit his mother's somewhat partial account, the sight of the +monarch's signal piety was so touching as to bring tears to the eyes of +admiring spectators.[95] + +In view of the general prevalence of debasing forms of superstition +among the people, it is not inappropriate to consider the condition of +that class of the population which is wont to exert the most potent +influence in forming the moral sentiments and moulding the character of +the unlettered masses. We have already touched upon the external +relations of the clergy to the king and to the Pope; let us now look +more narrowly into its internal state. + +[Sidenote: Wealth and power of the clergy.] + +At the period of which I am now treating, the clergy, both regular and +secular, had attained unprecedented wealth and power. Never, perhaps, +had France been more fully represented in the "Sacred College." +Assuredly never since the residence of the Popes in Avignon had the +French members possessed such immense riches. Thirteen French cardinals +sat in the papal consistory at one time in the reign of Francis the +First; twelve at the accession of his son to the throne.[96] Their +influence in the kingdom was almost beyond conception, both on account +of the multitude of benefices they held, and the distinction of the +families from whom they sprang and whose titles they retained. Some were +the incumbents of as many as _ten_ bishoprics and abbeys; while the +cardinals of Bourbon, of Lorraine, of Chatillon, of Du Bellay, and of +Armagnac were of the best blood in the realm, and enjoyed in their own +right, or by reason of their office, very extensive jurisdiction. + +[Sidenote: Non-residence of the prelates.] + +A standing reproach against the prelates was their non-residence in the +dioceses committed to their pastoral supervision. In fact, when the +Council of Trent, by one of its first decrees, forbade a plurality of +benefices and enjoined residence, its action was regarded as an open +declaration of war against the French episcopate.[97] But if this abuse +is deplored by Roman Catholic historians as the fruitful cause of the +introduction and rapid progress of Protestantism,[98] the reformers, +viewing their work as an instrument specially designed by heaven for the +purification of a corrupt church, might well be justified in regarding +the negligence of the bishops as a wise providential arrangement. Many a +feeble germ of truth was spared the violence of persecution until the +kindly sun and the plentiful showers had conferred greater powers of +endurance. Happily for the reformers, the duty of watching for the first +appearance of reputed heresy, which belonged properly to the bishops, +was but poorly discharged by many of the deputies to whom they entrusted +it. Nor could a delegated authority always accomplish what might have +been done by a principal.[99] + +[Sidenote: Revenues of the clergy.] + +The annual revenues of the clergy of France were estimated by a Venetian +ambassador, with unsurpassed facilities for obtaining accurate +information, at six million crowns of gold, out of the fifteen millions +that constituted the total revenues of the kingdom. While the clergy +thus absorbed _two-fifths_ of the whole income of France, the king was +limited to one million and a half crowns, or just one-tenth, derived +from his particular estates.[100] + +[Sidenote: Morals of the clergy.] + +Wealth had engendered luxury and vice. Engrossed in the pursuit of +pleasure or personal aggrandizement, the vast majority of clergymen had +lost all solicitude for the spiritual welfare of their flocks. About +the middle of the century Claude Haton, curate of Meriot--certainly no +friend of the reformatory movement--wrote in his Memoires: "The more +rapidly the number of heretics in France increased, the more indifferent +to the discharge of their duty in their charges were the prelates and +pastors of the church, from cardinals and archbishops down to the most +insignificant curate. They cared little or nothing how anything went, if +they could but draw the income of their benefices at whatever place of +residence they had selected with a view to the promotion of their +pleasure.[101] They let their benefices out at the highest rate they +could get, little solicitous as to the hands they might fall into, +provided only they were well paid according to the terms of the +agreement. The archbishops, bishops, and cardinals of France were almost +all at the court of the king and the princes. The abbots, priors and +curates resided in the large cities and in other places, wherein they +took more delight than within the limits of their charges and preaching +the true word of God to their subjects and parishioners. From their +indifference the Lutheran heretics took occasion to slander the Church +of Jesus Christ and to seduce Christians from it."[102] + +[Sidenote: No regard to the spiritual wants of the people.] + +Such a condition of utter indifference on the part of the clergy to the +interests of the souls committed to their charge cannot surprise us when +we learn that benefices were conferred without regard to the wants of +the people. The Venetian Soranzo, in an address delivered after the +fruits of the concordat had had full time to mature,[103] declared that +in the majority of cases these ecclesiastical positions were dispensed +with little respect to things sacred, and through simple favor. They +served as a convenient method of rewarding good services. Little account +was made of the qualifications of the candidate, who might have earned +his reward in the army or in the civil service. And so it often happened +that he who to-day was a merchant or a soldier, to-morrow was made +bishop or abbot. When, indeed, the fortunate man had a wife or was +reluctant to assume the habit, he could readily get permission to place +the benefice in the name of another, himself retaining the income.[104] +"These new pastors," said Correro, "placed in charge of the churches men +who had taken it into their heads to be clergymen only to avoid the +toils of some other occupation--men who, by their avarice and +dissoluteness of life, confused the innocent people and removed their +previous great devotion. _This was the door, this was the spacious +gateway, by which heresies entered France._ For the ministers sent from +Geneva were easily able to create in the people a hatred of the priests +and friars, _by simply weighing in the balance the life led by the +latter_."[105] + +[Sidenote: The clergy before the concordat.] + +It was the fashion among those who passed for philosophers to ascribe +the universal dissolution of morals among French ecclesiastics to the +operation of the concordat between Francis the First and Pope Leo the +Tenth, which, said they, by bringing so many bishops and other high +dignitaries to the court in quest of preferment, had corrupted the +characters of the prelates, while exposing their flocks to all the evils +which neglect is wont to breed. Unfortunately, the portraits of the +period preceding the revocation of the Pragmatic Sanction that have come +down to us dispel the Arcadian simplicity of manners which seems only to +have existed in the imagination of a few warm admirers of everything +ancient. If the prelates of France were dissolute after the introduction +of the concordat, we are assured by a writer by no means partial to the +"new doctrines," that the state of affairs was no better at an earlier +period. In their abbeys or bishoprics they were as debauched as those +who followed arms for their profession.[106] The bishops bought their +places with money, or with promises which were to be fulfilled after +preferment. "And when they had attained these high dignities," he adds, +"God knows what lives they led. Assuredly they were far more devoted to +their dioceses than they have since been; for they never left them. But +it was to lead a most dissolute life with their dogs and birds, with +their feasts, banquets, marriage entertainments and courtezans, of whom +they gathered seraglios.... All this was permitted, and none dared to +remonstrate or utter censure. Even more could be related, which is +passed over in silence through fear of creating scandal. Our present +bishops, if not better men, are at least more discreet hypocrites, and +more skilfully conceal their black vices."[107] Nor were the morals of +the monastic orders depicted in brighter colors. "Generally the monks +elected the most jovial companion, him who was the most fond of women, +dogs, and birds, the deepest drinker--in short, the most dissipated; and +this in order that, when they had made him abbot or prior, they might be +permitted to indulge in similar debauch and pleasure. Indeed, they bound +him beforehand by strong oaths, to which he was forced to conform either +voluntarily or by constraint. The worst was that, when they failed to +agree in their elections, they usually came to blows with fist and +sword, and inflicted wounds and even death. In a word, there was more +tumult, more faction and intrigue, than there is at the election of the +Rector of the University of Paris."[108] It was not strange, therefore, +that Francis, unable otherwise to recompense his deserving nobles, +should prefer to bestow upon them rich abbeys and priories, rather than +leave these to the monks in their cloisters--monks who, as the monarch +used to say, "were good for nothing but to eat and drink, to frequent +taverns and gamble, to twist cords for the cross-bow, set traps for +ferrets and rabbits, and train linnets to whistle"--men whose idleness +and other vices were so notorious that the expressions, "He is as idle +as a priest or monk," and "Avaricious and lewd as a priest or monk," +passed into proverbs.[109] + +[Sidenote: Aversion to the use of the French language.] + +Ecclesiastical teachers themselves so ignorant and corrupt could not be +expected to do much for the elevation of the laity. Of _popularizing_ +knowledge, especially religious knowledge, the clergy and their +adherents had little thought. Latin alone was deemed suitable for the +discussion of matters of faith. It was enough to condemn the employment +of French for this purpose, that it could be understood by the people. +For the reformers was reserved the honor of raising the dialect of the +masses to the dignity of a language fit for the highest literary uses, +and of compelling even their antagonists to resort to it in +self-defence, though, it must be confessed, with a very poor grace. So +late as in 1558 we find a leading theologian of the Sorbonne publicly +_apologizing_ for the condescension. "Very dear friend," he writes in +the address to the reader, "I doubt not that, at first sight, you will +regard it as strange and perhaps very wrong that this reply is couched +in the vulgar tongue; _seeing that it would be much more suitable were +it circulated in the Latin rather than the French tongue_, inasmuch as +the subject-matter consists of things greatly concerning Christian +faith, _which require rather to be put in Latin than in French_. Of this +also we have the example of the holy ancient doctors, who were always +accustomed to write against heretics in Latin and not in French."[110] +If such was the avowed repugnance to the use of the language of the +people in the treatment of religious themes, so late as within a year of +the death of Henry the Second, it may readily be conceived how deep the +aversion was a generation earlier, at the first appearance of the +reformation. + +[Sidenote: Ignorance of the Holy Scriptures.] + +As to acquaintance with the contents of the Holy Scriptures, either in +the original or in translation, there was next to none among the +professed teachers of science and religion. If the statements of the +celebrated scholar and printer, Robert Etienne, or Stephens, seem almost +incredible, they nevertheless come from a witness of unimpeachable +veracity. Referring to the period of his boyhood or early youth--he was +born in 1503--Etienne sketched the biblical attainments of the doctors +of the Sorbonne after this fashion: "In those times, as I can affirm +with truth, when I asked them in what part of the New Testament some +matter was written, they used to answer that they had read it in Saint +Jerome or in the Decretals, but that they did not know what the New +Testament was, not being aware that it was customary to print it after +the Old. What I am going to state will appear almost a prodigy, and yet +there is nothing more true nor better proven: Not long since, a member +of their college used daily to say, 'I am amazed that these young people +keep bringing up the New Testament to us. _I was more than fifty years +old before I knew anything about the New Testament!_'"[111] + +[Sidenote: Miracles to stimulate the popular faith.] + +[Sidenote: The "ghost of Orleans."] + +The absence of teaching founded upon a rational exposition of the Holy +Scriptures was not less marked than was the abundance of reported +miracles, by means of which the popular faith was stimulated and +sustained. Above all, the doctrine of transubstantiation was fortified +by the circulation of stories of wonders such as that which took place +at Poitiers, in 1516, when the consecrated wine, spilled by a crazy man, +from white instantly became red.[112] At other times imposture was +resorted to in support of such profitable beliefs as the existence of +purgatorial fires, or to inculcate the advantage accruing from masses +for the souls of the dead. The "ghost of Orleans" has become historic. +The wife of the provost of the city having died, was buried, as she had +requested, without any pomp and without the customary gifts to the +church. Thereupon the Franciscans conceived the scheme of making use of +her example to warn others against following a course so detrimental to +monastic and priestly interests. The mysterious knockings by means of +which the deceased was supposed to give intimation of her miserable doom +and of her desire that her body, as of one that had been tainted with +heresy, should be removed from the holy ground wherein it had been +interred, were listened to with amazement by the awe-stricken people. +But the opportune discovery of a novice, conveniently posted above the +ceiling of the convent chapel, sadly interfered with the success of the +well contrived plot, and eleven monks convicted of complicity in the +fraud were banished the kingdom. They would have been even more severely +punished had not fear been entertained lest the reformers might find too +much occasion for triumph.[113] + +[Sidenote: Theatrical effects.] + +[Sidenote: A strange coin.] + +More excusable were the theatrical effects which were intended, without +actually deceiving, to heighten the religious devotion of worshippers. +Thus, every Pentecost or Whit-Sunday, in the midst of the service an +angel was seen to descend from the lofty ceiling of the Sainte Chapelle +in Paris, attended by two smaller angels, and bearing a silver vase +containing water for the use of the celebrant of the high mass.[114] For +this somewhat harmless piece of spectacular display a justification +might be sought in the religious impressions which the people were +supposed to derive most easily through the senses; but nothing could be +urged in defence of much that the clergy tolerated or encouraged. +Superstitions of heathen origin were suffered to reign undisturbed. +Pagan statues were openly worshipped. An Isis received homage and was +honored with burning candles. An Apollo at Polignac was a centre of +religious veneration, and even the unsavory surroundings, when the spot +where it stood was transformed into a stable, could not deter an anxious +crowd of devotees from prostrating themselves before it.[115] What +better could be expected in an age and country in which the people were +imposed upon by reports that prehistoric coins had been discovered +bearing the strange legend: "I believe in Jesus _to be born_ among +animals and of a Virgin"?[116] + +[Sidenote: Indecent processions.] + +It was not astonishing that the church itself did little to remove the +barbarism prevailing among the common people, for, in point of fact, +buffoonery, immodesty, and cruelty had intruded into the very ceremonial +of religion. Never were there more disgusting exhibitions of the low +state of the public morals than when the occurrence of pestilence, +drought, or some other signal visitation of the displeasure of heaven +induced a clergy scarcely less rude than the laity to institute +propitiatory processions. On such occasions children of both sexes, or +perhaps grown men and women, with bare feet, and wearing for their only +clothing a sheet that scarcely concealed their forms, passed through the +streets of the towns, or wearily trudged from village to village, +responsively singing the litanies of the Virgin or the saints, and +loudly repeating the refrain, _Ora pro nobis_.[117] Often shameful +indecency and a reckless disregard of human life were displayed. In one +of the villages of Champagne, during the protracted drought of 1556, the +sacred scenes of the Passion were publicly enacted in the streets. The +person of our Lord was represented by a young man in a state of entire +nudity and bound with cords, who at every step was scourged by his +companions, personating the Roman soldiers. The picture was true to +life, and the blows so far from unreal that the prime actor in the +scandalous performance fell a victim to the inhuman treatment and died +within a few days. The fruits of practices so coarse and debasing were +such as may easily be conceived.[118] + +[Sidenote: The monastic orders incur contempt.] + +It was a lamentable but notorious fact that, as a consequence of the +unnatural divorce of religion and morality, the clergy, both secular and +regular, by their excesses had incurred the contempt of the laity. If +the Franciscan monks enjoyed an unenviable pre-eminence in this respect, +so as to have come to constitute one of the stock characters in the +"Heptameron" and similar works, scarcely less constant than the +prodigals or parasites of the New Comedy, the other orders were but +little behind them. And so Louise de Savoie made this significant entry +in her diary: "In the year 1522, in December, my son and I, by the grace +of the Holy Ghost, began to understand the hypocrites, white, black, +gray, smoky, and of all colors; from whom may God, by his clemency and +infinite goodness, be pleased to preserve and defend us. For, if Jesus +Christ be not a liar, there is no more dangerous generation in all human +kind."[119] Bishops and cardinals won little more respect than the +monks; for was it not the most prominent of the wearers of the purple +who, as Chancellor of France, introduced venality into the most sacred +offices of state,[120] while by his quarrelsome and unscrupulous +diplomacy he richly merited the _bon mot_ of the Emperor Charles the +Fifth, that he was more inclined to make _four wars than, one +peace_?[121] + +[Sidenote: Abortive efforts at reform.] + +It does not enter into the province of this history to discuss in detail +the causes of the deplorable vices that characterized the priesthood on +the eve of the great religious movement of the sixteenth century; nor +can we pause to make that analysis of the doctrinal errors then +prevalent, which belongs rather to the office of the historian of the +Reformation. It will be sufficient, therefore, if we glance hastily at +some of the partial and abortive efforts directed toward the reform of +doctrine and manners of which mediaeval France was the theatre. + +[Sidenote: The Cathari and Albigenses.] + +Foremost among the popular opponents of the papacy were the Cathari and +Albigenses. The accounts of the origin of the sect or sects bearing +these names are vague and unsatisfactory, and the reports of their creed +and worship are inconsistent or incredible. The ruin that overwhelmed +them spared no friendly narrative of their history, and scarcely one +authoritative exposition of the belief for the profession of which their +adherents encountered death with heroic fortitude. Defeat not only +compelled the remnants of the Albigenses to succumb to Simon de Montfort +and his fellow crusaders, but reduced them to the indignity of having +the record of their faith and self-devotion transmitted to posterity +only in the hostile chronicles of Roman ecclesiastics. But even partisan +animosity has not robbed the world of the edifying spectacle of a large +number of men and women, of a quiet and peaceable disposition, +persistently and fearlessly protesting, through a long series of years, +against the worship of saints and images, resisting the innovations of +a corrupt church, and adhering with constancy to a simple ritual +unencumbered with superstitious observances. Careful investigation +establishes the fact that the Holy Scriptures were read and accepted as +the supreme authority as well in doctrine as in practice, and that the +precepts there inculcated were adorned by lives so pure and exemplary as +to evoke an involuntary expression of admiration from bitter opponents. + +There is little doubt that strange doctrinal errors found a foothold in +parts, at least, of the extensive territory in southern France occupied +by the Albigenses. Oriental Dualism or Manichaeism not improbably +disfigured the creed of portions of the sect; while the belief of others +scarcely differed from that of the less numerous Waldenses of Provence +or their brethren in the valleys of Piedmont. But, whatever may be the +truth on this much contested point,[122] the remarkable spread of the +Albigenses during the latter part of the twelfth century must be +regarded as strongly marking the revolt of the French mind, especially +in the more impetuous south, against the priestly absolutism that +crushed all freedom of religious thought, and equally against a church +tolerating the most flagrant abuses. Nor can the historian who desires +to trace the more remote consequences of important moral movements fail +to notice the singular fact that the soil watered by Albigensian blood +at the beginning of the thirteenth century was precisely that in which +the seed sown by the reformers, three hundred years later, sprang up +most rapidly and bore the most abundant harvest. After so long a period +of suspended activity, the spirit of opposition once more asserted its +vital energy--soon, it is true, to meet fresh difficulties, but only +such difficulties as would tend to develop and strengthen it. + +[Sidenote: The crime of vauderie.] + +With the suppression of the Albigenses all open popular protest against +the errors of the church ceases until the advent of the Reformation. The +latent tendency did, indeed, manifest its continued existence in those +obscure practices known as _vauderie_, which, distorted by the +imagination of reckless informers and interested judges, and converted +into the most monstrous crimes against religion and morality, occasioned +the death of countless innocent victims.[123] But it was chiefly among +the learned, and particularly in the bosom of the University of Paris, +that the pressing need of a thorough purification of the church found +expression. Not that the remedies advocated were so definite and +radical, or based upon so full a recognition of the distinctive +character of Christianity, as to merit the name of reformatory projects. +Yet, standing somewhat in advance of their contemporaries, a few +theologians raised their voices in decided condemnation of those evils +which needed only to be held up to public notice to incur the universal +reprobation of mankind. + +[Sidenote: Nicholas de Clemangis.] + +[Sidenote: John Gerson.] + +Nicholas de Clemangis, Rector of the University of Paris, subsequently +private secretary of Benedict the Thirteenth at Avignon, and perhaps the +most elegant writer of his age, drew a startling picture of the wretched +state of the church at the beginning of the fifteenth century. No writer +had ever described more vividly the corruption of the convents and +monasteries, or denounced more unsparingly the unfaithfulness and +impurity of the parish clergy, and the simony pervading alike all grades +of the hierarchy. His censure was the more effective because he spoke +in sorrow rather than in anger.[124] John Gerson, his contemporary and +friend, who reached the eminent position of chancellor of the +university, was not less bold in stigmatizing the same evils, while the +weight of his authority was even greater. So far, however, was he from +grasping the nature and need of a substantial renovation of the existing +religious belief, that to his influence in no inconsiderable measure was +due the perfidious condemnation and execution of the great Bohemian +forerunner of the Reformation, John Huss. The student of mediaeval +history may be inclined to smile at the subtilties of scholastic +distinctions, but he is also compelled to lament the fact that the death +of a _Realist_ was greeted with demonstrations of evident satisfaction +by a philosopher belonging to the opposite school of the +_Nominalists_.[125] + +[Sidenote: Jean Bouchet's "Deploration."] + +A century elapsed between the time of Nicholas de Clemangis and Gerson +and the almost simultaneous appearance of Ulrich Zwingle in Switzerland +and Martin Luther in Germany. During this long interval of expectation +the voice of remonstrance was not altogether silent. A few earnest men +refused to suppress the indignation they felt at the sight of the +impiety that had invaded the sacred precincts of the church. Among the +last of those whose words have come down to us was Jean Bouchet, a +native of Poitiers. In 1512, only five years before the publication of +the theses of the reformer of Wittemberg, he gave to the world a poem +not devoid of historical interest, though possessed of little poetic +merit, entitled "_La Deploration de l'Eglise militante_."[126] In this +spirited lament it is the church herself that addresses the +hierarchy--pontiff, cardinals, patriarchs, bishops, and others--as well +as kings and secular dignitaries. She complains of the great injuries +and molestations she endures. The practice of simony has converted a +temple into a loathsome stable. Science and learning are no longer +necessary for the candidate for ecclesiastical preferment; a hundred +crowns in hand will serve his purpose much better, no matter how bad his +moral character may be. As for his qualifications, he is full well +provided if he can manage the hounds aright and knows how to hunt with +the falcon. "Cease," cries the church through the poet to the French +princes, "cease to load me down with gewgaws, with chalices, crosses, +and sumptuous ornaments. Furnish me instead with virtuous ministers. The +exquisite beauty of abbeys or of silver images is less pleasing in God's +sight than the holy life of good prelates."[127] As it is, the dissolute +ministers of religion are engrossed in forbidden games, in banquets, and +the chase. Decked out with flowers, rings, and trinkets, the bishop in +his dress is more like a soldier or a juggler, than a servant of the +church. He recites his prayers reluctantly, while words of profane +swearing flow freely from his lips. From such disorders as these the +church invokes her worldly protectors to deliver her. + +The abuses which Jean Bouchet described, and other abuses of a similar +kind, were so notorious that no intelligent man could close his eyes to +the evidence of their existence. They had been recited again and again +by more eloquent tongues than that of the poet of Poitiers. Dante and +Petrarch had held them up to immortal contempt. Boccaccio had made them +the subject of ridicule in his popular stories. But neither remonstrance +nor taunt had effectually abated the prevailing corruption. It remained +that a new remedy should be tried, and the time for its application was +close at hand. + + * * * * * + + [Sidenote: Changes in the boundaries of France during the sixteenth + century.] + + It must not be forgotten that the boundaries of France varied + considerably during the sixteenth century. Thus Artois and + Flanders, at the accession of Francis the First, were nominally + fiefs of the French crown, for which Charles of Austria sent to + France a very honorable embassy, with Henry, Count of Nassau, at + its head, to do homage to the young prince. It was on this occasion + that Francis, desirous of gratifying Charles, proposed or consented + to the marriage of his favorite with Claude de Chalons, daughter of + the Prince of Orange (Jean de Serres, Inventaire General de + l'Histoire de France, 1619, ii. 4, Motley, Dutch Republic, i. 234). + Eleven years later, January, 1526, by the Treaty of Madrid, Francis + renounced his suzerainty over the counties of Artois and Flanders, + as a condition of his release from captivity (Inventaire General, + ii. 96). On the other hand, not to speak of the "Three + Bishoprics"--Metz, Toul, and Verdun--definitely incorporated with + the French dominions in 1552, France had for a longer or shorter + time possession of the Duchy of Milan, of the island of Corsica, + and of Piedmont. Not only Bresse, but the very Duchy of Savoy, were + for years merged in the realm of France, until restored to + Philibert Emmanuel by the disgraceful Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 3: Mignet, Essai sur la formation territoriale et politique de +la France depuis la fin du onzieme siecle jusqu'a la fin du quiinzieme. +Notices et Memoires Historiques, ii. 154.] + +[Footnote 4: Mignet, 157, 158.] + +[Footnote 5: A manuscript chronicle of the time of Charles the Sixth, +quoted by Guizot, Histoire de la Civilisation en France, iv. 144, states +the interesting fact that the inhabitants of Perigord and the adjoining +districts, thus surrendered to Henry the Third of England, for centuries +bore so hearty a grudge against the French king, of whom the rest of +France was justly proud, and whose name the church had enrolled in the +calendar, that they never would consent to regard him as a saint or to +celebrate his feast day!] + +[Footnote 6: "Le quali tutte provincie sono cosi bene poste," etc. +Relazione di Francia dell' Amb. Marino Cavalli, in Relations des +Ambassadeurs Venitiens (Tommaseo, Paris), i. 220.] + +[Footnote 7: "Dico che il regno di Francia per universal consenso del +mondo fu riputato _il primo regno di cristianita_," etc. Commentario del +regno di Francia del clarissimo sig. Michel Suriano, Rel. des Amb. Ven., +i. 470.] + +[Footnote 8: "Dopo il papa che e universal capo della religione, e la +signoria di Venezia, che, come e nata, s'e conservata sempre cristiana." +Suriano, _ubi supra_, i. 472.] + +[Footnote 9: This was in the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, Dec. +15, 1559, MSS. British Museum. I use the summary in the Calendar of +State Papers (Stevenson), p. 197, note.] + +[Footnote 10: Marino Cavalli stated, in 1546, that this systematic +policy of continually incorporating and never alienating had been +pursued for eighty years. So successful had it proved, that everything +had been absorbed by confiscation, succession, or purchase. There was, +perhaps, no longer a single prince in the kingdom with an income of +20,000 crowns; while even their scanty resources and straitened estates +the princes possessed simply as ordinary proprietors, from whose actions +an appeal was open to the king. Relazioni Venete (Alberi, Firenze), +serie 1, i. 234, 235.] + +[Footnote 11: Yet the old prejudice against city life had not fully died +out. So late as in 1527, Chassanee wrote: "Galliae omnis una est nobilium +norma. Nam rura et praedia sua (dicam potius castra) incolentes _urbes +fugiunt, in quibus habitare nobilem turpe ducitur_. Qui in illis degunt, +ignobiles habentur a nobilibus." Catalogus Gloriae Mundi, fol. 200.] + +[Footnote 12: Michel Suriano, Rel. des Amb. Ven., i. 488.] + +[Footnote 13: Mignet, _ubi supra_, ii. 160, etc.] + +[Footnote 14: Rel. dell' Amb. Marino Cavalli (1546), _ubi supra_, i. +229.] + +[Footnote 15: It would seem that the Venetian ambassadors were never +free from apprehension lest their admiration of what they had seen +abroad might be construed as disparagement of their own island city. +Hence, Marino Giustiniano (A. D. 1535), after making the statement which +we have given in the text, is careful to add: "_Pur non arriva di +richezza ad una gran gionta quanto Venezia; ne anco ha maggior popolo_, +per mio giudizio, di che loro si gloriano." Rel. Venete (Alberi, +Firenze), serie 1, i. 148.] + +[Footnote 16: The lowest estimate, which is that of Guicciardini (Belgiae +Descriptio, apud Prescott, Philip II., i. 367), is probably nearest the +mark; the highest, 800,000, is that of Davila, Storia delle Guerre +Civili, 1. iii. (Eng. trans., p. 79). Marino Cavalli, in 1546, says +500,000; Michel Suriano, in 1561, between 400,000 and 500,000. M. +Dulaure is even more parsimonious than Guicciardini, for he will allow +Paris, in the sixteenth century, not more than 200,000 to 210,000 souls! +Histoire de Paris, iv. 384. Some of the exaggerated estimates may be +errors of transcription. At least Ranke asserts that this is the case +with the 500,000 of Fran. Giustiniani in 1537, where the original +manuscript gives only 300,000. Franzoesische Geschichte, v. (Abschn. 1), +76.] + +[Footnote 17: See, for example, the MS. receipt, from which it appears +that, in 1516, Sieur Imbert de Baternay pledged his entire service of +plate to help defray the expenses of the war. Capefigue, Francois +Premier et la Renaissance, i. 141.] + +[Footnote 18: Marino Giustiniano (1535), Rel. Venete (Alberi), i, 185, +Francois de Rabutin, Guerres de Belgique (Ed. Pantheon), 697.] + +[Footnote 19: Marino Giustiniano, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 20: M. A. Boullee (in his Histoire complete des +Etats-Generaux, i. 181, etc.) and other writers give the character of +States General to the gathering of princes, clergy, etc., at Tours, in +May, 1506. This was the assembly from which Louis XII. obtained the +welcome advice to break an engagement to give his daughter Claude, +heiress of Brittany, in marriage to Charles, the future emperor of +Germany, in order that he might be free to bestow her hand on Francis of +Angouleme. M. Boullee is also inclined to call the assembly after the +battle of St. Quentin, January 5, 1558, a meeting of the States General. +But Michel Suriano is correct in stating (Rel. des Amb. Ven., Tommaseo, +i. 512-514) that between Louis XI.'s time and 1560 the only States +General were those of 1483. Chancellor L'Hospital's words cited below +are conclusive.] + +[Footnote 21: Some of Louis XI.'s successors imbibed his aversion for +these popular assemblies, and would, like Louis, have treated any one as +a rebel who dared to talk of calling them. Michel Suriano, Rel. des Amb. +Ven. (Tommaseo), i. 512-514.] + +[Footnote 22: Chancellor L'Hospital's remarkable words were: "Or, +messieurs, parceque nous reprenons l'ancienne coustume de tenir les +estats _ja delaisses par le temps de quatre-vingts ans ou environ, ou +n'y a memoire d'homme qui y puisse atteindre_, je diray en peu de +paroles que c'est que tenir les estats, pour quelle cause Fon assembloit +les estats, la facon et maniere, et qui y presidoit, quel bien en vient +au roy, quel au peuple, et mesmes s'il est utile au roy de tenir les +estats, ou non." The address in full in La Place, Commentaires de +l'Estat de la Republique, etc. (Ed. Pantheon), 80.] + +[Footnote 23: Michel Suriano, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 24: "Tellement que sous ces beaux et doux appasts, l'on +n'ouvre jamais telles assemblees que le peuple n'y accoure, ne les +embrasse, et ne s'en esiouysse infiniement, ne considerant pas qu'il n'y +a rien qu'il deust tant craindre, _comme estant le general refrain +d'iceux, de tirer argent de luy_.... Au contraire jamais on ne feit +assemblee generale des trois Estats en cette France, sans accroistre les +finances de nos Roys a la diminution de celles du peuple." Pasquier, +Recherches de la France, l. ii. c. 7, p. 82.] + +[Footnote 25: "Il re di Francia _e re d'asini_, perche il suo popolo +supoorta ogni sorte di peso, senza rechiamo mai." Michel Suriano, +Commentarii (Rel. des Amb. Ven., Tommaseo), i. 486.] + +[Footnote 26: Guerres de Belgique (Ed. Pantheon), 585.] + +[Footnote 27: "Egli puo riputar poi tutti li danari della Francia esser +suoi; perche nelli suoi bisogni, sempre che li dimanda, gli sono portati +molto volontariamente _per la incomparabil benevolenza di essi popoli_." +Relaz. Ven. (Alberi), ii. 172.] + +[Footnote 28: Cayet, Hist. de la guerre sous le regne de Henry IV., i. +248. We shall see that Francis carried out the same ideas of absolute +authority in his dealings both with reputed heresy and with the Gallican +Church itself. He seems even to have believed himself commissioned to do +all the thinking in matters of religion for his more intellectual +sister; for, if Brantome may be credited, when Constable Montmorency, on +one occasion, had the temerity to suggest to him that all his efforts to +extirpate error in France would be futile until he began with Margaret +of Angouleme, Francis silenced him with the remark: "No more on that +subject! She loves me too much; she will never believe anything but what +I desire." Femmes illustres: Marguerite, reine de Navarre.] + +[Footnote 29: "Stanno a quelli soggetti piu che cani." Relaz. Ven., ii. +174.] + +[Footnote 30: Ibid., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 31: "Mercatores aspernantur," says Chassanee in 1527, "ut vile +atque abjectum omnium genus." Catal. Gloriae Mundi, fol. 200.] + +[Footnote 32: Mignet, _ubi supra_, ii. 173.] + +[Footnote 33: See the sketch by Daniel, Histoire de France, reprinted in +Leber, Collection de pieces relatives a l'histoire de France, vi, 266, +etc.; also Mignet, _ubi supra_, ii. 177, etc.] + +[Footnote 34: Mignet, _ubi supra_, ii. 212; Floquet, Histoire du +parlement de Normandie, tom. i.; Daniel, _ubi supra_; Vicomte de +Bastard-D'Estang, Les parlements de France, i. 189.] + +[Footnote 35: The formula is worthy of attention: "Quand on vous +apportera a sceller quelque lettre, signee par le commandement du Roi, +si elle n'est de justice et raison, ne la scellerez point, encore que +ledit Seigneur le commandast par une ou deux fois; mais viendrez devers +iceluy Seigneur, et lui remonstrerez tous les points par lesquels ladite +lettre n'est pas raisonnable, et apres que aura entendu lesdita points, +s'il vous commande la sceller, la scellerez, car lors le peche en sera +sur ledit Seigneur et non sur vous." In full in M. de Saint-Allais, De +l'ancienne France (Paris, 1834), ii. 91; see also Capefigue, Francois +Premier et la Renaissance, i. 106.] + +[Footnote 36: Certainly not than with the Parliament of Aix. See its +shortcomings in the papers of Prof. Joly, of the Faculte des Lettres of +Caen, entitled "Les juges des Vaudois: Mercuriales du parlement de +Provence au XVI^e siecle, d'apres des documents inedits." Bulletin de +l'hist. du Prot. fr., xxiv. (1875), 464-471, 518-523, 555-564.] + +[Footnote 37: "Qu'il n'y a pas un seigneur en ce ressort, qui n'aye son +chancelier en ceste Cour." Boscheron des Portes, Histoire du parlement +de Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1877), i. 191-194, from Registers of Parliament.] + +[Footnote 38: "La genuflexion ne le ferait pas moins roi qu'il etait." +Ibid., i. 185.] + +[Footnote 39: See Pasquier's conclusive argument in his chapter: "Que +l'opinion est erronee par laquelle on attribue l'institution de +l'Universite de Paris a l'Empereur Charlemagne." Recherches de la +France, 800. So universally accepted, however, in Pasquier's time, was +the story of Charlemagne's agency in the matter, that "de croire le +contraire c'est estre heretique en l'histoire," p. 798.] + +[Footnote 40: The chancellor "de Notre Dame," the chancellor proper, +alone had the power to create doctors in theology, law, and medicine; +but candidates for the degree of master of arts might apply either to +him or to the rival chancellor of Sainte Genevieve: "Quant aux Maistres +es Arts, a l'un ou l'autre Chancelier, selon le choix qui en est fait +par celuy qui veut prendre sa licence." Pasquier, Recherches, 840.] + +[Footnote 41: "Le premier juge et censeur de la doctrine et moeurs des +escoliers, que nous appelons Chancelier de l'Universite." Pasquier, _ubi +supra_, 265.] + +[Footnote 42: Pasquier has a fund of quaint information respecting the +university, the chancellor, the rector, etc. Of the contrast between +rector and chancellor he remarks: "Quant au Chancelier de l'Universite +il pare seulement de ce coup contre toutes ces grandeurs (sc. du +Recteur); que le Recteur fait des escoliers pour estudier (tout ainsi +que le capitaine des soldats, quand il les enrolle pour combattre) mais +le Chancelier fait des capitaines quand il baille le bonnet de +Theologie, Decret, Medecine, et Arts, pour enseigner et monter en +chaire." _Ubi supra_, 843.] + +[Footnote 43: Sleidanus, De statu rel., etc., ad annum 1521.] + +[Footnote 44: "Vinculis, censuris, imo ignibus et flammis coercendam, +potius quam ratione convincendam." Determination of the Fac. of Theology +against Luther, April 15. 1521, Gerdes, Hist. Evang. Renov., iv. 10, +etc., Documents.] + +[Footnote 45: From the _Cite_, or island on which the city was +originally built, and the Ville, or Paris north of the Seine. Pasquier, +Recherches, 797; J. Sinceri, Itinerarium Galliae (1627), 270.] + +[Footnote 46: Juvenal des Ursins, _apud_ Pasquier, 267.] + +[Footnote 47: Relazioni Venete (Alberi), i. 149.] + +[Footnote 48: Ibid., i. 226.] + +[Footnote 49: "Donc, le gouvernement de l'Eglise n'est pas un empire +despotique." Abbe Claude Fleury, Discours sur les Libertes de l'Eglise +gallicane, 1724 (reprinted in Leber, Coll. de pieces relatives a l'hist. +de France, iii. 252).] + +[Footnote 50: "On a conteste l'authenticite de cette piece, mais elle +est aujourd'hui generalement reconnu." Isambert, Recueil gen. des +anciennes lois francaises, i. 339.] + +[Footnote 51: Preuves des Libertez de l'Eglise Gallicane, pt. ii.; +Isambert, _ubi supra_; Ordonnances des Roys de France de la troisieme +race, i. 97-98. Section 5 sufficiently expresses the feelings of the +king in reference to the insatiable covetousness of the Roman court: +"Item, exactiones et onera gravissima pecuniarum, per curiam Romanam +ecclesiae regni nostri impositas vel imposita, quibus regnum nostrum +miserabiliter depauperatum extitit, sive etiam imponendas, aut imponenda +levari, aut colligi nullatenus volumus, nisi duntaxat pro rationabili, +pia et urgentissima causa, inevitabili necessitate, et de spontaneo et +expresso consensu nostro et ipsius ecclesiae regni nostri." See also +Sismondi, Histoire des Francais, vii. 104.] + +[Footnote 52: Sismondi, Hist. des Francais, xiii. 317, etc.] + +[Footnote 53: The Pragmatic Sanction is long and intricate, consisting +in great part of references to those portions of the canons of the +Council of Basle which it confirms. The entire document may be seen in +the Ordonnances des Roys de Fr. de la troisieme race, xiii. 267-291, and +in the Recueil gen. des anc. lois franc., ix. 3-47. Isambert thus +defines the term _pragmatic_: "On appelle _pragmatique_ toute +constitution donnee en connaissance de cause du consentiment unanime de +tous les grands, et consacree par la volonte du prince. Le mot _pragma_ +signifie prononcee, sentence, edit; il etait en usage avant Saint +Louis."] + +[Footnote 54: Abbe Claude Fleury, Libertes de l'Eglise Gallicane, in +Leber, iii. 321.] + +[Footnote 55: "Commemoravit (_i. e._, the papal legate) ea quae per ipsum +tibi nostro nomine pollicenda, vovenda et promittenda, nos, antequam +regnum suscepisemus, religionis instinctus quidam deduxerat." Letter of +Louis XI. to the Pope, Tours, Nov. 27, 1461.] + +[Footnote 56: Louis XI.'s letter to the Pope, annulling the Pragmatic +Sanction, is in the Ordonnances des roys de Fr. de la troisieme race, +xv., 193-194. Its tone could not have been more submissive had it been +penned for him by the Pope himself. The Pragmatic Sanction is referred +to contemptuously as "constitutio quaedam in regno nostro quam +_Pragmaticam_ vocant." Louis professes to be moved by the consideration +that obedience is better than all sacrifice, and that the Pragmatic +Sanction is hateful to the Papal See, "utpote quae _in seditione_ et +schismatis tempore ... nata est; et quae, dum _tibi, a quo sacrae leges +oriuntur et manant_, quantamlibet eripit auctoritatem, _omne jus et +omnem legem dissolvit_." It was "as if the rod should shake itself +against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, +as if it were no wood." Nothing could surpass Louis's obsequiousness: +"_Sicut mandasti_ ... pellimus dejicimus stirpitusque abrogamus," etc. +He pledges his royal word to overcome opposition: "Quod si forte +obnitentur aliqui aut reclamabunt, nos _in verbo regio_ pollicemur tuae +Beatitudini atque promittimus exsequi facere tua mandata, omni +appellationis aut oppositionis obstaculo prorsus excluso," etc. Louis +was never more to be distrusted than when he bound himself by the most +stringent promises.] + +[Footnote 57: See the Remonstrances of Parliament, Ordonnances, etc., +xv. 195-207.] + +[Footnote 58: The calculations on which these figures are based can be +seen in sections 73-76 of the Remonstrances above referred to. Ibid., +xv. 195-207.] + +[Footnote 59: "Les autres ambitieux de benefices, si espuisoient les +bourses de leurs parens et amis, tellement qu'ils demeuroient en grand' +mendicite et misere, ou'aucunesfois estoient cause de l'abreviation de +leurs jours; et tout le fruit qu'ils emportoient, _c'estoit pour or du +plomb_." Ibid., section 64.] + +[Footnote 60: Ibid., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 61: Historians have represented Cardinal Balue as enclosed in +the very cage he had used for the victims of his own cruelty. This +appears to be incorrect. There is an entry in the accounts of Louis XI., +under date of February 11, 1469, of the payment of sixty livres Tournois +to Squire Guion de Broc, to be used by him "in having constructed, at +the castle Douzain, an iron cage, which the said lord (_i. e._, Louis) +has ordered to be made for the security and guard of the person of the +Cardinal of Angers (Balue)." Vatout, Chateau d'Amboise, 64, 65, note.] + +[Footnote 62: Fleury, _ubi supra_, 340.] + +[Footnote 63: See Capefigue's animated description of the scene in the +cathedral of Bologna, _ubi supra_, i. 229.] + +[Footnote 64: The text of the concordat is given in the Recueil gen. des +anc. lois, etc., xii. 75-97.] + +[Footnote 65: Leue, publiee et registree par l'ordonnance et du +commandement du Roy, nostre sire, reiteree par plusieurs fois en +presence du seigneur de la Trimouille, etc. Recueil des anc. lois, xii. +97.] + +[Footnote 66: Appellatio Univ. Parisiensis pro sacrarum Electionum et +juris communis defensione, adversus Concordata Bononiensia, _apud_ +Gerdes. Hist. Ev. Renov. i. 61-69 (Documents). "Idcirco," it runs, "a +domino nostro Papa non recte consulto, et ... pragmaticae sanctionis +statutorum abrogatione, novorum statutorum editione, ... ad futurum +concilium legitime ac in tuto loco, et ad quem libere et cum securitate +... adire poterimus ... provocavimus et appellavimus, prout in his +scriptis provocamus et appellamus."] + +[Footnote 67: I have made considerable use of the very clear +dissertation on the Pragmatic Sanction and the concordat, republished in +Leber, Collection de pieces relatives a l'hist. de France, tome 3. The +commotion in Paris at the introduction of the concordat is described in +a lively manner by the unknown author of the "Journal d'un bourgeois de +Paris sous le regne de Francois I^er," 39, 70, etc.] + +[Footnote 68: Almanach royal pour l'an 1724 (Paris), 34.] + +[Footnote 69: Leo X. also obtained from Francis, as an equivalent for +the concessions embodied in the concordat, the sum of 100,000 _livres_, +as the dower of Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne, a princess of royal +blood, married in 1518 to Lorenzo de' Medici, Count of Urbino, the +Pope's nephew. The money was to be levied upon the next tithe taken from +the revenues of the French clergy, which Leo thus authorized. Catharine +de' Medici sprang from this marriage. See the receipt of Lorenzo for the +instalment of a quarter of the dower, in the Bulletin de la Soc. de +l'hist. du prot. francais, ix. (1860), 122.] + +[Footnote 70: Mignet, Etablissement de la Reforme a Geneve, Memoires, +ii. 243. Etienne Pasquier draws a dark picture of the barbarism reigning +at Paris at the accession of Francis. More highly honored than any other +university of Europe, that of Paris had fallen so low that the Hebrew +tongue was known only by name, and as for Greek, the attention given to +it was more apparent than real. "Car mesmes lors qu'il estoit question +de l'expliquer, ceste parole couroit en la bouche de plusieurs ignorans, +_Graecum est, non legitur_." The very Latin, which was the language in +ordinary use, was rude and clumsy. Recherches de la France, 831.] + +[Footnote 71: La Harpe, Cours de literature, vi. 405.] + +[Footnote 72: Gaillard, Histoire de Francois premier (Paris ed., 1769), +vii. 282-300. Felibien, among the many interesting documents he has +preserved, reproduces one of the first programmes of the professors of +the College Royal, preserved from destruction, doubtless, simply from +the circumstance that it formed the ground of a citation of the +professors by the syndic of the university (Beda), January, 1534, +wherein he alleges that "some simple grammarians or rhetoricians, who +had not studied with the faculty, had undertaken to read in public and +to interpret the Holy Scriptures, as appears from certain bills posted +in the streets and squares of Paris." In the programme, Agathius +Guidacerius, Francis Vatable, P. Arnesius (Danesius), and Paul Paradisus +figure as lecturing--the first two upon the Psalms, the third on +Aristotle, and the last on Hebrew grammar and the book of Proverbs. +Michel Felibien, Histoire de la ville de Paris (Paris, 1725), iv. 682.] + +[Footnote 73: The law of 1523 thus sets forth some of their exploits: +"Outre mesure multiplient leurs pilleries, cruautez et meschancetez, +jusques a vouloir assaillir _les villes closes_: les aucunes desquelles +ils out prinses d'assaut, saccagees, robees et pillees, force filles et +femmes, tue les habitans inhumainement, et cruellement traitte les +aucuns _en leur crevant les yeux, et coupant les membres les uns apres +les autres, sans en avoir pitie, faisant ce que cruelles bestes ne +feroient_," etc. Isambert, Recueil des lois anc., xii. 216. See also +Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris (1516), 36; and Lettres de Marguerite +d'Angouleme, Nouvelle Coll., lettre 7.] + +[Footnote 74: Journal d'un bourgeois (1516), 37.] + +[Footnote 75: Ibid, (anno 1527), 328.] + +[Footnote 76: Ibid., 36. It would appear that even this penalty did not +deter them from the commission of their infamous crimes, for a fresh +edict, in 1523 (Isambert, xii., 216), prescribes that for exemplary +punishment "lesdicts blasphemateurs execrables avant que souffrir mort, +_ayent la gorge ouverte avec un fer chaud et la langue tiree ou coupee +par les dessouz_; et ce faict penduz et attachez au gibet ou potence, et +estranglez, selon leurs desmerites!"] + +[Footnote 77: Journal d'un bourgeois, 327. The Marche-aux-pourceaux, or +swine market, was a little west of the present Palais Royal, just +outside of the walls of Paris, as they existed in the time of Francis I. +See the atlas accompanying Dulaure, Histoire de Paris. In December, +1581, the Parliament of Rouen sentenced one Salcede to this horrible +death. Bastard d'Estang, Les parlements de France, i. 428.] + +[Footnote 78: Journal d'un bourgeois, 326.] + +[Footnote 79: Ibid., 251.] + +[Footnote 80: Ibid., 434. A somewhat similar instance is mentioned by +the continuator of the Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet (anno +1503), l. iii. c. 220.] + +[Footnote 81: See the vigorous treatise it called forth from the pen of +the great Reformer of Geneva in 1549, under the title of "Advertissement +contre l'Astrologie qu'on appelle _judiciaire_, et autres curiositez qui +regnent aujourd'huy dans le monde." Paul L. Jacob, Oeuvres francoises +de Calvin, 107, etc.] + +[Footnote 82: Despatch of La Mothe Fenelon, June 3, 1573, Corr. dipl., +v. 345, 346.] + +[Footnote 83: L'Heptameron dea Nouvelles de tres haute et tres illustre +princesse Marguerite d'Angouleme, Reine de Navarre. Publie sur les MSS. +par la Soc. des Bibliophiles francais. Premiere Journee, Premiere +Nouvelle.] + +[Footnote 84: The practice of magic with small waxen images into which +pins were thrust, impious words being uttered at the same time, was at +least as old in France as the beginning of the fourteenth century. In +1330 Robert of Artois employed it to compass the death of Philip of +Valois and his queen; just as two centuries and a half later the +adherents of the League resorted to the same device to destroy Henry +III. and Henry of Navarre. See note L to the Heptameron (edit. cit.), i. +170. Jean de Marcouville (Recueil memor. Paris, 1564, Cimber et Danjou, +iii. 415) alludes to similar sorcery just after the death of Philip the +Fair, in 1314. It was therefore no "Italian sorcery" introduced into +France by Catharine de' Medici, as M. De Felice seems to suppose (Hist. +des prot. de France, liv. ii. c. 17).] + +[Footnote 85: "Advertissement tres-utile du grand profit qui reviendroit +a la Chretiente, s'il se faisoit inventaire de tous les corps saints et +reliques," etc., 1543 (Oeuvres francoises de Calvin). A racy treatise, +which well exhibits the service done by the author to the French +language.] + +[Footnote 86: Ibid., 171.] + +[Footnote 87: Ibid., 169.] + +[Footnote 88: Ibid., 139.] + +[Footnote 89: Ibid., 155.] + +[Footnote 90: Ibid., 139.] + +[Footnote 91: Ibid., 140.] + +[Footnote 92: Ibid., 179, 180.] + +[Footnote 93: Ibid., 172.] + +[Footnote 94: Ibid., 156.] + +[Footnote 95: "Et lors faisoit beau voir mon fils porter honneur et +reverence au saint sacrement, que chacun en le regardant se prenoit a +pleurer de pitie et de joye." Journal de Louise de Savoie, Collection de +memoires (Petitot), xvi. 407.] + +[Footnote 96: Gaillard, Hist. de Francois premier, vii. 45, etc.; +Mezeray, Abrege chron. de l'hist. de France (Amst., 1682), iv. 644.] + +[Footnote 97: Gaillard, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 98: Cenac Moncaut, Histoire des Pyrenees (Paris, 1854), iv. +342, referring primarily to southern France.] + +[Footnote 99: Since the end of the thirteenth century the bishop had +been accustomed to delegate the contentious jurisdiction of his diocese +to an ecclesiastical judge, taking the name of _vicar_, or more commonly +_official_ ("vicarius generalis officialis"). The court itself became +known as the _officialite_. Trials for heresy, breach of promise of +marriage, etc., came before it. See the Dictionnaire de la conversation +(1857), s. v. _Official_.] + +[Footnote 100: Michel Surriano (1561), Rel. des Amb. Ven., Tommaseo, i. +502. The other half went to princes, barons, and other possessors of +lands, etc.] + +[Footnote 101: How they behaved there, the abbe of Meriot elsewhere +tells us: "Et si le plus souvent a telles noyseay estoient les premiers +les prebstres, l'espee au poing, car ilz estoient _des premiers aux +danses, jeux de quilles, d'escrime, et es tavernes ou ilz ribloient et +par les rues toute nuict aultant que les plus meschans du pays_." Mem de +Claude Haton, 18.] + +[Footnote 102: Memoires de Claude Haton, i. 89, 90.] + +[Footnote 103: Giovanni Soranzo returned from France in 1558, or a year +before the close of the reign of Henry II.] + +[Footnote 104: Relazioni Venete, Alberi, ii. 409. Brantome is a familiar +instance of a favorite thus rewarded from the estates of the church. His +amusing vindication of the anomaly is worthy of a perusal. See +Digression contre les Eslections des Benefices, Oeuvres, tom. vii. On +one occasion an enemy of the loquacious courtier caused the +assassination of his _titular_ abbot, apparently in the hope of +depriving Brantome of his chief source of revenue! Ibid., vii. 294.] + +[Footnote 105: "Solo col ponderar loro la vita che tenevano." Relazione +di G. Correro, 1569, Tommaseo, ii. 150.] + +[Footnote 106: "Je n'ay point ouy dire, ny leu qu'auparavant ils fussent +plus gens-de-bien, et mieux vivants; car en leurs Eveschez et Abbayes, +ils estoient autant desbauchez que Gens-d'armes; car comme j'ay dit +cydevant, qu'a la cour s'ils faisoient l'amour, c'estoit discretement et +sans scandale," etc. Brantome, _ubi supra_, vii. 312.] + +[Footnote 107: "Au moins plus sages hypocrites, qui cachent mieux leurs +vices noirs." Brantome, _ubi supra_, vii. 287-289.] + +[Footnote 108: Brantome, _ubi supra_, vii. 280.] + +[Footnote 109: Brantome, vii. 286.] + +[Footnote 110: Reponse a quelque apologie, etc. Par Antoine de Mouchy, +surnomme Demochares, docteur en theologie, 1558. Feuillet 2. _Apud_ +Henri Lutteroth, La reformation en France pendant sa premiere periode +(Paris, 1859), 137.] + +[Footnote 111: "Je suis esbahi de ce que ces jeunes gens nous alleguent +le Nouveau Testament. J'avoys plus de cinquante ans que je ne scavoys +que c'estoit du Nouveau Testament." Robert Etienne, _apud_ Baum, +Origines Evangelii in Gallia restaurati (Strasbourg, 1838), 35.] + +[Footnote 112: "Un beau miracle," says the Journal d'un bourgeois de +Paris, 38.] + +[Footnote 113: Histoire ecclesiastique des Eglises Reformees au royaume +de France (commonly ascribed to Theodore de Beze, or Beza) Lille edit., +i. 11; Gaillard, vi. 460. A MS. narrative of the farce, dictated by +Calvin and taken down by his secretary, Charles de Jonvillers, has been +discovered in the Geneva Library. It is printed in the Bulletin de la +Soc. de l'hist. du prot. franc., iii. (1854), 33, etc. Calvin, who had +himself been a student in the University of Orleans, and was fully +acquainted with the circumstances, drew up this piquant monograph for J. +Sleidan to use in his famous history of the times, where an account may +accordingly be read.] + +[Footnote 114: See the order of Spifame, of Oct. 5, 1527, for payment to +the master mechanic on several annual recurrences of the scene, Bulletin +de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. franc., xxv. (1876), 236, with M. +Bordier's erratum.] + +[Footnote 115: Farel, Du vray Usage de la Croix, 129, 131.] + +[Footnote 116: "Credo in Jesum inter animalia ex virgine nasciturum." +Chassanee, Catalogus Gloriae Mundi, fol. 295. The medals were said to +have been unearthed at Autun, the residence of Chassanee, who informs us +"multum curavi invenire, sed non potui." But, in addition to the coins, +Chassanee gravely tells us there was also a _church_ built by the +_Franks_ at Chartres before the advent of Christ, in honor of the most +blessed Virgin _pariturae_; "from which it is demonstrated that, if other +Gentiles prophesied _in word_ concerning Christ, the Franks believed on +him _in deed_, just as also the Greeks, who erected a temple to the +unknown God." Ibid., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 117: From the simple costume worn arose the designation of +"_les processions blanches_."] + +[Footnote 118: Le protestantisme en Champagne: Recits extraits d'un +manuscrit de N. Pithou, seigneur de Chamgobert concernant l'histoire de +la fondation, etc., de l'eglise ref. de Troyes des 1539 a 1595, par Ch. +L. B. Recordon (Paris, 1863), 31-33.] + +[Footnote 119: The original of this remarkable record, the more +significant from the subsequent position of Louise as a determined enemy +of the Protestants, may be seen in Journal de Louise de Savoie, Coll. de +memoires (Petitot), xvi. 407.] + +[Footnote 120: See Mezeray's bitter words respecting Cardinal Duprat's +last hours and character, Abrege chronologique, iv. 584.] + +[Footnote 121: "Poi me disse che per opera del Reverendissimo di +Granmont non si faria cosa buona in questa cosa, perche et lui et _il +Gran Cancellario di Francia_ erano huomini _piu disposti a fare quattro +guerre die una pace_." Cardinal Campeggio to Cardinal Salviati, _apud_ +H. Laemmer, Monumenta Vaticana hist. eccles. saeculi XVI. illustrantia, +ex tab. sanctae sedis Apostolicae secretis, Frib. Brisg., 1861, 67.] + +[Footnote 122: The Manichaeism of the Albigenses is maintained by +Mosheim, Gieseler, Schmidt, etc. A good summary of the evidence in favor +of this view is given in an article in the London Quarterly Review for +April, 1855. The defence of the Albigenses from this serious charge is +ably conducted by George Stanley Faber in his "Inquiry into the History +and Theology of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses" (London, 1838). +One of the more recent apologists is F. de Portal, in his "Les +descendants des Albigeois et des Huguenots" (Paris, 1860).] + +[Footnote 123: At Arras, for instance, in 1460, a number of men and +women were burned alive as _Vaudois_, after having been entrapped into +an admission of their guilt by a treacherous advocate. Too late they +exposed the deceit practised upon them, and protested their innocence. +The alleged crimes were: flying to their place of assembly by +witchcraft, adoring the devil, trampling upon the cross, blasphemy, +riotous feasting, and vile offences against morality--staple charges +recurring again and again, _ad nauseam_, whenever persecuted men and +women have been compelled to meet secretly for God's worship. See L. +Rossier, Histoire des protestants de Picardie (Paris, 1861), 1-4; and +more at length, Chronicon Cornelii Zantfliet, which styles the sufferers +heretics a hundred times worse than Waldenses. Martene et Durand, Vet. +Scriptorum ampliss. collectio (Paris, 1729), vii. 501.] + +[Footnote 124: If, as Adolphe Muentz concludes, after a critical +examination of style, etc. (Nicolas de Clemangis; sa vie et ses ecrits, +Paris, 1846), the famous treatise De ruina Ecclesiae, or _De corrupto +Ecclesiae statu_, emanated not from Clemangis at Avignon, but from some +member of the University of Paris hostile to the Popes of Avignon, yet +the undisputed writings of Clemangis contain denunciations of the +corruptions of the church quite as decided as any found in the spurious +treatise. In his tract _De Praesulibus Simoniacis_, for example, he +declares that the degradation of the clergy, fostered by the cupidity of +the episcopate, had indeed made God's house a den of robbers. It was +"rapinae officina in qua venalia exponuntur sacramenta ... in qua peccata +etiam venduntur," etc. Muentz, 53. Certainly it would be hard to portray +the life of the priests in darker colors than they appear in the letters +of C. to Gerson, the authenticity of which is not challenged. See the +extracts in Von Polenz, Calvinismus in Frankreich, i. 115. According to +Nicholas de Clemangis, the _chaste_ priest was a rare exception, and an +object of ridicule to his companions.] + +[Footnote 125: The complicated motives inducing the Council of Constance +to acquiesce in the cruel sentence of Huss were skilfully traced as far +back as by the learned Mosheim, Institutes of Eccles. Hist. (ed. +Murdoch), ii. 429, note.] + +[Footnote 126: This rare poem has been reprinted, with the unimportant +passages omitted, in the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. franc., +v. (1857) 268, etc.] + +[Footnote 127: + + "Cessez, cessez me donner ornemens, + Calices, croix, et beaux accoutremens; + Faictes que j'aye ministres vertueux.... + Les images d'argent tant sumptueux, + La grant beaute des moustiers si notables + Ne sont pas tant devant Dieu acceptables + Que la doctrine et vie bonne et saincte + Des bona prelatz." +] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE REFORMATION AT MEAUX. + + +[Sidenote: Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples.] + +The reformatory movement, whose almost simultaneous rise at so many +different points constitutes one of the most noticeable features of the +history of Europe in the sixteenth century, originated, so far as France +was concerned, within the bosom of that famous nursery of mediaeval +learning, the University of Paris. Among the teachers who, during the +later years of the reign of Louis the Twelfth, attracted the studious +from the most distant parts of Christendom, Jacques Lefevre, a native of +Etaples in Picardy, held a high rank for natural ability and extensive +acquirements. It is true that neither his personal appearance nor his +extraction commanded respect: he was diminutive in stature, and he could +boast of no noble blood running in his veins.[128] A more formidable +hinderance in the path to distinction had been the barbarous instruction +he had received from incompetent masters, both in the inferior schools +and in the university itself. But all obstacles, physical, social, and +intellectual, melted away before the ardor of an extraordinarily active +mind. Rising steadily above the contracted views, the blind respect for +authority, and the self-satisfied ignorance of the instructors of his +youth and the colleagues of his manhood and old age, he greeted with +delight the advent of those liberal ideas which had wrought so wonderful +a change in Germany and Italy. A thirst for knowledge even led him, in +imitation of the sages of the early world, to travel to distant parts of +Europe, and, if we may credit the statements of his admiring disciples, +to pursue his investigations into portions of Asia and Africa. + +[Sidenote: Restores letters to France.] + +[Sidenote: His wide range of study.] + +To Jacques Lefevre, of Etaples--better known to foreigners under the +Latin designation of Faber Stapulensis--belongs the honor of restoring +letters to France. His eulogist, Scaevola de Sainte-Marthe, has not +exaggerated his merit, when, placing him in the front rank of the +learned men whom he celebrates, he likens the Picard doctor to a new sun +rising from the Belgian coast to dissipate the fogs and darkness +investing his native land and pour upon its youth the full beams of a +purer teaching.[129] Lefevre confined his attention to no single branch +of learning. He was equally proficient in mathematics, in astronomy, and +in Biblical literature and criticism.[130] Brilliant attainments in so +many departments were commended yet more to the admiration of beholders +by a modest and unassuming deportment, by morals above reproach, and by +a disinterested nature in which there was no taint of avarice. The +sincerity of his unselfish love of knowledge was said to be attested by +the liberality with which he renounced the entire income of his small +patrimony in favor of his needy relations.[131] + +[Sidenote: His pupil, Guillaume Farel.] + +Enjoying a reputation for profound and exact learning which had spread +to foreign countries, and admired even by the great humanist Erasmus, +Lefevre had drawn to him a small band of the most promising of the +scholars in attendance upon the university. Prominent among these for +brilliancy and fiery zeal was a student more than thirty years younger +than his teacher, Guillaume Farel, destined to fill an important place +in the annals of the French reformation, and to play a leading role in +the history of Geneva and Neufchatel. Farel was born in 1489, near Gap, +in Dauphiny, and his childhood was spent at the foot of the Alps. +Unlike Lefevre, he belonged to a family of considerable importance in +the provincial nobility. The contrast was still more marked between the +mild and timid professor and the pupil in whose nature courage was so +prominent an element that it often assumed the appearance of imprudent +contempt of danger. + +[Sidenote: Devotion of scholar and pupil.] + +But, in spite of dissimilarity of character, Lefevre and Farel lived +together in close friendship. Together they frequented the churches, and +united in the pious work, as they regarded it, of decking out with +flowers the pictures of the saints, to whose shrines they made frequent +pilgrimages. Lefevre was scrupulously exact in the performance of his +religious duties, and was especially punctual in attendance on the mass. +In his zeal for the church, he had even undertaken as a meritorious task +to compile the lives of the saints whose names appear on the Roman +calendar, and had actually committed to the press an account of those +whose feast-days fell within the months of January and February.[132] On +the other hand, Farel was so sincere an adherent of the current faith, +that, to employ his own forcible description, he had become "a very +Pantheon, full of intercessors, saviors and gods, of whom his heart +might have passed for a complete register." The papacy had so entrenched +itself in his heart, that even the Pope and papal church _were not so +papal as he_. The man who came to him with the Pope's endorsement +appeared to him like a god, while he would gladly have overwhelmed in +ruin the sacrilegious wretch that dared to say a word against the Roman +pontiff and his authority.[133] + +[Sidenote: Lefevre's commentary on the Pauline Epistles.] + +But the enthusiastic devotion of Lefevre and his more impetuous disciple +to the tenets of the Roman church was to be shaken by a closer study of +the Scriptures. In 1508 Lefevre completed a Latin commentary upon the +Psalms.[134] In 1512 he published a commentary in the same language on +the Pauline Epistles--a work which may indeed fall short of the standard +of criticism established by a subsequent age, but yet contains a clear +enunciation of the doctrine of justification by faith, the cardinal +doctrine of the Reformation.[135] + +[Sidenote: Foresees the coming reformation.] + +Thus, five years before Luther posted his theses on the doors of the +church at Wittemberg, Jacques Lefevre had proclaimed, in no equivocal +terms, his belief in the same great principles. But Lefevre's lectures +in the college and his written commentary were addressed to the learned. +Consequently they produced no such immediate and startling effect as the +ninety-five propositions of the Saxon monk. Lefevre was not himself to +be an active instrument in the French reformation. His office was rather +to prepare the way for others--not, perhaps, more sincere, but certainly +more courageous--to enter upon the hazardous undertaking of attempting +to renovate the church. His faithful disciple, indeed, has preserved for +us a remarkable prophecy, uttered by Lefevre at the very time when he +was still assiduous in his devotion to the Virgin Mary and the saints. +Grasping Farel by the hand, the venerable doctor more than once +addressed to him the significant words, which made a deep impression on +the hearer's mind: "Guillaume, the world is going to be renewed, and you +will behold it!"[136] + +[Sidenote: Controversy with Beda.] + +[Sidenote: The Sorbonne's declaration.] + +Lefevre did not intermit his biblical studies. In 1518 he published a +short treatise on "the three Marys," to prove that Mary the sister of +Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, and "the woman which was a sinner," were not +one and the same person, according to the common belief of the time. +Unfortunately, the Roman church, by the lessons set down for the +feast-days, had given its sanction to the prevalent error. Now, the +fears and suspicions of the theologians of the Sorbonne had, during the +past year, been aroused by the fame of Martin Luther's "heresy," and +they were ready to resent any attempt at innovation, however slight, +either in doctrine or in practice, as evidence of heretical +proclivities. Natalis Beda, the ignorant but pedantic syndic of the +theological faculty, entered the lists as Lefevre's opponent, and an +animated dispute was waged between the friends of the two combatants. Of +so great moment was the decision regarded by Poncher, Bishop of Paris, +that he induced Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, to write an essay in +refutation of the views of Lefevre.[137] But the Sorbonne, not content +with this, on the ninth of November, 1521, declared that he was a +heretic who should presume to maintain the truth of Lefevre's +proposition. Lefevre himself would probably have experienced even +greater indignities at the hands of parliament--whose members were +accustomed to show excessive respect to the fanatical demands of the +faculty--had not Guillaume Petit, the king's confessor, induced Francis +to interfere in behalf of the Picard professor.[138] + +[Sidenote: Briconnet, Bishop of Meauz.] + +To these two actors in the drama of the French reformation a third must +now be added. Guillanme Briconnet, Bishop of Meaux, stood in the front +rank of aspiring and fortunate churchmen. His father, commonly known as +the Cardinal of St. Malo, had passed from the civil administration into +the hierarchy of the Gallican Church. Rewarded for services rendered to +Louis the Eleventh and Charles the Eighth by the gift of the rich abbey +of St. Germain-des-Pres and the archbishopric of Rheims, he had, in +virtue of his possession of the latter dignity, anointed Louis the +Twelfth at his coronation. As cardinal, he had headed the French party +in the papal consistory, and, more obedient to his sovereign than to the +pontiff, when Louis demanded the convocation of a council at Pisa to +resist the encroachments of Julius the Second, the elder Briconnet left +Rome to join in its deliberations, and to face the dangers attending an +open rupture with the Pope. The cardinal was now dead, having left to +Guillaume, born previously to his father's entrance into orders, a good +measure of the royal favor he had himself enjoyed. The younger Briconnet +had been successively created Archdeacon of Rheims and Avignon, Abbot of +St. Germain-des-Pres, and Bishop of Lodeve and Meaux. His title of Count +of Montbrun gave him, moreover, a place in the nobility.[139] Meantime a +reformatory tendency had early revealed itself in the efforts made by +the young ecclesiastic to enforce the observance of canonical discipline +by the luxurious friars of the monastery of St. Germain. Here, too, he +had tasted the first fruits of the opposition which was before long to +test his firmness and constancy. + +Briconnet had been appointed Bishop of Meaux (March 19, 1516) about the +same time that Francis the First despatched him as special envoy to +treat with the Pope. It would seem that the intimate acquaintance with +the papal court gained on this occasion, confirming the impressions made +by a previous diplomatic mission in the time of Louis the Twelfth, +convinced Briconnet that the church stood in urgent need of reform; and +he resolved to begin the work in his own diocese. + +[Sidenote: Lefevre and Farel invited to Meaux.] + +Weary of the annoyance and peril arising from the ignorance and malice +of his enemies, the theologians of the Sorbonne, Lefevre d'Etaples +longed for a more quiet home, where he might reasonably hope to +contribute his share to the great renovation descried long since by his +prophetic glance. He was now invited by Briconnet, to whom his learning +and zeal were well known, to accompany him to Meaux, where, at the +distance of a little more than a score of miles from the capital, he +would at least be rid of the perpetual clamor against Luther and his +doctrines that assailed his ears in Paris.[140] He was accompanied, or +followed, to Meaux by his pupil, Farel. Over the views of the latter a +signal change had come since he entered the university, full of +veneration for the saints, and an enthusiastic supporter of the mass, of +the papal hierarchy, and of every institution authorized by +ecclesiastical tradition. After a painful mental struggle, of which he +has himself given us a graphic account,[141] Farel had been reluctantly +brought to the startling conviction that the system of which he had been +an enthusiastic advocate was a tissue of falsehoods and an abomination +in God's sight. It required no more than this to bring a man of so +resolute a character to a decision. Partly by his own assiduous +application to study, especially of the Greek and Hebrew languages and +of the Church Fathers, partly through the influence of Lefevre, he had +become professor of philosophy in the college of the Cardinal Le Moine. +This advantageous position he resigned, in order that he might be able +to second the labors of Lefevre in the new field which Bishop Briconnet +had thrown open to him. Other pupils or friends of the Picard doctor +followed--Michel d'Arande, Gerard Roussel, and others, all more or less +thoroughly imbued with the same sentiments. + +[Sidenote: The king's mother and sister encourage the preaching of the +reformers.] + +A new era had now dawned upon the neglected diocese of Meaux. Bishop +Briconnet was fully possessed by his new-born zeal. The king's mother +and his only sister had honored him with a visit not long after +Lefevre's arrival,[142] and had left him confident that in his projected +reforms, and especially in the introduction of the preaching of the Word +of God, he might count upon their powerful support. "I assure you," +Margaret of Angouleme wrote him a month later, "that the king and madame +are entirely decided to let it be understood that the truth of God is +not heresy."[143] And a few weeks later the same princely correspondent +declared that her mother and brother were "more intent than ever upon +the reformation of the church."[144] With such flattering prospects the +reformation opened at Meaux. + +[Sidenote: Immediate results.] + +From the year 1521, when the ardent friends of religious progress made +their appearance in the city, the pulpits, rarely entered by the curates +or by the mendicant monks unless to demand a fresh contribution of +money, were filled with zealous preachers. The latter expounded the +Gospel, in place of rehearsing the stories of the "Golden Legend;" and +the people, at first attracted by the novelty of the sound, were soon +enamored of the doctrines proclaimed. These doctrines stood, indeed, in +signal opposition to those of the Roman church. By slow but sure steps +the advocates of the Reformation had come to assume a position scarcely +less unequivocal than that of Luther in Germany. In 1514, two years +after the publication of the commentary in which he had clearly +enunciated the Protestant doctrine on one cardinal point, Lefevre would +seem still to have been unsurpassed in his devotion to pictures and +images.[145] Two years later he was regarded by Luther as strangely +deficient in a clear apprehension of spiritual truths which, +nevertheless, he fully exemplified in a life of singular spirituality +and sincerity.[146] And it was not until 1519 that, by the arguments of +his own pupil, Farel, he was convinced of the impropriety of +saint-worship and of prayers for the dead.[147] But now there could be +no doubt respecting Lefevre's attitude. Placed by Bishop Briconnet in +charge of the "Leproserie," and subsequently entrusted with the powers +of vicar-general over the entire diocese,[148] he exerted an influence +not hard to trace. A contemporary, when chronicling, a few years later, +that "the greater part of Meaux was infected with the false doctrines of +Luther," made the cause of all the trouble to be one Fabry (Lefevre), a +priest and scholar, who rejected pictures from the churches, forbade the +use of holy water for the dead, and denied the existence of +purgatory.[149] + +[Sidenote: Gerard Roussel and Mazurier.] + +The mystic Gerard Roussel, an eloquent speaker, whom the bishop +appointed curate of St. Saintin, and subsequently treasurer and canon of +the cathedral, was prominent among the new preachers, but was surpassed +in exuberant display of zeal by Martial Mazurier, Principal of the +College de St. Michel in Paris, who now fulfilled the functions of +curate of the church of St. Martin at Meaux. + +[Sidenote: Apprehension of the monks aroused.] + +[Sidenote: De Roma's threat.] + +It was not long before the apprehension of the monastic orders was +aroused by the great popularity of the new teachers. The wool-carders, +weavers, and fullers accepted the novel doctrine with delight as meeting +a want which they had discovered in spite of poverty and ignorance. The +day-laborers frequenting the neighborhood of Meaux, to aid the farmers +in harvest-time, carried back to their more secluded districts the +convictions they had obtained, and themselves became efficient agents in +the promulgation of the faith elsewhere. If the anticipations of a +speedy spread of the reformation throughout France were brilliant in the +minds of its early apostles, the determination of its opponents was +equally fixed. An incident occurred about this time which might almost +be regarded as of prophetic import. Farel, who was present, is our sole +informant. On one occasion Lefevre and a few friends were engaged in +conversation with some warm partisans of the old abuses, when the old +doctor, warming at the prospect he seemed to behold, exclaimed, "Already +the Gospel is winning the hearts of the nobles and of the common people +alike! Soon it will spread over all France, and cast down the inventions +which the hand of man has set up." "Then," angrily retorted one De Roma, +a Dominican monk, "Then I, and others like me, will join in preaching a +crusade; and should the king tolerate the proclamation of the Gospel, we +shall drive him from his kingdom by means of his own subjects!"[150] + +The Dominican friar stood forth at that moment the embodiment of the +monastic spirit speaking defiance to the nascent reform. The church of +the state, with its rich abbeys and priories, its glorious old +cathedrals, and boundless possessions of lands and houses, was not to be +resigned without a struggle so terrific as to shake the foundations of +the throne itself. The germ of the Guises and the League, with Jacques +Clement and Ravaillac, was already formed, and possessed a prodigious +latent vitality. + +[Sidenote: Briconnet's activity.] + +Bishop Briconnet was himself active in promoting the evangelical work, +preaching against the most flagrant abuses, and commending to the +confidence of his flock the more eloquent preachers whom he had +introduced. The incredible rumor even gained currency that the +hot-headed prelate went through his diocese casting down the images and +sparing no object of idolatrous worship in the churches.[151] But, +however improbable it may be that Briconnet ever engaged in any such +iconoclastic demonstrations, it is a strong Roman Catholic partisan who +has preserved the record of this significant warning given by the +prelate to his flock, and elicited either by the consciousness of his +own moral feebleness, or by a certain vague premonition of danger: "Even +should I, your bishop, change my speech and teaching, beware that you +change not with me!"[152] + +[Sidenote: Lefevre translates the New Testament.] + +Under Briconnet's protection Jacques Lefevre assumed a task less +restricted in its influence than preaching, in which he probably took a +less active part than his coadjutors. The Bible was a closed book to the +common people in France. The learned might familiarize themselves with +its contents by a perusal of the Latin Vulgate; but readers acquainted +with their mother tongue alone were reduced to the necessity of using a +rude version wherein text and gloss were mingled in inextricable +confusion, and the Scriptures were made to countenance the most absurd +abuses.[153] The best furnished libraries rarely contained more than a +few detached books of the Bible, and these intended for ornament rather +than use.[154] Lefevre resolved, therefore, to apply himself to the +translation of the Sacred Scriptures from the Latin Vulgate into the +French language. In June, 1523, he published a version of the four +gospels, and in the autumn of the same year he gave to the world the +rest of the New Testament. Five years later he added a translation of +the Old Testament. It was a magnificent undertaking, prompted by a +fervent desire to promote the spiritual interests of his countrymen. In +its execution, the inaccuracies incident to so novel an enterprise, and +the comparative harshness of the style, can readily be forgiven. For, +aside from its own merits, the version of Lefevre d'Etaples formed the +basis for the subsequent version of Robert Olivetanus, itself the +groundwork of many later translations. + +[Sidenote: The translation eagerly bought.] + +[Sidenote: Delight of Lefevre.] + +Lefevre and his associates had not erred in anticipating remarkable +results from the publication of the Scriptures in the language of the +people. The copies of the New Testament no sooner left the press than +they were eagerly bought. They penetrated into obscure hamlets to which +no missionary of the "new doctrines" could find access. By the +wool-carders of Meaux the prize thus unexpectedly placed within reach +was particularly valued. The liberality of Bishop Briconnet is said to +have freely supplied copies to those who were too poor to afford the +purchase-money. The prelate introduced the French Scriptures into the +churches of Meaux, where the unparalleled innovation of reading the +lessons in an intelligible tongue struck the people with amazement. "You +can scarcely imagine," wrote the delighted Lefevre to a distant +friend,[155] "with what ardor God is moving the minds of the simple, in +some places, to embrace His word since the books of the New Testament +have been published in French, though you will justly lament that they +have not been scattered more widely among the people. The attempt has +been made to hinder the work, under cover of the authority of +parliament; but our most generous king has become in this matter the +defender of Christ's cause, declaring it to be his pleasure that his +kingdom shall hear the word of God freely and without hinderance in the +language which it understands. At present, throughout our entire +diocese, on feast-days, and especially on Sunday, both the epistle and +gospel are read to the people in the vernacular tongue, and the parish +priest adds a word of exhortation to the epistle or gospel, or both, at +his discretion." + +There did, indeed, seem to be amply sufficient ground for the +"exultation" expressed by the worthy Picard at the rapid progress of the +Reformation throughout Europe and the flattering prospects offered in +France itself.[156] Everything seemed for a time to promise success at +Meaux. Bishop Briconnet received with delight the advice of the Swiss +and German reformers. The letters of Oecolampadius, from Basle, in +particular so deeply impressed him, that he commissioned Gerard Roussel +to read in the French language and explain the meaning of the Pauline +Epistles every morning to a promiscuous gathering of persons of both +sexes, and chose out the most evangelical preachers to perform similar +duty in all the more important places in his diocese.[157] + +[Sidenote: Enmity of the Franciscans.] + +[Sidenote: Weakness of Bishop Briconnet.] + +But the bishop had excited the active enmity of a resolute and +suspicious foe. In forbidding the Franciscan monks entrance to any +pulpit within his jurisdiction, he had, even before the advent of +Lefevre and the reformed teachers, incurred their violent +animosity.[158] The new movement, while arousing their indignation, gave +them the opportunity they coveted for invoking the power of the +university and of parliament. At first the bishop was bold enough to +denounce the doctors of the Sorbonne as Pharisees and false +prophets,[159] while in his private correspondence he stigmatized the +clergy as "the estate _by the coldness of which all the others are +frozen_,"[160] or even as "_that which is the ruin of all the +rest_."[161] But, frightened by the incessant clamor and attacks of his +enemies, he began gradually to waver, and presently lost all courage. In +the end he yielded so far as to suffer to be published in his name +official documents which were intended to overturn from the foundation +the very fabric he had been striving to rear. In one of these, a +"Synodal Decree" addressed to the faithful of his diocese, the bishop +was made to condemn the books of Martin Luther, and to denounce Luther +himself as one who was plotting the overthrow of "the estate which +_keeps all the rest in the path of duty_."[162] Quite another +description of the clergy this from either of the descriptions which he +gave to Margaret of Angouleme! The other document was a letter to the +clergy of his diocese, warning them against certain preachers "brought +in by himself to share his pastoral cares," who, under cover of +proclaiming the Gospel, had "dared, in defiance of the evangelical +truth, to preach that purgatory does not exist, and that, consequently, +we must not pray for the dead, nor invoke the very holy Virgin Mary and +the saints."[163] + +The precise time of Briconnet's pusillanimous defection, as marked by +the publication of these pastoral letters, is involved in some +obscurity; for assuredly the date affixed to the transcripts that have +come down to us conflicts too seriously with the well-known facts of +history to be accepted as correct.[164] + +Later Roman Catholic historians have asserted that the act was a +voluntary one; that Briconnet had never in reality sympathized with the +religious views of reformers whom he had invited to Meaux simply because +of his admiration for learning; that no sooner did he discover the +heretical nature of their teachings than he removed them from the posts +to which they had been assigned; and that he spent the residue of his +life in the vain endeavor to retrieve the fatal consequences of his +mistake.[165] But this view is confirmed by nothing in the prelate's +extant correspondence. Everywhere there is evidence that until his +courage broke down, Briconnet was in full accord with the reformers. +His first step may possibly have been justified at the bar of conscience +by the plausible suggestion that, since the anger of the Sorbonne had +been directed specially against Meaux, the evangelical preachers could +be more serviceable elsewhere. But, from the mere withdrawal of support +to positive measures of repression, the transition was both natural and +speedy. + +[Sidenote: He is cited to appear before the Parliament.] + +Unsatisfied by Bishop Briconnet's merely negative course, the Parliament +of Paris at length cited him to appear and answer before a commission +consisting of two of its own counsellors. The information thus obtained +was next to be submitted to the judges delegated by the Pope, a tribunal +of the institution of which an account will be given in another +chapter.[166] To this secret investigation Briconnet objected, and +begged to be tried in open court by the entire body of parliament;[167] +but his petition was rejected, and his examination proceeded before the +inquisitorial commission. What measures were there taken to influence +him is not known. To Martial Mazurier, lately an enthusiastic preacher +of the "Lutheran" doctrines, who had himself, through fear, receded from +his advanced position, the doubtful honor is ascribed of having been +prominent in exertions to overcome the prelate's lingering scruples. +However this may be, when Briconnet had given sufficient guarantees to +satisfy the Sorbonne that no apprehension need be entertained of a +repetition in Meaux of the dangerous experiment of the public +instruction of the people in the Holy Scriptures, there was nothing to +be gained by his condemnation. He was accordingly acquitted of all +charge of heresy, although condemned to pay the sum of two hundred +livres as the expense of bringing to trial the "heretics" whom he had +himself helped to make such.[168] Hereupon he is said to have returned +to his diocese, and, having convened a synod, to have prohibited, as we +have seen, the circulation of Luther's writings, reintroduced the +ecclesiastical practices that had been condemned or discarded, and given +to the persecution now set on foot his unequivocal sanction.[169] + +[Sidenote: Dispersion of the reformed teachers.] + +The teachers whom Briconnet had so cordially invited to assist him were +compelled one by one to abandon Meaux. Among the earliest to leave was +Farel.[170] His was no faint heart. If he gave up his activity in Brie, +it was only to return to his native Dauphiny, where a young nobleman, +Anemond de Coct, and a preacher, Pierre de Sebeville, were among the +leading men whose conversion was the fruit of his indefatigable +exertions. After a visit to Guyenne, of which little is known, he passed +into German Switzerland, and labored successively in Basle, Strasbourg, +and Montbeliard.[171] + +[Sidenote: Annoyances of those who remain.] + +Lefevre and Roussel were among the last to withdraw; but, beset with +watchful enemies, they found their position neither safe nor +comfortable. It was as difficult to maintain a semblance of friendship +with an ecclesiastical system which they detested in their hearts, as to +refuse their sympathy and support to the persecuted whose opinions they +shared without possessing the courage necessary to suffer in attestation +of the common faith. Busy informers at one time found evidence, more +than warranting the suspicion that Roussel's manuscripts had furnished +the material of which scandalous placards defamatory of the Pope were +framed.[172] A little later the proctor of the cathedral drew attention +to the irregular conventicles held in the church itself, every Sunday +and feast-day, after Roussel had preached. These "combers, carders, and +other persons of the same stamp, unlettered folk,"[173] brought with +them books containing the Epistles of St. Paul, the Gospels, and the +Psalms, in flagrant disregard of the prohibitions they had heard +respecting the discussion of such topics as faith, the sacraments, the +privileges of Rome, and the use of pictures in the churches. It was made +the occasion of "charitable rebuke" and then of formal complaint against +Roussel by his fellow canons, that he failed to repeat the angelic +salutation, according to the orthodox practice, after the exordium of +his sermon. To the combined exhortations and threats of his accusers +Roussel replied in the chapter that, if he had done wrong, it belonged +to the bishop to reprove him, but that as to himself he esteemed the +repetition of the Lord's Prayer quite as efficacious as the recital of +the Ave Maria.[174] + +[Sidenote: Lefevre and Roussel take refuge in Strasbourg.] + +[Sidenote: Excessive caution of Roussel.] + +At last danger thickened, and Lefevre and Roussel found themselves +forced to leave Meaux (October, 1525), and sought refuge within the +hospitable walls of Strasbourg; for the persecuting measures adopted by +the regent, Louise de Savoie, and the Parliament of Paris, during the +king's captivity, as we shall shortly see, had placed the lives of even +such prudent reformers in peril.[175] In the free city on the banks of +the Rhine, Lefevre met his pupil Farel, and in the midst of cordial +greetings was reminded by him that the day of "renovation" which he had +long since predicted and desired had really come.[176] But the contrast +between the two men had become sharply drawn. The fearless athlete, soon +to measure his strength with no puny antagonists at Neufchatel, +Lausanne, Geneva, and so many other places in French Switzerland, whose +course was to be a succession of rough encounters, discovered that the +master from whom he had received the impulse that shaped his entire +life, shrank from sundering the last link binding him to the Roman +church. And Gerard Roussel was even more timid. The elegant preacher, +with fair prospects of preferment, could not bring himself openly to +espouse the quarrel of oppressed truth. A mysticism investing his entire +belief, and perverting his moral perceptions, led him to imagine that +the heart might be kept pure in the midst of many external corruptions, +and that the enlightened could worship the Almighty acceptably in spite +of superstitious observances, which, while countenancing by apparent +acquiescence, they rejected in their hearts. The excellence of the +reformation already inaugurated at Strasbourg made a deep and very +favorable impression upon Roussel. He wrote to Bishop Briconnet that the +daily preaching of a pure doctrine, "without dross or leaven of the +Pharisees,"[177] the crowds of attentive hearers, the schools presided +over by men as illustrious for piety as for letters, and the careful +provision for the poor, would delight his correspondent were he to see +them. He did not dissemble his own great satisfaction that the +monasteries had been changed into educational establishments, the +pictures taken away from the churches, and every altar removed except +one, on which the communion was celebrated, as nearly as possible, +according to the plan of its institution.[178] At the same time he +renounced none of his excessive caution. His words were still those he +had uttered when urged, a twelvemonth earlier, by Farel, +Oecolampadius, and Zwingle, to strike out boldly and by an open +dispute on religion compel the attention of the thoughtless world. "The +flesh is weak! As my friends, Lefevre and others, urge, the convenient +season has not yet come, the Gospel has not yet been scattered +sufficiently far and wide. We must not assume the Lord's prerogative for +sending laborers into the harvest, but leave the work to Him whose it +is, and who can easily raise up a far richer harvest than that for whose +safety we are solicitous!"[179] + +Such were the paltry evasions of cowardly souls, to excuse themselves +for the neglect of admitted duty. We cannot wonder at the burning words +of condemnation which this pusillanimity called forth from the pen of +brave Pierre Toussain. "I have spoken to Lefevre and Roussel," he wrote +some months later, "but certainly Lefevre has not a particle of courage. +May God confirm and strengthen him! Let them be as wise as they please, +let them wait, procrastinate, and dissemble; the Gospel will never be +preached without the _cross_! When I see these things, when I see the +mind of the king, the mind of the duchess [Margaret of Angouleme] as +favorable as possible to the advancement of the Gospel of Christ, and +those who ought to forward this matter, according to the grace given +them, obstructing their design, I cannot refrain from tears. They say, +indeed: 'It is not yet time, the hour has not come!' And yet we have +here no day or hour. _What would not you do had you the Emperor and +Ferdinand favoring your attempts?_ Entreat God, therefore, in behalf of +France, that she may at length be worthy of His word."[180] + +The remainder of the task imposed on the weak Bishop of Meaux and his +new allies, the monks of St. Francis, proved a more difficult +undertaking. The shepherds had been dispersed, but the flock refused to +forsake the fold. From the nourishing food they had discovered in the +Word of God, they could not be induced to return to the husks offered to +them in meaningless ceremonies, celebrated in an unknown tongue by men +of impure lives. The Gospels in French remained more attractive than +the legendary, even after the bishop had abandoned the championship of +the incipient reformation. Briconnet's own expressed wish was granted: +if he had "changed his speech and teaching," the common people, at +least, had not changed with him. + +[Sidenote: The wool-carder, Jean Leclerc, tears down a papal bull.] + +[Sidenote: His barbarous sentence.] + +Among the first fruits of the Reformation in Meaux was a wool-carder, +Jean Leclerc, into whose hands had fallen one of Lefevre's French +Testaments. He was a man of strong convictions and invincible +resolution. A bull, issued by Clement the Seventh in connection with the +approaching jubilee, had been posted on the doors of the cathedral +(December, 1524). It offered indulgence, and enjoined prayers, fasting, +and partaking of the Communion, in order to obtain from heaven the +restoration of peace between princes of Christendom. Leclerc secretly +tore the bull down, substituting for it a placard in which the Roman +pontiff figured as veritable Antichrist. Diligent search was at once +instituted for the perpetrator of this offence, and for the author of +the subsequent mutilation of the prayers to the Virgin hung up in +various parts of the same edifice. A truculent order was also issued in +the bishop's name, threatening all persons that might conceal their +knowledge of the culprits with public excommunication, every Sunday and +feast-day, "with ringing of bells and with candles lighted and then +extinguished and thrown upon the earth, _in token of eternal +malediction_."[181] Leclerc was discovered, and taken to Paris for +trial. The barbarous sentence of parliament was, that he be whipped in +Paris by the common executioner on three successive days, then +transferred to Meaux to receive the like punishment, and finally branded +on the forehead with a red-hot iron, before being banished forever from +the kingdom.[182] + +The cruel prescription was followed out to the letter (March, 1525). A +superstitious multitude flocked together to see and gloat over the +condign punishment of a heretic, and gave no word of encouragement and +support. But, as the iron was leaving on Leclerc's brow the ignominious +imprint of the _fleur-de-lis_,[183] a single voice suddenly broke in +upon the silence. It was that of his aged mother, who, after an +involuntary cry of anguish, quickly recovered herself and shouted, "Hail +Jesus Christ and his standard-bearers!"[184] Although many heard her +words, so deep was the impression, that no attempt was made to lay hands +upon her.[185] + +[Sidenote: He is burned alive at Metz.] + +From Meaux, Leclerc, forced to leave his home, retired first to Rosoy, +and thence to Metz.[186] Here, while supporting himself by working at +his humble trade, he lost none of his missionary spirit. Not content +with communicating a knowledge of the doctrines of the Reformation to +all with whom he conversed, his impatient zeal led him to a new and +startling protest against the prevalent, and, in his view, idolatrous +worship of images. Learning that on a certain day a solemn procession +was to be made to a shrine situated a few miles out of the city gates, +he went to the spot under cover of night, and hurled the sacred images +from their places. On the morrow the horrified worshippers found the +objects of their devotion prostrated and mutilated, and their rage knew +no bounds. It was not long before the wool-carder was apprehended. His +religious sentiments were no secret, and he had been seen returning from +the scene of his nocturnal exploit. He promptly acknowledged his guilt, +and was rescued from the infuriated populace only to undergo a more +terrible doom at the hands of the public executioner (July 22, 1525). +His right hand was cut off at the wrist, his arms, his nose, his breast +were cruelly torn with pincers; but no cry of anguish escaped the lips +of Leclerc. The sentence provided still further that, before his body +should be consigned to the flames, his head be encircled with a red-hot +band of iron. As the fervent metal slowly ate its way toward his very +brain, the bystanders with amazement heard the dying man calmly repeat +the words of Holy Writ: "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of +men's hands." He had not completed the Psalmist's terrific denunciation +of the crime and folly of image-worship when his voice was stifled by +the fire and smoke of the pyre into which his impatient tormentors had +hastily thrown him. If not actually the first martyr of the French +Reformation, as has commonly been supposed, Jean Leclerc deserves, at +least, to rank among the most constant and unswerving of its early +apostles.[187] + +[Sidenote: Jacques Pauvan.] + +The poor wool-carder of Meaux was succeeded by more illustrious victims. +One was of the number of the teachers who had been attracted to Bishop +Briconnet's diocese by the prospect of contributing to the progress of a +purer doctrine. Jacques Pauvan[188] was a studious youth who had come +from Boulogne, in Picardy, to perfect his education in the university, +and had subsequently abandoned a career in which he bade fair to obtain +distinction, in order to assist his admired teacher, Lefevre, at Meaux. +He was an outspoken man, and disguised his opinions on no point of the +prevailing controversy. He asserted that purgatory had no existence, and +that God had no vicar. He repudiated excessive reliance on the doctors +of the church. He indignantly rejected the customary salutation to the +Virgin Mary, "Hail Queen, Mother of mercy!" He denied the propriety of +offering candles to the saints. He maintained that baptism was only a +sign, that holy water was _nothing_, that papal bulls and indulgences +were an imposture of the devil, and that the mass was not only of no +avail for the remission of sins, but utterly unprofitable to the hearer, +while the Word of God was all-sufficient.[189] + +Pauvan was put under arrest, and his theses, together with the defence +of their contents which one Matthieu Saunier was so bold as to write, +were submitted to the Sorbonne. Its condemnation was not long withheld. +"A work," said the Paris theologians, "containing propositions extracted +and compiled from the pernicious errors of the Waldenses, Wickliffites, +Bohemians, and Lutherans, being impious, scandalous, schismatic, and +wholly alien from the Christian doctrine, ought publicly to be consigned +to the flames in the diocese of Meaux, whence it emanated. And Jacques +Pauvan and Matthieu Saunier should, by all judicial means, be compelled +to make a public recantation."[190] + +Even strong men have their moments of weakness. Pauvan was no exception +to the rule. Besides the terrors of the stake, the persuasions of +Martial Mazurier came in to shake his constancy. This latter, a doctor +of theology, had at one time been so carried away with the desire of +innovation as to hurl down a statue of their patron saint standing at +the door of the monastery of the Franciscans. He had now, as we have +already seen, become the favorite instrument in effecting abjurations +similar to his own. His suggestions prevailed over Pauvan's +convictions.[191] The young scholar consented to obey the Sorbonne's +demand. The faculty's judgment had been pronounced on the ninth of +December, 1525; a fortnight later, on the morrow of Christmas day--a +favorite time for striking displays of this kind--Pauvan publicly +retracted his "errors," and made the usual "amende honorable," clad only +in a shirt, and holding a lighted taper in his hand.[192] + +[Sidenote: He is burned on the Place de Greve.] + +If Pauvan's submission secured him any peace, it was a short-lived +peace. Tortured by conscience, he soon betrayed his mental anguish by +sighs and groans. Again he was drawn from the prison, where he had been +confined since his abjuration,[193] and subjected to new +interrogatories. With the opportunity to vindicate his convictions, his +courage and cheerfulness returned. As a relapsed heretic, no fate could +be in store for him but death at the stake, and this he courageously met +on the _Place de Greve_.[194] But the holocaust was inauspicious for +those who with this victim hoped to annihilate the "new doctrines." +Before mounting the huge pyre heaped up to receive him, Pauvan was +thoughtlessly permitted to speak; and so persuasive were his words that +it was an enemy's exclamation that "it had been better to have cost the +church a million of gold, than that Pauvan had been suffered to speak to +the people."[195] + +[Sidenote: The hermit of Livry.] + +Scarcely more encouraging to the advocates of persecution was the scene +in the area in front of Notre-Dame de Paris, when, at the sound of the +great cathedral bell, an immense crowd was gathered to witness the +execution of an obscure person, known to us only as "the hermit of +Livry"--a hamlet on the road to Meaux. With such unshaken fortitude did +he encounter the flames, that the astonished spectators were confidently +assured by their spiritual advisers that he was one of the damned who +was being led to the fires of hell.[196] + +[Sidenote: Bishop Briconnet becomes the jailer of the "Lutherans."] + +Where less rigor was deemed necessary, the penalty for having embraced +the reformed tenets was reduced to imprisonment for a term of years, +often with bread and water for the only food and drink. The place of +confinement was sometimes a monastery, at other times the "_prisons of +Monseigneur the Bishop of Meaux_."[197] Thus Briconnet enjoyed the rare +and exquisite privilege of acting as jailer of unfortunates instructed +by himself in the doctrines for the profession of which they now +suffered! Meantime their companions having escaped detection, although +deprived of the advantage of public worship, continued for years to +assemble for mutual encouragement and edification, as they had +opportunity, in private houses, in retired valleys or caverns, or in +thickets and woods. Their minister was that person of their own number +who was seen to be the best versed in the Holy Scriptures. After he had +discharged his functions in the humble service, by a simple address of +instruction or exhortation, the entire company with one voice +supplicated the Almighty for His blessing, and returned to their homes +with fervent hopes for the speedy conversion of France to the +Gospel.[198] Thus matters stood for about a score of years, until a +fresh attempt was made to constitute a reformed church at Meaux, the +signal, as will appear in the sequel, for a fresh storm of persecution. + +[Sidenote: Lefevre's subsequent history.] + +A few words here seem necessary respecting the subsequent fortunes of +the venerable teacher whose name at this point fades from the history of +the French Reformation. The action of parliament (August 28, 1525), in +condemning, at the instigation of the syndic of the theological faculty, +nine propositions extracted from his commentary on the Gospels, and in +forbidding the circulation of his translation of the Holy Scriptures, +had given Lefevre d'Etaples due warning of danger. We have already seen +that a few weeks later (October, 1525) he had taken refuge in Strasbourg +under the pseudonym of Antonius Peregrinus. But the _incognito_ of so +distinguished a stranger could not be long maintained, and before many +days the very boys in the streets knew him by his true name.[199] +Meantime the Sorbonne, in his absence, proceeded to censure a large +number of propositions drawn from another of Lefevre's works. Shortly +after a letter was received from Francis the First, written in his +captivity at Madrid, and enjoining the court to suspend its vexatious +persecution of a man "of such great and good renown, and of so holy a +life," until the king's return. The refractory judges, however, +neglected to obey the order, and continued the proceedings instituted +against Lefevre.[200] + +[Sidenote: Lefevre and the Nuncio Aleander.] + +When, however, Francis succeeded in regaining his liberty, a year later, +he not only recalled Lefevre and his companion, Roussel, from exile, but +conferred upon the former the honorable appointment of tutor to his two +daughters and his third and favorite son, subsequently known as Charles, +Duke of Orleans.[201] This post, while it enabled him to continue the +prosecution of his biblical studies, also gave him the opportunity of +instilling into the minds of his pupils some views favorable to the +Reformation.[202] A little later Margaret of Angouleme secured for +Lefevre the position of librarian of the royal collection of books at +Blois; but, as even here he was subjected to much annoyance from his +enemies, Margaret, now Queen of Navarre, sought and obtained from her +brother permission to take the old scholar with her to Nerac, in +Gascony.[203] Here, in the ordinary residence of his patron, and treated +by the King of Navarre with marked consideration, Lefevre d'Etaples was +at last safe from molestation. The papal party did not, indeed, despair +of gaining him over. The Nuncio Aleander, in a singular letter exhumed +not long since from the Vatican records, expressed himself strongly in +favor of putting forth the effort. Lefevre's "few errors" had at first +appeared to be of great moment, because published at a time when to +correct or change the most insignificant syllable, or a faulty +rendering, in the ancient translations of the Holy Scriptures approved +by the church, was an unheard-of innovation. But, now that more +important questions had come up to arrest attention, the mere matter of +retranslation, without introducing unsound doctrine, seemed to be a +thing of little or no consequence.[204] Let Lefevre but leave the +heretical company which he kept, and let him make _the least bit of a +retraction_ respecting some few passages in his works, and the whole +affair would at once be arranged.[205] + +[Sidenote: Lefevre's mental suffering.] + +The reconciliation of Lefevre with the church did not take place. The +"bit of a retraction" was never written. But none the less are Lefevre's +last days reported to have been disturbed by harassing thoughts. The +noble old man, who had consecrated to the translation of the Bible and +to exegetical comment upon its books the energy of many years, and who +had suffered no little obloquy in consequence, could not forgive himself +that he had not come forward more manfully in defence of the truth. One +day, not long before his death, it is said, while seated at the table of +the King and Queen of Navarre, he was observed to be overcome with +emotion. When Margaret expressed her surprise at the gloomy deportment +of one whose society she had sought for her own diversion, Lefevre +mournfully exclaimed, "How can I contribute to the pleasure of others, +who am myself the greatest sinner upon earth?" In reply to the questions +called forth by so unexpected a confession, Lefevre, while admitting +that throughout his long life his morals had been exemplary, and that he +was conscious of no flagrant crime against society, proceeded, in words +frequently interrupted by sobs, to explain his deep penitence: "How +shall I, who have taught others the purity of the Gospel, be able to +stand at God's tribunal? Thousands have suffered and died for the +defence of the truth in which I instructed them; and I, unfaithful +shepherd that I am, after attaining so advanced an age, when I ought to +love nothing less than I do life--nay, rather, when I ought to desire +death--I have basely avoided the martyr's crown, and have betrayed the +cause of my God!" It was with difficulty that the queen and others who +were present succeeded in allaying the aged scholar's grief.[206] + +The "anguish of spirit and terror of God's judgment experienced by so +pious an old man as Lefevre," because he had concealed the truth which +he ought openly to have espoused, supplied an instructive warning for +his even more timid disciples. Farel, who never lacked courage, was not +slow to avail himself of it. Taking advantage of the freedom of an old +associate, he addressed a letter containing an account of Lefevre's +death, with some serious admonitions, to Michel d'Arande, who never +venturing to separate from a church whose corruptions he acknowledged, +had reached the position of Bishop of Saint Paul-Trois-Chateaux, in +Dauphiny. The letter has perished, but the reply in which the prelate's +dejection and internal conflicts but too plainly appear, has seen the +light after a burial of three centuries. Admitting the guilt of his +course, the bishop begs the intrepid reformer to pray for him +continually, and meanwhile not to withhold his friendly exhortations, +that at length the writer may be able to extricate himself from the deep +mire in which he finds no firm foundation to stand upon.[207] + +Such was the unhappy state of mind to which many good, but irresolute +men were reduced, who, in view of the persecution certain to follow an +open avowal of their reformatory sentiments, endeavored to persuade +themselves that it was permissible to conceal them under a thin veil of +external conformity to the rites of the Roman church. + +[Sidenote: Fortunes of Gerard Roussel.] + +Gerard Roussel, the most distinguished representative of this class of +mystics, was appointed by the Queen of Navarre to be her preacher and +confessor, and promoted successively to be Abbot of Clairac and Bishop +of Oleron. Yet he remained, to his death, a sincere friend of the +Reformation. Occasionally, at least, he preached its doctrines with +tolerable distinctness; as, for instance, in the Lenten discourses +delivered by him, in conjunction with Courault and Bertault, before the +French court in the Louvre (1532). In his writings he was still more +outspoken. Some of them might have been written not only by a reformer, +but by a disciple of Calvin, so sharply drawn were the doctrinal +expositions.[208] Meanwhile, in his own diocese he set forth the example +of a faithful pastor. Even so bitter an enemy of Protestantism as +Florimond de Raemond, contrasting Roussel's piety with the worldliness +of the sporting French bishops of the period, is forced to admit that +his pack of hounds was the crowd of poor men and women whom he daily +fed, his horses and attendants a host of children whom he caused to be +instructed in letters.[209] + +And yet, Gerard Roussel's half measures, while failing to conciliate the +adherents of the Roman church, alienated from him the sympathies of the +reformers; for they saw in his conduct a weakness little short of entire +apostasy. More modern Roman Catholic writers, for similar reasons, deny +that Roussel was ever at heart a friend of the Reformation.[210] Not so, +however, thought the fanatics of his own time. While the Bishop of +Oleron was one day declaiming, in a church of his diocese, against the +excessive multiplication of feasts, the pulpit in which he stood was +suddenly overturned, and the preacher hurled with violence to the +ground. The catastrophe was the premeditated act of a religious zealot, +who had brought with him into the sacred place an axe concealed under +his cloak. The fall proved fatal to Gerard Roussel, who is said to have +expressed on his death-bed similar regrets to those which had disturbed +the last hours of Lefevre d'Etaples. As for the murderer, although +arrested and tried by the Parliament of Bordeaux, he was in the end +acquitted, on the ground that he had performed a meritorious act, or, at +most, committed a venial offence, in ridding the world of so dangerous a +heretic as the Bishop of Oleron.[211] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 128: Scaevolae Sammarthani Elog. lib. i., i. 3. "Statura fuit +supra modum humili," etc.] + +[Footnote 129: Sc. Sammarthani Elog., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 130: Lefevre's scientific works were numerous, and some of +them passed through many editions during the early years of the +sixteenth century. See Haag, La France protestante, art. Lefevre. I have +before me his edition of the Arithmetic of Boetius, with introduction +and commentary, of the year 1510, and copies of his Astronomical +Treatises of 1510 and 1516, the last of these published at Cologne.] + +[Footnote 131: Sc. Sammarth. Elog., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 132: Epistre a tons Seigneurs et Peuples (Edit. J. G. Fick), +172.] + +[Footnote 133: The passage in which Farel describes his former +superstition is so characteristic, that I quote a few sentences: "Pour +vray la papaute n'estoit et n'est tant papale que mon coeur l'a +este.... Car tellement il avoit aveugle mes yeux et perverti tout en +moy, que s'il y avoit personnage qui fut approuve selon le pape, il +m'estoit comme Dieu; si quelqu'un faisoit ou disoit quelque chose, d'ou +le pape et son estat en fut en quelque mespris, j'eusse voulu qu'un tel +... fut du tout abbatu, ruine et destruit.... Ainsy Satan avoit loge le +pape, sa papaute, tout ce qui est de luy en mon coeur, de sorte que +_le pape mesme_, comme je croy, _n'en avoit point tant en soy ne [ni] +les siens aussy, comme il y en avoit en moy_.... Et ainsy je persevere, +ayant mon panteon en mon coeur, et tant d'advocats, tant de sauveurs, +tant de dieux que rien plus ... tellement que je pouvoye bien estre tenu +pour un registre papal, pour martyrologe," etc. Epistre a tous Seigneurs +et Peuples, 164, 167, 169.] + +[Footnote 134: Herminjard, Correspondance des Reformateurs, i. 4, 481.] + +[Footnote 135: See the dedication, dated Dec. 15, 1512, Herminjard, +Correspondance des Reformateurs, i. 2-9.] + +[Footnote 136: Letter of Farel to Pellican (1556), Herminjard, +Correspondance des Reformateurs, i. 481: "Pius senex, Jacobus Faber, +quem tu novisti, ante annos plus minus quadraginta, me manu apprehensum, +ita alloquebatur: 'Gulielme, oportet orbem mutari, et tu videbis' +dicebat." So in the "Epistre a tous Seigneurs et Peuples" (Ed. Fick), +170: "Souventefois me disoit que Dieu renouvelleroit le monde, et que je +le verroye." A few years later, at Strasbourg, the reformer reminded his +former master of his prediction: "Voicy par la grace de Dieu, le +commencement de ce qu'autrefois m'avez dit du renouvellement du monde," +and Lefevre, then in exile, blessed God, and begged Him to perfect what +he had then seen begun at Strasbourg. Ibid., 171. These statements are +confirmed by a passage in the Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles, in +which, after deploring the corruption of the church, Lefevre observes: +"Yet the signs of the times announce that a renewal is near, and while +God is opening new ways for the preaching of the Gospel, by the +discoveries and conquests of the Portuguese and Spaniards in all parts +of the world, we must hope that He will visit His church and raise it +from the degradation into which it is fallen." Herminjard, i. 5.] + +[Footnote 137: Scaevolae Sammarthani, Elogia doctorum in Gallia virorum, +lib. i. (Jenae, 1696); Bayle, s. v. Fevre and Farel; Tabaraud, Biographie +univ., art. Lefevre; C. Schmidt, Wilhelm Farel, in Leben und ausgew. +Schriften d. Vaeter d. ref. Kirche; C. Cheneviere, Farel, Froment, Viret +(Geneve, 1835).] + +[Footnote 138: Gaillard, Histoire de Francois premier (Paris, 1769), vi. +397. It was the unpardonable offence of Lefevre in the eyes of his +critic that he, a simple master of arts, had dared to investigate +matters that fell to the province of doctors of theology alone. Letter +of H. C. Agrippa (1519), in Herminjard, Correspondance des Reformateurs, +i. 51: "Tantum virum semel atque iterum ... vocarunt hominem stultum, +insanum fidei, Sacrarum Literarum indoctum et ignarum, et qui, _duntaxat +humanarum artium Magister, praesumptuose se ingerat iis quae spectant ad +Theologos_." As it clearly appears that Lefevre was not a doctor of the +Sorbonne, Professor Soldan is mistaken in saying: "Seit 1493 lebte er +als Doctor der Theologie zu Paris, u. s. w." The error is of long +standing.] + +[Footnote 139: See Alphonse de Beauchamp's sketches of the lives of the +two Briconnets, in the Biographie universelle.] + +[Footnote 140: According to a contemporary letter, this was the sole +cause of Lefevre's departure. "Faber Stapulensis ab urbe longe abest ad +XX. lapidem, neque ullam ob causam quam quod convitia in Lutherum audire +non potest." Glareanus to Zwingle, Paris, July 4, 1521, Herminjard, i. +71.] + +[Footnote 141: Epistre a tous Seigneurs et Peuples, 168-175.] + +[Footnote 142: In October, 1521. Herminjard, i. 76.] + +[Footnote 143: "Vous asseurant que le Roy et Madame ont bien delibere de +donner a congnoistre que la verite de Dieu n'est point heresie." +Margaret of Angouleme to Briconnet, Nov., 1521, MSS. National Lib., +Herminjard, i. 78; Genin, ii. 273.] + +[Footnote 144: "Vos piteulx desirs de la reformacion de l'Eglise, ou +plus que jamais le Roy et Madame sont affectionnes." Same to same, Dec, +1521, Ibid., Herminjard, i. 84; Genin, ii. 274. Compare Louise de +Savoie's own entry in her journal, in December, 1522, a year later, to +which reference has already been made.] + +[Footnote 145: See the valuable remarks of M. Herminjard (i. 289, note) +respecting the date of the "manifestation of the Gospel" in France.] + +[Footnote 146: Luther to Spalatin, Oct. 19, 1516, Herminjard, i. 26.] + +[Footnote 147: Herminjard, i. 41, 205, 206.] + +[Footnote 148: Lefevre was placed in charge of the _Leproserie_, Aug. +11, 1521, and was appointed vicar-general _au spirituel_, May 1, 1523. +Herminjard, i. 71 and 157.] + +[Footnote 149: Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, 277, under date of +1526.] + +[Footnote 150: "Moy et autres comme moy, leverons une cruciade de gens, +et ferons chasser le Roy de son Royaume par ses subjectz propres, s'il +permet que l'Evangile soit presche." Farel au Duc de Lorraine, +Herminjard, i. 483.] + +[Footnote 151: Pierre de Sebeville au Chevalier Coct, Grenoble, Dec. 28, +1524: "Je te notifie que l'evesque de Meaulx en Brie, pres Paris, cum +Jacobo Fabro Stapulensi, depuis trois moys en visitant l'evesche, ont +brusle _actu_ tous les imaiges, reserve le crucifix, et sont +personellement ajournes a Paris, a ce moys de Mars venant, coram suprema +curia, et universitate erucarum parrhissiensium, quare id factum est." +Herminjard, i. 315.] + +[Footnote 152: Fontaine, Histoire catholique, _apud_ Merle d'Aubigne, +Hist. de la Reform., liv. xii. The earliest Protestant chronicle, by +Antoine Froment, of which there is a MS. fragment in the Library of +Geneva, gives a slightly different form to Briconnet's caution: +"Autrefois, en leur preschant l'Evangile, il leur avoit dit, comme +Sainct Paul escript au Gallates, que sy luy-mesme ou un Ange du ciel +leur preschoit autre doctrine que celle qu'il leur preschoit, qu'ils ne +[le] receussent pas." Herminjard, i. 158.] + +[Footnote 153: Nisard, Histoire de la litterature francaise, i. 275. The +only printed work in favor of which the claim of Lefevre's translation +to be the oldest in the French language could be disputed is the "Bible" +of Guyars des Moulins, finished in 1297, and printed by order of Charles +VIII. in 1487; but the greater part of this is a free translation, not +of the Scriptures themselves, but of a summary--the "Historia +scholastica" of Pierre le Mengeur (latinized "Comestor")--and is +consequently no bible at all. See M. Charles Read, in Bulletin, i. 76, +who remarks that, "everything considered, it may therefore be asserted +that the translations of Lefevre d'Etaples and of Olivetanus are the +first versions without embellishment or gloss (non historiees et non +glossees), and that thus the first two versions of the Bible into the +language of the people are Protestant."] + +[Footnote 154: The inventory of the library of the Count of Angouleme, +father of Margaret and Francis I., consisting of nearly two hundred +volumes, contains the title "Les Paraboles de Salomon, les Espistres +Saint Jehan, les Espistres Saint Pol et l'Apocalipse, le tout en ung +volume, escript en parchemin et _a la main_, et en _francoys_, couvert +de velous changeant et a deux fermoeres, l'un aux armes de mon diet +Seigneur, et l'autre aux armes de ma dicte dame." Aristotle, Boethius, +Boccaccio, and Dante figure in the list, the latter both in Italian and +in French. The inventory is printed in an appendix to the edition of the +Heptameron of Margaret of Angouleme published by the Soc. dea +bibliophiles francais (Paris, 1853), a work enriched with many original +documents of considerable value.] + +[Footnote 155: This important letter of Lefevre to Farel, July 6, 1524, +first published in part from the MS. in the Geneva Library, in the +Bulletin de l'hist. du prot. franc., xi. (1862), 212, is given in full +by Herminjard, i. 220, etc.] + +[Footnote 156: "O bone Deus, quanto exulto gaudio, cum percipio hanc +pure agnoscendi Christum gratiam, jam bonam partem pervasisse Europae! Et +spero Christum tandem nostras Gallias hac benedictione invisurum."] + +[Footnote 157: "Provinciam interpretandi populo promiscui sexus, +quotidie una hora mane, epistolas Pauli lingua vernacula editas, non +concionando, sed per modum lecturae interpretando." Lefevre to Farel, +_ubi supra_, i. 222. He gives the names of four such "lectores +puriores"--Gadon, Mangin, Neufchasteau, and Mesnil--of whom we know +little.] + +[Footnote 158: Parliament, however, as late as June 1, 1525, sustained +his episcopal authority by prohibiting the monks from preaching in +Meaux, whether in the morning or in the evening, when the bishop either +himself preached or had preaching before him in that part of the day. +Reg. of Parliament, Preuves des Libertez de l'Eglise Gallicane, iv. +102.] + +[Footnote 159: Gaillard, vi. 409.] + +[Footnote 160: "L'estat par la froideur duquel tous les aultres sont +gellez." Briconnet to Margaret of Angouleme, Dec. 22, 1521, Herminjard, +i. 86.] + +[Footnote 161: "Celluy qui tous ruyne." Same to same, Jan. 31, 1524, +ibid., i. 186.] + +[Footnote 162: "L'etat qui contient tous les autres dans le devoir," as +translated by Herminjard, i. 154.] + +[Footnote 163: See both documents in Herminjard, i. 153 and 156.] + +[Footnote 164: Instead of October 15, 1523, it is probable that these +documents ought to be placed nearly, if not quite, two years later. See +M. Herminjard's remarks on this difficult point, Correspondance des +reformateurs, i. 158, note. The same uncertainty affects Briconnet's +subsequent pastoral, revoking the powers accorded to "Lutheran +preachers," attributed to December 13, 1523, ibid., i. 171.] + +[Footnote 165: Maimbourg, Histoire du Calvinisme (Paris, 1682), liv. i. +11-14; Daniel, Histoire de France (Paris, 1755), x. 23.] + +[Footnote 166: Registres du parlement, Oct. 3, 1525, Preuves des +Libertez de l'Eglise gallicane, iv. 102.] + +[Footnote 167: "Et supplie la Cour qu'il soit interroge en pleine cour, +et non par Commissaires." Registres du parlement, Oct. 20, 1525, ibid., +iv. 103.] + +[Footnote 168: Registres du parlement, Nov. 29, 1525, where the Bishop +of Meaux is ordered to pay 200 _livres parisis_ for the trial of the +heretics, prisoners from Meaux (Preuves des Libertez, iii. 166), and the +receipt for the same (Ibid., _ubi supra_). This was, however, merely an +application of the general prescription of Nov. 24, 1525, requiring all +prelates to defray the expenses of the trial of any heretics discovered +in their dioceses, with the right to indemnify themselves from the +property of the convicted heretics (Ibid., iii. 165). So the Archbishop +of Tours contributed to the expenses incurred in the trial of Jean +Papillon, Feb. 5, 1526 (Ibid., iii. 167).] + +[Footnote 169: Daniel, x. 23, 24; Gaillard, vi. 409-411.] + +[Footnote 170: Neither the reason nor the precise time of his departure +is known. It was apparently as early as 1523.] + +[Footnote 171: See Haag, La France protestante, art. Farel; Dr. E. +Schmidt, Wilhelm Farel, in Hagenbach, Leben d. Vaeter und Begruender der +Reformirten Kirche, vii. 3, etc. A brief but very accurate sketch in +Herminjard, i. 178, etc.] + +[Footnote 172: MS. Seminary of Meaux, January 11, 1524/5, Bulletin, x. +220.] + +[Footnote 173: "Plusieurs peigneurs, cardeurs et autres gens de meme +trempe, non lettres."] + +[Footnote 174: MS. Seminary of Meaux, February 6, 1524/5, Bulletin, x. +220.] + +[Footnote 175: Compare for the date, Herminjard, i. 378, 389, 401. +Gerard Roussel was ordered by parliament to be seized wherever found, +_etiam in loco sacro_. So, too, were Caroli and Prevost. Jacques Lefevre +was cited to appear. Registres du parlement, Oct. 3, 1525, Preuves des +Libertez de l'Egl. gall., iii. 102, 103.] + +[Footnote 176: Farel to Pellican, 1556, Herminjard, i. 481.] + +[Footnote 177: "Ita invigilent Verbo ecclesiarum ministri, ut, nulla +pene hora diei, suum desit pabulum et quidem _syncerum, ut nulla subsit +palea aut fermenti pharisaici commissura_."] + +[Footnote 178: Roussel to Briconnet, Strasbourg, Dec, 1525, Herminjard, +i. 406, 407.] + +[Footnote 179: Roussel to Farel, Meaux, Aug. 24, 1524, Herminjard, i. +271--a document that throws a flood of light upon the motives of the +conduct of both Roussel and Lefevre. A letter of the same date to +Oecolampadius is, in some respects, even more instructive. Notice the +pitiful weakness revealed in these sentences: "Reclamabunt episcopi, +reclamabunt doctores, reclamabunt scholae, assentiente populo, occurret +Senatus (parliament). _Quid faciet homuncio adversus tot leones?_" +Herminjard, i. 278. A reference to the book of Daniel might have enabled +the Canon of Meaux to answer his own question.] + +[Footnote 180: Pierre Toussain to Oecolampadius, Malesherbes, July 26, +1526, Herminjard, i. 447.] + +[Footnote 181: Mandement de Guillaume Briconnet an clerge de son +diocese, le 21 janvier, 1525, Herminjard, i. 320, etc.] + +[Footnote 182: It may seem surprising that Jean Leclerc escaped the +stake in punishment of his temerity. But the reason is found in the +circumstance that he was tried, not for _heresy_, but for _irreverence_. +This appears from the Registres du parlement for March 20, 1524/5. The +interesting discussions of that session, printed in the Bulletin de la +Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, iii. (1854) 23, etc., establish the +fact that the reformed doctrines were already making formidable headway +in Paris and the adjoining towns. A brother of Bishop Briconnet took a +prominent part in the debate, and gave a deplorable view of the +prevalence of impiety and heresy in the higher circles of society.] + +[Footnote 183: For a description of the punishment, see Bastard +d'Estang, Les parlements de France.] + +[Footnote 184: "Vive Jesus Christ et ses enseignes!"] + +[Footnote 185: Histoire ecclesiastique des eglises reformees, attributed +to Theodore Beza (Ed. of Lille, 1841), i. 4; Crespin, Actiones et +Monimenta Martyrum (Geneva, 1560), fol. 46; Haag, La France protestante, +art. Leclerc; Daniel, x. 23, who finds no more suitable epithet for +Leclerc than "_ce scelerat_."] + +[Footnote 186: At this time a city of the Empire, and not conquered by +France until the reign of Henry II. (1552).] + +[Footnote 187: The story of Leclerc's fortunes is told both by Crespin, +_ubi supra_, fol. 46, and by the Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 4; but, +strange to say, both these early authorities fall into the same error: +they place the first arrest of Leclerc in 1523, and his death a year +later. Almost all subsequent writers have implicitly followed their +authority. The Registres du parlement de Paris, already referred to, +March 20, 1524/5, fix the former event as having occurred only three +days before--"depuis trois jours" (p. 27); while Francois Lambert's +letter to the Senate of Besancon, dated August 15, 1525, expressly +states that Leclerc was burned Saturday, July 22, 1525. Herminjard, i. +372. Jean Chatellain had been executed at Vic, in Lorraine, six months +earlier (January 12, 1525). See P. Lambert to the Elector of Saxony, +Herminjard, i. 346.] + +[Footnote 188: In accordance with the uncertain orthography of the age, +the name is variously written--Pauvan, Pauvant, Pavanne, or Pouvent.] + +[Footnote 189: Pauvan's propositions, with the vindication by Saunier +(or Saulnier) are recapitulated in the censure of the theological +faculty, dated Dec. 9, 1525, and published _in extenso_ among the +documents appended to Gerdesius, Hist. Evang. Renov., iv. 36, etc. +Professor Soldan (i. 107) and others are incorrect in placing the +propositions and their condemnation by the Sorbonne subsequent to the +abjuration, which in this very document the Sorbonne demands.] + +[Footnote 190: Ibid., iv. 47.] + +[Footnote 191: "You err, Master Jacques," Crespin tells us that Mazurier +used to say, "You err, Master Jacques; for you have not looked into the +depth of the sea, but merely upon the surface of the waters and waves." +"_You err, Master Jacques_" became a proverbial expression in the mouths +of the inhabitants of Meaux for a generation or more. Actiones et +Monimenta (Geneva, 1560), fol. 52 _verso_.] + +[Footnote 192: "Tout nud, en sa chemise, criant mercy a Dieu et a la +vierge Marie." Journal d'un bourgeois, _ubi infra_.] + +[Footnote 193: His sentence seems to have been seven years' imprisonment +in the priory of St. Martin des Champs, and it was the prior that +denounced him to parliament. Ibid., _ubi infra_.] + +[Footnote 194: Crespin, _ubi supra_, fol. 53; Hist. eccles., i. 4; Haag, +France prot., s. v. On the 26th of August, 1526, if, as is likely, he is +the "jeune filz, escolier beneficie, non aiant encore ses ordres de +prestrise, nomme maistre ... natif de Therouanne, en Picardie," whom the +Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris refers to--page 291--as having abjured +on Christmas eve, 1525, and been burned "le mardi 28^e aoust, 1526." At +any rate, as M. Herminjard has remarked, Beza and Crespin are certainly +wrong in placing Pauvan's recantation and execution respectively a year +too early (in 1524 and 1525, instead of 1525 and 1526). The date of the +Sorbonne's judgment is decisive on this point.] + +[Footnote 195: Our authority for the remark of the Parisian doctor, +Pierre Cornu, is Farel, in a MS. note to a hitherto inedited letter of +Pauvan, and in his speech at the discussion at Lausanne. Herminjard, i. +293, 294. Farel's application was not without pungency: "Votre foi +est-elle si bien fondee qu'un jeune fils, qui encore n'avoit point de +barbe, vous ait fait tant de dommage, sans avoir tant etudie ne veu, +sans avoir aucun degre, et vous etiez tant?" The admirer of heroic +fortitude will scarcely subscribe to the words of the Jesuit Daniel, +Hist. de France, x. 24: "On ne donne place dans l'histoire _a ces +meprisables noms_, que pour ne laisser ignorer la premiere origine de la +funeste contagion," etc.] + +[Footnote 196: Histoire eccles., i. 4.] + +[Footnote 197: Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris sous le regne de Francois +I^er, April 14, 1526, p. 284.] + +[Footnote 198: Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fol. 118.] + +[Footnote 199: Haag, La France protestante, art. Lefevre; Schmidt, +Wilhelm Farel. Bayle (Diet. s. v. Fevre) maintains, on the authority of +Melchior Adam's Life of Capito, that Lefevre and Roussel were sent by +Margaret of Angouleme on a secret mission to Strasbourg. Erasmus, in a +letter of March, 1526, and Sleidan (lib. v. ad fin.) know nothing of +this, and speak of the trip as merely a flight.] + +[Footnote 200: Haag, _ubi supra_, vi. 507, note.] + +[Footnote 201: Haag, La France protestante, art. Lefevre; Gaillard, +Hist. de Francois premier, vi. 411. The boy, at this time Duke of +Angouleme, did not assume the name of _Charles_ until after his eldest +brother's death. The Swiss cantons, acting as his sponsors, had given +him the somewhat uncommon Christian name _Abednego_ (Abdenago)! +Herminjard, ii. 17, 195.] + +[Footnote 202: The Duke of Orleans may have had sincere predilections +for Protestantism. At least, it is barely possible that the very +remarkable instructions given to his secretary, Antoine Mallet, when on +the 8th of September, 1543, Charles sent him to the Elector of Saxony +and the Landgrave of Hesse, were something besides mere diplomatic +intrigue to secure for his father's projects the support of these +Protestant princes. See, however, a fuller discussion of this incident +farther on, Chapter VI.] + +[Footnote 203: Margaret to Anne de Montmorency, Genin, Lettres de +Marguerite d'Angouleme, i. 279, and Herminjard, ii. 250.] + +[Footnote 204: "Come un cavallo ch' ha un apostema stringendoli il naso +non sente il cauterio."] + +[Footnote 205: "Una retrattationcella." The letter of the Nuncio to +Sanga, secretary of Clement VII., Brussels, December 30, 1531, appeared +in H. Laemmer, Monumenta Vaticana (ex Tabulariis Sanctae Sedis Apostolicae +Secretis), Friburgi Brisgoviae, 1861. I have called attention to its +importance in the Bulletin de la Societe de l'hist. du prot. franc., +xiv. (1865), 345. M. Herminjard has given a French translation, ii. +386.] + +[Footnote 206: This incident has been rejected as apocryphal by Bayle, +and, after him, by Tabaraud (in the Biographie universelle), as well as +more recently by Haag (France protestante). It has rested until now on +the unsupported testimony of Hubert Thomas, secretary of the Elector +Palatine, Frederick II., whom he accompanied on a visit to Charles V. in +Spain. On his return the Elector fell sick at Paris, where he received +frequent visits from the King and Queen of Navarre. It was on one of +these occasions that Margaret related to him this story, in the hearing +of the secretary. (It is reproduced in Jurieu, Histoire du Calvinisme, +etc., Rotterdam, 1683, pt. i. 70.) Bayle objected that it was incredible +that the reformers should have failed to allude to so striking and +suggestive an occurrence. The objection has been scattered to the winds. +With singular good fortune, M. Jules Bonnet has discovered among the +hidden treasures of the Geneva Library an original memorandum in Farel's +own handwriting, prefixed to a letter he had received from Michel +d'Arande, fully confirming the discredited statements. "Jacobus Faber +Stapulensis noster laborans morbo quo decessit, per aliquot dies ita +perterritus fuit judicio Dei, ut actum de se vociferaret, dicens se +aeternum periisse, quod veritatem Dei non aperte professus fuerit, idque +dies noctesque vociferando querebatur. Et cum a Gerardo Rufo admoneretur +ut bono esset animo, Christo quoque fideret, is respondit: 'Nos damnati +sumus, veritatem celavimus quam profiteri et testari debebamus.' +Horrendum erat tam pium senem ita angi animo et tanto horrore judicii +Dei concuti; licet tandem liberatus bene sperare coeperit ac +perrexerit de Christo." Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., +etc., xi. 215; Herminjard, iii. 400.] + +[Footnote 207: "Quo tandem ex hoc profundo limo, in quo non est +substantia, eripi queam." Michel d'Arande to Farel (1536 or 1537), +Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. franc., _ubi supra_; Herminjard, +iii. 399, etc.] + +[Footnote 208: Speaking of Roussel's as yet inedited MS., "Familiere +exposition du symbole et de l'oraison dominicale," Professor C. Schmidt, +than whom no one has better studied the mysticism of the sixteenth +century, remarks that the basis of the work is the doctrine of +justification by faith, the sole authority invoked is that of the +Scriptures, the only head of the church is Jesus Christ, the perfect +church is the invisible church, the visible church is recognized by the +preaching of the Gospel in its purity, and by the administration of the +_two_ sacraments as originally instituted. He adds that the doctrines of +the Lord's Supper and of predestination are expounded in a thoroughly +Calvinistic manner. See Professor S.'s excellent monograph, "Le +mysticisme quietiste en France au debut de la reformation sous Francois +premier," read before the Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., Bulletin, vi. +449, etc.] + +[Footnote 209: Historia de ortu, progressu et ruina haereseon hujus +saeculi (Col. 1614), lib. vii. c. 3, p. 392.] + +[Footnote 210: _E. g._, Tabaraud, Biographie univ., art. Roussel.] + +[Footnote 211: Haag, France protestante, art. Gerard Roussel; Gaillard, +Hist. de Francois premier, vi. 418; Flor. de Raemond, _ubi supra_.] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +FRANCIS I. AND MARGARET OF ANGOULEME--EARLY REFORMATORY MOVEMENTS AND +STRUGGLES. + + +[Sidenote: Francis I. and his sister.] + +[Sidenote: The portrait of the king.] + +Francis the First and his sister, Margaret of Angouleme, were destined +to exercise so important an influence in shaping the history of the +French Reformation during the first half of the sixteenth century, that +a glance at their personal history and character seems indispensable. +Francis Was in his twenty-first year when, by the extinction of the +elder line of the house of Orleans, the crown came to him as the nearest +heir of Louis the Twelfth.[212] He was tall, but well proportioned, of a +fair complexion, with a body capable of enduring without difficulty +great exposure and fatigue. In an extant portrait, taken five years +later, he is delineated with long hair and scanty beard. The drooping +lids give to his eyes a languid expression, while the length of his +nose, which earned him the sobriquet of "le roi au long nez," redeems +his physiognomy from any approach to heaviness.[213] On the other hand, +the Venetian Marino Cavalli, writing shortly before the close of his +reign, eulogizes the personal appearance of Francis, at that time more +than fifty years old. His mien was so right royal, we are assured, that +even a foreigner, never having seen him before, would single him out +from any company and instinctively exclaim, "This is the king!" No ruler +of the day surpassed him in gravity and nobility of bearing. Well did he +deserve to succeed that long line of monarchs upon each of whom the +sacred oil, applied at his coronation in the cathedral of Rheims, had +conferred the marvellous property of healing the king's-evil by a simple +touch.[214] + +[Sidenote: His character and tastes.] + +At his accession, the lively imagination of Francis, fed upon the +romances of chivalry that constituted his favorite reading, called up +the picture of a brilliant future, wherein gallant deeds in arms should +place him among the most renowned knights of Christendom. The ideal +character he proposed for himself involving a certain regard for his +word, Francis's mind revolted from imitating the plebeian duplicity of +his wily predecessor, Louis the Eleventh--a king who enjoyed the +undesirable reputation of never having made a promise which he intended +in good faith to keep. The memory of the disingenuous manner in which +Louis, by winking at the opposition of the Parliament of Paris, had +suffered the revocation of the Pragmatic Sanction to fail, in spite of +his own solemn engagements to carry it into execution, was, undoubtedly, +one of the leading motives inducing the young prince, at the very +beginning of his reign, to adopt the arbitrary measures already spoken +of in a preceding chapter, respecting the papal concordat. Not for half +his kingdom, he repeatedly declared, would he break the pledge he had +given his Holiness. It is not difficult, however, to reconcile the +pertinacity of Francis, on this occasion, with the frequent and well +authenticated instances of bad faith in his dealings with other +monarchs. + +If his literary abilities were slender and his acquirements meagre, this +king had at least the faculty of appreciating excellence in others. The +scholars and wits whom, as we have seen, he succeeded in gathering about +him, repaid his munificence with lavish praise, couched in all manner of +verse, and in every language employed in the civilized world. Even later +historians have not hesitated to rate him much higher than his very +moderate abilities would seem to warrant.[215] The portrait drawn by the +biographer of his imperial rival is, perhaps, full as advantageous as a +regard for truth will permit us to accept. "Francis," says Robertson, +"notwithstanding the many errors conspicuous in his foreign policy and +domestic administration, was nevertheless humane, beneficent, generous. +He possessed dignity without pride, affability free from meanness, and +courtesy exempt from deceit. All who had access to him, and no man of +merit was ever denied that privilege, respected and loved him. +Captivated with his personal qualities, his subjects forgot his defects +as a monarch, and, admiring him as the most accomplished and amiable +gentleman in his dominions, they hardly murmured at acts of +maladministration, which, in a prince of less engaging dispositions, +would have seemed unpardonable."[216] + +[Sidenote: Contrast between Francis I. and Charles V.] + +Two monarchs could scarcely be more dissimilar than were Francis and the +Emperor Charles. "So great is the difference between these two princes," +says the Venetian Giustiniano, "that, as her most serene majesty the +Queen of Navarre, the king's sister, remarked to me when talking on the +subject, one of the two must needs be created anew by God after the +pattern of the other, before they could agree. For, whilst the most +Christian king is reluctant to assume the burden of great thoughts or +undertakings, and devotes himself much to the chase or to his own +pleasures, the emperor never thinks of anything but business and +aggrandizement; and, whereas the most Christian king is simple, open, +and very liberal, and quite sufficiently inclined to defer to the +judgment and counsel of others, the emperor is reserved, parsimonious, +and obstinate in his opinions, governing by himself, rather than through +any one else."[217] + +This diversity of temperament and disposition had ample scope for +manifestation during the protracted wars waged by the two monarchs with +each other. Fit representative of the race to which he belonged, Francis +was bold, adventurous, and almost resistless in the impetuosity of a +first assault. But he soon tired of his undertakings, and relinquished +to the cooler and more calculating Charles the solid fruits of +victory.[218] + +[Sidenote: Francis's religious convictions.] + +Of the possession of deep religious convictions I do not know that +Francis has left any satisfactory evidence. That he was not strongly +attached to the Roman church, that he thoroughly despised the ignorant +monks, whose dissolute lives he well knew, that he had no extraordinary +esteem for the Pope, all this is clear enough from many incidents of his +life. It would even appear that, at one or two points, he might have +been pleased to witness such a reformation of the church as could be +effected without disturbing the existing order. To this he was the more +inclined, that he found almost all the men distinguished for their +learning arrayed on the side of the "new doctrines," as they were +styled, while the pretorian legion of the papacy was headed by the +opponents of letters. + +[Sidenote: His fear of innovation.] + +It will be found, however, that several circumstances tended to +counteract or reverse the king's favorable prepossessions. Not least +influential was a pernicious sentiment studiously instilled in his mind +by those whose material interests were all on the side of the +maintenance of the existing system--_that a change of religion +necessarily involves a change of government_. We shall hear much during +the century of this lying political axiom. When Francis, in his +irritation at the Pope, suggested, on one occasion, to the Nuncio, that +he might be compelled to follow the example Henry the Eighth, of +England, had set him, and permit the spread of the "Lutheran" religion +in France, the astute prelate replied: "Sire, to speak with all +frankness, you would be the first to repent your rash step. Your loss +would be greater than the Pope's; for _a new religion established in the +midst of a people involves nothing short of a change of prince_."[219] +And the same author that records this incident tells us that Francis +hated the Lutheran "heresy," and used to say that this, like every other +new sect, tended more to the destruction of kingdoms than to the +edification of souls.[220] Nor must it be overlooked that Francis +doubtless felt strongly confirmed in his persuasion, by the rash and +disorderly acts of some restless and inconsiderate spirits such as are +wont eagerly to embrace any new belief. Not the peasants' insurrections +in Germany alone, but as well the excesses of the iconoclasts, and the +imprudence of the authors of the famous placards of 1534, although their +acts were distinctly repudiated by the vast majority of the French +reformers, inflicted irretrievable damage, by furnishing plausible +arguments to those who accused the Protestants of being authors or +abettors of riot and confusion. + +[Sidenote: His loose morals.] + +A second reason of the early estrangement of Francis from the "new +doctrines" has more frequently been overlooked. The rigid code of morals +which the reformers established, and which John Calvin attempted to make +in Geneva the law of the state, repelled a prince who, though twice +married and both times to women devoted to his interests and faithful to +their vows, treated his lawful wives with open neglect, and preferred to +consort with perfidious mistresses, who sold to the enemy for money his +confidential disclosures--a prince who, not satisfied with introducing +excesses until then unheard of among his nobles, was not ashamed to +bestow the royal bounty upon the professed head of the degraded women +whom he allowed to accompany the court from place to place.[221] + +[Sidenote: His anxiety to obtain the support of the Pope.] + +If to these two motives we add a third--the desire of the king to avail +himself of the important influence of the Roman pontiff upon the +politics of Europe--we shall be at no loss to account for the singular +fact that the brother of Margaret of Angouleme, in spite of his sister's +entreaties and the promptings of his own better feeling--at times in +defiance of his own manifest advantage--became during the later part of +his reign the first of that long line of persecutors of whom the +Huguenots were the unhappy victims. + +[Sidenote: Studious disposition of Margaret.] + +Margaret was two years older than her brother. Born April 11, 1492, in +the city of Angouleme, she enjoyed, in common with Francis, all the +opportunities of liberal culture afforded by her exalted station. These +opportunities her keener intellect enabled her to improve far better +than the future king. While Francis was indulging his passion for the +chase, in company with Robert de la Marck, "the Boar of the Ardennes," +Margaret was patiently applying herself to study. It is not always easy +to determine how much is to be set down as truth, and how much belongs +to the category of fiction, in the current stories of the scholarly +attainments of princely personages. But there is good reason in the +present case to believe that, unlike most of the ladies of her age that +were reputed prodigies of learning, Margaret of Angouleme did not +confine herself to the modern languages, but became proficient in +Latin, besides acquiring some notion of Greek and Hebrew. By extensive +reading, and through intercourse with the best living masters of the +French language, she made herself a graceful writer. She was, moreover, +a poet of no mean pretensions, as her verses, often comparing favorably +with those of Clement Marot, abundantly testify. It was, however, to the +higher walks of philosophical and religious thought that Margaret felt +most strongly drawn. Could implicit credit be given to the partial +praises of her professed eulogist, Charles de Sainte-Marthe, who owed +his escape from the stake to her powerful intercession, we might affirm +that the contemplation of the sublime truths of Revelation early +influenced her entire character, and that "the Spirit of God began then +to manifest His presence in her eyes, her expression, her walk, her +conversation--in a word, in all her actions."[222] + +[Sidenote: Her personal appearance.] + +But, whatever may have been the precocious virtues of Margaret at the +age of fifteen, it is certain that when, by her brother's elevation to +the throne, she was introduced to the foremost place at court, it was +her remarkable qualities of heart, quite as much as her recognized +mental abilities, that called forth universal admiration. Her personal +appearance, it is true, was a favorite subject for the encomium of +poets; but her portraits fail to justify their panegyrics, and convey no +impression of beauty. The features are large, the nose as conspicuously +long as her brother's; yet the sweetness of expression, upon which Marot +is careful chiefly to dwell in one of his elegant poetical epistles, is +not less noticeable.[223] + +[Sidenote: Her political Influence.] + +In the conduct of public affairs Margaret took no insignificant part. +Francis was accustomed so uniformly to entrust his mother and sister +with important state secrets, that to the powerful council thus firmly +united by filial and fraternal ties the term "Trinity" was applied, not +only by the courtiers, but by the royal family itself.[224] Foreign +diplomatists extolled Margaret's intelligent statesmanship, and asserted +that she was consulted on every occasion.[225] It is a substantial claim +of Margaret to the respect of posterity, that the influence thus enjoyed +was, apparently, never prostituted to the advancement of selfish ends, +but constantly exerted in the interest of learning, humanity, and +religious liberty. + +Margaret was first married, in 1509, to the Duke of Alencon, a prince +whose cowardice on the battle-field of Pavia (1525), where he commanded +the French left wing, is said to have been the principal cause of the +defeat and capture of his royal brother-in-law. He made good his own +escape, only to die, at Lyons, of disease induced by exposure and +aggravated by bitter mortification. The next two years were spent by +Margaret in unremitting efforts to secure her brother's release. With +this object in view she obtained from the emperor a safe-conduct +enabling her to visit and console Francis in his imprisonment at Madrid, +and endeavor to settle with his captor the terms of his ransom. But, +while admiring her sisterly devotion, Charles showed little disposition +to yield to her solicitations. In fact, he even issued an order to seize +her person the moment the term of her safe-conduct should expire--a +peril avoided by the duchess only by forced marches. As it was, she +crossed the frontier, it is said, a single hour before the critical +time. The motive of this signal breach of imperial courtesy was, +doubtless, the well-founded belief that Margaret was bearing home to +France a royal abdication in favor of the Dauphin.[226] + +[Sidenote: Margaret marries Henry of Navarre.] + +Early in 1527, Margaret was married with great pomp to Henri d'Albret, +King of Navarre.[227] The match would seem to have been prompted by love +and admiration on her side; for the groom had performed a romantic +exploit in effecting his escape from prison after his capture at +Pavia.[228] In spite of the great disparity between the ages of Margaret +and her husband,[229] the union was congenial, and added greatly to the +power and resources of the latter. The duchies of Alencon and Berry more +than equalled in extent the actual domain of the King of Navarre; for, +from the time when Ferdinand the Catholic (in July, 1512) wrested from +brave Catharine of Foix and her inefficient husband John[230] all their +possessions on the southern slope of the Pyrenees,[231] the authority +of the titular monarch was respected only in the mountainous district of +which Pau was the capital, and to which the names of Bearn or French +Navarre are indifferently applied. The union thus auspiciously begun +lasted, unbroken by domestic contention, until the death of Margaret, in +1549;[232] and the pompous ceremonial attending the queen's obsequies is +said to have been a sincere attestation of the universal sorrow +affecting the King of Navarre and his subjects alike. + +[Sidenote: She corresponds with Bishop Briconnet.] + +It was through the instrumentality of the Bishop of Meaux that Margaret +of Angouleme was first drawn into sympathy with the reformatory +movement. Unsatisfied with herself and with the influences surrounding +her, she sought in Briconnet a spiritual adviser and guide. The prelate, +in the abstruse and almost unintelligible language of exaggerated +mysticism, endeavored to fulfil the trust. His prolix correspondence +still exists in manuscript in the National Library of Paris, together +with the replies of his royal penitent. Its incomprehensibility may +perhaps forever preclude the publication of the greater part;[233] but +we can readily forgive the bishop's absurdities and far-fetched +conceits, when we find him in his letters leading Margaret to the Holy +Scriptures as the only source of spiritual strength, and enjoining a +humble and docile reception of its teachings. + +[Sidenote: Luther's teachings condemned by the Sorbonne.] + +On the fifteenth of April, 1521, the University of Paris, whose opinion +respecting Luther's tenets the entire Christian world had for two years +been anxiously expecting, pronounced its solemn decision. It condemned +the writings of the German monk to the flames, on the ground that they +were seductive, insulting to the hierarchy, contrary to Scripture, and +schismatic. It likened his latest production, _De Captivitate +Babylonica_, to Alcoran. It branded as preposterous the notion that God +had reserved the discovery of what is needful to the salvation of the +faithful for Martin Luther to make; as though Christ had left his +spouse, the Church, so many centuries, and until now, in the darkness +and blindness of error. Such sentiments as he uttered were a denial of +the first principles of the faith, an unblushing profession of impiety, +an arrogance so impious that it must be repressed by chains and +censures--nay, by fire and by flame, rather than refuted by +argument.[234] A long list of heretical propositions selected from +Luther's works was appended.[235] + +[Sidenote: Melanchthon's defence.] + +In the month of June following, Melanchthon replied to the Sorbonne's +condemnation. He declared that, could the great Gerson and his +illustrious associates and predecessors rise from the dead, they would +fail to recognize in the present race of theologians their legitimate +offspring, and that they would deplore the misfortune of the university +as well as of the whole of Christendom, in that sophists had usurped the +place of theologians, and slanderers the seat of Christian doctors. As +for the silly letter prefixed to the decree, the reformer wrote, it is a +feeble production full of womanish fury: "He pretends to the sole +possession of wisdom. He contemns us. He is a Manichaean, a Montanist; he +is mad. Let him be compelled by fire and flame." Who could refrain from +derisive laughter at the unmanly and truly monkish weakness of such +threats?[236] + +[Sidenote: Regency of Louise de Savoie.] + +In the summer of 1523 the king, in order to provide for the government +of France during his expected absence from the capital, appointed his +mother temporary regent--a dignity which Louise de Savoie enjoyed more +than once during Francis's reign. The chancellor, Antoine Duprat, +embraced the opportunity to persuade the queen mother that she could +not better atone for the irregularities of her own life than by +enforcing submission to the authority of the papal church. What causes +had contributed to the very radical change apparently effected in her +mental attitude to the established ecclesiastical system, since she had +in the preceding December discovered the monks, of whatever color their +cowl might be, to be arrant "hypocrites" and the most "dangerous +generation of human kind"--if, indeed, any such change in her mental +attitude had really taken place at all, and her present zeal was not +altogether assumed from political motives--we have not the means of +determining with certainty. However this may be, she was now induced to +take a much more decided stand than Francis had ever taken in opposition +to the reformed doctrines, of whose spread, not only in Meaux and other +cities in the provinces, but even in Paris, both in the schools of +learning and without, there began to be symptoms alarming to the +hierarchy. + +[Sidenote: The Sorbonne's recommendations for the extirpation of +heresy.] + +As a preliminary step, the regent sent her confessor, Friar Gilbert +Nicolai, to the Sorbonne, with instructions to consult it respecting +"the means to be employed for purging this very Christian realm of the +damnable doctrine of Luther." It need scarcely be said that the message +was received with great delight. The theological doctors soon replied, +rendering thanks to Almighty God for having inspired Louise with the +holy purpose of executing whatever might be found most likely to promote +God's honor and the prosperity of France.[237] What measures did they +propose to her as best calculated to accomplish this laudable end? +Sermons, disputations, books, and other scholastic means, they write, +may be employed in the refutation of the errors of Luther, as indeed +they are every day employed, at the Sorbonne's instigation, and from +this instrumentality some good effects may be expected; but since, after +all, neither sermons nor books, however learned and conclusive, _compel_ +any person to renounce his heretical views, more practical and coercive +measures must be adopted if the object is to be attained. All royal +officers must be enjoined strictly to enforce every order promulgated +against heretics. The prelates must be urged to demand, on pain of +excommunication, the surrender of all books of Luther or his supporters +found in their dioceses. Meanwhile, the highest ecclesiastical censures +are to be directed against those who in any way uphold the heterodox +belief. It is only in this way that hope can reasonably be entertained +of suppressing this pernicious innovation, which may yet inflict still +greater evils upon unfortunate France; since the Scriptures tell us that +pestilence, famine, and war served as a rod for the punishment of God's +chosen nation of old, whenever it forsook the pure precepts of the law +given by the Almighty. + +In reply to another inquiry made by the regent at the same time, the +Sorbonne enters into greater detail. If any one complains that he is +unjustly accused of favoring the heresy that has recently appeared, let +him clear himself by following St. Paul's example, who, when brought to +the knowledge of the truth, instantly undertook the defence of what he +had ignorantly persecuted. Rumors that some persons in high places are +friendly to the spread of the new errors have gained lamentable +currency, both at home and abroad. They have obtained confirmation from +the praise lately lavished by "some great personages" upon the doctrine +of Luther, and the blame poured upon its opponents. The execution of the +king's order for the burning of Luther's books has been singularly +delayed. Worst of all have been the obstacles placed in the way of the +pious efforts of the prelates, either without the consent of the king, +or by him ill-advised--for example, in the proceedings of the Bishop of +Paris against Louis de Berquin. Similar impediments have been interposed +to prevent the condemnation by parliament and university of the printed +works of this same Berquin and of Lefevre d'Etaples; while, as if to +make the affair still more scandalous, two treatises lately written in +refutation of Luther's doctrines have been seized in the name of the +king and by his authority.[238] + +[Sidenote: Wide circulation of Luther's works.] + +Such were the complaints of the theological faculty, such the means +suggested for the destruction of the new leaven that was already +beginning to assert its mission to permeate society. There were +certainly sufficient grounds for apprehension. The works of Luther, as +we have before seen, had early been translated into French, and a +contemporary writer confirms the statement that they had already been +widely disseminated.[239] An order of parliament, referred to in its +communication to the regent, had indeed been published, to the sound of +the trumpet, throughout the city of Paris (August 3, 1521), strictly +commanding all booksellers, printers, and others that might have copies +in their possession, to give them up within the space of eight days, on +pain of imprisonment and fine.[240] But even this measure failed to +accomplish the desired result. The Reformation was silently extending +its influence, as some significant events sufficiently proved. + +[Sidenote: Lambert, the first French monk to embrace the Reformation.] + +At Avignon, copies of several of the writings of Martin Luther fell into +the hands of Francois Lambert, son of a former private secretary of the +papal legate entrusted with the government of the Comtat Venaissin. He +was a man of vivid imagination, keen religious sensibilities, and marked +oratorical powers. He had at the age of fifteen been so deeply impressed +by the saintly appearance of the Franciscans as to seek admission to +their monastery as a novice. No sooner did he assume, a year later +(1503), the irrevocable vows that constituted him a monk, than his +disenchantment began. According to his own account, the quarrelsome and +debauched friars no longer felt any of the solicitude they had +previously entertained lest the knowledge of their excesses should deter +him from embracing a "religious" life. A few years later Lambert became +a preacher, and having, through a somewhat careful study of the Holy +Scriptures, embraced more evangelical views than were held by most of +his order, began to deliver discourses as well received by the people as +they were hated by his fellow-monks. Great was the outcry against him +when he openly denounced the misdeeds of a worthless vender of papal +indulgences; still greater when copies of Luther's treatises were found +in his possession. The books were seized, sealed, condemned, and burned, +although scarcely a glance had been vouchsafed at their contents. It was +enough for the monkish judges to cry: "They are heretical! They are +heretical!" "Nevertheless," exclaims honest Lambert, kindling with +indignation at the remembrance of the scene, "I confidently assert that +those same books of Luther contain more of pure theology than all the +writings of all the monks that have lived since the creation of the +world."[241] + +[Sidenote: He is also the first to renounce celibacy.] + +Lambert had made full trial of the monastic life. He had even immured +himself for some time in a Carthusian retreat, but found its inmates in +no respect superior to the Franciscans. At last an opportunity for +escape offered. In 1522, when a score of years had passed since he +entered upon his novitiate, he was despatched with letters to the +general of his order. Instead of fulfilling his commission, he traversed +Switzerland, and made his way to Wittemberg, where he satisfied the +desire he had long entertained, of meeting the great reformer to whose +works he owed his own spiritual enlightenment. Full of zeal for the +propagation of the doctrines he had embraced, Lambert, not long after +(1524), established himself at Metz as a favorable point from which +France might be influenced. But the commotion excited by his +opponents--perhaps, also, his own lack of prudence--compelled him within +a fortnight to flee to Strasbourg.[242] Here, more secure, but scarcely +more judicious, he busied himself with sending over the French borders +numbers of tracts composed or translated by himself, and addressing to +Francis and the chief persons of his court appeals which, doubtless, +rarely if ever reached their eyes.[243] In another field of labor, to +which the Landgrave of Hesse called him, Francois Lambert performed +services far more important than any he was permitted to render his +native land. As the first French monk to throw aside his habit--above +all, as the first to renounce celibacy and defend in a published +treatise the step he had taken (1523), no French reformer, even among +those of far greater abilities and wider influence, was regarded by the +adherents of the Roman Catholic Church with so intense a dislike.[244] + +The firm hold which the Reformation was gaining on the population of +several places of great importance, close upon the eastern frontiers of +the kingdom, was a portent of evil in the eyes of the Sorbonne; for +Metz, St. Hippolyte, and Montbeliard, all destined to be absorbed in the +growing territories of France, were already bound to it by close ties of +commercial intercourse. + +[Sidenote: Jean Chatellain, of Metz.] + +In Metz the powerful appeals of an Augustinian monk, Jean Chatellain, +had powerfully moved the masses. He was as eloquent as he was learned, +as commanding in appearance as fearless in the expression of his +belief.[245] The attempt to molest him would have proved a very +dangerous one for the clergy of Metz to make; for the enthusiasm of the +laity in his support knew no bounds, and the churchmen prudently avoided +giving it an occasion for manifestation. But, no sooner had Chatellain +been induced on some pretext to leave the safe protection of the walls, +than a friar of his own order and monastery betrayed him to the +bishop.[246] He was hurriedly taken to Nommeny, and thence to Vic for +trial and execution. In vain did the Inquisitor of the Faith strive to +shake his constancy. His judges were forced to liken their incorrigible +prisoner to the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear. As "a preacher of +false doctrines," an "apostate" and a "liar toward God Almighty," they +declared him excommunicated and deprived of whatever ecclesiastical +benefices he might hold. The faithful compiler of the French martyrology +gives in accurate, but painful, detail the successive steps by which +Chatellain was stripped of the various prerogatives conferred upon him +in ordination. I shall not repeat the story of sacred vessels placed in +his hands only to be hastily snatched from them, of the scraping of his +fingers supposed to remove the grace of consecration, of chasuble and +stole indignantly taken away--in short, of all the petty devices of a +malice at which the mind wearies and the heart sickens. It was perhaps a +fitting sequel to the ceremony that the degrading bishop should hand his +victim over to the representative of the secular arm to be put to death, +with a hypocritical recommendation to mercy: "Lord Judge, we entreat you +as affectionately as we can, as well by the love of God, as from pity +and compassion, and out of respect for our prayers, that you do this +wretched man no injury tending to death or the mutilation of his +body."[247] The prayer was granted--according to the intent of the +petitioner. On the twelfth of January, 1525, Chatellain was led to the +place of execution, as cheerful in demeanor, the witnesses said, as if +walking to a feast. At the stake he knelt and offered a short prayer, +then met his horrible sentence with a constancy that won many converts +to the faith for which he had suffered. At the news of the fate of their +admired teacher, the citizens of Metz could not contain their rage. A +tumultuous scene ensued, in which it was well that the +ecclesiastics--there were more than nine hundred within the +walls[248]--escaped with no greater injury at the hands of the angry +populace than some passing insults. John Vedast, an evangelical teacher, +was at that time in confinement, reserved for a similar doom to that of +Chatellain. He was liberated by the people, who, in a body membering +several thousand men, visited his prison and enabled him to escape to a +safe refuge. It was not until a strong detachment of troops had been +thrown into the city that the burgesses were reduced to submission.[249] +"None the less," admits a Roman Catholic historian, "did Lutheranism +spread over the entire district of Metz."[250] + +[Sidenote: Tragic end of Wolfgang Schuch.] + +At St. Hippolyte, a town near the Swiss frontier, dependent upon the +Duke of Lorraine, similar success and a similarly tragic end were the +results of the zealous labors of Wolfgang Schuch, a priest of German +extraction. The "good duke" Antoine, having been led to confound the +peaceable disciples of Schuch with the revolted peasants, whose ravages +had excited widespread alarm throughout Germany, publicly proclaimed his +intention of visiting the town that harbored them with fire and sword. +To propitiate him by removing his misapprehension, Schuch wrote to the +duke a singularly touching letter containing a candid exposition of the +religion he professed;[251] but finding that his missive had been of no +avail, he resolved to immolate himself in behalf of his flock. At +Nancy, the capital of the duchy, whither he had gone to dissuade Antoine +from executing his savage threats, he was thrown into a loathsome +dungeon, while the University of Paris was consulted respecting the +soundness of thirty-one propositions extracted from his writings by the +Inquisitor of Lorraine. On the nineteenth of August, 1525--the +theologians of the Sorbonne having some months before reported +unfavorably upon the theses submitted to them--Wolfgang Schuch was +consigned to the flames.[252] + +[Sidenote: Farel at Montbeliard.] + +Less sanguinary results attended the Reformation at Montbeliard, where +the indefatigable Farel was the chief actor. One of those highly +dramatic incidents, in which the checkered life of this remarkable man +abounds, is said to have preceded his withdrawal from the city. +Happening, on St. Anthony's day, to meet, upon a bridge spanning a +narrow stream in the neighborhood, a solemn procession headed by priests +chanting the praises of the saint whose effigy they bore aloft, Farel +was seized with an uncontrollable desire to arrest the impious service. +Snatching the image from the hands of ecclesiastics who were little +prepared for so sudden an onslaught, he indignantly cried, "Wretched +idolaters, will you never forsake your idolatry?" At the same instant he +threw the saint into the water, before the astonished devotees had time +to interfere. Had not some one just then opportunely raised the shout, +"The saint is drowning," it might have gone hard with the fearless +iconoclast.[253] + +The Reformation was thus gaining a foothold in the bishopric of Metz, in +the duchy of Lorraine, and the county of Montbeliard--districts as yet +independent of France, in which country they were subsequently merged. +But, if suffered to be victorious at these important points, it might +readily cross the borders and spread with irresistible force to the +contiguous parts of Francis's dominions. Nearer home, the reformatory +movement at Meaux, though abandoned by the bishop who had fostered its +first development, was not wholly suppressed. In Lyons and Grenoble, +Friar Aime Maigret had preached such evangelical sermons--in French to +the people and in Latin to the Parliament of Dauphiny--that he had been +sent to Paris to be examined by the Sorbonne. The primate and his +council had seen with solicitude that from the ashes of Waldo and the +Poor Men of Lyons "very many new shoots were springing up,"[254] and +called for some signal act of severity to repress the growing evil. + +[Sidenote: Pierre Caroli lectures on the Psalms.] + +In Paris itself the Sorbonne found reason for alarm. The sympathy of +Margaret of Angouleme with the friends of progress was recognized. It +had already availed for the deliverance of Louis de Berquin, whose +remarkable history will find a place in the next chapter. Nor did the +redoubted syndic of the theological faculty, Beda, or Bedier, reign +without a rival in the academic halls. Pierre Caroli, one of the doctors +invited by Briconnet to Meaux, a clever wrangler, and never better +pleased than when involved in controversy, albeit a man of shallow +religious convictions and signal instability, wearied out by his +counter-plots the illustrious heresy-hunter. When forbidden to preach, +Caroli opened a course of lectures upon the Psalms in the College de +Cambray. Having then been interdicted from continuing his prelections, +he made the modest request to be permitted to finish the exposition of +the 22d Psalm, which he had begun. This being refused, the disputatious +doctor posted the following notice on the doors of the college: "Pierre +Caroli, wishing to conform to the orders of the sacred faculty, ceases +to teach. He will resume his lectures (when it shall please God) where +he left off, at the verse, 'They pierced my hands and my feet.'"[255] + + * * * * * + + [Sidenote: The Heptameron of the Queen of Navarre.] + + I have reserved for this place a few remarks respecting the + _Heptameron_ of Margaret of Angouleme, which seem required by the + disputed character or this singular work. I have spoken at length + of the virtues of the Queen of Navarre, and I may here add a + statement of my strong conviction that the accusation is altogether + groundless which ascribes a sinister meaning to the strong + expressions of sisterly affection so frequent in her correspondence + with Francis the First (see M. Genin, Supplement a la notice sur + Marg. d'Angouleme, prefixed to the second volume of the Letters). + Nor do I make any account of the vague statement of that mendacious + libertine, Brantome, who doubtless imagined himself to be paying + the Queen of Navarre the most delicate compliment, when he said, + that "of gallantry she knew more than her daily bread." + + But, whatever the purity of Margaret's own private life, the fact + which cannot be overlooked is that a book of a decidedly immoral + tendency was composed and published under her name. Her most + sincere admirers would hail with gratification any satisfactory + evidence that the Heptameron was written by another hand. + Unfortunately, there seems to be none. On the contrary, we have + Brantome's direct testimony to the effect that the composition of + the book was the employment of the queen's idle hours when + travelling about in her litter, and that his grandmother, being one + of Margaret's ladies of honor, was accustomed to take charge of her + writing-case (Ed. Lalanne, viii. 126). Equally untenable is the + view taken by the historian De Thou (liv. vi., vol. x. 508), who + makes the fault more venial by representing the Heptameron to have + been composed by the fair author in her youth. (So, too, Soldan, i. + 89.) I am sorry to have to say that the events referred to in the + stories themselves belong to a period reaching within a year or two + of Margaret's death. + + The facts, then, are simply these: The tales of Boccaccio's + Decameron were read with great delight by Margaret, by Francis the + First, and by his children. They resolved, therefore, to imitate + the great Italian novelist by committing to writing the most + remarkable incidents supplied by the gossip of the court (see the + Prologue to the Heptameron). Francis and his children, finding that + Margaret greatly excelled in this species of composition, soon + renounced the unequal strife, but encouraged her to pursue an + undertaking promising to afford them much amusement. Apportioning, + after the example of Boccaccio, a decade of stories, illustrative + of some single topic, to each day's entertainment, the Queen of + Navarre had reached the seventh day, when the death of her + brother, the near approach of her own end, and disgust with so + frivolous an occupation, induced her to suspend her labors. The + Heptameron, as the interrupted work was now called, was not + apparently intended for publication, but was, after Margaret's + death, printed under the auspices of her daughter, the celebrated + Jeanne d'Albret. + + As to the stories themselves, they treat of adventures, in great + part amorous and often immodest. In this particular they are + scarcely less objectionable than those of Boccaccio. They differ + from the latter in the circumstance that the author's avowed + purpose is to insert none but actual occurrences. They are + distinguished from them more especially by the attempt uniformly + made to extract a wholesome lesson from every incident. The + prevalent vices of the day are portrayed--with too much minuteness + of detail, indeed, but only that they may be held up to the greater + condemnation. It is particularly the monks of various orders who, + for their flagrant crimes against morality, are made the object of + biting sarcasm. The abominable teachings of these professed + instructors of religion are justly reprobated. For example, in the + Forty-fourth Nouvelle, Parlamente, while admitting that some + Franciscans preach a pure doctrine, affirms that "_the streets are + not paved with such, so much as marked by their opposites_;" and + she relates the attempt of one of their prominent men, a doctor of + theology, to convince some members of his own fraternity that the + Gospel is entitled to no more credit than Caesar's Commentaries. + "From the hour I heard him," she adds, "I have refused to believe + the words of any preacher unless I find them in agreement with + God's Word, _which is the true touchstone_ to ascertain what words + are true and what false" (Ed. Soc. des bibliophiles, ii. 382-384). + + Modern French _litterateurs_ have not failed to eulogize the author + as frequently rivalling her model in dramatic vividness of + narration. At the same time they take exception to the numerous + passages wherein she "preaches," as detracting from the artistic + merit of her work. It is, however, precisely the feature here + referred to that constitutes, in the eyes of reflecting readers, + the chief, if not the sole, redeeming trait of the Heptameron. As a + favorable example, illustrating the nature of the pious words and + exhortations thrown in so incongruously with stories of the most + objectionable kind, I translate a few sentences from the Prologue, + in which Oisile (the pseudonym for Margaret herself) speaks: "If + you ask me what receipt I have that keeps me so joyful and in such + good health in my old age, it is this--that as soon as I rise I + take and read the Holy Scriptures. Contemplating there the goodness + of God, who sent His Son to earth to announce the glad tidings of + the remission of all sins by the gift of His love, passion, and + merits, the consideration causes me such joy that I take my psalter + and sing in my heart as humbly as I can, while repeating with my + lips those beautiful psalms and hymns which the Holy Ghost composed + in the heart of David and other authors; and the satisfaction I + derive from this does me so much good that all the ills that may + befall me through the day appear to me to be blessings, seeing that + I bear in my heart Him who bore them for me. In like manner, before + I sup, I withdraw to give sustenance to my soul in reading, and + then at night I recall all I have done during the past day, in + order to ask for the pardon of my faults and thank God for His + gifts. Then in His love, fear and peace I take my rest, assured + from every ill. Wherefore, my children, here is the pastime upon + which I settled long since, after having in vain sought contentment + of spirit in all the rest.... For he that knows God sees everything + beautiful in Him, and without Him everything unattractive." + Prologue, 13-15. + + If any one object that no quantity of pious reflections can + compensate for the positive evil in the Heptameron, I can but + acquiesce in his view, and concede that M. Genin has been much too + lenient in his estimate of Margaret's fault. It is a riddle which I + leave to the reader to solve, that a princess of unblemished + private life, of studious habits, and of not only a serious, but + even a positively religious turn of mind--in short, in every way a + noble pattern for one of the most corrupt courts Europe has ever + seen--should, in a work aiming to inculcate morality, and + abundantly furnished with direct religious exhortation, have + inserted, not _one_, but a _score_ of the most repulsive pictures + of vice, drawn from the impure scandal of that court. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 212: He was born at Cognac, Sept. 12, 1494.] + +[Footnote 213: See the fac-simile in the magnificent work of M. Niel, +Portraits des personnages francais les plus illustres du 16me siecle, +Paris, 1848, 2 vols. fol.] + +[Footnote 214: The envoy's description of Francis's curative power is +interesting. "Ha una proprieta, _o vero dono da Dio_, come han tutti li +re di Francia, di far guarire li amalati di scrofule.... E questo lo fa +in giorno solenne, come Pasqua, Natale e Nostra Donna. Si confessa e +communica; dipoi _tocca li amalati in croce al volto, dicendo: 'Il Re ti +tocca, e Iddio ti guarisca_!'" Cavalli thinks there can be no doubt of +the reality of the cures effected; otherwise, why should continually +increasing numbers of sick folk come from the most distant countries, if +they received no benefit? Relazioni Venete (Alberi), ser. i., i. 237. It +must not be imagined, however, that the kings of France engrossed all +virtue of this kind. The monarchs of England were wont to hallow on Good +Friday certain rings which thenceforth guaranteed the wearer against +epilepsy. These _cramp-rings_, as they were called, were no less in +demand abroad than at home. Sir John Mason wrote from Brussels, April +25, 1555, that many persons had expressed the desire to obtain them, and +begged Sir W. Petrie to interest himself in procuring him some of this +year's blessing by Queen Mary. MSS. State Paper Office.] + +[Footnote 215: The small size of the brain and the depression of the +forehead indicated in all the different contemporary portraits of +Francis have been noticed by M. Niel (Portraits, i. 10), who dryly adds +that in view of them he might have been inclined to withhold the +eulogies he has inserted in his notice of the monarch, "had he not +recollected in time that the laws of phrenology are not infallible."] + +[Footnote 216: Robertson, Charles V., iii. 396.] + +[Footnote 217: Relazione di Francia (1538), Alberi, i. 203, 204. It will +be noticed that Giustiniano wrote at a period when the youthful ardor of +Francis had somewhat cooled down.] + +[Footnote 218: The French king's proverbial ill-success gave rise to the +taunt that his was "un esser savio in bocca e non in mente," but Marino +Cavalli is charitably inclined to ascribe his misfortune rather to the +lack of the right men to execute his designs, than to any fault of his +own. Rel. des Amb. Ven., Tommaseo, i. 282.] + +[Footnote 219: "Sire, vous en seriez marri le premier, et vous en +prendroit tres mal, et y perdriez plus que le pape; car une nouvelle +religion, mise parmi un peuple, ne demande apres que changement du +prince." Brantome, M. l'Admiral de Chastillon, Oeuvres, ix. 202.] + +[Footnote 220: Brantome, Femmes illustres: Marguerite, reine de Navarre. +Also Homines ill.: Francois premier (Oeuvres, vii. 256, 257).] + +[Footnote 221: The Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. franc., v. +380, 381, publishes from a MS. in the library of the Louvre, an order +from Francis I., countersigned by Bayard, directing his treasurer to pay +to "Cecille de Viefville, _dame des filles de joye suivans nostre +court_," the sum of forty-five livres tournois. This gift is to be +shared with "_les autres femmes de sa voccation_," as she and they shall +see fit, and to be received as "a New-Year's present for the first of +January past, such as it has been customary from all time to make." The +last clause may have been inserted for the purpose of palliating the +disgraceful usage. This precious document is followed by Cecile's +receipt, dated, like the order, Hesdin, February 18, 1539 (1540 New +Style).] + +[Footnote 222: Ch. de Sainte-Marthe, Oraison funebre, 1550, _apud_ +Genin, i. 3.] + +[Footnote 223: + + _Une doulceur_ assise en belle face, + _Qui la beaulte des plus belles efface_; + D'un regard chaste ou n'habite nul vice; + + . . . . . . . . + + Tons ces beaulx dons et mille davantaige + Sont en ung corps ne de hault parentaige, + Et de grandeur tant droicte et bien formee, + Que faicte semble expres pour estre aymee + D'hommes et dieux. + +--Ined. Epistle of Marot to Margaret, prefixed to Genin, Notice, xiii., +xiv. One of the two crayons of Margaret by contemporary artists, +reproduced by Niel, Portraits des personnages illustres, etc., tome ii., +was taken in early life; the other represents her as wearing the sombre +dress she preferred in her last years.] + +[Footnote 224: Vie politique de Marg. d' Angouleme, by Leroux de Lincy, +prefixed to the Heptameron (Ed. of the Soc. des bibliophiles), i. p. +lxiv.] + +[Footnote 225: "La serenissima regina di Navarra ... e donna di molto +valore, e spirito grande, e che intervienne in tutti i consigli." Relaz. +di Francesco Giustiniano, 1538, Alberi, i. 203.] + +[Footnote 226: The document contained a proviso that, should Francis be +liberated, the Dauphin was to restore to him the sovereignty for the +term of his natural life. It was dated Madrid, November, 1525. Isambert, +Recueil des anciennes lois, etc., xii. 237-244.] + +[Footnote 227: "Le mercredy _penultiesme jour de janvier_, au dict an, +ils furent espousez an diet lieu de _Saint Germain_ (_en Laye_). Apres +furent faictes _jouxtes et tournois et gros triomphes_ par l'espace de +huict jours ou environ." Journal d'un bourgeois, 302. Olhagaray states +the date differently, viz., January 24th; _ubi infra_, 488.] + +[Footnote 228: See Olhagaray, Histoire de Foix, Bearn, et Navarre +(Paris, 1609), 487.] + +[Footnote 229: He was born April, 1503, and was consequently eleven +years younger than Margaret.] + +[Footnote 230: Catharine's bitter reproach addressed to her husband has +become famous: "Had I been king, and you queen, we had been reigning in +Navarre at this moment." Prescott, Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, iii. +353. Olhagaray gives another of her speeches: "O Roy vous demeures Jean +d'Albret, et ne penses plus au Royaume de Navarre que vous avez perdu +par vostre nonchalance." _Ubi supra_, 455.] + +[Footnote 231: The Spanish conquest of Navarre is narrated at length by +Prescott, Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, iii. 347-367. See also +Olhagaray, 454, etc., and Moncaut, Histoire des Pyrenees, iv. 233-271. +It will be borne in mind that the great crime of John d'Albret was his +adhesion to Louis XII. of France, in his determined struggle with Julius +II.; and that Ferdinand's title was justified by a pretended bull of +this Pope giving the kingdoms of his enemies to be a prey to the first +invader that might seize them in behalf of the Pontifical See. The bull, +however, is now generally admitted to be a Spanish forgery. See +Prescott, _ubi supra_. Baron A. de Ruble observes (Mem. de La Huguerye, +1, note): "On sait aujourd'hui que cette bulle est apocryphe."] + +[Footnote 232: Brantome does, indeed, accuse Henry of using severity +toward his wife, on account of her religious innovations, until +threatened with the displeasure of Francis; but the truth seems to be +that the King of Navarre was himself not ill-disposed to the religious +reformation.] + +[Footnote 233: M. Herminjard has been criticised for inserting too many +of Bishop Briconnet's epistles in the first volume of his Correspondance +des reformateurs dans les pays de langue francaise. M. Genin also gives +specimens of the bishop's bombast, observing maliciously: "Si Briconnet +argumenta en pareil style aux conciles de Pise et du Latran, il dut +embarrasser beaucoup ses adversaires." Lettres de Marg. d'Angouleme, i. +128.] + +[Footnote 234: "O impiam et inverecundam arrogantiam," etc. See chapter +I., p. 24.] + +[Footnote 235: Determinatio Facultatis, etc., Gerdes., iv. (Doc.) 10, +etc.; Bretschneider, Corpus Reformatorum (Opera Melanchthonis), i. 366, +etc., 371, etc.] + +[Footnote 236: Adversus furiosum Parisiensium theologastrorum decretum +Philippi Melanchthonis pro Luthero apologia, Bretschneider, i. 399-416.] + +[Footnote 237: Lettre de la faculte de theologie a la reine, Oct. 7, +1523, Gerdes., iv. (Doc.) 16, 17.] + +[Footnote 238: Articules concernans les responces que apres meure +deliberation a fait la faculte de theologie. Gerdes., iv. (Doc.) 17-21.] + +[Footnote 239: "Qui [les livres de Luther] furent imprimez et publiez +par toutes les villes d'Alemaigne et par tout le royaume de France." +Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, 94.] + +[Footnote 240: Ibid., 104.] + +[Footnote 241: "Ego confidenter loquar, credens in Domino quod verum +sit, quod plus syncerioris theologiae in libris praedictis continetur, +quam in omnibus scriptis omnium monachorum, qui a principio fuerunt."] + +[Footnote 242: A contemporary song (1525) denouncing woes against +Strasbourg for harboring the "Lutherans," contains these doggerel lines: + + "Ce faulx Lambert, heretique mauldict, + Te fait prendre la dance + De l'infemal deduyt." + +Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. franc., ix. (1860) 381.] + +[Footnote 243: Margaret of Angouleme, out of all patience, at last sent +word requesting him to desist from these untimely letters to her +brother--"qu'il n'escripva plus ny au Roy ny a aultres." Toussain to +Farel, December 17, 1524, Herminjard, i. 313.] + +[Footnote 244: Witness the malignant satisfaction exhibited by the +Nuncio Aleander when noting the reported death of Lambert and his entire +family: "Mi ha detto hoggi, che Francesco Lamberto d'Avignon, qual +fugito dal monasterio, et ito astar un tempo con Luther ha scritto +infiniti libri contra la Chiesa di Dio, quest' anno in terra del +Langravio di Hassia insieme con la moglie et figliuoli tutti +miserabilmente, et come da miracolo, in gran calamita _son crepati_." +Aleander to Sanga, Brussels, November 25, 1531, Vatican Library, +Laemmer, Monumenta, 90. See Lambert's autobiographical sketch, entitled: +"Rationes propter quas Minoritarum conversationem habitumque rejecit," +Gerdes., iv. (Doc.) 21-28, and translated, Herminjard, i. 118, etc.; F. +W. Hassencamp, Fr. Lambert von Avignon; Haag, France prot., s. v.; Baum, +Lambert von Avignon.] + +[Footnote 245: So says Lambert, who states: "Novi ilium ex intimis; fuit +enim mihi perinde atque Jonathas Davidi." Praef. ad Comm. in Hoseam, +Gerdes., Scrinium antiquarium, vi. 490.] + +[Footnote 246: The Bishop of Metz was _John_, Cardinal of Lorraine, +uncle of the more notorious Cardinal _Charles_. Chatellain had written a +poetical chronicle of Metz reaching to the year 1524. A friendly hand +continued it, and recorded the fate of Chatellain, described as + + "Augustin, grand Docteur + Qui estoit grand predicateur." + +The chronicle, which certainly possesses no striking literary merit, is +printed among the _Preuves_ of Dom Calmet, Histoire de Lorraine (Nancy, +1748), iii. pp. cclxxii., etc.] + +[Footnote 247: Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta (Geneva, 1560), fol. +44-46.] + +[Footnote 248: "Quorum (Antichristi prophetae) faex in eadem civitate tam +multa est, ut eosdem nongentos esse ferant." Lamberti praef. ad Comm. in +Hoseam, Gerdes., Scrinium Antiq., vi. 485, etc.] + +[Footnote 249: Ibid., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 250: Hist. de l'eglise gallicane, _apud_ Gaillard, vi. 404.] + +[Footnote 251: The letter is given by Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta, +fol. 50; also Gerdes., iv. (Doc), 48-50.] + +[Footnote 252: Gerdes., iv. 51; Crespin, fol. 49-52; Haag, s. v.] + +[Footnote 253: The incident, it must be confessed, is by no means above +suspicion (see Kirchhofer, Life of Wm. Farel, London ed., p. 40, and +Schmidt, Wilhelm Farel, p. 6), although, as Merle d'Aubigne observes, +Hist. of the Reformation, bk. xii. c. 13, it is in keeping with Farel's +character. Oecolampadius, foreseeing the possibility of his indulging +in such inconsiderate words and actions, warned him, as early as Aug. +19, 1524, to temper his zeal with mildness, and to treat his opponents +rather as was most expedient, than as they deserved to be treated. +Herminjard, i. 265-267.] + +[Footnote 254: "Ceste heresie lutherienne, _qui commance fort a pulluler +par deca. Et jam plures de cineribus valde (Valdo) renascuntur +plantulae_." Council of the Archbishop of Lyons to Noel Beda, January 23, +1525. The title of primate was assumed both by the Archbishop of Sens +and the Archbishop of Lyons, the former having apparently the better +claim and enjoying nominally a Wider supremacy (as "Primat des Gaules et +de Germanie"); but the latter gradually vindicated his pretension to +spiritual authority over most of France. See Encyclopedie methodique, s. +v. Sens, and Lyon.] + +[Footnote 255: Gaillard, Hist. de Francois premier, vi. 408.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +INCREASING SEVERITY.--LOUIS DE BERQUIN. + + +[Sidenote: Captivity of Francis I.] + +The year 1525 was critical as well in the religious as in the political +history of France. On the twenty-fourth of February, in consequence of +the disaster at Pavia, Francis fell into the hands of his +rival--Charles, by hereditary descent King of Spain, Naples, and +Jerusalem, sovereign, under various titles, of the Netherlands, and by +election Emperor of Germany--a prince whose vast possessions in both +hemispheres made him at once the wealthiest and most powerful of living +monarchs. With his unfortunate captivity, all the fanciful schemes of +conquest entertained by the French king fell to the ground. But France +felt the blow not less keenly than the monarch. One of the most gallant +armies that ever crossed the Alps had been lost. The kingdom was by no +means invulnerable, for the capital itself might easily reward a +well-executed invasion from the side of Flanders. The recuperative +energies of the country could be put forth to little advantage, so long +as the place of the king--_fons omnis jurisdictionis_, as the French +legists styled him--was filled by a woman in the capacity of regent. +France bade fair to exhibit to the world the inherent weakness of a +despotism wherein all power, in fact as well as in theory, centres +ultimately in the single person of the supreme ruler as autocrat. For it +was his standing boast that he was "emperor" in his own realm, holding +it of none other than God, and responsible to God alone, and that as +king and emperor he had the exclusive right to make ordinances from +which no subject could appeal without rendering himself liable to the +penalties pronounced upon traitors.[256] Now that the head was taken +away, who could answer for the harmonious action of the body which had +been wont to depend upon him alone for direction? + +[Sidenote: Change in the religious policy of Louise de Savoie.] + +Louise de Savoie, to whom the direction of affairs had been confided +during her son's absence in Italy, had, for greater convenience, +transferred the court temporarily to the city of Lyons, where, under the +protection of Margaret of Angouleme, the most evangelical preachers of +France had been allowed to proclaim the tenets of the reformers within +the churches and in the hearing of thousands of eager listeners. The +queen mother had not yet ventured decidedly to depart from the tolerant +system hitherto pursued by the crown.[257] But the announcement of the +capture of Francis effected a complete revolution in her policy. There +is no inherent improbability in the story that Chancellor Duprat--the +statesman and ecclesiastic who had gained so strong an ascendancy over +the mind of Louise that he was shortly promoted to the Archbishopric of +Sens and rewarded with the rich abbey of Saint +Benoit-sur-Loire--insinuated to the queen mother that the misfortunes +befalling France were tokens of the Divine displeasure. Had Francis +spared no exertions to destroy the first germs of the heresy so +insidiously introduced into his kingdom, he would not now, said the +churchman, be languishing in the dungeons of Milan or Madrid. Nor could +hopes be entertained of his deliverance, and of a return of Heaven's +favor, unless the queen mother bestirred herself to retrieve his mistake +by the introduction of new measures to crush heresy. Thus is the +chancellor said to have argued, and to have earned the cardinal's hat at +the Pope's hands. However this may be, it is certain that motives of +policy were no less influential than the pious considerations which, +perhaps, might have carried full as much conviction had they come from +the lips of a more exemplary prelate.[258] The regent was certainly not +ignorant of the fact that the support of Clement the Seventh, now +specially needed in the delicate diplomacy lying immediately before her, +could best be secured by proving to the pontiff's satisfaction that the +house of Valois was clear of all suspicion of harboring or fostering the +"Lutheran" doctrines and their adherents. + +The ordinary appliances for the suppression of heresy--a duty entrusted +by canon law, so far as the preliminary search and the trial of the +suspected was concerned, to the bishops and their courts--had +confessedly proved inadequate. The prelates were in great part +non-residents, and could not from a distance narrowly watch the progress +of the objectionable tenets in their dioceses. One or two of their +number were accused of culpable sluggishness, if not of indifference or +something worse. The question naturally arose, What new and more +effective procedure could be devised? + +[Sidenote: A commission appointed to try "Lutherans."] + +After mature deliberation, the privy council resolved upon a plan which +was virtually to remove the cognizance of crimes against religion from +the clergy, and commit it to a mixed commission. The Parliament of Paris +was accordingly notified that the bishop of that city stood ready to +delegate his authority to conduct the trial of all heretics found within +his jurisdiction to such persons as parliament might select for the +discharge of this important function; and the latter body proceeded at +once to designate two of its own members to act in conjunction with two +doctors of the Sorbonne, and receive the faculties promised by the +Bishop of Paris.[259] A few days later (March 29, 1525), in making a +necessary substitution for one of the members who was unable to serve, +parliament not only empowered the commission thus constituted to try the +"Lutheran" prisoners, Pauvan and Saulnier, but directed the Archbishops +of Lyons and Rheims, and the bishops or chapters of eight of the +remaining most important dioceses, to confer upon it similar authority +to that already received at the hands of the bishop of the +metropolis.[260] + +[Sidenote: The commission a new form of inquisition.] + +[Sidenote: The inquisition hitherto jealously watched.] + +It was, however, no ordinary tribunal which the highest civil court of +the kingdom was erecting. The commission was in effect nothing less than +a new phase of the Inquisition, embodying many of the most obnoxious +features of that detested tribunal. It is true that the "Holy Office," +in a modified form, had existed in France ever since the persecutions +directed against the Albigenses and the bloody campaigns of Simon de +Montfort. But the seat of the solitary Inquisitor of the Faith was +Toulouse, not Paris, and his powers had been jealously circumscribed by +the courts of justice and the diocesan prelates, both equally interested +in rearing barriers to prevent his incursions into their respective +jurisdictions. The Inquisitor of Toulouse was now only a spy and +informer.[261] Parliament, in particular, had clearly enunciated the +principle that neither inquisitor nor bishop had the right to arrest a +suspected heretic, inasmuch as bodily seizure was the exclusive +prerogative of the officers of the crown. The judges of this supreme +court had summoned to their bar a bishop, and his "official," or vicar, +and had exacted from them an explicit disavowal of any intention to +arrest, in the case of a person whom they had merely detained, as they +asserted, until such time as they could deliver him into the hands of a +competent civil officer.[262] And it had become a maxim of French +jurisprudence, that "an inquisitor of the faith has no power of capture +or arrest, save with the assistance, and by authority, of the secular +arm."[263] + +[Sidenote: Parliament breaks down the safeguards of personal liberty.] + +But the Parliament of Paris, at the instigation of the regent's +advisers, and with the consent of the bishops, was breaking down these +important safeguards of personal liberty. It not only accorded to the +mixed inquisitorial commission, consisting of two lay and two clerical +members, the authority to apprehend persons suspected of heresy, but +removed the proceedings of the commission almost entirely from review +and correction. A pretext for this extraordinary course was found in the +delays heretofore experienced from the interposition of technical +difficulties. "The commissioners," said parliament, "by virtue of the +authority delegated to them, shall secretly institute inquiries against +the Lutherans, and shall proceed against them by personal summons, by +bodily arrest, by seizure of goods, and by other penalties. Their +decisions shall be executed in spite of any and every opposition and +appeal, save in case of the final sentence."[264] While conferring such +extravagant privileges, parliament took pains to prescribe that the +decisions of the commission should be executed precisely as if they had +emanated from the supreme court itself. Such were the lengths to which +the most conservative judges were willing to go, in the hope of speedily +eradicating the reformed doctrines from French soil. + +[Sidenote: The commission endorsed by Clement VII.] + +The regent and her master-spirit, the chancellor, did not rest here. The +commission was not irrevocable; and its authority might be disputed. The +work of parliament must receive the papal sanction. For this Clement the +Seventh did not keep them long waiting. He addressed to parliament (May +20, 1525) a brief conceived in a vein of fulsome eulogy, expressing his +marvellous commendation of their acts--acts which he declared to be +worthy of the reputation for wisdom in which the French tribunal was +justly held. And he incited the judges to fresh zeal by the +consideration that the new madness that had fallen upon the world was +prepared to confound and overturn, not religion alone, but all rule, +nobility, pre-eminence and superiority--nay, all law and order. The +reader, it may be feared, will tire of the frequency with which the +same trite suggestions recur. It is, however, not a little important to +emphasize the argument which the Roman Curia, and its emissaries at the +courts of kings, were never weary of reiterating in the ears of the rich +and powerful. And as they seized with avidity every slight incident of +disorder that could by any means be associated with the great religious +movement now in progress, and presented it as corroboratory proof of the +charge preferred against the "Lutherans," it is not surprising that they +were generally successful in their appeal to the fears of a class which +had so much at stake. + +In addition to his endorsement of their pious zeal, Clement's brief +informed the judges of parliament that they would find in the +accompanying bull his formal confirmation of the inquisitorial +commission.[265] + +This "letter with the leaden seal," dated the seventeenth of May, might +well have opened the eyes of less devoted subjects of the Roman See to +the injury they were inflicting upon the French liberties, heretofore so +cherished an object of judicial solicitude. Addressing itself to the +four commissioners named by parliament, the bull recited the lamentable +progress of the doctrines of that "son of iniquity and heresiarch, +Martin Luther," and praised the ardor displayed to stay their +dissemination in France. It next declared that the Pope, by the advice +and with the unanimous consent of the cardinals, instructed the +commissioners to proceed either singly or collectively against those +persons who had embraced heretical views, "simply and quietly, without +noise or form of judgment." He empowered them to act independently of +the prelates of the kingdom and the Inquisitor of the Faith, or to call +in their assistance, as they should see fit. They might summon +witnesses, under pain of ecclesiastical censures. They might make +investigations against and put on trial all those infected with heresy, +even should the guilty be bishops or archbishops in the church, or be +clothed with the ducal authority in the state. When convicted, such +persons were to be punished by arrest and imprisonment, or cut off, +"like rotten members, from the communion of the church, and consigned +to eternal damnation with Satan and his angels." The commissioners were +further authorized _to grant permission to any one of the faithful who +chose so to do to invade, occupy, and acquire for himself the lands, +castles, and goods of the heretics, seizing their persons and leading +them away into life-long slavery_. From the sentence of the +commissioners all appeal, even to the "Apostolic See" itself, was +expressly cut off.[266] + +[Sidenote: Its powers enlarged by the papal bull.] + +Rome had made one of its most brilliant strokes. While adopting as his +own the commissioners appointed by parliament, Clement had enlarged +their already exorbitant prerogatives, and consummated their +independence of secular interference. A new and more efficient +inquisition was thus introduced into France, with its secret +investigation and unlimited power of inflicting punishment. The +Parliament of Paris had, however, committed itself too fully to think of +demurring. Accordingly, it proceeded (June 10th) to enter on its records +both the regent's letter and the bull of the Pope, to which the letter +enjoined obedience.[267] + +We have in a previous chapter seen some of the first fruits of the +establishment of the inquisitorial commission, in the proceedings +instituted against Lefevre d'Etaples, Gerard Roussel, and others who +took part in the attempted reformation of the diocese of Meaux. But, +chief among those whom it was sought to destroy, through the agency of +the new and well-furbished weapon against heretics, was a nobleman of +Artois, whose repeated and remarkable escapes from the hand of the +executioner, viewed in connection with the tragic fate that at last +overtook him, invest his story with a romantic interest. + +[Sidenote: Character of Louis de Berquin.] + +[Sidenote: He becomes a warm partisan of the Reformation.] + +Louis de Berquin was a man of high rank, whom friends and enemies alike +admired for his uncommon acuteness of mind and his great attainments in +letters and science. A contemporary Parisian, whose diary has supplied +us more than one of those graphic traits that assist much in bringing +before our eyes the living forms of the great actors in the world's past +history, seems to have been strongly impressed by the commanding +appearance and elegance of dress of De Berquin, at this time in the very +prime of life.[268] But the great Erasmus, his correspondent, stood in +far greater admiration of his extraordinary learning, his purity of +life--a rare excellence in a nobleman of the court of Francis the +First--his kindness and freedom from all ostentation, his uncompromising +hatred of every form of meanness and injustice,[269] and a fearless +courage which, in the eyes of the timid sage of Rotterdam, appeared to +fall little short of foolhardiness. Like most of the really earnest +reformers, De Berquin was originally a very strict observer of the +ordinances of the church, and was unsurpassed in attention to fasts, +feast-days, and the mass. It was indignation and contempt for the petty +persecution inaugurated by Beda and his associates of the Sorbonne that +first led him to examine the tenets of Lefevre. From Lefevre's works he +naturally passed to those of the German reformers. His curiosity turning +to admiration, he began to translate and annotate the most striking +treatises that fell into his hands. Not content with this, he set +himself to writing books on the same topics, and incidentally depicted +in no flattering colors the intolerance and ignorance of the Paris +theologians. As he made no attempt at concealment, his activity was soon +known. + +[Sidenote: His first imprisonment.] + +In the spring of 1523, De Berquin's house was visited, his books and +papers were seized, and an inventory was made. Beda was the leader of +the authorities in the whole affair. Parliament ordered the books and +manuscripts to be examined and reported upon by the theological faculty. +What the report would be, it was not hard to surmise. When such works +were found in De Berquin's possession as that entitled "Speculum +Theologastrorum," and another giving Luther's reasons for maintaining +the universal priesthood of Christian believers; when the notes in De +Berquin's own handwriting condemned as blasphemous, and as derogatory to +the power of the Holy Ghost, the ascription of praise to the Virgin Mary +as the "fountain of all grace"--but one answer could be expected to the +requisition of parliament. The books and manuscripts were pronounced +heretical; their author was commanded to retract. This De Berquin +refused to do, and he was, consequently, shut up in the +_conciergerie_--the civil prison within the walls of the ancient palace +in which parliament sat. Four days later he was transferred to the +dungeons of the Bishop of Paris, to be judged by him with the aid of two +counsellors of parliament and of such theologians as he should see fit +to call in.[270] + +[Sidenote: He is released by order of the king.] + +The case was fast becoming serious. De Berquin was made of sterner stuff +than the weaklings who recant through fear of the stake; and the syndic +of Sorbonne was fully resolved to have him burned if he remained +constant. Happily, just at this critical moment the king interfered. +From Melun, which he had reached on his way toward the south of France, +he despatched an officer--one "Captain Frederick," as his name appears +in the records--to demand the release of De Berquin, whose trial he had +evoked for the consideration of his own royal council. Parliament +attempted to interpose technical difficulties, and responded that the +prisoner was no longer in its keeping. But "Captain Frederick" was +provided against any quibbling. As his instructions were to break open +whatever prison-doors might be barred against him, it was not long +before the expected prey of the theologians was given into his custody. +In the end De Berquin was set at liberty, such an examination of his +case having been made by the king's council as courtiers are wont to +institute when the accused is the favorite of the monarch.[271] + +[Sidenote: Advice of Erasmus.] + +It was about this time that Erasmus first made the acquaintance of +Louis de Berquin. The Artesian nobleman took occasion to write to the +great Dutch humanist, of whom he stood in great admiration, to inform +him of the position assumed in reference to the writings of the latter +by Beda and Du Chesne. Erasmus tells us that he was delighted with his +new correspondent. But the constitutional timidity of the scholar +compelled him to answer De Berquin by words of caution rather than of +encouragement: "If you are wise, repress your encomiums; do not disturb +the _hornets_, and spend your time in your favorite studies. At all +events, do not involve me; for the consequences might be inconvenient +for us both." But the dictates of worldly wisdom had no influence over +De Berquin. Presently Erasmus was vexed to find that De Berquin in his +writings was appealing to his friend's authority, and quoting the +sentiments of the latter in defence of his own opinions. Now thoroughly +alarmed at De Berquin's imprudence, Erasmus remonstrated, plainly +intimating that whatever delight others might derive from conflicts such +as he saw approaching, nothing was less grateful to himself. + +[Sidenote: Berquin's second imprisonment.] + +[Sidenote: Francis again orders his release.] + +Meantime Louis de Berquin had retired to his own estates, in the +expectation of pursuing his plans with less danger of interference than +in the capital. Even there, however, he was not safe. The propitious +moment for striking a decisive blow seemed to his enemies to have come +when, the king being a captive, his mother, the regent, had permitted +Pope and parliament to erect a tribunal for the summary trial and +execution of heretics. The Bishop of Amiens, in whose diocese De +Berquin's lands were situated, having applied to parliament, easily +obtained the authority to seize him, disregarding even the ordinary +rights of asylum.[272] After his arrest he was again transferred from +the episcopal palace to the _conciergerie_ at Paris, and his trial +entrusted to the new inquisitorial commission. A series of propositions +extracted from his writings, and censured by the Sorbonne, insured his +condemnation as a relapsed heretic, and De Berquin was handed over to +the secular arm for condign punishment. But again, at the very instant +when his ruin was imminent, he met with unexpected deliverance. The +sympathy of the king's sister was enlisted, and she used her influence +with her mother to obtain an order adjourning all proceedings against De +Berquin until the monarch should be released. Meanwhile she wrote urgent +letters in his behalf to Francis and to his favorite, the grand master +of the palace and future constable of France, Anne de Montmorency. The +reply came in an order from the king, at Madrid, directing his +parliament to cease from giving disturbance to Berquin and such men of +learning.[273] + +[Sidenote: Dilatory measures of parliament.] + +It is suggestive of the delays attending even the execution of the will +of so arbitrary a prince as Francis, that, although De Berquin was thus +delivered from the immediate prospect of death, months passed before he +regained his liberty. Successive royal orders were required to secure +any alleviation of his hard confinement. Thus, when his health suffered +from want of exercise and pure air, parliament grudgingly permitted him +to leave his solitary cell for an hour morning and evening, at such time +as the court might be clear of other prisoners whom he could +contaminate. And when De Berquin complained that his books and writing +materials had been denied him, the extent of the parliament's generosity +was to grant him "the epistles of St. Jerome and some other Catholic +books." At length, the king's patience becoming exhausted by the court's +procrastination and technical objections, he sent (November 21, 1526) +the Provost of Paris forcibly to remove De Berquin from the +_conciergerie_ to the Louvre, where he was soon restored his +freedom.[274] + +[Sidenote: Hopes of Margaret of Angouleme.] + +The return of Francis from Madrid, and the rescue of Berquin, Lefevre, +Roussel, and others, from the dangers to which they had been exposed, +encouraged the more sanguine reformers to hope that now at length the +king would declare himself openly in favor, if not of the evangelical +doctrines, at least of some form of religions toleration. Margaret of +Angouleme had certainly labored piously and assiduously to open her +brother's eyes to the true character of his fanatical advisers. In a +letter still preserved and apparently written even before Francis had +been removed from Italy to Spain, she begged him to regard his +misfortune as only a mark of the Divine love, and intended to give him +time for reflection and consecration. This end being accomplished, +Heaven would gloriously deliver him and make him a blessing to all +Christendom--nay, even to infidel nations to be converted by his +means.[275] + +However fanciful these brilliant anticipations may now appear, they did +not seem unreasonable at the time. It was not improbable that the +example of the illustrious German princes, his allies, who had embraced +the Reformation, might incline Francis decidedly to the same side. +Margaret had conceived great expectations, based upon a projected visit +to the French court by Count Von Hohenlohe, Dean of the Cathedral of +Strasbourg--a nobleman, who, having become a Protestant, was anxious to +turn to the advantage of his new convictions the influence secured to +him by high social rank. The correspondence of Francis's sister with the +zealous German noble opens a suggestive page of history. At first, +Margaret, while applauding the count's design and building great hopes +upon it, advises him to defer his visit until the king's return from +Spain. Two months later, she is even more anxious to see Hohenlohe in +Paris, but feels constrained to tell him that his friends have, for a +certain reason, concluded that the proper time has not yet arrived. A +third letter, dated after the restoration of Francis to his throne, +informs us what that certain reason was. "I cannot tell you all the +grief I feel," Margaret writes, "for I clearly see that the state of +things is such that your coming cannot be productive of the comfort you +would desire. The king would not be glad to see you. The reason that +your visit is deemed inadvisable is _the deliverance of the king's +children, which the king esteems as important as the deliverance of his +own person_."[276] + +[Sidenote: Francis I. violates his pledges to Charles V.] + +Here was the secret! Unfortunately for the Reformation, policy was +supposed to make it an imperative duty to conciliate the favor of the +Pope, no less after the release of Francis than while he was yet a +prisoner. There were the young princes sent by the regent as hostages +for the fulfilment of the treaty with Charles of Spain, for whose +liberation measures were to be devised. And there was the oath--to the +shame of Francis, it must be added--from the binding force of which the +king hoped to be relieved by authority of the Roman bishop; for scarcely +had Francis set foot on his own dominions, when he unblushingly +retracted all his treaty stipulations. He announced to the emperor that +the cession of Burgundy, the Viscounty of Auxonne, and other +territories, which had been made by his imperial captor the +indispensable condition of his release, was entirely out of the +question; and that his promises, extorted while he was in duress, were +of no validity! Nevertheless, he offered, in lieu thereof, the payment +of a larger ransom than had ever been proffered by a king of France. +Indignant at a perfidy somewhat flagrant, even for an age tolerably well +accustomed to breaches of faith, the emperor refused the substitute. The +arms recently laid aside were resumed. Clement the Seventh and Venice +became the allies of Francis, who for the present figured as the +champion of the papacy; while his rival, by suffering the traitor +Constable de Bourbon with an army of German soldiers to besiege the +pontiff in his capital, became responsible in the eyes of the world for +all the atrocities of the famous sack of the city of Rome. When, at +length, after three years of hard fighting, peace was concluded by the +treaty of Cambray (July, 1529), the terms agreed upon at Madrid were +virtually carried into effect; but the emperor consented to receive the +sum of two millions of Crowns--_ecus-au-soleil_--in place of Burgundy, +and on payment to restore to the French the dauphin and the Duke of +Orleans, the future Henry the Second, so long detained as hostages in +Spain. + +[Sidenote: The king's necessities.] + +[Sidenote: A despotic course suggested.] + +Meantime the revenues of the royal domain, having during the late wars +been subjected to a long and unremitting drain, had proved utterly +inadequate to meet the extraordinary demand of treasure for the +resumption of the hostilities following close upon Francis's release. +Recourse must be had to the purses of the king's subjects. The right to +levy taxes resided in the States General alone, and Francis was +reluctant, at so critical a juncture, to trample on a time-hallowed +principle. He did not, indeed, hesitate to admit that he had been +gravely counselled by some of his advisers to resort to a more despotic +course; for they maintained that, in so praiseworthy an undertaking as +the effort to recover the young princes, the king was warranted by all +laws, divine and human, in laying under contribution every one of his +subjects, of whatever rank or condition.[277] But, as the same ends +might be attained by methods more agreeable to law and precedent, +Francis preferred to have recourse to them. + +[Sidenote: An assembly of notables.] + +On the sixteenth of December, 1527, one of those anomalous political +bodies was convened in the palace of the Parisian parliament to which +the name of an assembly of notables is given. All the orders of the +state were represented; but the form of a meeting of the States General +(as we have seen, most distasteful to the despotic monarch) was +studiously avoided.[278] In reply to a very full exposition of the +present condition of the kingdom and of the incidents of his capture, +made by Francis in person to the assembled clergymen, nobles, jurists, +and burgesses of Paris, each order in turn gave its opinion. All united +in approving the refusal of the king to surrender Burgundy to the +emperor, and in expressing their unwillingness to allow his Majesty to +return to Spain and thus redeem the promise he had given in case the +treaty failed to be carried into effect. All likewise professed their +readiness to contribute, according to their ability, to the necessities +of the crown. + +The first president, M. de Selve, in the name of parliament, delivered a +discourse which the clerk of the assembly, no doubt aptly, describes as +"_crammed_ with Latin and with quotations from Scripture, to prove that +the treaty of Madrid was null and void."[279] His grounds were that the +king could neither dispose of his own person, which belonged to the +state, nor alienate Burgundy, which, being a fief of the first rank and +a bulwark of the kingdom, was inseparable from France. But probably the +whole prodigious mass of classic lore, and of scriptural quotation, even +more unfamiliar to most of his hearers, which the pedantic president +forced upon the digestion of the unfortunate notables, was required to +prove to their satisfaction that Francis had in this affair played the +part of the "gentilhomme" he boasted of being. + +[Sidenote: Speech of the Cardinal of Bourbon.] + +The speech of the Cardinal of Bourbon was especially important. He +announced the willingness of the representatives of the French clergy +cheerfully to supply the 1,300,000 livres asked of their order, although +at the same time he suggested the propriety of first convoking +provincial councils, in which the church might be more fully consulted. +With this gracious concession, however, the cardinal coupled three +requests, of which the first and third concerned the liberation of the +Pope from his imprisonment and the conservation of the liberties of the +Gallican church; but the second had a pointed reference to the +Reformation: he prayed "that the king might be pleased to uproot and +extirpate the damnable and insufferable Lutheran sect which had, not +long since, secretly entered the realm, with all the other heresies that +were multiplying therein." By thus acting, he assured him, Francis +"would perform the duty of a good prince bearing the name of _Very +Christian King_." + +[Sidenote: Francis promises to prove himself "Very Christian."] + +The gratified monarch, delighted with the complaisance of his clerical +subjects, did not hesitate to accede to all the petitions the Cardinal +offered, and declared that, "so far as concerned heresies, he was +determined not to endure them, but would cause them to be wholly +extirpated and driven from his kingdom," inflicting on any found tainted +therewith such exemplary punishment as to demonstrate his right to the +honorable title he bore.[280] + +It was a rash promise that Francis had made. Like many other absolute +monarchs, he expected without trouble to bring the religious convictions +of his subjects into conformity with the standard he was pleased to set +up.[281] He had yet to learn that there are beliefs which, when they +take root in the hearts of humble and illiterate peasants or artisans, +are too firmly fixed to be eradicated by the most excruciating tortures +man's ingenuity has been able to contrive. Through fire and sword, the +victim now of persecution, again of open war, the faith denominated +heresy was yet to survive, not only the last lineal descendant of the +king then sitting on the throne of France, but the rule of the dynasty +which was destined to succeed to the power, and reproduce not a few of +the mistakes, of the Valois race. + +[Sidenote: The provincial council of Sens.] + +In accordance with the suggestion of the Cardinal of Bourbon, three +provincial councils were held early in the ensuing year (1528). The most +important was the council of the ecclesiastical province of _Sens_, +which met, however, in the Augustinian monastery at Paris. It was +scarcely to be expected that a synod presided over by Antoine Duprat, +who, to the dignity of cardinal and the office of Chancellor of France, +added the Bishopric of Albi and the Archbishopric of Sens, with the +claim to be Primate of the Gauls and of Germany, should discuss with +severity the morals of the clergy, or issue stringent canons against the +abuse of the plurality of benefices. As an offset, however, the Council +of Sens had much to say respecting the new reformation. The good fathers +saw in the discordant views of Luther and Carlstadt, of Melanchthon and +Zwingle, proof positive that the new doctrines the reformers advanced +were devoid of any basis of truth. They ridiculed the claim of the +Protestants to the presence of the Spirit of God. But they reserved +their severest censures for the practice of holding secret conventicles, +and, with an irony best appreciated by those who understand the +penalties inflicted by the law on the discovered heretics, they gently +reminded the men and women to whom the celebration of a single religious +service according to the dictates of their conscience would have insured +instantaneous condemnation and a death at the stake, that God hates the +deeds of darkness, and that Christ himself said, "What I tell you in +darkness, that speak ye in light."[282] + +[Sidenote: The punishment of heretics.] + +More practical were the prescriptions of the council's decrees +respecting the punishment of offenders against the unity of the faith. +Heretics who, after conviction, refused to be "united to the church," +were to be consigned to prison for life, priests to be degraded, the +relapsed to be given over to the secular arm without a hearing. +Heretical books, including translations of the Bible, were to be +surrendered to the bishop. Indeed, it was stipulated that every book +treating of the faith, and printed within the past twenty years, should +be submitted to him for examination. Nor was the council satisfied to +leave the discovery of heresy to accident. It was particularly enjoined +upon every bishop that he, or some competent person appointed by him, +should visit any portion of his diocese in which the taint of unsound +doctrine was reported to exist, and compel three or more persons of good +standing, or even the entire body of the inhabitants of a neighborhood, +to denounce under oath those who entertained heretical views, the +frequenters of secret conventicles, and even those who merely held aloof +from the conversation of the faithful. Lest this stimulus to informers +should prove insufficient to extract the desired knowledge, the threat +was added that persons refusing to testify would be treated as +suspected, and themselves proceeded against.[283] + +[Sidenote: The councils of Bourges and Lyons.] + +Not less severe toward the "Lutheran" doctrines did the other two +provincial councils show themselves. At the Council of Bourges, the +Cardinal of Tournon presided as archbishop--a prelate who was to attain +unenviable notoriety as the prime instigator of the massacre of Merindol +and Cabrieres, of which an account will be given in a subsequent +chapter. Besides the usual regulations for the censure of heretical +books and the denunciation of "Lutherans," the decrees contain the +significant direction that the professors in the University of Bourges +shall employ in their instructions no authors calculated to divert the +students from the ceremonies of the church--a caution deriving its +importance from the circumstance that the university, under the +patronage of Margaret of Angouleme, now Duchess of Berry as well as +Queen of Navarre, had become a centre of reformatory activity. + +The letter in which the king had called upon the Archbishop of Lyons to +convene the clergy of his province, declared that Francis had ever held +the accursed sect of the "Lutherans" in hatred, horror, and abomination, +and that its extirpation was an object very near his heart, for the +accomplishment of which he would employ all possible means;[284] and the +Council of Lyons responded by cordial approval and by the enactment of +fresh regulations to suppress conventicles, to prevent the farther +dissemination of Luther's writings, and, indeed, to forbid all +discussion of matters of faith by the laity. At the same time the +council unconsciously revealed the necessity imposed on the private +Christian to investigate for himself the nature and grounds of his +belief, by strongly reprobating the disastrous custom of admitting into +sacred orders a host of illiterate, uncultivated persons of low +antecedents--beardless youths--and by confessing that this wretched +practice had justly excited the contempt of the world.[285] + +[Sidenote: Financial help bought by persecution.] + +Everywhere the clergy conceded the subsidy required by the exigencies of +the kingdom. But they left Francis in no doubt respecting the price of +their complaisance. This was nothing less than the extermination of the +new sect that had made its appearance in France. And the king +comprehended and fell in with the terms upon which the church agreed to +loosen its purse-strings. No doubtful policy must now prevail! No more +Berquins can be permitted to make their boast that they have been able, +protected by the king's panoply, to beard the lion in his den! + +[Sidenote: Insult to an image.] + +An incident occurring in Paris, before the adjournment of the Council of +Sens, gave Francis a specious excuse for inaugurating the more cruel +system of persecution now demanded of him, and tended somewhat to +conceal from the king himself, as well as from others, the mercenary +motive of the change. Just after the solemnities of Whitsunday, an +unheard of act of impiety startled the inhabitants of the capital, and +fully persuaded them that no object of their devotions was safe from +iconoclastic violence. One of those numerous statues of the Virgin Mary, +with the infant Jesus in her arms, that graced the streets of Paris, was +found to have been shockingly mutilated. The body had been pierced, and +the head-dress trampled under foot. The heads of the mother and child +had been broken off and ignominiously thrown in the rubbish.[286] A more +flagrant act of contempt for the religious sentiment of the country had +perhaps never been committed. The indignation it awakened must not be +judged by the standard of a calmer age.[287] In the desire to ascertain +the perpetrators of the outrage, the king offered a reward of a thousand +crowns. But no ingenuity could ferret them out. A vague rumor, indeed, +prevailed, that a similar excess had been witnessed in a village four or +five leagues distant, and that the culprits when detected had confessed +that they had been prompted to its commission by the promise of a paltry +recompense of one hundred _sous_ for every image destroyed. But, since +no one seems ever to have been punished, it is probable that this report +was a fabrication; and the question whether the mutilation of the Virgin +of the _Rue des Rosiers_ was the deliberate act of a religious +enthusiast, or a freak of drunken revellers, or, as some imagined, a +cunning device of good Catholics to inflame the popular passions +against the "Lutherans," must, for the present, at least, remain a +subject of profound doubt. + +[Sidenote: Expiatory processions.] + +But, whoever may have been the author, pains were taken to expiate the +sacrilege. Successive processions visited the spot. In one of these, +five hundred students of the university, chosen from different colleges +and belonging to the first families, bore lighted tapers, which they +placed on the temporary altar erected in front of the image. The clergy, +both secular and regular, came repeatedly with all that was most +precious in attire and relics. To add still more to the pomp of the +propitiatory pilgrimages, Francis himself took part in a magnificent +display, made on the _Fete-Dieu_, or Corpus Christi (the eleventh of +June). He was preceded by heralds and by the Dukes of Cleves and Ferrara +and other noblemen of high rank, while behind him walked the King of +Navarre, the Cardinal of Lorraine, the Ambassadors of England, Venice, +Florence, and other foreign states, the officers of parliament, and a +crowd of gentlemen of the king's house, archers and persons of all +conditions bringing up the rear. On reaching the spot where the +mutilated statue still occupied its niche, Francis, after appropriate +religious exercises, ascended the richly carpeted steps, and reverently +substituted an effigy in solid silver, of similar size, in place of the +image which had been the object of insult.[288] + +[Sidenote: Other icoconoclastic excesses.] + +From this time forward, iconoclastic demonstrations became more common. +Paintings, also, when exposed to the public view, shared the perils to +which unprotected statues were subjected. The Virgin, and such reputable +saints as St. Roch and St. Fiacre, depicted on the walls of the Rue St. +Martin, were wantonly disfigured, some two years later; so that at last, +the Parliament of Paris, in despair of preventing the repetition of the +act, or of discovering its authors, adopted the prudent course of +forbidding that any sacred representation should be placed on the +exterior walls of a house _within ten feet of the ground_![289] + +[Sidenote: Berquin's third arrest.] + +[Sidenote: He disregards the cautions of Erasmus.] + +The repeated assurances whereby Francis had conciliated the clergy, and +secured their contributions to the exchequer, embarrassed him in the +exercise of leniency toward Louis de Berquin, now for the third time +arraigned for heresy. Moreover, the audacity and violence of the +iconoclasts, characteristics assumed by him to be indicative of a +disposition to overturn all government, probably took away any +inclination he would otherwise have had to interfere in the intrepid +nobleman's behalf. De Berquin had no sooner been released from his +former imprisonment than he set himself to prepare for new conflicts +with his bigoted antagonists. He even resolved to assume the offensive. +In vain did Erasmus entreat him to be prudent, suggest the propriety of +his temporarily going abroad, and propose that he should apply for some +diplomatic commission as a plausible excuse for absenting himself. Beda, +he told him, was a monster with many heads, each breathing out poison, +while in the "Faculty" he had to do with an _immortal_ antagonist. The +monks would secure his ruin were his cause more righteous than that of +Jesus Christ. Finally, the tremulous scholar begged him, if no +consideration of personal safety moved him, at least not to involve so +ardent a lover of peace as Erasmus in a conflict for which he had no +taste. But his reasoning had no weight with a man of high resolve and +inflexible principle, who could see no honorable course but openly +meeting and overthrowing error. "Do you ask," wrote Erasmus to a +correspondent interested in learning De Berquin's fate, "what I +accomplished? By every means I employed to deter him I only added to his +courage."[290] If we may believe Erasmus's strong expressions--for his +own writings have very nearly disappeared--De Berquin assailed the monks +with a freedom almost equal to that employed by the Old Comedy in +holding up to merited derision the foibles of Athenian generals and +statesmen. He even extracted twelve blasphemous propositions from Beda's +utterances, and obtained a letter from the king enjoining the Sorbonne +either to pass sentence of condemnation on their syndic's assertions, or +to prove their truth from the Holy Scriptures.[291] The Dutch +philosopher, aghast at his friend's incredible temerity, besought him +instantly to seek safety in flight; and, when this last appeal proved as +ineffectual as all his frequent efforts in the past, he confessed that +he almost regretted that a friendship had ever arisen which had +occasioned him so much trouble and disquiet.[292] + +A third time Louis de Berquin was arrested, on application of the +officer known as the _Promoteur de la foi_. His trial was committed to +twelve judges selected by parliament, among whom figured not only the +first president and the vicar-general of the Bishop of Paris, but, +strange to say, even so well-disposed and liberal a jurist as Guillaume +Bude, the foremost French scholar of the age for broad and accurate +learning.[293] The case advanced too slowly to meet De Berquin's +impatience. In the assurance of ultimate success, he is even accused by +a contemporary chronicler of having offered the court two hundred crowns +to expedite the trial.[294] It soon became evident, however, from, the +withdrawal of the liberties at first accorded, that Be Berquin would +scarcely escape unless the king again interposed--a contingency less +likely to occur in view of the incessant appeals with which Francis was +plied, addressed at once to his interest, his conscience, and his pride. +But the more desperate the cause of Berquin, and the more uncertain the +king's disposition, the more urgent the intercessions of Margaret of +Angouleme, whose character is nowhere seen to better advantage than in +her repeated letters to her brother about this time.[295] + +[Sidenote: Berquin sentenced to public penance, branding, and +imprisonment.] + +The sentence was rendered on the sixteenth of April, 1529. De Berquin, +being found guilty of heresy, was condemned to do public penance in +front of Notre Dame, with lighted taper in hand, and crying for mercy to +God and the blessed Virgin. Next, on the Place de Greve, he was to be +ignominiously exhibited upon a scaffold, while his books were burned +before his eyes. Taken thence in a cart to the pillory, and again +exposed to popular derision on a revolving stage, he was to have his +tongue pierced and his forehead branded with the ineffaceable +_fleur-de-lis_. His public disgrace over, De Berquin was to be +imprisoned for life in the episcopal jail.[296] + +[Sidenote: He appeals, is sentenced to death, and is executed.] + +More than twenty thousand persons--so intense a hatred had been stirred +up against the reformers--assembled to witness the execution of a +sentence malignantly cruel.[297] But, for that day, their expectation +was disappointed. Louis de Berquin gave notice that he appealed to the +absent king and to the Pope himself. It was no part of the programme, +however, that the thrice-convicted heresiarch should gain a fresh +respite and enlist powerful friends in effecting his release. No sooner +were the judges satisfied that he persisted in his appeal, in spite of +the secret and urgent advice of Bude and others, than they rendered a +new and more severe sentence (on the seventeenth of April): he must pay +the forfeit of his obstinacy with his life, and that, too, within a few +hours.[298] + +The cause of this intemperate haste is clearly set forth by a +contemporary--doubtless an eye-witness of the execution--all whose +sympathies were on the side of the prosecution. It was "lest recourse be +had to the king, or to the regent then at Blois;"[299] for the delay of +even a few days might have brought from the banks of the Loire another +order removing De Berquin's case from the commission to the royal +council. + +The historian must leave to the professed martyrologist the details of +the constant death of Louis de Berquin, as of the deaths of many other +less distinguished victims of the intolerant zeal of the Sorbonne. +Suffice it to say that although, when he undertook to address the +people, his voice was purposely drowned by the din of the attendants, +though the very children filled the air with shouts that De Berquin was +a heretic, though not a person was found in the vast concourse to +encourage him by the name of "Jesus"--an accustomed cry even at the +execution of parricides--the brave nobleman of Artois met his fate with +such composure as to be likened by a by-stander to a student immersed in +his favorite occupations, or a worshipper whose devout mind was +engrossed by the contemplation of heavenly things.[300] There were +indeed blind rumors, as usual in such cases; to the effect that De +Berquin recanted at the last moment; and Merlin, the Penitentiary of +Notre Dame, who attended him, is reported to have exclaimed that +"perhaps no one for a hundred years had died a better Christian."[301] +But the "Lutherans" of Paris had good reason to deny the truth of the +former statement, and to interpret the latter to the advantage of De +Berquin's consistent faith--so great was the rejoicing over the final +success attained in crushing the most distinguished, in silencing the +boldest and most outspoken advocate of the reformation of the church. +For, in the eyes of the theological faculty and of the clergy of France, +Louis de Berquin merited to be styled, by way of pre-eminence, a +_heresiarch_.[302] + +[Sidenote: Francis treats with the Germans.] + +Three years had not elapsed since the blow struck at the "Lutheran" +doctrines in France, in the execution of their most promising and +intrepid representative, before the hopes of the friends of the +Reformation again revived from a consideration of the king's political +relations. Disappointed at the contemptuous reception of their +confession of faith by the Emperor at Augsburg, the Protestant princes +of Germany had formed a defensive league. Francis, having basely +abandoned his former allies, was left alone to combat the gigantic power +of a rival between two portions of whose dominions his own kingdom lay +exposed. Every consideration of prudence dictated the policy of lending +to the German Protestants, in their endeavor to humble the pride of +their common antagonist, the most efficient support of his arms. Under +these circumstances religious differences were impotent to prevent the +union. Accordingly, in May, 1532, through his ambassador, the sagacious +Du Bellay, Francis promised the discontented Elector of Saxony and his +associates the contribution of a large sum to enable them to make a +sturdy resistance. But the peace shortly concluded with Charles rendered +the proffered aid for a time unnecessary.[303] + +[Sidenote: and with Henry VIII. of England.] + +Equally unproductive of advantage to the professors of the reformed +faith was the alliance for mutual defence between Francis and Henry the +Eighth of England. Both monarchs were inspired with the same hatred of +the emperor, and each had equal reason to complain of the insatiable +rapacity of the Roman court. But neither at the pompous interview of the +two kings at Boulogne, nor afterward, could Henry prevail upon Francis +to take any decided measures against the Pope such as the former, weary +of the obstacles thrown in the way of his divorce from Catharine of +Aragon, was ready to venture. In his intercourse with the English king, +Francis is said to have adopted for his guiding principle the motto, +"_Ami jusqu'a l'autel_,"[304] and declined to sacrifice his orthodoxy to +his interests. But the truth was that, in the view of Francis, his +interests and his orthodoxy were coincident; and the difficulty +experienced by the two kings in coming to a common understanding lay in +the fact that, as has been well remarked, while in the enmity of Francis +it was not the Pope but the emperor that occupied the foremost place, it +was just the reverse with Henry.[305] + +[Sidenote: Meeting of Francis I. and Clement, at Marseilles.] + +[Sidenote: Marriage of Henry of Orleans to Catharine de' Medici.] + +Francis had no thought of throwing away so valuable an auxiliary in his +Italian projects, or of permanently attaching to Charles so dangerous an +opponent as the papal power. And thus it happened that, a year from the +time of his consultation with Henry, Francis proceeded to Marseilles to +extend a still more cordial welcome to Clement himself. The wily pontiff +had so dazzled the eyes of the king, that the latter had consented to, +if he had not actually proposed, a marriage between Henry, Duke of +Orleans, his second son, and Catharine de' Medici, the Pope's +niece.[306] The match was not flattering to Francis's pride; but there +were great prospective advantages, and the bride was less objectionable +because the bridegroom, as a younger son, was not likely to ascend the +throne. But here again the king was destined to be disappointed. +Clement's death, soon after, destroyed all hope of Medicean support in +Italy; and the death of Francis, the dauphin, made Henry of Orleans +heir apparent to the throne. It was not long before the French people, +with the soundness of judgment generally characterizing the deliberate +conclusions reached by the masses, came to the opinion, expressed by one +of the Venetian ambassadors two years after the wedding: "Monseigneur of +Orleans is married to Madam Catharine de' Medici, to the dissatisfaction +of all France; for it seems to everybody that the most Christian king +was cheated by Pope Clement."[307] Such were the evil auspices under +which the Italian girl, only fourteen years of age,[308] entered a +country over whose destinies she was to exert a pernicious influence. + +[Sidenote: Francis refuses to join in a crusade against heresy.] + +There was another part of the Pope's designs in the execution of which +he was less successful. He could not persuade Francis to join in a +general scheme for the extermination of heresy. In the very first +interview, Clement had sounded his host's disposition respecting the +propriety of a new crusade. He had bluntly submitted for consideration +the question, "Ought not Francis and the pious princes of Germany, with +the emperor at their head, to gather up their forces, enlist troops, and +make all needful preparations, to overwhelm the followers of Zwingle and +Luther; in order that, affrighted by the terrible retribution visited +upon their fellows, the remaining heretics should hasten to make their +submission to the Roman Church?" At the same time he threw out hints of +his ability to assist in the good work if only the French monarch would +not refuse his co-operation. But Francis was not ready for so sanguinary +an undertaking. Unmoved by the Pope's repeated solicitations, he replied +that it seemed to him that "neither piety nor concord would be promoted +by substituting an appeal to arms for the appeal to the Holy Scriptures, +to whose ultimate decision both Zwinglians and Lutherans professed +themselves at all times anxious to submit their doctrines and practice." +He added the unpalatable advice that the matters in dispute be +considered by a free and impartial council, and declared that, when the +council had rendered its verdict, he would spare no pains to sustain it. +All the usual pontifical artifices proved abortive. Francis, while +valuing highly the friendship of Rome, was not willing to forego the +advantages of alliance with the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of +Hesse.[309] + +While the fickle monarch was thus drawn in opposite directions by +conflicting political considerations--at one time strengthening the +hands of the Protestant princes of Germany, at another, making common +cause with the Pope--the same diversity characterized the internal +condition of France. + +[Sidenote: Execution of Jean de Caturce at Toulouse.] + +At Toulouse, the seat of one of most noted parliaments, Jean de Caturce, +a lawyer of ability, was put to death by slow fire in the summer of +1532. His unpardonable offence was that he had once made a "Lutheran" +exhortation, and that, in the merry-making on the _Fete des +Rois_--Epiphany--he had recommended that the prayer, "May Christ reign +in our hearts!" be substituted for the senseless cry, "The king drinks!" +No more ample ground of accusation was needed in a city where the +luckless wight who failed to take off his cap before an image, or fall +on his knees when the bell rang out at "Ave Maria," was sure to be set +upon as a heretic.[310] + +[Sidenote: Le Coq's evangelical sermon.] + +In striking contrast with the tragedy enacted in the chief city of the +south was the favor openly showed to the reformers by the Queen of +Navarre, not only in her own city of Bourges, but in Paris itself. The +intercessions she had addressed to her brother for the victims of +priestly persecution had long since betrayed her secret leaning; and the +translation of her "Hours" into French by the Bishop of Senlis, who, by +her direction, suppressed all that most directly countenanced +superstitious beliefs, was naturally taken as strong confirmation of the +prevalent suspicion. But, when she introduced Berthault, Courault, and +her own almoner, Roussel, to the pulpits of the capital, and protected +them in their evangelical labors, the case ceased to admit of +doubt.[311] She even persuaded the king to listen to a sermon in which +Le Coq, curate of St. Eustache, argued with force against the bodily +presence of Christ in the eucharist, and maintained that the very words, +"_Sursum corda_" in the church service, pointed Him out as to be found +at the right hand of God in heaven. Indeed, the eloquent preacher had +nearly convinced his royal listener, when the Cardinals of Tournon and +Lorraine, by a skilful stratagem, succeeded in destroying the impression +he had received, and, it is said, in inducing Le Coq to make a +retraction.[312] But the opposition to the public proclamation of the +reformed doctrines was too formidable for their advocates to stem. Beda +and his colleagues in the Sorbonne left no device untried to silence the +preachers; and, although the restless syndic was in the end forced to +expiate his seditious words and writings by an _amende honorable_ in +front of the church of Notre Dame, and died in prison,[313] Roussel and +his fellow-preachers had long before been compelled to exchange their +public discourses for private exhortations, and finally to discontinue +even these and retreat from Paris.[314] + +[Sidenote: Margaret attacked in the College of Navarre.] + +Even so, however, the theologians could not contain their indignation at +the insult they had received. In the excess of their zeal they went so +far as to hold up the king's sister to condemnation and derision, in one +of those plays which the students of the College de Navarre were +accustomed annually to perform, as a scholastic exercise in public +oratory (on the first of October, 1533). A gentle queen was here +represented as throwing aside needle and distaff, at the crafty +suggestion of a tempting fury, and as receiving in lieu of those +feminine implements a copy of the Gospels--when, lo! she was suddenly +transformed into a cruel tyrant. It was perhaps hard to detect the exact +connection between the acceptance of the holy book and so disastrous a +change of character--neither the students of the College de Navarre nor +their teachers thought it worth while to trouble themselves about such +trifles--but there was no difficulty in recognizing Margaret in the +principal actor of the play, or in deciphering the name of Master Gerard +Roussel--Magister Gerardus--in _Megaera_, the fury with the flaming +torch, that seduced her. On complaint of his sister, Francis, in some +indignation, ordered the arrest of the author of the insipid drama, as +well as of the youthful performers. The former could not be found, and +the latter, thanks to the queen's clemency, escaped with a less rigorous +punishment than the insult deserved.[315] + +[Sidenote: Her Miroir de l'ame pecheresse.] + +An equally audacious act was the insertion of a work published by +Margaret, under the title of _Le miroir de l'ame pecheresse_, in a list +of prohibited books. When the university, to whom the censorship of the +press was entrusted, was called to account by the king, all the +faculties promptly repudiated any intention to cast doubt upon the +orthodoxy of his sister, and even the originator of the offensive +prohibition was forced to plead ignorance of the authorship of the +volume in question. The rector of the university terminated the long +series of disclaimers by rendering thanks to Francis for his fatherly +patience.[316] + +[Sidenote: Rector Cop's address to the university.] + +Just a month after the unlucky dramatic representation of the College de +Navarre, the city was furnished with fresh food for scandal. On All +Saints' day (the first of November, 1533), the university assembled +according to custom in the church of the Mathurins, to listen to an +address delivered by the rector. But Nicholas Cop's discourse was not of +the usual type. Under guise of a disquisition on "Christian Philosophy," +the orator preached an evangelical sermon, with the First Beatitude for +his text, and propounded the view that the forgiveness of sin and +eternal life are simple gifts of God's grace that cannot be earned by +man's good works.[317] + +[Sidenote: Its extraordinary character.] + +Never had academic harangue contained sentiments savoring so strongly of +the tenets of the persecuted reformers. True, the rector had not omitted +the ordinary invitation to his hearers to join him in the salutation of +the Virgin.[318] But even this mark of orthodox Catholicity could not +remove the taint of heresy from an address the whole drift of which was +to establish the cardinal doctrine of the theology of Luther and +Zwingle. It was a bold step. The doctors of the Sorbonne could not +suppress their indignation, and Franciscan monks denounced the rector to +the Parliament of Paris. When summoned to appear before the court to +answer the charges brought against him, Cop at first endeavored to +arouse in the university the traditional jealousy of this invasion of +scholastic privileges, claiming that these were violated by his being +cited to parliament before he had been in the first instance tried by +his peers. And, indeed, after a tumultuous meeting of the university, +called at the Mathurins a fortnight after the delivery of Cop's address +(the nineteenth of November), the Faculty of Arts came to the same +conclusion.[319] But, although the "Four Nations," and apparently the +Faculty of Medicine also, promised their support, the Faculties of +Theology and Law refused, and Cop did not venture to press his point. +Warned of his danger by a friendly tongue, when already on his way to +the _Palais de Justice_, in full official costume and accompanied by his +beadles, he consulted his safety by a precipitate flight from the city +and from the kingdom.[320] + +[Sidenote: Calvin the real author.] + +The incidents just narrated derive their chief interest from the +circumstance that they bring to our notice for the first time a young +man, Jean Cauvin, or Calvin, of Noyon, soon to figure among the most +important actors in the intellectual and religious history of the modern +world; for it was not many days before the authorship of the startling +theological doctrines enunciated by the rector was directly traced to +his friend and bosom companion, the future reformer of Geneva. In fact, +Calvin seems to have supplied Cop with the entire address--a production +not altogether unworthy of that clear and vigorous intellect which, +within less than two years, conceived the plan of and matured the most +orderly and perfect theological treatise of the Reformation--the +"Institution Chretienne." Between the sketch of Christian Philosophy in +the discourse written for the rector, and the Christian Institutes, +there is, nevertheless, a contrast too striking to be overlooked. And if +the salutation to the Virgin, in the exordium, was actually penned by +Calvin, as is not improbable, the change in his religious convictions +would appear to have been as marked and rapid as the development of his +intellectual faculties. At any rate, the recent discovery of the +complete manuscript of Nicholas Cop's oration ranks among the most +opportune and welcome of antiquarian successes in our times.[321] + +[Sidenote: He seeks safety in flight.] + +Calvin was soon reduced to the necessity of following the rector's +example in fleeing from Paris; for the part he had had in preparing the +address had become the public talk. The young scholar--he was only in +his twenty-fifth year--sought for by the sanguinary +_lieutenant-criminel_, Jean Morin, barely made good his escape. +Proceeding to Angouleme, he enjoyed, under the friendly roof of Louis de +Tillet, a short period of quiet and an opportunity to pursue his +favorite studies.[322] + +[Sidenote: Francis rejects roughly the intercession of the Bernese.] + +The incessant representations made to the king respecting the rapid +progress of "Lutheran" doctrines in France, and perhaps also the +occurrence of such incidents as that just mentioned, seem to have been +the cause of the adoption of new measures against the Reformation and +its professors. Already, in October, Francis had written a rough answer +to the Council of the Canton of Berne, expressing extreme surprise that +they had ventured to intercede for the relatives of Guillaume Farel, +accused of heresy, and to beg him to give no credit in this matter +either to the royal officers or to the inquisitors of the faith.[323] +And he had used these significant words: "Desiring the preservation of +the name of _very Christian king_, acquired for us by our predecessors, +_we have nothing in the world more at heart than the entire extirpation +of heresies, and nothing could induce us to suffer them to take root in +our kingdom_. Of this you may rest well assured, and leave us to proceed +against them, without your giving yourselves any solicitude. _For +neither your prayers, nor those of any one else whomsoever, could be of +any avail in this matter with us._"[324] + +[Sidenote: Royal letter to the Bishop of Paris.] + +On his return from the marriage of his son Henry to Catharine de' +Medici, celebrated only four days before Cop's university harangue, +Francis was induced to make new provisions for the detection and +punishment of dissent. Alarmed by the progress of "Lutheran" sentiments +in his very capital, as reported to him by parliament, he not only urged +that body to renewed diligence, but directed the Bishop of Paris, the +tolerant Jean du Bellay, who may have been suspected of too much +supineness in the matter,[325] to confer upon two counsellors of +parliament all the authority necessary to act for him, without prejudice +to his jurisdiction in other cases.[326] Both parliament and bishop +were at the same time notified of the receipt of two fresh bulls, kindly +furnished by Pope Clement, at Francis's request, to help in the good +work of extirpating "that accursed Lutheran sect."[327] + + * * * * * + + [Sidenote: Elegies on Louis de Berquin.] + + The number of extant poems on the death of Louis de Berquin attests + very clearly the estimate placed upon him by the Roman Catholics as + the most dangerous heretic--in fact, the _heresiarch_ of the day. A + stanza of eight lines, which seems to have been popular (for it has + been discovered in MS. both in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Genin, + i. 219, and in the library of Soissons, Bulletin de la Soc. de + l'hist. du prot. franc., xi. 131), represents the four elements as + conspiring, at God's bidding, to take vengeance upon him: + + "Du faux Berquin et de ses documens + Dieu s'est venge par les quatre elemens: + _Terre_ luy a desnie sepulture; + _Feu_ l'a destruit et sa fausse escripture; + Tisons par _eau_ pluviale arrosez + Se sont plus fort esmeus et embrasez. + Dont (pour la fin du malheureux comprendre) + L'_air_ par les vents en a receu la cendre." + + I have been so fortunate as to discover two other poems on the same + subject, in a little collection in my possession entitled _Martini + Theodorici Bellovaci Epigrammata_ (Parisiis, 1539), which seems to + be of such rarity that these pieces may almost be viewed in the + light of inedited documents. They are of special interest because + of the singular circumstance that this collection of extremely + "Catholic" effusions is dedicated to _Odet de Coligny_, Cardinal of + Chatillon, Archbishop of Toulouse, Bishop and Count of Beauvais, + elder brother of the more famous _Admiral_ massacred on St. + Bartholomew's day. Cardinal Chatillon, created such when only + thirteen years old, was, at the time of the publication of this + book, a youth of scarcely more than twenty-two, and a devout Roman + Catholic, but subsequently, as elsewhere stated, became an avowed + Protestant and a prominent Huguenot leader. + + In the first of these poems, under the heading of _Elegia Ludovici + Berquuyni_, the writer would almost seem to have had in mind the + description by the ancient dramatists of the impious warfare of + Capaneus breathing out boastful threats against Jove himself + (Septem con. Theb., 416, etc.), or the Titans in conflict with the + Gods. + + "Occultum patuit quod non celarier ultra + Debuit. Excellens Jupiter egit opus. + Sublimi elatum dejecit sede potentem, + Qui modo regnabat, qui modo jura dabat, + Quique superbifico regalia limina gressu + Tantum incedebat, pastus honore levi, + Et cedrina petens famae monimenta perennis. + Insigni optabat sanctior esse Numa. + Lector, Ave, et causam properes dignoscere: casus + Haereseos foeda labe volutus erat. + Hoc impune nefas solida an ratione stetisset, + Et Petri hausissent aequora vasta ratim, + Inviolata fides aeterno permanet aevo. + Percutit injustos ira molesta Dei; + Quem neque praemeditans latuit Nero, funera cujus + Distulit adversa in tempora longa vice. + Occidit ergo miser, Divumque hominumque favore, + Traduxitque illuc sors malesuada virum. + Nil gravius pugnare Deo, pugnare feroci + Fortunae. Vinci magnus uterque nequit." + + The other elegy is shorter and less striking in conception, but + gives a similar impression of the importance assigned to Louis de + Berquin's activity and influence: + + "Francia dum hymnidico resonet paeane juventus, + Parisia extincto gaudeat hoste phalanx. + Hic dudum, et nuper morbo scabiosus edaci, + Francorum reliquas inficiebat oves. + Cognitus haud potuit mundari errore nefando, + Quin purgaretur lucidiore foco. + Nam quamvis concessa esset clementia, durus + Obstitit, et rapido malluit igne mori." + + The library of Soissons contains a MS. lament from a Protestant + source over the death of De Berquin, which is at once simple and + touching. It is printed in the Bulletin, xi. 129-131. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 256: Registres du parlement, Feb. 26, 1417/8, Preuves des +Libertez, i. 124, etc.] + +[Footnote 257: Yet the trial of Aime Maigret had been specially +committed by Louise to the Sorbonne, as early as January, 1525 (Letter +of the Council of the Archbishop of Lyons to Beda, Jan. 23, 1525, +Herminjard, i. 326); and Zwingle knew, in March, of a more or less +successful effort to convince the regent that the evangelical doctrines +were subversive of peace--the proof alleged being drawn from Germany, +where "everything was turned upside down." Dedication to Francis I., +prefixed to De vera et falsa religione commentarius, Herminjard, i. +351.] + +[Footnote 258: See Mezeray's unfavorable portrait of the unscrupulous +Duprat, Abrege chron., iv. 584.] + +[Footnote 259: The four were Philippe Pot, President in the _chambre des +enquetes_, and Andre Verjus, a counsellor, from parliament, and +Guillaume Du Chesne and Nicholas Le Clerc, doctors of theology. For the +first on the list, Jacques de la Barde was soon after substituted. +Registres du parlement, March 20, 1524/5, Preuves des Libertez, i. 164.] + +[Footnote 260: Registres du parlement, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 261: Soldan, Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 102.] + +[Footnote 262: Registres du parlement, July 29, 1458, Preuves des +Libertez, i. 138.] + +[Footnote 263: "Un inquisiteur de la foi n'a capture ou arret en ce +royaume, sinon par l'aide et autorite du bras seculier." Pithou, Essaie, +art. 37.] + +[Footnote 264: "Nonobstant oppositions ou appellations quelconques, +_semota executione a definitiva_, si en est appelle." Registres du +parlement, Preuves des Libertez, iii. 164.] + +[Footnote 265: "Nos quoque comprobavimus ... sicut per alias nostras +_sub plumbo_ literas poteritis cognoscere." Registres du parlement, _ubi +supra_.] + +[Footnote 266: Recueil des anc. lois francaises, par Jourdan, Decrusy et +Isambert, xii. 232-237.] + +[Footnote 267: Isambert, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 268: The author of the anonymous Journal d'un bourgeois de +Paris, 383, 384. His description, written in 1528, is interesting: +"Ledict Barquin avoit environ 50 ans, et portoit ordinairement robbe de +veloux, satin et damas, et choses (chausses) d'or, et _estoit de noble +lignee et moult grand clerc_, expert en science et subtil, mais +neantmoins il faillit en son sens." Erasmus makes him some seven years +younger, Letter to Utenhoven, July 1, 1529, Opera, ii. 1206, _seq._; and +Herminjard, Correspondance des reformateurs, ii. 183, _seq._] + +[Footnote 269: His account is important, but too full for insertion +here. See the letter above quoted.] + +[Footnote 270: Arret du parlement, Aug. 5, 1523, Haag, France prot. s. +v. _Berquin_.] + +[Footnote 271: Felibien, Hist. de la ville de Paris, ii. 948; Journal +d'un bourgeois de Paris, 169, 170; Haag, s. v.; Erasmus, Opera, _ubi +supra_.] + +[Footnote 272: "Etiam in loco sacro." Registres du parlement, January 8, +1526, Preuves des Libertez, iii., 166.] + +[Footnote 273: Margaret's gratitude to Montmorency for his kind offices +is very fully attested by a passage in an extant letter (Genin, Lettres +de Marg. d'Ang., 1ere Coll., No. 54): "Vous merciant du plaisir que +m'aves fait pour le pauvre Berquin, que j'estime aultant que si c'estoit +moy mesmes, et par cela pouves vous dire que vous m'aves tiree de +prison, etc." To Francis she expressed the assurance "que Celuy pour qui +je croy qu'il a souffert aura agreable la misericorde que pour son +honneur avez fait a son serviteur et au vostre." Ibid., 2de Coll., No. +35.] + +[Footnote 274: The chief authorities for the first two imprisonments of +De Berquin are the long and important letter of Erasmus, to which I +shall have occasion again to refer (Opera, ii. 1206, _seq._), Felibien, +Hist. de la ville de Paris, ii. 948, 984, 985; Journal d'un bourgeois de +Paris, 169, 170, 277, 278; Haag, s. v.] + +[Footnote 275: It is somewhat amusing, in the light of subsequent +events, to read such outbursts of sisterly enthusiasm as this: "O que +bien-heureuse sera vostre brefve prison, par qui Dieu tant d'ames +deslivrera de celle d'infidelite et esternelle damnacion." Lettres de +Marg. d'Ang., 2de Coll., No. 5, Lyons, May 1525. See, too, 1ere Coll., +No. 26, addressed to Montmorency.] + +[Footnote 276: Margaret's letters to Count Hohenlohe were translated +into Latin and published by himself. M. Genin has rendered them into +French, and inserted them in his Lettres de Marg. d'Angouleme, 1ere +Coll., Nos. 48-51. The letter of July 5, 1526, is the most important.] + +[Footnote 277: This precious bit of special pleading deserves notice. In +the instructions of the king to the Archbishop of Lyons, to be read at +the council in that city, Francis thus expressed himself: "Et combien +que pour ung tel et si bon oeuvre que celluy qui se offre de present, +_le dict sire fut conseille_, que juridiquement et par tous droicts +divins et humains, _il pouvoit et debvoit raisonnablement mettre, +subimposer et faire contribuer toutes manieres de gens_, de quelque +qualite, auctorite, condition qu'ils fuissent, soient d'eglise, nobles, +ou du tiers et commun estat, au paiement de la ditte rancon, etc." +Labbei Concilia, xix. fol. 1137.] + +[Footnote 278: The reason assigned for not convoking the States General +in proper form, viz., that time did not permit the necessary delay, must +be considered scarcely sufficient to explain the irregularity. Ibid., +_ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 279: "Fist un discours farci de latin et de citations de +l'Ecriture, dans lequel il conclut que le traite de Madrid estoit nul." +Isambert, xii. 299.] + +[Footnote 280: The declaration is significant and noteworthy as the +first of many similar assurances. Among the documents in Isambert, +Recueil des anc. lois francaises, is a full account of the proceedings +of the notables, xii. 292-301.] + +[Footnote 281: If Francis was sanguine of success in suppressing the +Reformation in his kingdom, there were others who went farther still. +Barthelemi de Chassanee this very year (1527) chronicles the destruction +of "Lutheranism" in France as _an accomplished fact_! The passage is not +unworthy of notice. After explaining the significance of the +_fleurs-de-lis_ on the royal escutcheon by the wonderful efficacy of the +lily as the antidote of the serpent's poison, and remarking that the +kings of France had thrice extracted the mortal virus from the bite of +Mohammed, "serpentis venenosi," the writer adds: "Et, his temporibus, +videmus nostram fidem et religionem Christianam _sanatam esse a morsu +pestiferi serpentis Lutheri_, qui infinitas haereses in fide Christiana +seminavit, _quae fuerunt extirpatae a Rege nostro Francisco +Christianissimo_, qui non cessat insudare, ut Clemens summus Pontifex a +sua Sede ejectus restituatur, quem Carolus Borbonius dux exercitus +Caroli Austriaci electi in Imperatorem, in urbe obsederat _hoc anno +Domini_ 1527 die 6 Maii." Catalogus Gloriae Mundi, fol. 143.] + +[Footnote 282: Labbei Concilia, xix. fol. 1160.] + +[Footnote 283: The reader may, if his patience will hold out, wade +through the prolix decrees of the Council of Sens as published by +Cardinal Duprat in 1529, and printed in Labbei Concilia (Venice, 1732), +xix. 1149-1202. It is worthy of remark that the confiscation of the +property of condemned heretics, if laymen, to the state, is ordered, +"_tanquam reorum laesae majestatis_." Fol. 1159.] + +[Footnote 284: Labbei Concilia, xix. fol. 1139.] + +[Footnote 285: The words of the decree are sufficiently distinct: "Illam +plurimum gravem et onerosam ecclesiis, laicis vero contemtibilem, +sacerdotum multitudinem, qui solent plerumque _illiterati, moribus +inculti, servilibus operibus addicti, imberbes, inopes, fictitiis +titulis_ ad sacros ordines obrepere, non sine magno status clericalis +opprobrio." Ibid., xix. fol. 1128. The decrees of the councils of +Bourges and Lyons are given in Labbei Concilia, xix. 1041-1048, and 1095 +etc.] + +[Footnote 286: The image was affixed to the house of the Sieur de +Beaumont, at the corner of the Rue des Hosiers and the Rue des Juifs. +Felibien, Hist. de Paris, iv. 676.] + +[Footnote 287: The strong language of the author of the "Cronique du Roi +Francoys I^er" (edited by G. Guiffrey, Paris, 1860) may serve as an +index of the popular feeling: "La nuict du dimenche, dernier jour de +may, ... _par quelque ung pire que ung chien mauldict de Dieu_, fut +rompue et couppee la teste a une ymaige de la vierge Marie ... qui fut +_une grosse horreur a la crestiente_." Page 66.] + +[Footnote 288: The silver image, though protected by an iron grating, +fared no better than its predecessor. Stolen before the death of +Francis, it was succeeded by a wooden statue, and, when this was +destroyed by "heretics," by one of marble! The detailed accounts of the +expiatory processions in Felibien, ii. 982, 983, in the Registres du +parlement, ibid., iv. 677-679, in G. Guiffrey, appendix to "Cronique du +Roy Francoys I^er," 446-459, from MSS. Nat. Lib., in Gaillard, vi. +434, 435, and in the Journal d'un bourgeois, 348-351, give a vivid view +of the picturesque ceremonial of the times. It must have been a very +substantial compensation for the trouble to which the unknown author of +the outrage of the _Rue des Rosiers_ put the clergy, that the mutilated +statue of the Virgin, having been placed above the altar in the church +of St. Gervais, was said to have wrought notable miracles, and even to +have raised two children from the dead! Journal d'un bourgeois, _ubi +supra_. See also "Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er," 67, and especially +the poem (Ibid., appendix, 459-464), in twenty-five stanzas of eight +lines each, which, I fear, has nothing to recommend it, unless it be +_length_!] + +[Footnote 289: May, 1530. Felibien, ii 988, 989; Journal d'un bourgeois, +410.] + +[Footnote 290: "Quaeris, quid profecerim? Tot modis deterrens, addidi +animum."] + +[Footnote 291: Erasmus to Utenhoven, _ubi supra_; also his letter to +Vergara, Sept. 2, 1527, and Beda's Apology, Herminjard, ii. 38, 39, 40.] + +[Footnote 292: Erasmus to Utenhoven, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 293: It was one of the great merits of Francis I., in the eyes +of De Thou, the historian, that he had drawn Bude from comparative +obscurity, and, following his wise counsels, founded the College Royale. +Erasmus styled him "The Wonder of France" (De Thou, liv. iii., i. 233), +and Scaevole de Ste. Marthe, "omnium, qui hoc patrumque saeculo vixere, +sine controversia doctissimus" (Elog. 3). He was at this time one of the +_maitres de requetes_. Crespin, fol. 58.] + +[Footnote 294: Journal d'un bourgeois, 378.] + +[Footnote 295: The series of letters ends with a prayer which it would +have been difficult, we must suppose, for a brother to resist: "Il vous +plera (plaira), Monseigneur, faire en sorte que l'on ne die (dise) point +que l'eslongnement vous ait fait oblier vostre tres-humble et +tres-obeissante subjette et seur MARGUERITE." Genin, 2de Coll., No. 52.] + +[Footnote 296: A MS. of the Bibliotheque Nationale, printed by M. Genin +(i. 218, etc.), and G. Guiffrey, Cronique, etc., 76, note, gives these +and other interesting details, which are in part confirmed by Erasmus.] + +[Footnote 297: Ibid., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 298: It was a slight suggestion of mercy that prompted the +judges to permit him to be strangled before his body was consigned to +the flames.] + +[Footnote 299: "Ce qui fut faict et expedie ce mesme jour _en grande +diligence, affin qu'il ne fut recourru du Roy ne de madame la Regente_, +qui estoit lors a Bloys, etc." Journal d'un bourgeois, 383.] + +[Footnote 300: For De Berquin's history, see Erasmus, _ubi supra_; +Journal d'un bourgeois, 378, etc.; Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta (ed. +of 1560), fol. 57-59; Histoire eccles., i. 5; Felibien, ii. 985; Haag, +s. v.] + +[Footnote 301: Journal d'un bourgeois, and Hist. eccles., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 302: So he is styled by Martin of Beauvais, writing some few +months later, in a sufficiently bold plea for the use of fire and fagot: +"Si vero _haeresiarchae Berquini_, et suorum sequacium pervicacia +delibutus (haereticus) incorrigibilis videatur, ne fortassis plusquam +vipereum venenum latenter surrepat, et sanos inficere possit, subito +auferte eum de medio vestrum, execrantes atque aversantes illius +perversitatem, et abscisum velut palmitem aridum (juxta Joannis +sententiam) _subjectis ignibus torrere facite_." Paraclesis catholica +Franciae ad Francos, ut fortes in Fide et Vocatione qua vocati sunt, +permaneant, authore Martino Theodorico Bellovaco, Juris Caesarei +Professore (Parisiis, 1539), p. 14.--See note at the end of this +chapter.] + +[Footnote 303: F. W. Barthold, Deutschland und die Hugenoten, i. 15; +Soldan, Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 115-120.] + +[Footnote 304: Mezeray, Abrege chronologique, iv. 577.] + +[Footnote 305: Soldan, i. 121.] + +[Footnote 306: October 28, 1533.] + +[Footnote 307: "Con mala sodisfazione di tutta la Francia, perche pare +ad ogniuno che Clemente pontefice _abbia gabbato_ questo re +cristianissimo." Marino Giustiniano (1535), Relaz. Ven., Alberi, i. +191.] + +[Footnote 308: Catharine de' Medici was born April 13, 1519.] + +[Footnote 309: These interesting particulars are contained in a MS. +letter in the Zurich Archives (probably written by Oswald Myconius to +Joachim Vadian). The writer had them directly from the mouth of +Guillaume du Bellay, the French ambassador, who was with the king at the +interview of Marseilles. Du Bellay also gave some details of his own +conversations with Clement. The latter freely admitted that there were +some things that displeased him in the mass, but naturally wanted so +profitable an institution to be treated tenderly and cautiously. +Correspond. des reformateurs, iii. 183-186.] + +[Footnote 310: The truth respecting Toulouse probably lies about midway +between the censures of the Huguenot and the eulogy of the Roman +Catholic historian. According to the author of the _Histoire +ecclesiastique_, the parliament was the most sanguinary in France, the +university careless of letters, the population jealous of any +proficiency in liberal studies. According to Florimond de Raemond, +writing somewhat later, Toulouse was worthy of eternal praise, because, +notwithstanding a marvellous confluence of strangers from all parts, and +in spite of being completely surrounded by regions infected with heresy, +it had so persisted in the faith as to contain within its walls not a +single family that did not live in conformity with the prescriptions of +the church! Historia de ortu, progressu et ruina haereseon hujus saeculi, +ii. 486.] + +[Footnote 311: Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta, fol. 64.] + +[Footnote 312: Florimond de Raemond, ii. 394, 395.] + +[Footnote 313: March 6, 1535. Journal d'un bourgeois, 453.] + +[Footnote 314: Hist. eccles., i. 9; Crespin, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 315: John Calvin gives a contemporary's account in a letter to +Francois Daniel from Paris, October, 1533. Herminjard, Correspond. des +reformateurs, iii. 106, etc.; and translated in Bonnet, Calvin's +Letters, i. 36, etc. See also Jean Sturm's letter of about the same +date, Herminjard, iii. 93.] + +[Footnote 316: Calvin's letter above quoted, one of the oldest of his +MS. autographs. Dr. Paul Henry, in his valuable Life and Times of John +Calvin (Eng. trans., i. 37) inadvertently makes Cop rector of the +_Sorbonne_, an office that never existed.] + +[Footnote 317: A single sentence may serve to indicate the distinctness +with which this is asserted: "Evangelium remissionem peccatorum et +justificationem gratis pollicetur; neque enim accepti sumus Deo quod +legi satisfaciamus, sed ex sola Christi promissione, de qua qui dubitat +pie vivere non potest, et gehennae incendium sibi parat." Opera Calvini, +Baum, Cunitz, et Reuss, x. 34.] + +[Footnote 318: Some officious pen has indeed stricken out from the MS. +the sentence, "Quod nos consecuturos spero, si beatissimam Virginem +solenni illo praeconio longe omnium pulcherrimo salutaverimus: _Ave +gratia plena!_" But on the margin the sensible Nicholas Colladon, a +colleague of Beza and an early biographer of Calvin, has written the +words: "Haec, quia illis temporibus danda sunt, ne supprimenda quidem +putavimus."] + +[Footnote 319: "AEgre fert Facultas _injuriam toti unversitati illatam_, +quod tractus fuerit ad superiorem Judicem ... summus suus magistratus, +et, eam ob rem, censet Facultas ut ejus accusatores et qui +supplicationem superiori Judici porrexerunt, citentur in facie +universitatis, causas rei allaturi." Bullaeus, vi. 238, _apud_ +Herminjard, iii. 117, note. See many interesting particulars respecting +the privileges claimed by the university, in Pasquier, Recherches de la +France, liv. iii. ch. 29.] + +[Footnote 320: He was to have been thrown into the _Conciergerie_. See +Beza's preface to Calvin's Com. on Joshua, 1565, _apud_ Herminjard, iii. +118, note. Parliament complained to Francis, and the latter in his +reply, Lyons, Dec. 10, 1533, ordered proceedings to be instituted for +the capture of Cop and the punishment of the person who had facilitated +his flight by giving him warning. Francis to parliament, Herminjard, +iii. 118. A reward of 300 crowns was accordingly offered for the +apprehension of the fugitive rector, dead or alive. Martin Bucer to Amb. +Blaurer, January, 1534, Herminjard, iii. 130.] + +[Footnote 321: A fragment of Cop's address--about the first third--was +discovered by M. Jules Bonnet in the MSS. of the Library of Geneva, +bearing on the margin the note: "Haec Joannes Calvinus propria manu +descripsit, et est auctor." This portion is printed in Herminjard, +Corresp. des reformateurs, iii. 418-420, and Calv. Opera, Baum, Cunitz, +et Reuss, ix. 873-876. Merle d'Aubigne used it in his Hist. of the Ref. +in the time of Calvin, ii. 198, etc. Still more fortunate than M. +Bonnet, Messrs. Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss very recently found a complete +copy of the same address in the archives of one of the churches of +Strasbourg. The newly found portion is of great interest. Calvini Op., +x. (1872), 30-36.] + +[Footnote 322: Calvin to Fr. Daniel (1534), Bonnet, i. 41; Histoire +eccles., i. 9.] + +[Footnote 323: Francis I. to Council of Berne, Marseilles, Oct. 20, +1533, MS. Berne Archives, Herminjard, iii. 95, 96.] + +[Footnote 324: Berne was accustomed to give and take hard blows. So, +although the chancellor of the canton endorsed on the king's missive the +words, "_Rude lettre du Roi_, ... relative aux Farel," the council was +not discouraged; but, when sending two envoys, about a month later, to +the French court, instructed them, among other things, again to +intercede for a brother of Farel. Herminjard, iii. 96, note.] + +[Footnote 325: Du Bellay was himself believed, not without reason, to +have sympathy for the reformed doctrine, and it was under his auspices, +as well as those of the King and Queen of Navarre, that the evangelical +preachers had lately held forth in the pulpits of the capital. See, for +instance, Bucer to Blaurer, Jan., 1534, Herminjard, Corresp. des +reformateurs, iii. 130.] + +[Footnote 326: Francis I.'s letter to Du Bellay, Lyons, Dec. 10, 1533, +MS. Dupuy Coll., Bibl. nat., Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. +franc., i. 437. His orders to parliament of same date, Herminjard, +Corresp. des reformateurs, iii. 114, etc.] + +[Footnote 327: Francis to parliament, _ubi supra_, iii. 116.] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MELANCHTHON'S ATTEMPT AT CONCILIATION, AND THE YEAR OF THE PLACARDS. + + +It appears almost incredible that, so late as in the year 1534, the hope +of reuniting the discordant views of the partisans of reform and the +adherents of the Roman Church should have been seriously entertained by +any considerable number of reflecting minds, for the chasm separating +the opposing parties was too wide and deep to be bridged over or filled. +There were irreconcilable differences of doctrine and practice, and +tendencies so diverse as to preclude the possibility of harmonious +action. + +[Sidenote: Hopes of reunion in the church.] + +Not so, however, thought many sincere persons on both sides, and not +less on the side of the Reformation than on that of the Roman Catholic +Church. True, the claims of the papacy were insupportable, and the most +flagrant abuses prevailed; but many of the reformers believed it quite +within the bounds of possibility that the great body of the supporters +of the church might be brought to recognize and renounce these abuses, +and break the tyrannical yoke that had, for so many centuries, rested +upon the neck of the faithful. The ancient fabric of religion, they +said, is indeed disfigured by modern additions, and has been brought, by +long neglect, to the very verge of ruin. But these tasteless +excrescences can easily be removed, the ravages of time reverently +repaired, and the grand old edifice restored to its pristine symmetry +and magnificence. In a word, it was a general _reformation_ that was +contemplated--no radical reconstruction after a novel plan. And the +future _council_, in which all phases of opinion would be freely +represented, was to provide the adequate and sufficient cure for all the +ills afflicting the body politic and ecclesiastic. + +By some of the more sanguine adherents of both parties these flattering +expectations were long entertained. With others the attempt to effect a +religious reconciliation seems to have served merely as a mask to hide +political designs; and at this distance of time it is among the most +difficult problems of history to determine the proportion in which +earnest zeal and rank insincerity entered as factors into the measures +undertaken for the purpose of reconciling theological differences. +Especially is this true respecting the overtures made by the French +monarch to Philip Melanchthon, which now claim our attention. + +[Sidenote: Melanchthon and Du Bellay.] + +[Sidenote: A plan of reconciliation.] + +Early in the spring of the year 1534 Melanchthon received a courteous +visit at Wittemberg from an agent of the distinguished French +diplomatist, Guillaume du Bellay-Langey, envoy to the Protestant princes +of Germany. The interview paved the way for a long correspondence +between Melanchthon and Du Bellay himself, in which the latter threw out +suggestions of the practicability of some plan for bringing the +intelligent and candid men in both countries to adopt a common ground in +respect to religion. Finally, in response to Du Bellay's earnest +request, his correspondent consented to draw up such a scheme as +appeared to himself proper to serve for the basis of union. The result +was a paper of a truly wonderful character, in which the reader scarcely +knows whether to admire the evident charity dictating every line, or to +smile at the simplicity betrayed in the extravagant concessions. In a +letter accompanying his proposal Melanchthon set forth at some length +both his motives and his hopes. In touching upon controverted points, he +claimed to have exhibited a moderation that would prove to be not +without utility to the church. He professed his own belief that an +accommodation might be effected on every doctrinal point, if only a free +and amicable conference were to be held, under royal auspices, between a +few good and learned men. The subjects of dispute were less numerous +than was generally supposed, and the edge of many a sharply drawn +theological distinction had been insensibly worn away by the softening +hand of time. By such a conference as he proposed the perils of a public +discussion could be avoided--a form of controversy fatal, for the most +part, to the peace of the unlearned. In fact, no radical change was +absolutely required in the ancient order or in ecclesiastical polity. +Not even the pontifical authority itself need necessarily be abolished; +for it was the desire of the Lutheran party, so far as possible, to +retain all the accustomed forms. In fine, he begged Du Bellay to exhort +the monarchs of Europe to concord while yet there was room left for the +counsels of moderation. What calamities might otherwise be in store! +What a ruin both of church and state, should a collision of arms be +precipitated![328] + +But Melanchthon's ardor had carried him far beyond his true reckoning. +No other reformer could have brought himself to approve the articles now +submitted for the king's perusal; while it was certain that not even +this unbounded liberality would satisfy the exorbitant demands of the +Roman party. + +[Sidenote: Melanchthon's concessions.] + +Melanchthon not only admitted that an ecclesiastical system with bishops +in many cities was lawful, but that the Roman pontiff might preside over +the entire episcopate. He countenanced, to a certain extent, the current +doctrine respecting human tradition and the retention of auricular +confession. He discerned a gradual approach to concord in respect to +justification, and found no difficulty in the divergent views of free +will and original sin. He did, indeed, insist upon the rejection of the +worship of saints, and advocate expunging from the ritual all appeals +for their assistance. So, too, monks ought to be allowed to forsake the +cloister, and monastic establishments could then be advantageously +turned into schools of learning. The celibacy of the clergy should, in +like manner, be forthwith granted. There was, however, in his view, one +point that bristled with difficulties. How to remove them Melanchthon +confessed himself unable to suggest. The question of the popish mass was +the Gordian knot which must be reserved for the future council of the +church to untie or cut.[329] + +[Sidenote: His own misgivings.] + +A faint suspicion seems, however, to have flitted through the Wittemberg +reformer's mind, that possibly, after all his large admissions, his +attempt was but labor lost! For, in a letter to Martin Bucer, written on +the very day he despatched his communication to Du Bellay, he more than +hinted his own despair of effecting an agreement with the Pope of Rome, +and excused himself for his apparently lavish proffers, on the plea that +he was desirous of making his good French friends comprehend the chief +points of controversy![330] + +[Sidenote: A favorable impression made on Francis.] + +Melanchthon's articles, faithfully transmitted by Du Bellay, produced on +the mind of Francis a favorable impression. The ambitious monarch +welcomed the prospect of a speedy removal of the doctrinal differences +that had previously marred the perfect understanding he wished to +maintain with the Protestant princes of Germany. Whether, however, any +higher motives than considerations of a political character weighed with +him, may well be doubted. + +Meantime, an unexpected occurrence for the time dispelled all thought of +that harvest of conciliation and harmony which the more moderate +reformers looked for as likely to spring up from the seed so liberally +sown by Melanchthon. + +[Sidenote: Indiscreet partisans of reform.] + +If, among the advocates of the purification of the church, there was a +party which, with Melanchthon, seemed ready to jeopard some of the most +vital principles of the great moral and religious movement, in the vain +hope of again cementing an unnatural union with the Roman system, there +was another faction, to which moderation and half-way measures were +utterly repulsive. Its partisans believed themselves warranted in +resorting to open acts expressive of detestation of the gilded idolatry +of the popular religion. For their views they alleged the Old Testament +history as sufficient authority. Had not the servants of Jehovah braved +the resentment of the priests of Baal, and disregarded the threats of +kings and queens? Why treat the saints' images, the crucifixes, the +gorgeous robes and manufactured relics, with more consideration than was +displayed by Hebrew prophets in dealing with heathen abominations? So +inveterate an evil as the corruption of all that is most sacred in +Christianity could only be successfully combated by vigor and decision. +Only under heavy and repeated blows does the monarch of the forest yield +to the axe of the woodman. + +Between the extremes of ill-judged concession and untimely rashness, the +great body of those who had embraced the Reformation endeavored to hold +a middle course, but found themselves exposed to many perils, not the +result of their own actions, but brought upon them by the timidity or +foolhardiness of their associates. A lamentable instance of the kind +must now be noticed. + +[Sidenote: Placards and pasquinades.] + +For many months the street-walls of Paris had been employed by both +sides in the great controversies of the day, for the purpose of giving +publicity to their views. Under cover of night, placards, often in the +form of pasquinades, were posted where they would be likely to meet the +eyes of a large number of curious readers. So, in the excitement +following the arrest and exile of Beda and other impertinent and +seditious preachers, placards succeeded each other nightly. In one the +theologians of the Sorbonne were portrayed to the life, and each in all +his proper colors, by an unfriendly pencil. In another, "Paris, flower +of nobility" was passionately entreated to sustain the wounded faith of +God, and the King of Glory was supplicated to confound "the accursed +dogs," the Lutherans.[331] Under the circumstances, it was not strange +that the "Lutheran" placard was hastily torn down by some zealot, with +the exclamation that the author was a heretic, while a crowd stood all +day about the other transcribing its unpoetic but pious exhortations to +burn the offenders against Divine justice, and no one attempted to +remove it. + +[Sidenote: Mission of Feret to Switzerland.] + +The success of this method of reaching the masses, who could never be +induced to read a formal treatise or book, suggested to some of the more +ardent "Lutherans" of Paris the idea of preparing a longer placard, +which should boldly attack the cardinal errors of the papal system of +religion. But, the press being closely watched in the French capital, it +was thought best to have the placard printed in Switzerland, where, +indeed, the most competent and experienced hands might be found for +composing such a paper. The messenger employed was a young man named +Feret, an apprentice of the king's apothecary;[332] and the printing +seems to have been done in the humble but famous establishment of Pierre +Van Wingle, in the retired Vale of Serrieres, just out of Neufchatel, +and on the same presses which, in 1533, gave to the world the first +French reformed liturgy, and, two years later, the Protestant +translation of the Bible into the French language by Olivetanus.[333] +There is less certainty respecting the authorship, but it seems highly +probable that not Farel, but an enthusiastic and somewhat hot-headed +writer, Antoine de Marcourt, must be held responsible for this imprudent +production.[334] + +[Sidenote: The placard against the mass.] + +Feret, having on his return eluded detection at the frontiers, reached +Paris in safety. He brought with him a large number of copies of a +broadside headed, "_True Articles respecting the horrible, great and +insupportable Abuses of the Papal Mass_." Among those to whom the paper +was secretly submitted, there were some who, more prudent than the rest, +decidedly opposed its publication. It was too violent, they said. The +writer's ill-advised severity would answer no good purpose. The tract +would alienate the sympathy of many, and thus retard, instead of +advancing, the cause it advocated.[335] Remonstrance, however, proved +futile. + +Early on the morning of the eighteenth of October, 1534, a placard was +found posted upon the walls in all the principal thoroughfares of the +metropolis. Everywhere it was read with horror and indignation, mingled +with rage; and loud threats and curses were uttered against its unknown +author. + +The document that called forth these expressions and was the occasion of +more important commotions in the sequel, had so direct and potent an +influence upon the fortunes of the Reformation in France that it cannot +be passed over without a brief reference to the general character of its +contents. It began with a solemn address: "I invoke heaven and earth in +testimony of the truth, against that proud and pompous papal mass, +through which (if God remedy not speedily the evil) the world will be +wholly desolated, destroyed, and ruined. For therein is our Lord so +outrageously blasphemed and the people so blinded and seduced, that it +ought no longer to be suffered or endured." Every Christian must needs +be assured that the one sacrifice of Christ, being perfect, demands no +repetition. Still the world has long been, and now is, flooded with +wretched sacrificing priests, who yet proclaim themselves liars, +inasmuch as they chant every Sunday in their vespers, that Christ is a +priest forever after the order of Melchisedec. Wherefore not only every +man of sound understanding, but "they themselves, in spite of +themselves, must admit that the Pope and all his brood of cardinals, +bishops, monks, and canting mass-priests, with all who consent +thereunto, are false prophets, damnable deceivers, apostates, wolves, +false shepherds, idolaters, seducers, liars and execrable blasphemers, +murderers of souls, renouncers of Jesus Christ, of his death and +passion, false witnesses, traitors, thieves, and robbers of the honor +of God, and more detestable than devils." After citing from the book of +Hebrews some passages to establish the sufficiency of Christ, the writer +addresses his opponents: "I demand then of all sacrificing priests, +whether their sacrifice be perfect or imperfect? If imperfect, why do +they deceive the poor people? If perfect, why need it be repeated? Come +forward, priests, and reply if you can!" + +The body of Christ cannot, it is argued, be contained in the host. It is +_above_, whither also we are bidden raise our hearts and look for the +Lord. To breathe or mutter over the bread and wine, and then adore them, +is idolatry. To enjoin this adoration on others is a doctrine of devils. +But these impudent heretics, not ashamed of attempting to imprison the +body of Jesus in their wafer, have even dared to place this caution in +the rubric of their missals, "If the body of our Lord, being devoured of +mice or spiders, has been destroyed or much gnawed, or if the worm be +found altogether within, let it be burned and placed in the reliquary." +"O Earth! How dost thou not open and swallow up these horrible +blasphemers! Wretched men, is this the body of the Lord Jesus, the true +Son of God? Doth he suffer himself to be eaten of mice and spiders? He +who is the bread of angels and of all the children of God, is he given +to us to become the food of animals? Will ye make him who is +incorruptible at the right hand of God to be the prey of worms and +corruption? Were there no other error than this in your infernal +theology, well would ye deserve the fagot! Light then your fires to burn +_yourselves_, not us who refuse to believe in your idols, your new gods, +and new Christs that suffer themselves to be eaten indifferently by +animals and by you who are no better than animals!"[336] Closing with a +vivid contrast between the fruits of the mass and those of the true +Supper of our Lord, the writer finally exclaims of his opponents, "Truth +fails them, Truth threatens and pursues them, Truth terrifies them; by +which their reign shall shortly be destroyed forever."[337] + +[Sidenote: The popular excitement in Paris.] + +It would be difficult to exaggerate the effect produced upon the +populace of Paris by this intemperate handbill. If any part of the +ceremonial of the church was deeply rooted in the devotion of the common +people, it was the service of the mass. And in attacking the doctrine of +the Real Presence, the authors of this libel, distributed under cover of +the darkness, had, in the estimation of the rabble, proved themselves +more impious and deserving a more signal punishment than that +sacrilegious Jew whose knife had drawn drops of miraculous blood from +the transubstantiated wafer. Not the parish priests, nor the doctors of +the Sorbonne, could surpass the infuriated populace in loud execrations +of the wretch for whom burning alive seemed too mild a punishment. + +[Sidenote: Anger of the king.] + +But a second act of ill-timed rashness accomplished a result even more +disastrous for Protestantism than the kindling of the fanatical zeal of +the people; for it inflamed the anger of the king, and made him, what +all the persuasions of the Roman court had hitherto failed to make him, +a determined enemy and persecutor of the "new doctrines." A copy of the +placard was secretly affixed by night to the very door of the royal +bedchamber in the castle of Amboise,[338] where Francis and his court +were at the time sojourning. If the contents of the tract offended the +religious principles carefully inculcated upon the king by his spiritual +instructors, the audacity of the person who, disregarding bars, bolts +and guards, had presumed to invade the privacy of the royal abode and +obtrude his unwelcome message, could not but be regarded in the light of +a direct personal insult. Francis had not been in the habit of troubling +himself about the private opinions of the learned on vexed points of +theology; nor had he been inclined to permit his more fanatical +subjects to harass any of those eminent scholars whose literary +attainments added lustre to his brilliant court. Yet his claim to the +right of enforcing uniformity of belief--and that uniformity a complete +_conformity_ to his own creed--had rather been held in abeyance than +relinquished. Louis de Berquin had, at his cost, discovered that the +royal protection could not be expected even by a personal favorite and a +scholar of large acquisitions, when, not content with holding doctrines +deemed heretical, he strove to promulgate them. The interposition of +Margaret of Angouleme had proved unavailing in his behalf. The heretics +who had now ventured to nail an expose of their dogmas on his bedchamber +door could scarcely anticipate greater clemency. + +[Sidenote: Political considerations.] + +To personal motives were added political considerations. Indulgence to +the perpetrators of an act so insulting to the Roman Catholic religion +might drive the pontiff, whose friendship was an essential requisite of +success in Francis's ambitious projects, to become the fast friend of +the emperor, his rival. Pope Clement the Seventh had been succeeded by +Paul the Third. The alliance cemented by the marriage of the Duke of +Orleans to Catharine de' Medici had been dissolved by the death of the +bride's uncle. The favor of the new Pope must be conciliated. Under such +circumstances, what were the sufferings of a few poor reformers, when +weighed in the balance against the triple crown of his Holiness? + +[Sidenote: Fruitless intercession of Margaret.] + +Francis determined to return to Paris for the purpose of superintending +in person a search for the culprits. It is true that the Queen of +Navarre attempted to moderate his anger by suggesting that it was not +unlikely that the placard, far from being composed by the "Lutherans," +was the cunning device of their enemies, who thus sought to insure the +ruin of the innocent. But the king appears not unreasonably to have +rejected the suggestion as improbable; although, seven years later, +Margaret reminded him of her surmise, and maintained that the sequel had +strongly confirmed its accuracy.[339] + +[Sidenote: Francis abolishes the art of printing.] + +Far, indeed, from yielding to his sister's persuasions, Francis in his +anger took a step which he would certainly have been glad himself, a few +months later, to be able to forget, and of which his panegyrists have +fruitlessly striven to obliterate the memory. On the thirteenth of +January, 1535, after the lapse of nearly three months from the date of +the publication of the placards--an interval that might surely be +regarded as sufficiently long to permit his overheated passions to cool +down--the king sent to the Parliament of Paris _an Edict absolutely +prohibiting any exercise of the Art of Printing in France, on pain of +the halter_! It was no secret from whom the ignoble suggestion had come. +A year and a half earlier (on the seventh of June, 1533), the +theologians of the Sorbonne had presented Francis an urgent petition, in +view of the multiplication of heretical books, wherein they set forth +the absolute necessity of suppressing forever by a severe law the +pestilent art which had been the parent of so dangerous a progeny.[340] +The king was now acting upon the advice of his ghostly counsellors! + +[Sidenote: He suspends the disgraceful edict.] + +Happily for Francis, however, whose ambition it had hitherto been to +figure as a modern Maecenas, even a subservient parliament declined the +customary registration. The king, too, coming to his senses after the +lapse of six weeks, so far yielded to the remonstrances of his more +sensible courtiers as to recall his rash edict, or, rather, suspend its +operation until he could give the matter more careful consideration. +Meanwhile he undertook to institute a censorship. The king was to select +twelve persons of quality and pecuniary responsibility, from a list of +twice that number of names submitted by parliament; and this commission +was to receive the exclusive right to print--and that, in the city of +Paris alone--such books as might be approved by the proper authorities +and be found necessary to the public weal. Until the appointment of the +twelve censors the press was to remain idle! Nor was the suspension of +the prohibitory ordinance to continue a day longer than the term +required by the monarch to decide whether he preferred to modify its +provisions or leave them unchanged. "Albeit on the thirteenth day of +January, 1534,"[341] wrote this much lauded patron of letters, "by other +letters-patent of ours, and for the causes and reasons therein +contained, _we prohibited and forbade any one from thenceforth printing, +or causing to be printed, any books in our kingdom, on pain of the +halter_: nevertheless, we have willed and ordained that the execution +and accomplishment of our said letters, prohibitions and injunctions, be +and continue suspended and surcease until we shall otherwise +provide."[342] + +[Sidenote: Vigorous proceedings of parliament.] + +Meantime, parliament had not been slack in obeying the command to search +diligently for the authors and publishers of the placards. Many reputed +"Lutherans" had been arrested, some of whom, it was given out, pretended +to reveal the existence of a plot of the reformers to fall upon the good +Christians of the metropolis while assembled in their churches for +divine worship, and assassinate them in the midst of their devotions! +The credulous populace made no difficulty in accepting the tale. Paris +shuddered at the thought of its narrow escape, and some hundreds of +thousands of men and women reverently crossed themselves and thanked +heaven they had not fallen a prey to the blood-thirsty designs of a +handful of peaceable and unarmed adherents of the "new doctrines!" As +for Francis himself, a grave historian tells us that his apprehensions +were inflamed by the very mention of the word "conspiracy."[343] + +[Sidenote: Abundance of victims.] + +The investigation had been committed to practised hands. The prosecuting +officer, or _lieutenant-criminel_, Morin, was as famous for his cunning +as he was notorious for his profligacy. Moreover, the judicious addition +of six hundred _livres parisis_ to his salary afforded him a fresh +stimulus and prevented his zeal from flagging.[344] The timidity or +treachery of one of the prisoners facilitated the inquest. Terrified by +the prospect of torture and death, or induced by hope of reward, a +person, obscurely designated as _le Guainier_, or _Gueynier_,[345] made +an ample disclosure of the names and residences of his former +fellow-believers. The pursuit was no longer confined to those who had +been concerned in the distribution of the placards. All reputed heretics +were apprehended, and, as rapidly as their trials could be prosecuted, +condemned to death. There was a rare harvest of falsehood and +misrepresentation. No wonder that innocent and guilty were involved in +one common fate.[346] + +It does not come within the scope of this history to give an edifying +account of the courage displayed by the victims of the frenzy consequent +upon the placards. The very names of many are unknown. Among the first +to be committed to the flames was a young man, Barthelemi Milon, whom +paralysis had deprived of the use of the lower half of his body.[347] +His unpardonable offence was that copies of the placard against the mass +had been found in his possession. A wealthy draper, Jean du Bourg, had +been guilty of the still more heinous crime of having posted some of the +bills on the walls. For this he was compelled before execution to go +through that solemn mockery of penitence, the _amende honorable_, in +front of the church of Notre Dame, with but a shirt to conceal his +nakedness, and holding a lighted taper in his hand; afterward to be +conducted to the _Fontaine des Innocents_, and there have the hand that +had done the impious deed cut off at the wrist, in token of the public +detestation of his "high treason against God and the king." A printer, a +bookseller, a mason, a young man in orders, were subjected to the same +cruel death. But these were only the first fruits of the +prosecution.[348] However opinions may differ respecting the merits of +the cause for which they suffered, there can be but one view taken of +their deportment in the trying hour of execution. In the presence of the +horrible preparatives for torture, the most clownish displayed a +fortitude and a noble consciousness of honest purpose, contrasted with +which the pusillanimous dejection, the unworthy concessions, and the +premeditated perjury of Francis, during his captivity at Madrid not ten +years before, appear in no enviable light. The monarch who bartered away +his honor to regain his liberty[349] might have sat at the feet of +these, his obscure subjects, to learn the true secret of greatness. + +[Sidenote: The great expiatory procession.] + +The punishment of the persons who had taken part in the preparation and +dissemination of the placards was deemed an insufficient atonement for a +crime in the guilt of which they had involved the city, and, indeed, the +whole kingdom. As the offence excelled in enormity any other within the +memory of man, so it was determined to expiate it by a solemn procession +unparalleled for magnificence. Thursday, the twenty-first of January, +1535, was chosen for the pageant. Along the line of march the streets +had been carefully cleaned. A public proclamation had bidden every +householder display from his windows the most beautiful and costly +tapestries he possessed. At the doors of all private mansions large +waxen tapers burned, and, at the intersection of all side streets, +wooden barriers, guarded by soldiers, precluded the possibility of +interruption. + +Early on the appointed morning, the entire body of the clergy of Paris, +decked out in their most splendid robes and bearing the insignia of +their respective ranks, assembled in Notre Dame, and thence in solemn +state marched to the church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois, to meet the +king. Sixteen dignitaries bore aloft the precious reliquary of Sainte +Genevieve; others in similar honor supported the no less venerated +reliquary of Saint Marcel. Those skilled in local antiquities averred +that never before had the sacred remains of either saint been known to +be brought across the Seine to grace any similar display. + +At Saint Germain l'Auxerrois--that notable church under the very shadow +of the Louvre, whose bell, a generation later, gave the first signal for +the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day--the royal court and the civil and +municipal bodies that had been permitted to appear on so august an +occasion, were in waiting. At length the magnificent column began its +progress, and threading the crowded streets of St. Honore and St. Denis, +made its way, over the bridge of Notre Dame, to the island upon which +stood and still stands the stately cathedral dedicated to Our Lady. Far +on in the van rode Eleonore, Francis's second queen, sister to the +emperor, conspicuous for her dignified bearing, dressed in black velvet +and mounted on a palfrey with housings of cloth of gold. In her company +were the king's daughters by his former wife, the "good Queen Claude," +all in dresses of crimson satin embroidered with gold; while a large +number of princesses and noble ladies, with attendant gentlemen and +guards, constituted their escort. + +The monastic orders came next. Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, +Carmelites, all were there, with burning tapers and highly prized +relics. The parish churches were represented in like manner by their +clergy; and these were followed by the chapter of the cathedral and by +the multitudinous professors and scholars of the university. Between +this part of the procession and the next, came a detachment of the Swiss +guards of the king, armed with halberds, and a band of skilled musicians +performing, on trumpets, hautboys, and other instruments, the airs of +the solemn hymns of the church. + +An honorable place was held by the ecclesiastics of the "Sainte +Chapelle," originally built by Louis the Ninth, in the precincts of his +own palace, for the reception of the marvellous relics he brought home +from Holy Land. Those relics were all here, together with the other +costly possessions of the chapel--the crown of thorns, the true cross, +Aaron's rod that budded, the great crown of St. Louis, the head of the +holy lance, one of the nails used in our Lord's crucifixion, the tables +of stone, some of the blood of Christ, the purple robe, and the milk of +the Virgin Mary--all borne in jewelled reliquaries by bishops. + +Four cardinals in scarlet robes followed--Givri, Tournon, Le Veneur, and +Chatillon--an uncongenial group, in which the violent persecutor and the +future partisan of the Reformation walked side by side. But the central +point in the entire procession was occupied not by these, but by Jean du +Bellay, Bishop of Paris, bearing aloft a silver cross in which was +enclosed the consecrated wafer of the eucharist, whose title to +adoration it was the grand object of the celebration to vindicate. The +king's three sons--the dauphin, and the Dukes of Orleans and +Angouleme--with a fourth prince of the blood--the Duke of Bourbon +Vendome--held the supports of a magnificent canopy of velvet, sprinkled +with golden fleurs-de-lis, above the bishop and his sacred charge. +Francis himself walked behind him, with a retinue of nobles, officers of +government, judges of parliament, and other civilians closing the line. +The king was naturally the object of universal observation. + +Dressed in robes of black velvet lined with costly furs, he devoutly +followed the elevated host, with uncovered head, and with a large waxen +taper in his hands. Several stations had, at great expense, been erected +along the designated route. At each of these the procession halted, and +the Bishop of Paris placed the silver cross with its precious contents +in a niche made to receive it. Then the king, having handed his taper to +the Cardinal of Lorraine at his side, knelt down and reverently +worshipped with joined hands, until a grand anthem in honor of the +sacrament had been intoned. The scene had been well studied, and it made +the desired impression upon the by-standers. "There was no one among the +people," say the registers of the Hotel de Ville in unctuous phrase, "be +he small or great, that did not shed warm tears and pray God in behalf +of the king, whom he beheld performing so devout an act and worthy of +long remembrance. And it is to be believed that there lives not a Jew +nor an infidel who, had he witnessed the example of the prince and his +people, would not have been converted to the faith."[350] + +[Sidenote: Memorable speech of the king.] + +At the conclusion of the mass--the most brilliant that had ever been +celebrated within the walls of the cathedral, Francis proceeded to the +episcopal palace, to dine in public, with the princes his children, the +high nobility, cardinals, ambassadors, privy counsellors, and some of +the judges of the Parliament of Paris. Here it was that he delivered a +speech memorable in the history of the great religious movement of the +time. Addressing parliament and representatives of the lower judiciary, +Francis plainly disclaimed all sympathy with the Reformation. "The +errors," he said, "which have multiplied, and are even now multiplying, +are but of our own days. Our fathers have shown us how to live in +accordance with the word of God and of our mother Holy Church. In that +church I am resolved to live and die, and I am determined to prove that +I am entitled to be called Very Christian. I notify you that it is my +will that these errors be driven from my kingdom. Nor shall I excuse any +from the task. _Were one of my arms infected with this poison, I should +cut it off! Were my own children contaminated, I should immolate +them!_[351] I therefore now impose this duty upon you, and relieve +myself of responsibility." Turning to the doctors of the university, +the king reminded them that the care of the faith was entrusted to them, +and he therefore appealed to them to watch over the orthodoxy of all +teachers and report all defections to the secular courts. + +[Sidenote: Constancy of the sufferers.] + +Francis had spoken in the heat of passion, but, in the words of a +contemporary, "if his fury was great, still greater was the constancy of +the martyrs."[352] Of this, indeed, the king did not have to wait long +for a proof. For, after having witnessed, in company with the queen, the +_amende honorable_ of six condemned "Lutherans" or "Christaudins," which +took place on the square in front of the cathedral, Francis, as he +returned to the Louvre, passed the places where these unfortunates were +undergoing their supreme torments--three near the _Croix du Tiroir_, in +the Rue St. Honore, and three at the Halles. The first were men of some +note--Simon Fouhet, of Auvergne, one of the royal choristers, supposed +to have been the person who posted the placard in the castle of Amboise, +Audebert Valleton, of Nantes, and Nicholas L'Huillier, from the Chatelet +of Paris. The others were of an inferior station in life--a fruitster, a +maker of wire-baskets, and a joiner. All, however, with almost equal +composure, submitted to their fate as to the will of Heaven, rather than +the sentence of human judges; scarcely seeming, in their firm +anticipation of an immortal crown, to notice the tumultuous outcries of +an infuriated mob which nearly succeeded in snatching them from the +officers of the law, in order to have the satisfaction of tearing their +bodies to pieces.[353] + +[Sidenote: Ingenious contrivance for protracting torture.] + +It would seem, however, that the most relentless enemy could scarcely +have complained that any womanish indulgence had been shown to the +persons singled out to expiate the crime of posting the placard against +the mass. To delay the advent of death, the sole term of their +excruciating sufferings, an ingeniously contrived instrument of torture +was put in play, which if not altogether novel, had at least been but +seldom employed up to this time. Instead of being bound to the stake +and simply roasted to death by means of the fagots heaped up around him, +the victim was now suspended by chains over a blazing fire, and was +alternately lowered into it and drawn out--a refinement of cruelty whose +principal recommendation to favor lay in the fact that the diversion it +afforded the spectators could be made to last until they were fully +satisfied, and the executioner chose to allow the writhing sufferer to +be suffocated in the flames.[354] So satisfactory were the results of +the _Estrapade_, that it came to be universally employed as the +instrument for executing "Lutherans," with the exception of a favored +few, to whom the privilege was accorded of being hung or strangled +before their bodies were thrown into the fire. Such was, soon after this +time, the fate of a woman, a school-teacher by profession, found guilty +of heresy. In any case, the judges took effectual measures to forestall +the deplorable consequences that might ensue from permitting the +"Lutherans" to address the by-standers, and so pervert them from the +orthodox faith. The hangman was instructed to pierce their tongue with a +hot iron, or to cut it out altogether; just as, at a later date, the +sound of the drum was employed to drown the last utterances of the +victims of despotism.[355] + +[Sidenote: Flight of Marot.] + +The flames of persecution were not extinguished with the conclusion of +the solemn expiatory pageant. For months strangers sojourning in Paris +shuddered at the horrible sights almost daily meeting their eyes.[356] +The lingering hope that a prince naturally clement and averse to +needless bloodshed, would at length tire of countenancing these +continuous scenes of atrocity, seemed gradually to fade away. Great +numbers of the most intelligent and scholarly consulted their safety in +flight; the friendly court of Renee of France, Duchess of Ferrara, +affording, for a time, asylum to Clement Marot, the poet, and to many +others. Meantime the suspected "Lutherans" that could not be found were +summoned by the town-crier to appear before the proper courts for trial. +A list of many such has escaped destruction of time.[357] Fortunately, +most of them had gotten beyond the reach of the officers of the law, and +the sentence could, at most, effect only the confiscation of their +property. + +[Sidenote: Royal declaration of Coucy, July 16, 1535.] + +As summer advanced, however, the rigor of the persecution was perceived +to be somewhat abating. Finally, on the sixteenth of July, the king so +far yielded to the urgency of open or secret friends of progress among +the courtiers, as to issue a "Declaration" to facilitate the return of +the fugitives. "Forasmuch," said Francis, "as the heresies, which, to +our great displeasure, had greatly multiplied in our kingdom, have +ceased, as well by the Divine clemency and goodness, as by the diligence +we have used in the exemplary punishment of many of their +adherents--who, nevertheless, were not in their last hours abandoned by +the hand of our Lord, but, turning to Him, have repented, and made +public confession of their errors, and died like good Christians and +Catholics--no further prosecution of persons suspected of heresy shall +be made, but they will be discharged from imprisonment, and their goods +restored. For the same reason, all fugitives who return and _abjure +their errors_ within six months will receive pardon. But +_Sacramentarians_[358] and the relapsed are excluded from this offer. +Furthermore, all men are forbidden, under pain of the gallows, and of +being held rebels and disturbers of the public peace, to read, teach, +translate or print, whether publicly or in private, any doctrine +contrary to the Christian faith."[359] The concession, it must be +confessed, was not a very liberal one; for the exiles could return only +on condition of recanting. Yet the new regulations were mild in +comparison with the previous practice, which consigned all the guilty +alike to death, and left no room for repentance. Consequently, there +were not a few, especially of the learned who had been suspected of +heresy, that were found ready to avail themselves of the permission, +even on the prescribed terms. + +[Sidenote: Alleged intercession of Pope Paul III.] + +In explanation of this change in the policy of Francis, the most +remarkable rumors circulated among the people. Not the least strange was +one that has been preserved for us by a contemporary.[360] It was +reported in the month of June, 1535, that Pope Paul the Third, having +been informed of "the horrible and execrable" punishments inflicted by +the king upon the "Lutherans," wrote to Francis and begged him to +moderate his severity. The pontiff did, indeed, express his conviction +that the French monarch had acted with the best intentions, and in +accordance with his claim to be called the Very Christian King. But he +added, that when God, our Creator, was on earth, He employed mercy +rather than strict justice. Rigor ought not always to be resorted to; +and this burning of men alive was a cruel death, and better calculated +to lead to rejection of the faith than to conversion.[361] He therefore +prayed the king to appease his anger, to abate the severity of justice, +and grant pardon to the guilty. Francis, consequently, because of his +desire to please his Holiness, became more moderate, and enjoined upon +parliament to practise less harshness. For this reason the judges +ceased from criminal proceedings against the "Lutherans," and many +prisoners were discharged both from the Conciergerie and from the +Chatelet. + +That this extraordinary rumor was in general circulation appears from +the circumstance that it is alluded to by a Paris correspondent of +Melanchthon; while another account that has recently come to light +states it not as a flying report, but as a well-ascertained fact.[362] +Its _singularity_ is shown from its apparent inconsistency with the +well-known history and sentiments of the Farnese Paul. It is difficult +to conceive how the pontiff who approved of the Society of Jesus and +instituted the Inquisition in the kingdom of Naples, could have been +touched with compassion at the recital of the suffering of French +heretics. Yet the paradoxes of history are too numerous to permit us to +reject as apocryphal a story so widely current, or to explain it away by +making it only a popular echo of the convictions of the more enlightened +as to the views that were most befitting the claimant to a universal +episcopate. + +[Sidenote: Clemency again dictated by policy.] + +Francis himself, however, made no such statement to the Venetian +ambassador at his court. Marino Giustiniano, who gave in his report to +the doge and senate this very year, was informed by the French king +that, on hearing of the suspension by the Emperor Charles the Fifth of +all sentences of death against the Flemish heretics, he had also himself +ordered that against every species of heretics, except the +Sacramentarians, proceedings should indeed be held as before, but _not +to the extremity of death_.[363] It is evident, therefore, that the +suppression of the most cruel features of the persecution had no higher +motive than political considerations. Francis had worked himself into a +frenzy, and counterfeited the sincerity of a bigot, when it was +necessary to make the Pope a friend, and a show of sanguinary ardor +seemed most adapted to accomplish his object. He now became tolerant, on +discovering that the course he had entered upon was alienating the +Protestant princes of Germany, upon whose support he relied in his +contest with Charles the Fifth. The turning-point appears to have been +coincident with the time when he found that the emperor was endeavoring +to outbid him by offering a short-lived toleration to the Netherlanders. + +[Sidenote: Francis writes to the German princes.] + +Only eleven days after the solemn propitiatory procession, and while the +trial and execution of the French reformers were still in progress, +Francis had written to his allies beyond the Rhine, in explanation of +the severe punishment of which such shocking accounts had been +circulated in their dominions. He justified his course by alleging the +disorderly and rebellious character of the culprits, and laid great +stress upon the care he had taken to secure German Protestants from +danger and annoyance.[364] + +[Sidenote: Melanchthon entreated to come to France.] + +A month later, Vore de la Fosse was on his way to Wittemberg, on a +private mission to Melanchthon. He was bearer of a long and important +letter from John Sturm. The learned writer, a German scholar of eminence +and a friend of the reformed doctrines, was at this time lecturing in +Paris, and after his departure from Francis's dominions, became rector +of the infant university of Strasbourg. He contrasted the hopeful strain +in which he had described to his correspondent the prospects of +religion, a year since, with the terrors of the present situation. +Crediting the king with the best intentions, he cast the blame of so +disastrous a change upon the insane authors of the placards, who had +drawn on themselves a punishment that would have been well deserved, had +it been moderate in degree. But, unhappily, the innocent had been +involved with the guilty, and informers had gratified private malice by +magnifying the offence. Francis had, it was true, been led, at the +intercession of Guillaume du Bellay and his brother, the Bishop of +Paris, to interpose his authority and protect the Germans residing in +his realm. But, none the less, he begged Melanchthon to fly to his +succor, and to exert an influence over the king which was the result of +Vore's continual praise, in putting an end to this unfortunate state of +things. Francis, he added, was willing to give pledges for the +reformer's safety, and would send him back in great honor to his native +land, after the conclusion of the proposed conference. "Lay aside, +therefore," wrote Sturm, "the consideration of kings and emperors, and +believe that the voice that calls you is the voice of God and of +Christ."[365] Vore followed up this invitation with great earnestness +both in personal interviews and by letter.[366] + +[Sidenote: His perplexity.] + +What answer should the reformer give to so pressing an invitation? In +his acknowledgment of Sturm's letter, Melanchthon confessed that no +deliberation had ever occasioned him so much perplexity. It was not that +domestic ties retained him or dangers deterred him. But he was harassed +by the fear that he would be unable to accomplish any good. If only this +doubt--amounting almost to _despair_--could be removed, he would fly to +France without delay. He approved--so he assured his correspondent--of +checking those fanatics who were engaged in sowing absurd and vile +doctrines, or created unnecessary tumults. But there were others against +whom no such charge could be brought, but who modestly professed the +Gospel. If through his exertions some slight concessions were obtained, +while points of greater importance were sacrificed, he would benefit +neither church nor state. What if he secured immunity from punishment +for such as had laid aside the monk's cowl? Must he then consent to the +execution of those conscientious men who disapproved of the evident +abuses of the mass and of the worship of the saints? Now, as it was +precisely the expression of this disapprobation that had caused the +present massacres, he trembled with fear lest he should be put in the +position of one that justified these atrocious severities. In short, it +was his advice, he said, in view of the cunning devices by which the +"phalanxes" of monks were wont to play upon the hopes and fears of the +high-born, that Francis, if honestly desirous of consulting the glory of +Christ, and the tranquillity of the church, be rather exhorted to +assemble a general council. Other measures appeared to him, not only +useless, but fraught with peril.[367] + +[Sidenote: Formal invitation from the king.] + +At this point the king himself took a direct part in the correspondence. +On the twenty-third of June, 1535, he sent Melanchthon a formal request +to visit his court, and there dispute, in his presence, with a select +company of doctors, concerning the restoration of doctrinal unity and +ecclesiastical harmony. He assured the reformer that he had been +prompted by his own great zeal to despatch Vore with this letter--itself +a pledge of the public faith--and besought him to suffer no one to +persuade him to turn a deaf ear to the summons.[368] Sturm, Cardinal du +Bellay, and his brother, all wrote successively, and urged Melanchthon +to come to a conference from which they hoped for every advantage.[369] + +[Sidenote: Melanchthon consents.] + +No wonder that, after receiving so complimentary an invitation, +Melanchthon concluded to go to France, and applied (on the eighteenth of +August) to the Elector John Frederick for the necessary leave of +absence. He briefly sketched the history of the affair, and set forth +his own reluctance to enter upon his delicate mission, until provided +with the elector's permission and a safe conduct from the French +monarch. Two or three months only would be consumed, and he had made +arrangements for supplying his chair at Jena during this short +absence.[370] It appears, however, that Melanchthon felt less confident +of obtaining a gracious reply to his request than his words would seem +to indicate. Consequently, he deemed it prudent to ask Luther to write +first and urge his suit. The latter did not refuse his aid. "I am moved +to make this prayer," said Luther in his letter to the elector, "by the +piteous entreaty of worthy and pious persons who, having themselves +scarcely escaped the flames, have by great efforts prevailed upon the +king to suspend the carnage and extinguish the fires until Melanchthon's +arrival. Should the hopes of these good people be disappointed, the +bloodhounds may succeed in creating even greater bitterness, and proceed +with burning and strangling. So that I think that Master Philip cannot +with a clear conscience abandon them in such straits, and defraud them +of their hearty encouragement."[371] + +[Sidenote: The elector refuses to let him go.] + +But even the great theological doctor's intercession was unavailing. The +very day the elector received "Master Philip's" application, he wrote to +Francis explaining his reasons for refusing to let Melanchthon go to +Paris. It is true that the letter was not actually sent until some ten +days later;[372] but no entreaties could move the elector to reconsider +his decision. Melanchthon indignantly left the court and returned to +Jena.[373] Here he subsequently received a written refusal from John +Frederick, couched in language far from agreeable. The elector expressed +astonishment that he should have permitted matters to go so far, and +that he continued to apply for permission even after his prince's desire +had been intimated. The danger to be apprehended for the peace of +Germany was far greater than any possible advantage that could be +expected from his mission. And the writer hinted very distinctly that +little confidence could be reposed in Francis's professions, where the +Gospel was concerned, as public history sufficiently demonstrated.[374] + +[Sidenote: Melanchthon's chagrin.] + +The most ungrateful of tasks was reserved for Melanchthon himself--the +task of explaining his inability to fulfil his engagement. In a letter +to Francis, he expressed the hope that the delay might be only +temporary, and he exhorted the king to resist violent counsels, while +seeking to promote religious harmony and public tranquillity by +peaceable means. To Du Bellay and Sturm he complained not a little of +the "roughness" of his prince, whom he had never found more "harsh." He +thought that the true motive of the elector's refusal was to be found in +the exaggerated report that he had given up everything, merely because +he had spoken too respectfully of the ecclesiastical power. "I am called +a deserter," he writes. "I am in great peril among our own friends on +account of this moderation; as moderate citizens are wont in civil +discords to be badly received by both sides. Evidently the fate of +Theramenes impends over me; for I believe Xenophon, who affirms that he +was a good man, not Lysias, who reviles him."[375] + +[Sidenote: The proposed conference reprobated by the Sorbonne.] + +Meanwhile the proposed conference encountered no less decided +reprobation from the Sorbonne, to which Francis had submitted his +project. For the "articles" drawn up by Melanchthon, a year before, in a +spirit of conciliation much too broad to please the Protestants, when +placed in the hands of the same theological body, in a modified form, +and without the name of the author, were returned with a very +unfavorable report. The Parisian doctors suggested that, as an +appropriate method of satisfying himself whether there was any hope of +accommodation, Francis might propound such interrogatories as these to +the German theologians from whom the articles emanated: "Whether they +confessed the church militant, founded by divine right, to be incapable +of erring in faith and good morals, of which church, under our Lord +Jesus Christ, St. Peter and his successors have been the head. Whether +they will obey the church, receive the books of the Bible[376] as holy +and canonical, accept the decrees of the general councils and of the +Popes, admit the Fathers to be the interpreters of the Scriptures, and +conform to the customs of the church?" As an insufferable grievance they +complained that the "articles" were not a request for _pardon_, but +actually a demand for _concessions_.[377] + +The plan to entrap Melanchthon and some considerable portion of the +German Protestants into conciliatory proposals which Luther and the more +decided reformers could not admit, having failed through the abrupt and +tolerably rude refusal of the Elector of Saxony to permit his +theological professor to comply with the invitation of Francis, the +latter appears to have determined to put the best appearance upon the +affair. Accordingly, he promptly signified to the Sorbonne his approval +of its action, and he seems even to have suffered the rumor to gain +currency that he was himself dissuaded from bringing Melanchthon to +France, by the skilful arguments of the Cardinal of Tournon.[378] + +In spite of the rebuff he had received, however, Francis made an attempt +to effect such an arrangement with the Protestant princes of Germany as +would secure their co-operation in his ambitious projects against +Charles the Fifth. To compass this end he was quite willing to make +concessions to the Lutherans as extensive as those which Melanchthon had +offered the Roman Catholics. + +[Sidenote: Du Bellay's representations at Smalcald.] + +Four months had not elapsed since the unsuccessful issue of his first +mission, before Du Bellay was again in Germany. On the nineteenth of +December, he presented himself to the congress of Protestant princes at +Smalcald. Much of his address was devoted to a vindication of his master +from the charge of cruelty to persons of the same religious faith as +that of the hearers. The envoy insisted that the Germans had been +misinformed: If Francis had executed some of his subjects, he had not +thereby injured the Protestants. The culprits professed very different +doctrines. The creed of the Germans had been adopted by common consent. +Francis admitted, indeed, that there were some useless and superfluous +ceremonies in the church, but could not assent to their indiscriminate +abrogation unless by public decree. Ought not the Protestant princes to +ascribe to their friend, the French king, motives as pure and +satisfactory as those that impelled them to crush the sedition of the +peasants and repress the Anabaptists? As for himself, Francis, although +mild and humane, both from native temperament and by education, had seen +himself compelled, by stern necessity and the dictates of prudence, to +check the promptings of his own heart, and assume for a time attributes +foreign to his proper disposition. For gladly as he listened to the +temperate discussion of any subject, he was justly offended at the +presumption of rash innovators, men that refused to submit to the +judgment of those whose prerogative it was to decide in such matters as +were now under consideration. + +[Sidenote: He makes, in the name of Francis, a Protestant confession.] + +Not content with general assurances, Du Bellay, in a private interview +with Brueck, Melanchthon, and other German theologians, ventured upon an +exposition of Francis's creed which we fear would have horrified beyond +measure the orthodox doctors of the Sorbonne.[379] He informed them, +with a very sober face, that the king's religious belief differed little +from that expressed in Melanchthon's "Common Places." His theologians +had never been able to convince him that the Pope's primacy was of +_divine_ right. Nor had they proved to his satisfaction the existence of +_purgatory_, which, being the source of their lucrative masses and +legacies, they prized as their very life and blood. He was inclined to +limit the assumption of monastic vows to persons of mature age, and to +give monks and nuns the right of renouncing their profession and +marrying. He favored the conversion of monasteries into seminaries of +learning. While the French theologians insisted upon the celibacy of the +priesthood, for himself he would suggest the middle ground of permitting +such priests as had already married to retain their wives, while +prohibiting others from following their example, unless they resigned +the sacerdotal office. He would have the sacramental cup administered +to the laity when desired, and hoped to obtain the Pope's consent. He +even admitted the necessity of reform in some of the daily prayers, and +reprehended the want of moderation exhibited by the Sorbonne, which not +only condemned the Germans, but would not hesitate on occasion to +censure the cardinals or the Holy Pontiff himself. + +[Sidenote: The Germans are not deceived.] + +We cannot find that Du Bellay's honeyed words produced any very deep +impression. Princes and theologians knew tolerably well both how sincere +was the king's profession of friendliness to the "Lutheran" tenets, and +what was the truth respecting the persecution that had raged for months +within his dominions. The western breezes came freighted with the fetid +smoke of human holocausts, and not even the perfume of Francis's +delicately scented speeches could banish the disgust caused by the +nauseating sacrifice. The princes might listen with studied politeness +to the king's apologetic words, and assent to the general truth that +sedition should be punished by severity; but they took the liberty, at +the same time, to express a fervent prayer that the advocates of a +reformed religion and a pure gospel might not be involved in the fate of +the unruly. And they disappointed the monarch by absolutely declining to +enter into any alliance against the Emperor Charles the Fifth. The +French ambassador returned home, and Francis so dexterously threw aside +the mask of pretended favor to a moderate reformation in the church, +that it soon became a disputed question whether he had ever assumed it +at all.[380] + +[Sidenote: Efforts of the French Protestants in Switzerland and +Germany.] + +Meantime the French Protestants were unremitting in their efforts to +obtain a more satisfactory solution of the religious question than was +contained in the Declaration of Coucy. They wrote to Strasbourg, to +Berne, to Zurich, to Basle, imploring the intercession of these states. +Particular attention was drawn to the severe treatment endured by their +brethren in Provence and Dauphiny. The writers declared themselves to be +not rebels, but the most loyal of subjects, recognizing one God, one +faith, one law, and one king. They were not "Lutherans," nor +"Waldenses," nor "heretics;" but simply _Christians_, accepting the +Decalogue, the Apostles' Creed, and every doctrine taught in either +Testament. It was unreasonable that they should be compelled by fines, +imprisonment, or bodily pains, to abjure their faith, unless their +errors were first proved from the Bible, or before the convocation of a +General Council.[381] + +[Sidenote: An appeal from Strasbourg and Zurich.] + +The Swiss and Germans made a prompt response. The Senate of Strasbourg +addressed Francis, praising his clemency, but calling his attention to +the danger all good men were exposed to. "If but a single little word +escape the mouth of good Christian men, directed against the most +manifest abuses, nay, against the flagitious crimes of those who are +regarded as _ecclesiastics_, how easy will it be, inasmuch as these very +ecclesiastics are their judges, to cry out that words have been spoken +to the injury of the true faith, the Church of God, and its +traditions?"[382] + +Zurich, going even further, made the direct request of its royal ally, +that hereafter all persons accused of holding heretical views should be +permitted by his Majesty to clear themselves by an appeal to the pure +Word of God, and no longer be subjected without a hearing to torture +and manifold punishments.[383] Berne and Basle remonstrated with similar +urgency. + +[Sidenote: An embassy receives an unsatisfactory reply.] + +Receiving no reply to their appeal, in consequence of the king's +attention being engrossed by the war then in progress with the emperor, +and by reason of the dauphin's unexpected death, the same cantons and +Strasbourg, a few months later, were induced to send a formal embassy. +But, if the envoys were fed with gracious words, they obtained no real +concession. Francis assured the Bernese and their confederates that "it +was, as they well knew, only for love of them that he had enlarged the +provisions of his gracious Edict of Coucy, by lately[384] extending +pardon to all exiles and fugitives"--that is, "Sacramentarians" and +"relapsed" persons included. This, it seemed to him, "ought to satisfy +them entirely."[385] It was a polite, but none the less a very positive +refusal to entertain the suggestion that the abjuration of their +previous "errors" should no longer be required of all who wished to +avail themselves of the amnesty. Nor did it escape notice as a +significant circumstance, that Francis selected for his mouth-piece, not +the friendly Queen of Navarre, but the rough and bigoted +_Grand-Maitre_--Anne de Montmorency, the future Constable of +France.[386] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 328: Melanchthon to Du Bellay, Aug. 1, 1534, Opera +(Bretschneider, Corpus Reformatorum), ii. 740.] + +[Footnote 329: This is only a brief summary of the most essential points +in these strange articles, which may be read entire in Melanch. Opera, +_ubi supra_, ii. 744-766.] + +[Footnote 330: Ibid., ii. 775, 776.] + +[Footnote 331: See the interesting letter of a young Strasbourg student +at Paris, Pierre Siderander, May 28, 1533, Herminjard, Correspondance +des reformateurs, iii. 58, 59. The refrain of one placard, + + "Au feu, au feu! c'est leur repere! + Faiz-en justice! Dieu l'a permys," + +gave Clement Marot occasion to reply in a couple of short pieces, the +longer beginning: + + "En l'eau, en l'eau, ces folz seditieux." +] + +[Footnote 332: Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta (Ed. of 1560), fol. 64.] + +[Footnote 333: Bulletin, ix. 27, 28.] + +[Footnote 334: Merle d'Aubigne, on the authority of the hostile +Florimond de Raemond, ascribes it to Farel. But the style and mode of +treatment are quite in contrast with those of Farel's "Sommaire," +republished almost precisely at this date; while many sentences are +taken verbatim from another treatise, "Petit Traicte de l'Eucharistie," +unfortunately anonymous, but which there is good reason to suppose was +written by Marcourt. The author of the latter avows his authorship of +the placard. See the full discussion by Herminjard, Correspondance des +reformateurs, iii. 225, note, etc.] + +[Footnote 335: Courault was foremost in his opposition. Crespin, +Actiones et Monimenta, fols. 64, 65.] + +[Footnote 336: "Qui estes pire que bestes, en vos badinages lesquels +vous faites a l'entour de vostre _dieu de paste, duquel vous vous jouez +comme un chat d'une souris_: faisans des marmiteux, et frappans contre +vostre poictrine, apres l'avoir mis en trois quartiers, _comme estans +bien marris_, l'appelans Agneau de Dieu, et lui demandans la paix."] + +[Footnote 337: This singular placard is given _in extenso_ by Gerdesius, +Hist. Evang. Renov., iv. (Doc.) 60-67; Haag, France prot., x. pieces +justif., 1-6; G. Guiffrey, Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er, Appendix, +464-472.] + +[Footnote 338: Journal d'un bourgeois, 442. Not _Blois_, as the Hist. +ecclesiastique, i. 10, and, following it, Soldan, Merle d'Aubigne, etc., +state. Francis had left Blois as early as in September for the castle of +Amboise, see Herminjard, Corresp. des reformateurs, iii. 231, 226, 236.] + +[Footnote 339: "Ne me puis garder de vous dire qu'il vous souviengne de +_l'opinion que j'avois que les vilains placars estoient fait par ceux +guiles cherchent aux aultres_." Marg. de Navarre to Francis I., Nerac, +Dec., 1541, Genin, ii. No. 114. Although Margaret's supposition proved +to be unfounded, it was by no means so absurd as the reader might +imagine. At least, we have the testimony of Pithou, Seigneur de +Chamgobert, that a clergyman of Champagne confessed that he had +committed, from pious motives, a somewhat similar act. The head of a +stone image of the Virgin, known as "Our Lady of Pity," standing in one +of the streets of Troyes, was found, on the morning of a great feast-day +in September, 1555, to have been wantonly broken off. There was the +usual indignation against the sacrilegious perpetrators of the deed. +There were the customary procession and masses by way of atonement for +the insult offered to high Heaven. But Friar Fiacre, of the +_Hotel-Dieu_, finding himself some time later at the point of death, and +feeling disturbed in conscience, revealed the fact that from religious +considerations he had himself decapitated the image, "_in order to have +the Huguenots accused of it, and thus lead to their complete +extermination_!" Recordon, Protestantisme en Champagne, ou recits +extraits d'un MS. de N. Pithou (Paris, 1863), 28-30.] + +[Footnote 340: A. F. Didot, Essai sur la typographie, in Encyclop. +moderne, xxvi. 760, _apud_ Herminjard, iii. 60.] + +[Footnote 341: That is, 1535 New Style. For it will remembered that, +until 1566, the year in France began with Easter, instead of with the +first day of January. Leber, Coll. de pieces rel. a l'hist. de France, +viii. 505, etc.] + +[Footnote 342: "Combien que ... nous eussions prohibe et defendu que nul +n'eust des lors en avant a imprimer ou faire imprimer aulcuns livres en +nostre royaulme, sur peine de la hart." As neither of these disgraceful +edicts was formally registered by parliament, they are both of them +wanting in the ordinary records of that body, and in all collections of +French laws. The _first_ seems, indeed, to have disappeared altogether. +M. Crapelet, Etudes sur la typographie, 34-37, reproduces the _second_, +dated St. Germain-en-Laye, February 23, 1534/5, from a volume of +parliamentary papers labelled "Conseil." Happily, the preamble recites +the cardinal prescription of the previous and lost edict, as given above +in the text. M. Merle d'Aubigne carelessly places the edict abolishing +printing _after_, instead of _before_, the great expiatory procession. +Hist. of the Reformation in the Time of Calvin, iii. 140.] + +[Footnote 343: Felibien, Hist. de la ville de Paris, ii. 997.] + +[Footnote 344: Soissons MS., Bulletin, xi. 255.] + +[Footnote 345: I. e., _gainier_, sheath-or scabbard-maker. Hist. +ecclesiastique, i. 10; Journal d'un bourgeois, 444; see Varillas, Hist. +des revol. arrivees dans l'Eur. en matiere de rel., ii. 222.] + +[Footnote 346: "Qui ad se ea pericula spectare non putabant, qui non +contaminati erant eo scelere, hi etiam in partem poenarum veniunt. +_Delatores et quadruplatores_ publice comparantur. Cuilibet simul et +testi et accusatori in hac causa esse licet." J. Sturm to Melanchthon, +Paris, March 4, 1535, Bretschneider, Corpus Reformatorum, ii. 855, etc.] + +[Footnote 347: The _name_ and the _affliction_ of this first victim give +Martin Theodoric of Beauvais an opportunity, which he cannot neglect, to +compare him with a pagan malefactor and contrast him with a biblical +personage. "Hunc gladium ultorem persenserunt quam plurimi degeneres et +alienigenae in flexilibus perversarum doctrinarum semitis obambulantes; +inter alios, _paralyticus Lutheranus Neroniano Milone perniciosior_. Cui +malesano opus erat salutifer Christus, ut _sublato erroris grabato, viam +Veritatis insequutus fuisset_. At vero elatus, in funesto sacrilegi +cordis desiderio perseverans, _flammis combustus_ cum suis participibus +seditiosis Gracchis, exemplum sui cunctis haereticis relinquens deperiit. +Et peribunt omnes sive plebeii, sive primates," etc. Paraclesis Franciae +(Par. 1539), 5.] + +[Footnote 348: The Journal d'un bourgeois, 444-452, gives an account, in +the briefest terms and without comment, of the sentences pronounced and +executed. See also G. Guiffrey, Cronique du Roy Francois I^er, 111-113.] + +[Footnote 349: The real message sent by Francis I. to his mother, after +the disaster of Pavia, was quite another thing from the traditional +sentence: "Tout est perdu sauf l'honneur." What he wrote was: "Madame, +pour vous avertir comme je porte le ressort de mon infortune, de toutes +choses ne m'est demeure que l'honneur _et la vie sauve_," etc. Papiers +d'Etat du Card, de Granvelle, i. 258. It is to be feared that, if saved +in _Italy_, his honor was certainly lost in _Spain_, where, after vain +attempts to secure release by plighting his _faith_, he deliberately +took an _oath_ which he never meant to observe. So, at least, he himself +informed the notables of France on the 16th of December, 1527: "Et +voulurent _qu'il jurast; ce qu'il fist, sachant ledict serment n'estre +valable, au moyen de la garde qui luy fust baillee, et qu'il n'estoit en +sa liberte_." Isambert, Recueil des anc. lois franc., xii. 292.] + +[Footnote 350: Registres de l'hotel de ville. Felibien, pieces justif., +v. 345. In the preceding account these records, together with those of +parliament (ibid., iv. 686-688), the narrative of Felibien himself (ii. +997-999), and the Soissons MS. (Bulletin, xi. 254, 255), have been +chiefly relied upon. See also Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er, 113-121.] + +[Footnote 351: "En sorte que si un des bras de mon corps estoit infecte +de cette farine, je le vouldrois coupper; et si mes enfans en estoient +entachez, je les vouldrois immoler." Voltaire (Hist. du parlement de +Paris, i. 118), citing the substance of this atrocious sentiment from +Maimbourg and Daniel, who themselves take it from Mezeray, says +incredulously: "Je ne sais ou ces auteurs ont trouve que Francois +premier avait prononce ce discours abominable." M. Poirson answers by +giving as authority Theodore de Beze (Hist. eccles., i. 13). But on +referring to the documentary records from the Hotel de Ville, among the +_pieces justificatives_ collected by Felibien, v. 346, the reader will +find the speech of Francis inserted at considerable length, and +apparently in very nearly the exact words employed. The contemporary +Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er, giving the fullest version of the speech +(pp. 121-12), attributes to the king about the same expressions.] + +[Footnote 352: Histoire eccles., i. 13.] + +[Footnote 353: Histoire eccles., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 354: "Une espece _d'estrapade_ ou l'on attachoit les +criminels, que les bourreaux, par le moyen d'une corde, guindoient en +haut, et les laissoient ensuite tomber dans le feu a diverses reprises, +pour faire durer leur supplice plus longtems." Felibien, ii. 999.] + +[Footnote 355: Gerdes, Hist. Evang. renov., iv. 109. For the nature of +the penalty, see Bastard D'Estang, Les parlements de France, i. 425, +note on punishments.] + +[Footnote 356: When John Sturm wrote, March 4th, _eighteen_--when +Latomus wrote, somewhat later, _twenty-four_--adherents of the +Reformation had suffered capitally. Bretschneider, Corp. Reform., ii. +855, etc. "Plusieurs aultres hereticques en grant nombre furent apres +bruslez a divers jours," says the Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er, p. 129, +"_en sorte que dedans Paris on ne veoit que potences dressees en divers +lieux_," etc.] + +[Footnote 357: G. Guiffrey, Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er, 130-132; +Soissons MS. in Bulletin, etc., xi. 253-254. We may recognize, among the +misspelt names, those, for example, of _Pierre Caroli_, doctor of +theology and parish priest of Alencon, already introduced to our notice; +_Jean Retif_, a preacher; _Francois Berthault_ and _Jean Courault_, +lately associated in preaching the Gospel under the patronage of the +Queen of Navarre; besides the scholar _Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples_, and +_Guillaume Feret_, who brought the placards from Switzerland.] + +[Footnote 358: Under the head of _Sacramentarians_ were included all +who, like Zwingle, denied the bodily presence of Christ in or with the +elements of the eucharist.] + +[Footnote 359: "De ne lire, dogmatiser, translater, composer ni +imprimer, soit en public ou en prive, aucune doctrine contrariant a la +foy chretionne." Declaration of Coucy, July 16, 1535, Isambert, Recueil +des anc. lois franc., xii. 405-407. See also a similar declaration, May +31, 1536, ibid., xii. 504.] + +[Footnote 360: Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, 458, 459.] + +[Footnote 361: Neantmoins Dieu le createur, luy estant en ce monde, a +plus use de misericorde que de rigueur, et qu'il ne faut aucunes fois +user de rigueur, et que c'est une cruelle mort de faire brusler vif un +homme, dont parce il pourroit plus qu'autrement renoncer la foy et la +loy. Ibid., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 362: "Et le tres-crestien et bon roy Francois premier du nom, +_a la priere du pape_, pardonna a tous, excepte a ceulx qui avoient +touche a l'honneur du saint sacrement de l'autel." Soissons MS., +Bulletin, xi. 254. Sturm to Melanchthon, July 6, 1535, says: "Pontificem +etiam aiunt aequiorem esse, et haud paulo meliorem quam fuerunt caeteri. +Omnino improbat illam suppliciorum crudelitatem, et _de hac re dicitur +misisse [literas ad Regem]_." Herminjard, iii. 311. Cf. Erasmus Op., +1513.] + +[Footnote 363: "Sapendo, _come sua Maesta m'ha detto_, che Cesare in +Fiandra aveva sospeso ogni esecuzione di morte contro questi eretici, ha +anche egli concesso che contra ogni sorte di eretici si proceda come +avanti, ma _citra mortem_, eccetto i sacramentarii." Relazione del +clarissimo Marino Giustiniano (1535), Relaz. Venete, i. 155.] + +[Footnote 364: Francis I. to the German Princes, February 1, 1535, +Bretschneider, Corpus Reform., ii. 828, etc.] + +[Footnote 365: Sturm to Melanchthon, March 4, 1535, Bretschneider, +Corpus Reform., ii. 855, etc.] + +[Footnote 366: A letter of Vore is found in Bretschneider, _ubi supra_, +ii, 859.] + +[Footnote 367: Melanchthon to Sturm, May 5, 1535, ibid., ii. 873.] + +[Footnote 368: Ibid., ii. 879. The address was, "Dilecto nostro Philippo +Melanchthoni."] + +[Footnote 369: "Nihil est quod de vestro congressu non sperem," are +Cardinal du Bellay's words, June 27th. Ibid., ii. 880, 881.] + +[Footnote 370: Ibid., ii. 904, 905. The university had been temporarily +removed from Wittemberg to Jena, on account of the prevalence of the +plague.] + +[Footnote 371: Luther to the Elector of Saxony, Aug. 17, 1535, Works +(Ed. Dr. J. K. Innischer), lv. 103.] + +[Footnote 372: August 28, 1535. The reasons alleged to Francis were, the +injurious rumors the mission might give rise to, and the damage to the +university from Melanchthon's absence. At some future time, the elector +said, he would permit Melanchthon to visit the French king, should his +Majesty still desire him to do so, and present hinderances be removed.] + +[Footnote 373: "Subindignabundus hinc discessit." Luther to Justus +Jonas, Aug. 19.] + +[Footnote 374: "Daneben was eurer Person halb, dessgleichen auch in +Sachen des Evangelii fuer Trost, Hoffnung oder Zuversicht zu dem +Franzosen zu haben, ist wohl zu bedenken, dieweil vormals wenig Treue +oder Glaube von ihm gehalten, wie solches die oeffentliche Geschicht +anzeigen." Letter of Aug. 24, 1535. The elector expressed himself at +greater length to his chancellor, Dr. Brueck (Pontanus). Such a mission +would appear suspicious when the elector was on the point of having a +conference with the King of Hungary and Bohemia. Melanchthon might make +concessions that Dr. Martin (Luther) and others could not agree to, and +the scandal of division might arise. Besides, he could not believe the +French in earnest; they doubtless only intended to take advantage of +Melanchthon's indecision. For it was to be presumed that those most +active in promoting the affair were "more Erasmian than evangelical +(_mehr Erasmisch denn Evangelisch_)." Bretschneider, ii. 909, etc.] + +[Footnote 375: See the three letters, and other interesting +correspondence, Bretschneider, ii. 913, etc. However it may have been +with M., _Luther's_ regret at the elector's refusal was of brief +duration. As early as Sept. 1st he wrote characteristically to Justus +Jonas: "Respecting the French envoys, so general a rumor is now in +circulation, originating with most worthy men, that I have ceased to +wish that Philip should go with them. It is suspected that the true +envoys _were murdered on the way, and others sent in their place_(!) +with letters by the papists, to entice Philip out. You know that the +Bishops of Maintz, Luettich, and others, are the worst tools of the +Devil; wherefore I am rather anxious for Philip. I have therefore +written carefully to him. The World is the Devil, and the Devil is the +World." Luther's Works (Ed. Walch), xxi. 1426.] + +[Footnote 376: That is, including the apocryphal books.] + +[Footnote 377: "Qui est, Sire," they observe with evident amazement at +the bare suggestion, "demander de nous retirer a eux, plus qu'eux se +convertir a l'Eglise." The _articles_ having been submitted through Du +Bellay, August 7, 1535, the Faculty's answer was returned on the 30th of +the same month, accompanied by a more elaborate _Instructio_, the former +in French, the latter in Latin. Both are printed among the _Monumenta_ +of Gerdes, 75-78, and 78-86.] + +[Footnote 378: Florimond de Raemond (l. vii. c. 4), and others writers +copying from him, represent Tournon as purposely putting himself in the +king's way with an open volume of St. Irenaeus in his hands. Obtaining in +this way his coveted opportunity of portraying the perils arising from +intercourse with heretics, the prelate enforced his precepts by reading +a pretended story related by St. Polycarp, that the Apostle John had on +one occasion hastily left the public bath on perceiving the heretic +Cerinthus within. Soldan (Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 163) +sensibly remarks that little account ought to be made of the statements +of a writer who associates Louise de Savoie--in her later days a +notorious enemy of the Reformation, _who had at this time been four +years dead_--- with her daughter Margaret, in "importuning" the king to +invite Melanchthon.] + +[Footnote 379: Some years earlier, Du Bellay had, while on an embassy, +set forth his royal master's pretended convictions in favor of the +Reformation with so much verisimilitude as to alarm the papal nuncio, +who dreaded the effect of his speeches upon the Protestants. "Non e +piccola murmoration qui en Corte, ch'l Orator Francese _facea piu che +l'officio suo richiede in animar Lutherani_." Aleander to Sanga, +Ratisbon, July 2, 1532, Vatican MSS., Laemmer, 141.] + +[Footnote 380: Sleidan, De statu rel. et reipubl., lib. ix., ad annum +1535. The Jesuit Maimbourg rejects the secret conference of Du Bellay as +apocryphal, in view of Francis's persecution of the Protestants at +Paris, and his declaration of January 21st. But Sleidan's statement is +fully substantiated by an extant memorandum by Spalatin, who was present +on the occasion (printed in Seckendorff, Gerdes, iv. 68-73 Doc., and +Bretschneider, ii. 1014). It receives additional confirmation from a +letter of the Nuncio Morone to Pope Paul III., Vienna, Dec. 26, 1536 +(Vatican MSS., Laemmer, 178). Morone received from Doctor Matthias, +Vice-Chancellor of the Empire, an account of Francis's recent offer to +the German Protestants "_di condescendere nelle loro opinioni,_" on +condition of their renouncing obedience to the emperor. He reserved only +two points of doctrine as requiring discussion: the sacrifice of the +mass, and the authority and primacy of the Pope. The Protestants +rejected the interested proposal of the royal convert.] + +[Footnote 381: The authorship of this interesting document, and the way +it reached its destination, are equally unknown. It is published--for +the first time, I believe--in Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss, Opera Calvini +(1872), x. part ii. 55, 56.] + +[Footnote 382: Senatus Argentoratensis Francisco Regi, July 3, 1536, +ibid., x. 57-61.] + +[Footnote 383: Senatus Turicensis Francisco Regi, July 13, 1536, ibid., +x. 61.] + +[Footnote 384: Edict of Lyons, May 31, 1536, Herminjard, iv. 192.] + +[Footnote 385: Francois I^er aux Conseils de Zurich, Berne, Bale et +Strasbourg, Compiegne, Feb. 20, and Feb. 23, 1537, Basle MSS., ibid., +iv. 191-193. Cf. the documents, mostly inedited, iv. 70, 96, 150.] + +[Footnote 386: Le Conseil de Berne au Conseil de Bale, March 15, 1537, +ibid., iv. 202, 203, Sleidan (Strasb. ed. of 1555), lib x. fol. 163 +_verso_. It must, however, be remarked that the "evangelical cities" +would not take the rebuff as decisive, and, within a few months, were +again writing to Francis in behalf of his persecuted subjects of Nismes +and elsewhere. Le Conseil de Berne a Francois I^er, Nov. 17, 1537, +Berne MSS., Herminjard, iv. 320.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +CALVIN AND GENEVA.--MORE SYSTEMATIC PERSECUTION BY THE KING. + + +[Sidenote: The placards of 1534 mark an epoch in the history of the +Huguenots.] + +In the initial stage of great enterprises a point may sometimes be +distinguished at which circumstances, in themselves trivial, have shaped +the entire future. Such a point in the history of the Huguenots is +marked by the appearance of the "Placards" of 1534. The pusillanimous +retreat of Bishop Briconnet from the advanced post he had at first +assumed, robbed Protestantism of an important advantage which might have +been retained had the prelate proved true to his convictions. But the +"Placards," with their stern and uncompromising logic, their biting +sarcasm, their unbridled invective, directed equally against the +absurdities of the mass and the inconsistencies of its advocates, +exerted a far more lasting and powerful influence than even the +lamentable defection of the Bishop of Meaux. Until now the attitude of +Francis with respect to the "new doctrines" had been uncertain and +wavering. It was by no means impossible that, imitating the example of +the Elector of Saxony, the French monarch should even yet put himself at +the head of the movement. Severe persecution had, indeed, dogged the +steps of the Reformation. Fire and gibbet had been mercilessly employed +to destroy it. The squares of Paris had already had the baptism of +blood. But the cruelties complained of by the "Lutherans," if tolerated +by Francis, had their origin in the bigotry of others. The Sorbonne and +the Parisian Parliament, Chancellor Duprat and the queen mother, Louise +of Savoie, are entitled to the unenviable distinction of having +instigated the sanguinary measures of repression directed against the +professors of the Protestant faith, of which we have already met with +many fruits. The monarch, greedy of glory, ambitious of association with +cultivated minds, and aspiring to the honor of ushering in the new +Augustan age, more than once seemed half-inclined to embrace those +religious views which commended themselves to his taste by association +with the fresh and glowing ideas of the great masters in science and +art. More than once had the champions of the Church trembled for their +hold upon the sceptre-bearing arm; while as often their opponents, with +Francis's own sister, had cherished illusory hopes that the eloquent +addresses of Roussel and other court-preachers had left a deep impress +on the king's heart. + +[Sidenote: The orthodoxy of Francis no longer questioned.] + +But the "Placards" effectually dissipated alike these hopes and these +fears. There was no longer any question as to the orthodoxy of Francis. +Apologists for the Reformation might seek to undeceive his mind and +remove his prejudices. His own emissaries might endeavor to persuade the +Germans, of whose alliance he stood in need, that his views differed +little from theirs. But there can be no doubt that, whatever his +previous intentions had been, from this time forth his resolution was +taken, to use his own expression already brought to the reader's notice, +to live and die in Mother Holy Church, and demonstrate the justice of +his claim to the title of "very Christian." The audacity of the +Protestant enthusiast who penetrated even into the innermost recesses of +the royal castle, and affixed the placards to the very chamber door of +the king, was turned to good account by Cardinal Tournon and other +courtiers of like sentiments, and was adduced as a proof of the +assertion so often reiterated, that a change of religion necessarily +involved also a revolution in the State. The free tone of the placards +seemed to reveal a contemptuous disregard of dignities. The ridicule +cast upon the doctrine of transubstantiation was an assault on one of +the few dogmas respecting which Francis had implicit confidence in the +teachings of the Church. Henceforth the king figures on the page of +history as a determined opponent and persecutor of the Reformation, less +hostile, indeed, to the "Lutherans," than to the "Sacramentarians," or +"Zwinglians," but nevertheless an avowed enemy of innovation. The +change was recognized and deplored by the Reformers themselves; who, +seeing Francis in the last years of his reign give the rein to shameful +debauchery, and meantime suffer the public prisons to overflow with +hundreds of innocent men and women, awaiting punishment for no other +offence than their religious faith, pointedly compared him to the +effeminate Sardanapalus surrounded by his courtezans.[387] + +[Sidenote: Change in the courtiers.] + +While so marked a change came over the disposition of the king, it is +not strange that a similar revolution was noticed in the sentiments of +the courtiers--a class ever on the alert to detect the slightest +variation in the breeze to which they trim their sails. The greater part +of the high dignitaries, the early historian of the reformed churches +informs us, adapting themselves to the king's humor, abandoned the study +of the Bible, and in time became violent opponents of practices which +they had sanctioned by their own example. Even Margaret of Navarre is +accused by the same authority--and he honestly represents the belief of +the contemporary reformers--of having yielded to these seductive +influences. She plunged, like the rest, he tells us, into conformity +with the most reprehensible superstitions; not that she approved them, +but because Gerard Roussel and similar teachers persuaded her that they +were things indifferent. Thus, allowing herself to trifle with truth, +she was so blinded by the spirit of error as to offer an asylum in her +court of Nerac to Quintin and Pocques, blasphemous "Libertines" whose +doctrines called forth a refutation from the pen of Calvin.[388] + +[Sidenote: The French Reformation becomes a popular movement.] + +[Sidenote: Geneva the centre of activity.] + +The French Reformation was thus constrained to become a _popular_ +movement. The king had refused to lead it. The nobles turned their backs +upon it. Its adherents, threatened with the gallows and stake, or driven +into banishment, could no longer look for encouragement or direction +toward Paris and the vicinage of the court. The timid counsels of the +high-born were to be exchanged for the bold and fiery words of reformers +sprung from the _people_. Excluded from the luxurious capital, the +Huguenots were, during a long series of years, to draw their inspiration +from a city at the foot of the Alps--a city whose invigorating climate +was no less adapted to harden the intellectual and moral constitution +than the bodily frame, and where rugged Nature, if she bestowed wealth +with no lavish hand, manifested her impartiality by more liberal +endowments conferred upon man himself. Geneva henceforth becomes the +centre of reformatory activity, of which fact we need no stronger +evidence than the severe legislation of France to destroy its influence; +and the same causes that gave the direction of the movement to the +people shaped its theological tendencies. Under the guidance of Francis +and Margaret, it must have assumed much of the German or Lutheran type; +or, to speak more correctly, the direct influence of Germany upon +France, attested by the name of "Lutherans," up to this time the +ordinary appellation of the French Protestants, would have been rendered +permanent. But now the persecution they had experienced, in consequence +of their opposition to the papal mass, confirmed the French reformers in +their previous views, and disinclined them to admit even such a +"consubstantiation" as Luther's followers insisted upon. + +[Sidenote: Geneva secures its independence.] + +The same complicated political motives that led Francis to relax his +excessive rigor against the Protestants of his realm, in order to avoid +provoking the anger of the German princes, prompted him to assist in +securing the independence of Geneva, which, at the time, he little +dreamed would so soon become the citadel of French Protestantism. After +a prolonged contest, the city on the banks of the Rhone had shaken off +the yoke of its bishop, and had bravely repelled successive assaults +made by the Duke of Savoy. The first preachers of the Reformation, Farel +and Froment, after a series of attempts and rebuffs for romantic +interest inferior to no other episode in an age of stirring adventure, +had seen the new worship accepted by the majority of the people, and by +the very advocates of the old system, Caroli and Chapuis. If the grand +council had thus far hesitated to give a formal sanction to the +religious change, it was only through fear that the taking of so decided +a step might provoke more powerful enemies than the neighboring duke. +The latter, being fully resolved to humble the insubordinate burgesses, +had for two years been striving to cut off their supplies by garrisons +maintained in adjoining castles and strongholds; nor would his plans, +perhaps, have failed, but for the intervention of two powerful +opponents--Francis and the Swiss Canton of Berne. + +[Sidenote: with the assistance of Francis I.] + +Louise de Savoie was the sister of Duke Charles. Her son had a double +cause of resentment against his uncle: Charles had refused him free +passage through his dominions, when marching against the Milanese; and, +contrary to all justice, he persistently refused to give up the marriage +portion of his sister, the king's mother. Francis avenged himself, both +for the insult and for the robbery, by permitting a gentleman of his +bedchamber, by the name of De Verez, a native of Savoy, to throw himself +into the beleaguered city with a body of French soldiers. + +[Sidenote: and the Bernese.] + +While Geneva was thus strengthened from within, the Bernese, on receipt +of an unsatisfactory reply to an appeal in behalf of their allies, came +to their assistance with an army of ten or twelve thousand men. +Discouraged by the threatening aspect his affairs had assumed, Charles +relaxed his grasp on the throat of his revolted subjects, and withdrew +to a safe distance. His obstinacy, however, cost him the permanent loss +not only of Geneva, but of a considerable part of his most valuable +territories, including the Pays de Vaud--a district which, after +remaining for more than two hundred and fifty years a dependency of +Berne, has within the present century (in 1803), become an independent +canton of the Swiss confederacy.[389] + +[Sidenote: Calvin the apologist of the Protestants.] + +The horrible slanders put in circulation abroad, in justification of the +atrocities with which the unoffending Protestants of France were +visited, furnished the motive for the composition and publication of an +apology that instantly achieved unprecedented celebrity, and has long +outlived the occasion that gave it birth. The apology was the +"Institutes;" the author, John Calvin. With the appearance of his +masterpiece, a great writer and theologian, destined to exercise a wide +and lasting influence not only upon France, but over the entire +intellectual world, enters upon the stage of French history to take a +leading part in the unfolding religious and political drama. + +[Sidenote: His birth and training.] + +[Sidenote: Studies at Paris;] + +[Sidenote: also at Orleans and Bourges.] + +John Calvin was born on the tenth of July, 1509, at Noyon, a small but +ancient city of Picardy. His family was of limited means, but of +honorable extraction. Gerard Cauvin, his father, had successively held +important offices in connection with the episcopal see. As a man of +clear and sound judgment, he was sought for his counsel by the gentry +and nobility of the province--a circumstance that rendered it easy for +him to give to his son a more liberal course of instruction than +generally fell to the lot of commoners. It is not denied by Calvin's +most bitter enemies that he early manifested striking ability. In +selecting for him one of the learned professions, his father naturally +preferred the church, as that in which he could most readily secure for +his son speedy promotion. It may serve to illustrate the degree of +respect at this time paid to the prescriptions of canon law, to note +that Charles de Hangest, Bishop of Noyon, conferred on John Calvin the +_Chapelle de la Gesine_, with revenues sufficient for his maintenance, +when the boy was but just twelve years of age! Such abuses as the gift +of ecclesiastical benefices to beardless youths, however, were of too +frequent occurrence to attract special notice or call forth unfriendly +criticism. With the same easy disregard of churchly order the chapter of +the cathedral of Noyon permitted Calvin, two years later, to go to +Paris, for the purpose of continuing his studies, without loss of +income; although, to save appearances, a pretext was found in the +prevalence of some contagious disease in Picardy. Not long after, his +father perceiving the singular proficiency he manifested, determined to +alter his plans, and devoted his son to the more promising department of +the law, a decision in which Calvin himself, already conscious of secret +aversion for the superstitions of the papal system, seems dutifully to +have acquiesced. To a friend and near relation, Pierre Robert +Olivetanus, the future translator of the Bible, he probably owed both +the first impulse toward legal studies and the enkindling of his +interest in the Sacred Scriptures. Proceeding next to Orleans, in the +university of which the celebrated Pierre de l'Etoile, afterward +President of the Parliament of Paris, was lecturing on law with great +applause, Calvin in a short time achieved distinction. Marvellous +stories were told of his rapid mastery of his subject. Not only did he +occasionally fill the chair of an absent professor, and himself lecture, +to the great admiration of the classes, but he was offered the formal +rank of the doctorate without payment of the customary fees. Declining +an honorable distinction which would have interfered with his plan of +perfecting himself elsewhere, he subsequently visited the University of +Bourges, in order to enjoy the rare advantage of listening to Andrea +Alciati, of Milan, reputed the most learned and eloquent legal +instructor of the age. + +[Sidenote: His studies under Wolmar.] + +Meanwhile, however, Calvin's interest in biblical study had been +steadily growing, and at Bourges that great intellectual and religious +change appears to have been effected which was essential to his future +success as a reformer. He attached himself to Melchior Wolmar, a +distinguished professor of Greek, who had brought with him from Germany +a fervent zeal for the Protestant doctrines. Wolmar, reading in the +young law student the brilliant abilities that were one day to make his +name illustrious, prevailed upon him to devote himself to the study of +the New Testament in the original. Day and night were spent in the +engrossing pursuit, and here were laid the foundations of that profound +biblical erudition which, at a later date, amazed the world, as well, +unfortunately, as of that feeble bodily health that embittered all +Calvin's subsequent life with the most severe and painful maladies, and +abridged in years an existence crowded with great deeds. + +[Sidenote: Translates Seneca "De Clementia."] + +The illness and death of his father called Calvin back to Noyon,[390] +but in 1529 we find him again in Paris, where three years later he +published his first literary effort. This was a commentary on the two +books of Seneca, "De Clementia," originally addressed to the Emperor +Nero. The opinion has long prevailed that it was no casual selection of +a theme, but that Calvin had conceived the hope of mitigating hereby the +severity of the persecution then raging. The author's own +correspondence, however, betrays less anxiety for the attainment of that +lofty aim, than nervous uneasiness respecting the literary success of +his first venture. Indeed, this is not the only indication that, while +Calvin was already, in 1532, an accomplished scholar, he was scarcely as +yet a _reformer_, and that the stories of his activity before this time +as a leader and religious teacher, at Paris and even at Bourges, deserve +only to be classed with the questionable myths obscuring much of his +history up to the time of his appearance at Geneva.[391] + +[Sidenote: Calvin's escape from Paris to Angouleme.] + +The incident that occasioned Calvin's flight from Paris was narrated in +a previous chapter. Escaping from the officers sent to apprehend him as +the real author of the inaugural address of the rector, Nicholas Cop, +Calvin found safety and scholastic leisure in the house of his friend +Louis du Tillet, at Angouleme. If we could believe the accounts of later +writers, we should imagine the young scholar dividing his time in this +retreat between the preparation of his "Institutes" and systematic +labors for the conversion of the inhabitants of the south-west of +France. Tradition still points out the grottos in the vicinity of +Poitiers, where, during a residence in that city, Calvin is said to have +exclaimed, pointing to the Bible lying open before him: "Here is my +mass;" and then, with uncovered head and eyes turned toward heaven, +"Lord, if at the judgment-day thou shalt reprove me because I have +abandoned the mass, I shall reply with justice, 'Lord, thou hast not +commanded it. Here is thy law. Here are the Scriptures, the rule thou +hast given me, wherein I have been unable to find any other sacrifice +than that which was offered upon the altar of the cross!'"[392] + +[Sidenote: He resigns his benefices.] + +[Sidenote: He reaches Basle.] + +The caverns bearing Calvin's name may never have witnessed his +preaching, and the address ascribed to him rests on insufficient +authority;[393] but it is certain that the future reformer about this +time took his first decided step in renouncing connection with the Roman +Church, by resigning his benefices, the revenues of which he had +enjoyed, although precluded by his youth from receiving ordination.[394] +Not many months later, finding himself solicited on all sides to take an +active part as a teacher of the little companies of Protestants arising +in different cities of France, he resolved to leave France and court +elsewhere obscurity and leisure to prosecute undisturbed his favorite +studies.[395] Accordingly, we find him, after a brief visit to Paris and +Orleans, reaching the city of Basle, apparently toward the close of the +year 1534.[396] + +[Sidenote: Apologetic character given to his great work.] + +It was here that Calvin appears to have conceived for the first time the +purpose of giving a practical aim to the great work upon the composition +of which he had been some time busy. In spite of his professions of +unsullied honor, Francis the First had not hesitated to disseminate, by +means of his agents beyond the Rhine, the most unfounded and injurious +reports respecting his Protestant subjects. It was time that these +aspersions should be cleared away, and an attempt be made to touch the +heart of the persecuting monarch with compassion for the unoffending +objects of his blind fury. Such was the object Calvin set before himself +in a preface to the first edition of the "Institutes," addressed "To the +Very Christian King of France."[397] It was a document of rare +importance. + +[Sidenote: The preface to the "Christian Institutes."] + +[Sidenote: Eloquent peroration.] + +He briefly explained the original design of his work to be the +instruction of his countrymen, whom he knew to be hungering and +thirsting for the truth. But the persecutions that had arisen and that +left no place for sound doctrine in France induced him to make the +attempt at the same time to acquaint the king with the real character of +the Protestants and their belief. He assured Francis that the book +contained nothing more nor less than the creed for the profession of +which so many Frenchmen were being visited with imprisonment, +banishment, outlawry, and even fire, and which it was sought to +exterminate from the earth. He drew a fearful picture of the calumnies +laid to the charge of this devoted people, and of the wretched church of +France, already half destroyed, yet still a butt for the rage of its +enemies. It was the part of a true king, as the vicegerent of God, to +administer justice in a cause so worthy of his consideration. Nor ought +the humble condition of the oppressed to indispose him to grant them a +hearing; for the doctrine they professed was not their own, but that of +the Almighty himself. He boldly contrasted the evangelical with the +papal church, and refuted the objections urged against the former. He +defended its doctrine from the charge of novelty, denied that +miracles--especially such lying wonders as those of Rome--were necessary +in confirmation of its truth, and showed that the ancient Fathers, far +from countenancing, on the contrary, condemned the superstitions of the +day. He refuted the charge that Protestants forsook old customs when +good, or abandoned the only visible church; and in a masterly manner +vindicated the Reformation from the oft-repeated charge of being the +cause of sedition, conflict, and confusion. He begged for a fair and +impartial hearing. "But," he exclaimed in concluding, "if the +suggestions of the malevolent so fill your ears as to leave no room for +the reply of the accused, and those importunate furies continue, with +your consent, to rage with bonds and stripes, with torture, +confiscation, and fire, then shall we yield ourselves up as sheep +appointed for slaughter, yet so as to possess our souls in patience, and +await the mighty hand of God, which will assuredly be revealed in good +time, and be stretched forth armed for the deliverance of the poor from +their affliction, and for the punishment of the blasphemers now exulting +in confidence of safety. May the Lord of Hosts, illustrious king, +establish your seat in righteousness and your throne with equity."[398] + +[Sidenote: Has no effect in allaying persecution.] + +[Sidenote: Calvin achieves distinction.] + +The learned theologian's eloquent appeal failed to accomplish its end. +If Francis ever received, he probably disdained to read even the +dedication, classed by competent critics among the best specimens of +writing in the French language,[399] and must have regarded the volume +to which it was prefixed as a bold vindication of heresy, and scarcely +less insulting to his majesty than the placards themselves. Others, +better capable of forming a competent judgment, or more willing to give +it a dispassionate examination, applauded the success of a hazardous +undertaking that might have appalled even a more experienced writer than +the French exile of Noyon. The Institutes gave to a young man, who had +scarcely attained the age at which men of mark usually begin to occupy +themselves with important enterprises, the reputation of being the +foremost theologian of the age. + +[Sidenote: He revises the Bible of Olivetanus.] + +Other studies invited Calvin's attention. Not content with perfecting +himself in the original languages of the Holy Scriptures, he revised +with care the French Protestant Bible, translated by his relation +Olivetanus, of which we shall have occasion to speak in another chapter. +Meanwhile, in an age of intense mental and moral awakening, no +scholastic repose, such as he had pictured to himself, awaited one who +had made good his right to a foremost rank among the athletes in the +intellectual arena. + +[Sidenote: Visits Italy.] + +Before his unexpected call to a life of unremitting conflict, Calvin +visited Italy. In the entire absence of any trustworthy statement of the +occasion of this journey, it is almost idle to speculate on the objects +he had in view.[400] Certain, however, it is that the court of the +Duchess Renee, at Ferrara, offered to a patriotic Frenchman attractions +hard to be resisted. + +[Sidenote: The court of Renee de France.] + +[Sidenote: Brantome's eulogy of Renee.] + +The younger daughter of Louis the Twelfth resembled her father not less +in character than in appearance and speech.[401] Cut off by the +pretended Salic law from the prospect of ascending the throne, she had +in her childhood been thrown as a straw upon the variable tide of +fortune. After having been promised in marriage to Charles of Spain, +heir to the most extensive and opulent dominions the sun shone upon, and +future Emperor of Germany, she had (1528) been given in marriage to the +ruler of a petty Italian duchy, himself as inferior to her in mind as in +moral character.[402] As for Renee, if her face was homely and +unprepossessing, her intellect was vigorous. She had turned to good +account the opportunities for self-improvement afforded by her high +rank. Admiring courtiers made her classical and philosophical +attainments the subject of lavish panegyric, perhaps with a better basis +of fact than in the case of many other princes of the time; while with +the French, her countrymen, the generous hospitality she dispensed won +for her unfading laurels. "Never was there a Frenchman," writes the Abbe +de Brantome, "who passing through Ferrara applied to her in his distress +and was suffered to depart without receiving ample assistance to reach +his native land and home. If he were unable to travel through illness, +she had him cared for and treated with the utmost solicitude, and then +gave him money to continue his journey."[403] Ten thousand poor +Frenchmen are said to have been saved by her munificent charity, on the +occasion of the recall of the Duke of Guise, after Constable +Montmorency's disastrous defeat at St. Quentin. Her answer to the +remonstrance of her servants against this excessive drain upon her +slender resources bore witness at once to the sincerity of her +patriotism and to a virile spirit which no Salic law could +extinguish.[404] + +The brief stay of Calvin at Ferrara is involved in the same obscurity +that attends his motives in visiting Italy. But it is known that he +exerted at this time a marked influence not only on others,[405] but on +Renee de France herself, who, from this period forward, appears in the +character of an avowed friend of the reformatory movement. Calvin had +from prudence assumed the title of _Charles d'Espeville_, and this name +was retained as a signature in his subsequent correspondence with the +duchess. + +[Sidenote: Calvin leaves Ferrara.] + +A point so close to the centre of the Roman Catholic world as Ferrara +could scarcely afford safety to an ardent reformer, even if the fame of +his "Institutes" had not yet reached Rome; and Ercole the Second was too +dependent upon the Holy See to shrink from sacrificing the guest his +wife had invited to the palace. Returning, therefore, from Ferrara, +without apparently pursuing his journey to Rome or even to Florence, +Calvin retraced his steps and took refuge beyond the Alps. Possibly he +may have stopped on the way in the valley of Aosta, and displayed a +missionary activity, which has been denied by several modern critics, +but is attested by local monuments and tradition, and has some support +in contemporary documents.[406] + +[Sidenote: Revisits France.] + +[Sidenote: Is recognized while passing through Geneva.] + +[Sidenote: Farel compels him to remain.] + +Once more in Basle, Calvin resolved, after a final visit to the home of +his childhood, to seek out some quiet spot in Germany, there to give +himself up to those scholarly labors which he fancied would be more +profitable to France than the most active enterprises he might engage in +as a preacher of the Gospel. He had accomplished the first part of his +design, had disposed of his property in Noyon, and was returning with +his brother and sister, when the prevalence of war in the Duchy of +Lorraine led him to diverge from his most direct route, so as to +traverse the dominions of the Duke of Savoy and the territories of the +confederate cantons of Switzerland. Under these circumstances, for the +first time, he entered the city of Geneva, then but recently delivered +from the yoke of its bishop and of the Roman Church. He had intended to +spend there only a single night.[407] He was accidentally recognized by +an old friend, a Frenchman, who at the time professed the reformed +faith, but subsequently returned to the communion of the Church of +Rome.[408] Du Tillet was the only person in Geneva that detected in the +traveller, Charles d'Espeville, the John Calvin who had written the +"Institutes." He confided the secret to Farel, and the intrepid reformer +whose office it had hitherto been to demolish, by unsparing and +persistent blows, the popular structure of superstition, at once +concluded that, in answer to his prayers, a man had been sent him by God +capable of laying, amid the ruins, the foundations of a new and more +perfect fabric. Farel sought Calvin out, and laid before him the urgent +necessities of a church founded in a city where, under priestly rule, +disorder and corruption had long been rampant. At first his words made +no impression. Calvin had traced out for himself a very different +course, and was little inclined to exchange a life of study for the +perpetual struggles to which he was so unexpectedly summoned. But when +he met Farel's request with a positive refusal, pleading inexperience, +fondness for literary pursuits, and aversion to scenes of tumult and +confusion, the Genevese reformer assumed a more decided tone. Acting +under an impulse for which he could scarcely account himself, Farel +solemnly prayed that the curse of God might descend on Calvin's leisure +and studies, if purchased at the price of neglecting the duty to which +the voice of the Almighty Himself, by His providence, distinctly called +him.[409] + +The amazed and terrified student felt--to use his own expression--that +God had stretched forth His arm from heaven and laid violent hold upon +him, rendering all further resistance impossible. He yielded to the +unwelcome call, and became the first theological professor of Geneva. +Somewhat later he was prevailed upon to add to his functions the duties +of one of the pastors of the city. + +[Sidenote: Farel's own recollections.] + +If the scene impressed itself ineffaceably on the memory or one of the +principal actors, its effect, we may be sure, was no less lasting in the +case of the other. More than a quarter of a century after, Farel, on +receiving the announcement that his worst apprehensions had been +realized, in the death of his "so dear and necessary brother Calvin," +wrote to a friend a touching letter, in which he referred in a few +sentences to the same striking interview. "Oh, why am not I taken away +in his stead, and why is not he, so useful, so serviceable, here in +health, to minister long to the churches of our Lord! To Whom be +blessing and praise, that, of His grace, He made me fall in with him +where I had never expected to meet him, and, contrary to his own plans, +compelled him to stop at Geneva, and made use of him there and +elsewhere! For he was urged on one side and another more than could be +told, and _specially by me_, who, in God's name, urged him to undertake +matters that were harder than death. And albeit _he begged me several +times, in the name of God, to have mercy on him and suffer him to serve +God in other ways_, as he has always thus occupied himself, +nevertheless, seeing that what I asked was in accordance with God's +will, in doing himself violence he has done more and more promptly than +any one else has done, surpassing not only others, but himself. Oh, how +happily has he run an excellent race!"[410] + +[Sidenote: Calvin becomes the head of the commonwealth.] + +[Sidenote: His view respecting church and state,] + +[Sidenote: and the punishment of heresy.] + +For twenty-eight years the name of Calvin was inseparably associated +with that of the city which owes its chief renown to his connection with +it. Excepting the three years of exile, from 1538 to 1541, occasioned by +a powerful reaction against his rigid system of public morality, he was, +during the whole of this period, the recognized head of the Genevese +commonwealth. A complete mastery of the principles of law, acquired by +indefatigable study at Orleans and Bourges, before the loftier teachings +of theology engrossed his time and faculties, qualified him to draw up a +code to regulate the affairs of his adopted country. If its detailed +prohibitions and almost Draconian severity are repugnant to the spirit +of the present age, the general wisdom of the legislator is vindicated +by the circumstance that he transformed a city noted for the prevalence +of every form of turbulence and immorality into the most orderly +republic of Christendom. Few, it is true, will be found to defend the +theory respecting the duty of the state toward the church in which +Calvin acquiesced. But the cruel deaths of Gruet and Servetus were only +the legitimate fruits of the doctrine that the civil authority is both +empowered and bound to exercise vigilant supervision over the purity of +the church. In this doctrine the reformers of the sixteenth century were +firm believers. They held, as John Huss had held a hundred years +before, that _Truth_ could appropriately appeal for support to physical +force, under circumstances that would by no means have justified a +similar resort on the part of _Error_. The consistent language of their +lives was, "If we speak not the truth, we refuse not to die." "If the +Pope condemns the pious for heresy, and furious judges unjustly execute +on the innocent the penalty due to heretics, what madness is it thence +to infer that heretics ought not to be destroyed for the purpose of +aiding the pious! As for myself, since I read that Paul said that he did +not refuse death if he had done anything to deserve it, I openly offered +myself frequently prepared to undergo sentence of death, if I had taught +anything contrary to the doctrine of piety. And I added, that I was most +worthy of any punishment imaginable, if I seduced any one from the faith +and doctrine of Christ. _Assuredly I cannot have a different view with +regard to others from that which I entertain respecting myself._"[411] +So wrote Farel, and almost all his contemporaries agreed with him. And +thus it happened that the conscientious Calvin and the polished Beza +were at the pains of writing long treatises, to prove that "heretics are +justly to be constrained by the sword,"[412] almost at the very moment +when they were begging the Bernese to intercede with their ally, King +Henry the Second, of France, in behalf of the poor Protestants +languishing in the dungeons of Lyons, or writing consolatory letters to +Peloquin and De Marsac, destined to suffer death in the flames not many +days before the execution of the Spanish physician at Geneva.[413] + +[Sidenote: His fault the fault of the age.] + +In truth, however, it was less Calvin than the age in which he lived +that must be held responsible for the crime against humanity with which +his name has come to be popularly associated. He did, indeed, desire and +urge that Servetus should be punished capitally, although he made an +earnest but unsuccessful effort to induce the magistrates to mitigate +the severity of the sentence, by the substitution of some more merciful +mode of execution.[414] But the other principal reformers of Germany and +Switzerland--Melanchthon, Haller, Peter Martyr, and Bullinger gave their +hearty endorsement to the cruel act;[415] while if any further proof +were needed to attest the sincerity and universality of approval +accorded to it, it is afforded by the last letters of the brave men who +were themselves awaiting at Chambery, a few mouths later, death by the +same excruciating fate as that which befell Servetus at Geneva.[416] + +[Sidenote: Calvin shuns notoriety.] + +The prominence obtained by Calvin as chief theologian and pastor of the +church of Geneva, however, was foreign to his tastes. He was by +preference a scholar, averse to notoriety, fond of retirement, and, if +we are to believe his own judgment, timid and even pusillanimous by +nature.[417] He had in vain sought seclusion in France. From Basle and +Strasbourg he made a hasty retreat in order to preserve his incognito, +and avoid the fame the Institutes were likely to earn for him.[418] Only +Farel's adjuration detained him in Geneva, and he subsequently confessed +that his fortitude was not so great but that he rejoiced even more than +was meet when the turbulent Genevese expelled him from their city.[419] +But not even then was he able to secure the coveted quiet, for Martin +Bucer was not slow in imitating the urgency of Farel, and employed the +warning example of the prophet Jonah seeking to flee from the will of +the Almighty, to induce him to employ himself in the organization and +administration of the French church at Strasbourg.[420] Not less decided +was Calvin's reluctance to accede to the repeated invitations of the +council and people of Geneva, that he should return and resume his +former position. + +[Sidenote: His character and natural endowments.] + +[Sidenote: He is consulted by Protestants in every quarter of Europe.] + +Such was the man who was called to take the reins of the spiritual +direction, not only of a single small city, but of a large body of +earnest thinkers throughout France, and even to distant parts of +Christendom--a man of stern and uncompromising devotion to that system +which he believed to be truth; of slender imagination, but of a memory +prodigious in its grasp, of an understanding wonderfully acute, and of +a power of exposition and expression unsurpassed by that possessed by +any writer among his contemporaries. His constitution, naturally weak, +had been still further enfeebled by excessive application to study. In +his letters there are frequent references to the interruptions +occasioned by violent pains in his head, often compelling him to stop +many times in the writing of a single letter.[421] His strength was +taxed to the utmost by the unremitting toil incident to his multifarious +occupations. The very recital of his labors fills us with amazement. He +preached twice every Sunday, besides frequent sermons on other days. He +lectured three times a week on theology. He made addresses in the +consistory, and delivered a lecture every Friday in the conference on +the Scriptures known as the "Congregation." To these public burdens must +be added others imposed upon him by his wide reputation. From all parts +of the Protestant world, but especially from every spot in France where +the Reformation had gained a foothold, the opinion of Calvin was eagerly +sought on various points of doctrine and ecclesiastical practice. To +Geneva, and especially to Calvin, the obscure and persecuted adherents +of the same faith, not less than the most illustrious of the Protestant +nobility, looked for counsel and direction. Under his guidance that +system was adopted for supplying France with ministers of the Gospel +which led the Venetian ambassador, near the end of the great reformer's +life, to describe Geneva as the mine from which the ore of heresy was +extracted.[422] How faithfully he discharged the trust committed to him +is sufficiently attested by a voluminous correspondence, some portions +of which have escaped the wreck of time; while the steady advance of the +doctrines he advocated is an enduring monument to the zeal and sagacity +of his exertions. + +[Sidenote: Meets with bitter opposition,] + +[Sidenote: but obtains the support of the people.] + +In his arduous undertaking, however, Calvin had to encounter no little +opposition in the very city of Geneva. It was this, even more than +bodily infirmity, that bore severely upon his spirits, and robbed him of +the rest demanded alike by his overtaxed body and mind. His advocacy of +strenuous discipline procured him relentless enemies among the Genevese +of the "Libertine" party. Those were stormy times for Calvin, when, in +derision of the student, legislator, and theologian, deafening salutes +were fired by night before his doors, and when the dogs were set upon +him in the streets.[423] But, when we read of the violent antagonism +elicited by the publication of the severe provisions of the +"Ordinances," regulating even the minor details of the life of a +Genevese citizen, it must not be forgotten that the unpopular system, +although devised by Calvin, was not imposed by him upon unwilling +subjects, but established by a free and decisive vote of the people, in +the exercise of its sovereignty, and influenced to its adoption by the +same considerations that had determined Calvin himself in devising +it.[424] + +[Sidenote: An estimate of Calvin by Etienne Pasquier.] + +Such a man could not fail to secure the respect of his opponents, and +the undisguised admiration of all who could regard his character and +work with some degree of impartiality. Among the most virtuous of his +contemporaries was the excellent Etienne Pasquier, who described him as +he appeared in the eyes of men of culture--men who, without forsaking +the Roman Catholic Church, were stanch friends of reform and of +progress. "He was a man," says Pasquier, "that wrote equally well in +Latin and in French, and to whom our French tongue is greatly indebted +for having enriched it with an infinite number of fine touches. It were +my wish that it had been for a better subject. He was a man, moreover, +marvellously versed and nurtured in the books of the Holy Scriptures, +and such that, had he directed his mind in the right way, he might have +ranked with the most illustrious doctors of the church. And, in the +midst of his books and his studies, he was possessed of the most active +zeal for the progress of his sect. We sometimes saw our prisons +overflowing with poor, misled people, whom he unceasingly exhorted, +consoled, and comforted by his letters; and there were never lacking +messengers to whom the doors were open, in spite of any exertions of the +jailers to the contrary. Such were the methods by which he gained over +step by step a part of our France."[425] + +[Sidenote: Continued persecution.] + +[Sidenote: The tongues of the victims cut out, and records burned.] + +The flames of the persecution kindled by the publication of the placards +continued to burn. From Paris, where Laurent de la Croix fell a victim +to the rage of the priests, the conflagration spread to Essarts, in +Poitou, where a simple girl was consigned to the fire for reproving a +Franciscan monk; and to Macon, where an unlearned peasant underwent a +like punishment, amazing his judges by the familiarity he displayed with +the Bible. Agen, in Guyenne, and Beaune, in Burgundy, witnessed similar +scenes of atrocious cruelty; while at Nonnay, Andre Berthelin was burned +alive, because, when wending his way to the great fair of Lyons, he +refused to kneel down before one of the many pictures or images set up +by the roadside for popular adoration. At Rouen, four brave reformers +were thrown into a tumbril, reeking with filth, to be drawn to the place +of execution, one of them exclaiming with radiant countenance: "Truly, +as says the apostle, we are the offscouring of the earth, and we now +stink in the nostrils of the men of the world. But let us rejoice, for +the savor of our death will be a sweet savor unto God, and will profit +our brethren."[426] But the details of these executions are too horrible +and too similar to find a place here. Nor, indeed, would it be possible +to frame a complete statement of the case of each of the constant +sufferers; for, from this time forward, it became a favorite practice +with those who presided over these bloody assizes to cut out the tongues +of their victims, lest their eloquent appeals should shake the +confidence of the spectators in the established faith, and afterward to +throw the official record of the trial of Protestants into the fire that +consumed their bodies, in order to prevent its furnishing edifying +material for the martyrology.[427] + +[Sidenote: Failure of persecution.] + +But, as usual, persecution failed utterly of accomplishing what had been +expected of it. For a brief moment, indeed, Francis flattered himself +that exemplary punishments had purged his kingdom of the professors of +the hated doctrines.[428] But, in the course of a few years, he +discovered that, in spite of continued severities, the "new faith" had +so spread--partly by means of persons suffered to return, in virtue of +the royal declaration of Coucy (on the sixteenth of July, 1535), and +partly through the teachings of others who lay concealed during the +first violence of the storm--that he had good reason to fear that the +last errors were worse than the first.[429] What rendered the matter +still more serious was the favor shown to the heretics by persons of +high rank and influence.[430] + +[Sidenote: Edict of Fontainebleau cuts off appeal, June 1, 1540.] + +With the view of employing still more rigid means for the detection and +punishment of the offenders, a fresh edict was published from +Fontainebleau, on the first of June, 1540. In this long and sanguinary +document the monarch--or the Cardinal of Tournon, who enjoyed the credit +of a principal part in its preparation--enjoined upon the officers of +all the royal courts, whether judges of parliament, seneschals, or +bailiffs, to institute proceedings concurrently against all persons +tainted with heresy. No appeal was to be permitted to delay their +action. The examination of the suspected took precedence of all other +cases. Tribunals of inferior jurisdiction were instructed to send +prisoners for heresy, together with the record of their examination, to +the sovereign courts of parliament, there to be tried in the "Chambre +criminelle." The appeal to the "Grand' chambre," customarily allowed to +persons claiming immunity on account of order or station, was expressly +cut off, so as to render the course of justice more expeditious. +Negligent judges were threatened with suspension and removal from +office. The high vassals of the crown were ordered to lend to the royal +courts their counsel and assistance, and to surrender to them all +offenders as guilty of sedition and disturbance of the public +peace--crimes of which the king claimed exclusive cognizance. +Ecclesiastics were exhorted to show equal diligence in the prosecution +of culprits that were in orders. In short, every servant of the king was +bidden to abstain from harboring or favoring the "Lutherans," since the +errors and false doctrines the latter disseminated, it was said, +contained within them the crime of treason against God and the king, as +well as of sedition and riot.[431] Every loyal subject must, therefore, +denounce the heretics and employ all means to extirpate them, just as +all men are bound to run to help in extinguishing a public +conflagration.[432] + +[Sidenote: Exceptional fairness of President Caillaud.] + +The last injunction was not altogether unnecessary. Even among the +judges of parliament there were fair-minded persons not inclined to +condemn accused men or books on mere report. The ambassador of Henry the +Eighth having, in 1538, denounced an English translation of the Holy +Scriptures that was in press at Paris, the chancellor commissioned +President Caillaud to investigate the case. The latter, finding that the +printer's excuse was the scarcity of paper in England, quietly set about +a comparison of the suspected version with accessible French +translations. He said nothing to doctors of theology or royal +prosecuting officers. "It seemed to me," he reported, "quite unnecessary +to give the matter such notoriety. Moreover, I mistrusted that, without +further investigation, without even looking into it, they would have +condemned the English translation for the sole reason that it is in that +tongue. For I have seen them sustain that the Holy Scriptures ought not +to be translated into the French language or any other vernacular +tongue. Nevertheless, the Bible in French was printed in this city so +long ago as in 1529, and again this present year, and is for sale by the +most wealthy printers. For my part I have seen no prohibition either by +the church or by the secular authority, although I once heard some +decretal alleged in condemnation." Unfortunately such judges as Louis +Caillaud were rare--men that would take the pains to obtain the services +of a person acquainted with the English language to translate aloud a +Bible suspected of heretical teachings, while themselves testing its +accuracy by scanning versions made from the Vulgate and the Hebrew +original![433] + +[Sidenote: Royal letters from Lyons, Aug. 30, 1542.] + +Two years more had scarcely passed before fresh legislation against the +Protestants demonstrated the impotence of all measures thus far resorted +to. The interval had certainly been improved by their enemies, for the +stake had its victims to boast of.[434] And yet the new religious body +had its ministers and its secret conventicles, with an ever increasing +number of adherents. Accordingly, on the thirtieth of August, 1542, +Francis, then at Lyons, addressed new letters patent to the various +parliaments, enjoining new vigilance and activity. Previous edicts had +not borne all the fruit expected from them; for there was still a bad +seed of error and damnable doctrines--so wrote the king--growing and +multiplying from day to day. So exemplary a punishment must, therefore, +be inflicted, as might forever terrify offenders.[435] The king even +threatened delinquent prelates with seizure of their temporalities, in +case they failed to exercise due diligence in so important a +matter.[436] + +[Sidenote: Audacity of the "Lutherans" of Bordeaux.] + +[Sidenote: Francis I. and the Sacramentarians.] + +King, bishops and parliaments were terribly in earnest. All were agreed +that Protestantism must and should be crushed, however little they +harmonized as to the reasons of its increase or the method of +suppressing it. The Archbishop of Bordeaux denounced to the parliament +of that city the growing audacity of the "Lutherans" of his diocese, who +had even dared to preach their doctrines publicly. He accounted for this +disorder by the fact that the prosecution and exemplary punishment of +heretics had ceased to be the uniform rule; as if the experience of the +past score of years had not demonstrated the futility of attempting to +compel religious uniformity by the fear of human tribunals and +ignominious death. He therefore begged the parliament to spare neither +him nor his brother prelates in the matter of defraying the expense of +bringing "Lutherans" to trial and death. The secular judges were of the +same mind with the prelates, and both took new courage from a +declaration of Francis himself, which the archbishop had recently heard +with his own ears at Angouleme. In the presence of Cardinal Tournon and +others, the king had assured him that "_he desired that no +sacramentarian should be permitted to abjure, but that all such heretics +should be remorselessly put to death_!"[437] By such pitiless measures +did Francis still think to establish his unimpeachable loyalty to the +doctrine of transubstantiation. + +[Sidenote: Royal ordinance of Paris, July 23, 1543.] + +But, as ill success continued to attend every attempt to crush the +Reformation in France, it was necessary to find some plausible +explanation of the failure. The ecclesiastical counsellors of the king +alleged that they discovered it in the recent edicts themselves, which +they represented as derogating from the efficiency of both prelates and +inquisitors of the faith. To meet this new objection, Francis +complaisantly published another ordinance (on the twenty-third of July, +1543), carefully defining the respective provinces of the lay and +clerical judges. Prelates and inquisitors were authorized to proceed, in +accordance with canon law, to obtain information alike against clergymen +and laymen, in case of suspected heresy, and the secular judges were +strictly enjoined to afford them all needed assistance in execution of +their writs of summons and arrest. But all persons guilty of open +heresy, and not actually in holy orders, must be given over, together +with the documents relating to their offences, to the royal judges and +to the courts of parliament, and by them tried as seditious disturbers +of the peace and tranquillity of the commonwealth and of the king's +subjects, secret conspirators against the prosperity of his estate, and +rebels against his authority and laws.[438] In order, however, to secure +to the ecclesiastical tribunals their full control over clergymen, it +was provided that any churchman condemned to banishment, or any other +punishment short of death, should immediately after the "amende +honorable," and before execution of sentence, be remitted to his +spiritual superiors to undergo deprivation of office, and such other +penalties as canon law might prescribe.[439] + +[Sidenote: Heresy to be punished as sedition.] + +[Sidenote: Repression proves a failure.] + +But the succession of edicts, each surpassing the last in severity, had +not rendered the path of the judges, whether lay or ghostly, altogether +easy. There were found prisoners, accused of holding and teaching +heretical doctrines, well skilled in holy lore, however ignorant of the +casuistry of the schools, who made good their assertion that they could +give a warrant for all their distinctive tenets from the Sacred +Scriptures. Their arguments were so cogent, their citations were so +apposite, that the auditors who had come with the expectation of +witnessing the confusion of a heretic, often departed absorbed in +serious consideration of a system that had so much the appearance of +truth when defended by a simple man in jeopardy of his life, and when +fortified by the authority of the Bible. More learned reformers had +appealed successfully to the Fathers to whose teachings the church +avowed its implicit obedience. It was clear that some standard of +orthodoxy must be established. For, if St. Augustine or St. Cyprian +might be brought up to prove the errors of the priests, what was it but +allowing the reformers to place the Roman Church at the bar, even in the +very courts of justice? Might not the most damaging losses be expected +to flow from such trials? + +The public courts, indeed, were not the only places where the +inconsistencies of the established church with its own ancient standards +and representative theologians were brought out into bold relief. The +pulpits of the very capital resounded, it was alleged, with +contradictory teachings, scandalizing the faithful not a little at the +holy season of Advent.[440] + +[Sidenote: The Sorbonne's Twenty-five Articles.] + +To put an end to so anomalous a state of affairs, the Parisian +theologians, with the consent of the king, resolved to enunciate the +true Catholic faith, in the form of twenty-five articles meeting all +questions now in dispute (on the tenth of March, 1543). Of the general +contents of this new formulary, it is sufficient to observe that it more +concisely expressed the doctrines developed in the decisions of the +Council of Trent; that it insisted upon baptism as essential to the +salvation even of infants; that it magnified the freedom of the human +will, and maintained the justification of the sinner by works as well as +by faith; and that, dwelling upon the bodily presence of Christ in the +consecrated wafer, it affirmed the propriety of denying the cup to the +laity, the utility of masses for the dead, the lawfulness of the +invocation of the blessed Virgin and the saints, the existence of +purgatory, the infallibility of the church, the authority of tradition, +and the divine right of the Pope.[441] + +[Sidenote: Francis gives them the force of law.] + +On the twenty-third of July, 1543, the very day of the publication of +the edict of persecution previously mentioned, Francis by letters-patent +gave the force of law to the exposition of the faith drawn up by the +theological faculty of "his blessed and eldest daughter, the University +of Paris." Henceforth no other doctrines could be professed in France. +Dissent was to be treated as "rebellion" against the royal +authority.[442] + +[Sidenote: Persecution more systematic.] + +[Sidenote: The inquisitor Matthieu Ory.] + +The sanguinary legislation at which we have glanced bore its most +atrocious fruits in the last years of Francis, and in the reign of his +immediate successor. The consideration of this topic must, however, be +reserved for succeeding chapters. Until now the persecution had been +carried on with little system, and its intensity had varied according to +the natural temperament and disposition of the Roman Catholic prelates, +not less than the zeal of the civil judges. Many clergymen, as well as +lay magistrates, had exhibited a singular supineness in the detection +and punishment of the reformed. Some bishops, supposed to be at heart +friendly to the restoration of the church to its pristine purity of +doctrine and practice, had scarcely instituted a serious search. The +royal edicts themselves bear witness to their reluctance, in spite of +threatened suspension and deprivation. It is true that an attempt had +been made to secure greater thoroughness and uniformity, by augmenting +the number of inquisitors of the faith, and this, notwithstanding the +fact that their authority infringed upon that of the bishops, whose +right was scarcely questioned to exclusive cognizance of heresy within +their respective dioceses. Not only had Matthieu Ory[443] and others +been appointed with jurisdiction over the entire kingdom, but a special +inquisitor was created for the province of Normandy. Even these persons, +however, were not always equally zealous in the performance of their +allotted task. It was notorious that the good cheer with which Ory was +regaled by the astute Protestants of Sancerre led him to report them to +be excellent people. A deputy, who next visited the reputed heretics, +brought back an equally flattering statement. And so the persecuting +"lieutenant particulier" of Bourges seems to have had some ground for +his complaint, "that good wine and a right new coat caused all these +inquisitors to return well satisfied, without bringing him any +prey."[444] + +[Sidenote: The Nicodemites and Libertins.] + +It could not be otherwise, however, than that these severe measures and +the employment of new agents in the pitiless work of persecution should +induce many feeble souls to suppress their true sentiments, and to make +the attempt, under an external conformity with the Roman Church, to +maintain opinions and a private devotion quite inconsistent with their +professions. And, while the progress of the Reformation was seriously +impeded by the timidity of this class of irresolute +persons--appropriately styled by their contemporaries "the +_Nicodemites_"--scarcely less danger threatened the same doctrines from +the insidious assaults of the _Libertines_, a party which, ostensibly +aiming at reform and religious liberty, really asked only for freedom in +the indulgence of vicious propensities. Against both of these pernicious +tendencies the eloquent reformer of Geneva employed his pen in forcible +treatises, which were not without effect in checking their +inroads.[445] + +[Sidenote: Margaret of Navarre at Bordeaux.] + +It must be confessed that the Queen of Navarre herself gave no little +aid and comfort to the advocates of timid and irresolute counsels, by a +course singularly wanting in ingenuousness. This amiable princess knew +how to express herself with such ambiguity as to perplex both religious +parties and heartily satisfy neither the one side nor the other. She was +the avowed friend and correspondent of Melanchthon and Calvin. She was +believed to be in substantial agreement with the Protestants. Her views +of the fundamental doctrine of justification by faith and the paramount +authority of the Holy Scriptures were those for which many a Protestant +martyr had laid down his life. Even on the question of the Lord's +Supper, her opinions, if mystical and somewhat vague, were certainly far +removed from the dogmas of the Roman Church. She condemned, it is true, +the extreme to which the "Sacramentarians" went, but it was difficult to +see precisely wherein the modified mass she countenanced differed from +the reformed service. Certainly not a line in her correspondence with +Calvin points to any important difference of sentiment known by either +party to exist between them. What shall we say, then, on reading of such +language as she used in 1543, when addressing the Parliament of +Bordeaux? She had been deputed by her brother to represent him, and was, +consequently, received by the court, (on the twenty-fourth of May) with +honors scarcely, if at all, inferior to those that would have been +accorded to Francis had he presented himself in person. Her special +commission was to notify parliament of an expected attack by the +English, and to request that due preparation should be made to ward it +off. From this topic she passed to that of heresy, in respect to which +she expressed herself to this effect: "She exhorted and prayed the court +_to punish and burn the true heretics_, but to spare the innocent, and +have compassion upon the prisoners and captives."[446] If, as the +interesting minute of the queen's visit informs us, she next proceeded +to claim the immemorial right, as a daughter of France, to open the +prisons and liberate the inmates according to her good pleasure,[447] it +can scarcely be imagined that the assertion of the right at this time +had any other object in view than the release of those imprisoned for +conscience' sake. It is true that she took pains to protest that she +would avoid meddling with prisoners incarcerated for other crimes than +such as her brother was accustomed to pardon; but as the interference of +Francis in behalf of Berquin, Marot, and others accused of heresy, was +sufficiently notorious, her guarantee could scarcely be considered very +broad. Certainly she was not likely to find a "true heretic" worthy of +the stake among all those imprisoned as "Lutherans" in the city of +Bordeaux. + +[Sidenote: Negotiations in Germany.] + +[Sidenote: Hypocritical representations made by Charles of Orleans.] + +While Francis, as we have seen, was from year to year aggravating the +severity of his enactments against the adherents of the Reformation in +his own kingdom, he did not forget his old role of ally of the +Protestant princes of the empire. It would be too wide a digression from +the true scope of this work, should we turn aside to chronicle the +successive attempts of the French monarch to secure these powerful +auxiliaries in his struggle with his great rival of the house of +Hapsburg. One incident must suffice. The hypocrisy of Francis could, +perhaps, go no farther than it carried him when, in 1543, his son +Charles, Duke of Orleans, at the head of a royal army took possession of +the Duchy of Luxemburg. The duke, who can hardly be imagined to have +allowed himself to take any important step, certainly no step fraught +with such momentous consequences as might be expected to follow this, +without explicit instructions from his father, at once despatched an +envoy to the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse. The +subordinate agent in this game of duplicity was instructed to assure the +great Protestant leaders that it was the earnest desire of the Duke of +Orleans to see the Gospel preached throughout the whole of France. It +was true that filial reverence had hitherto restrained him from +gratifying his desires in this direction in his Duchy of Orleans; but in +the government of Luxemburg and of all other territories acquired by +right of arms, he hoped to be permitted by his royal father to follow +his own preferences, and there he solemnly promised to introduce the +proclamation of God's holy word. In return for these liberal +engagements, the duke desired the German princes, then on the point of +meeting for conference at Frankfort, to admit him to an alliance +offensive and defensive, especially in matters concerning religion. He +assured them of the support not only of his own forces, but of his +father's troops, committed to him to use at his discretion, adding, as a +further motive, the prospect that the Gospel would find more ready +welcome in the rest of France, when the king saw its German advocates +close allies of his youngest son.[448] + +[Sidenote: Commendable scepticism of the Germans.] + +But the princes were much too familiar with the wiles of Francis to +repose any confidence in the lavish professions of his son. And the +historian who discovers that the more intimately the king strove to +associate himself with the German Protestants, the more fiercely did he +commit the Protestants of France to the flames, in order to demonstrate +to the Pope the immaculate orthodoxy of his religious belief, will not +fail to applaud their discernment. Not until toward the very close of +Francis's reign, when the Lutherans descried portents of a storm that +threatened them with utter extermination, raised by the bigotry or craft +of Charles the Fifth, did they manifest any anxiety to enter into near +connection with the French monarch. + +Francis was reaping the natural rewards of a crooked policy, dictated by +no strong convictions of truth or duty, but shaped according to the +narrow suggestions of an unworthy ambition. If he punished heretics at +home, it was partly to secure on his side the common sentiment of the +Roman Catholic world, partly because the enemies of the Reformation had +persuaded him that the change of religion necessarily involved the +subversion of established order and of royal authority. If he made +overtures to the Protestant princes of Germany, the flimsy veil of +devotion to their interests was too transparent to conceal the total +want of concern for anything beyond his own personal aggrandizement. + +Two mournful exemplifications of the fruits of his persecuting measures +must, however, be presented to the reader's notice, before the curtain +can be permitted to fall over the scene on which this monarch played his +part. The massacre of Merindol and Cabrieres and the execution of the +"Fourteen of Meaux" are the melancholy events that mark the close of a +reign opening, a generation earlier, so auspiciously. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 387: The Protestants might be pardoned, under the +circumstances, if their language was somewhat bitter respecting both +emperor and king. "Combien que j'espere que nostre _Antioche_ (Charles +V.), qui nous presse maintenant, sera serre de si pres, _qu'il ne luy +souviendra des gouttes_ de ses mains, ne de ses pieds; _car il en aura +par tout le corps_. De son compagnon _Sardanapalus_ (Francis I.), _Dieu +luy garde la pareille_. Car ils sont bien dignes de passer tous deux par +une mesme mesure." Calvin to M. de Falaise, Feb. 25, 1547, Lettres +francaises, i. 191.--The expression "Sardanapalus inter scorta" occurs +in a letter of Calvin to Farel, Feb. 20, 1546 (Bonnet, Letters of John +Calvin, ii., 35, 36). It will, therefore, be seen from the date that +Merle d'Aubigne is mistaken in referring the description to Henry II. +Hist. de la Ref., liv. xii. c. 1.] + +[Footnote 388: Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 14.] + +[Footnote 389: Memoires de Martin du Bellay (Edition Petitot), xviii. +271-273. See also Mignet, Etablissement de la reforme religieuse a +Geneve, Mem. historiques, ii. 308, etc. Also, Merle d'Aubigne, Hist. of +the Reformation in the Time of Calvin, v. 395, etc.] + +[Footnote 390: In dedicating to Wolmar his commentary on II. +Corinthians, Calvin deplored the loss sustained in the interruption of +his Greek studies under his old teacher, "manum enim, quae tua est +humanitas, porrigere non recusasses ad totum stadii decursum, nisi me, +_ab ipsis prope carceribus_, mors patris revocasset." Upon the basis of +the words here italicized, Merle d'Aubigne builds up a story of outcries +and intrigues of priests (against Calvin) who "did all in their power +_to get him put into prison_"! Ref. in Time of Calvin, ii. 28. M. +Herminjard observes hereupon that one need not be very thoroughly versed +in Latin or in Roman antiquities to understand Calvin's allusion; and +every classical scholar will sympathize with M. Herminjard when he +expresses, in view of the historian's blunder, "un etonnement +proportionne a la celebrite de l'auteur." Corresp. des reformateurs, ii. +333.] + +[Footnote 391: See the very sensible remarks of Herminjard, _ubi supra_, +iii. 202.] + +[Footnote 392: A. Crottet, Histoire des eglises ref. de Pons, Gemozac, +et Mortagne en Saintonge (Bordeaux, 1841), 10-11, and Merle d'Aubigne, +Hist. of the Ref. in the Time of Calvin (Am. ed.), iii. 53, tell the +story without any misgivings, and the latter with characteristic +embellishment. But it rests on the unsupported and slender authority of +Florimond de Raemond, lib. vii. c. 14, from whose account I cannot even +find that the scene was laid in the caverns.] + +[Footnote 393: Staehelin (Johannes Calvin, Leben und ausgewaehlte +Schriften, i. 33) well remarks that what makes this address very +suspicious is the circumstance that a quite similar passage occurs in +Calvin's letter to Sadolet, leading us to the conclusion that we have +here only a "reminiscence" of this much later document.] + +[Footnote 394: He resigned his chapel of La Gesine and his curacy of +Pont l'Eveque, May 4, 1534. Herminjard, iii. 201.] + +[Footnote 395: This, and not the persecution at that time raging in +France, is the reason assigned by Calvin himself in the preface to his +commentary on the Psalms, where he tells us that, the very year of his +conversion, seeing "que tous ceux qui avoyent quelque desir de la pure +doctrine se rangeoyent a lui pour apprendre," he began to seek some +hiding-place and means of withdrawing from men. "Et de faict," he adds, +"je veins en Allemagne, de propos delibere, afin que la je peusse vivre +a requoy en quelque coin incognu." Corresp. des reformateurs, iii. 242, +243. See the same in the Latin ed., Calvini opera (Amsterdam, 1667), +iii. c. 2. This preface is dated Geneva, July 23, 1557.] + +[Footnote 396: Whether before or after the appearance of the "Placards," +is uncertain. On Calvin's early life, see Beza's Life, already referred +to; the Histoire ecclesiastique; various letters in J. Bonnet's Letters +of Calvin, and Herminjard, Corresp. des reformateurs; Haag, France +protestante; the reformer's life by Paul Henry, D.D., and especially the +scholarly work of Dr. E. Staehelin (2 vols., Elberfeld, 1860-1863).] + +[Footnote 397: The mooted question whether Calvin wrote the Institutes +originally in Latin or in French--in other words, whether there was a +French edition before the first Latin edition of 1536--has been set at +rest by M. Jules Bonnet, who, in a contribution to the Bulletin de +l'histoire du protestantisme francais, vi. (1858) 137-142, establishes +the priority of the Latin. The chief points in the proof are: 1st, the +absence of even a single copy of the supposed French edition of 1535; +2d, Calvin's statement to Francis Daniel, Oct. 13, 1536, "I am kept +continually occupied upon the French version of my little book;" 3d, his +decisive words in the preface to the edition of 1551: "_Et premierement +l'ay mis en latin_ a ce qu'il pust servir a toutes gens d'estude, de +quelque nation qu'ils fussent; puis apres desirant de communiquer ce qui +en pouvoit venir de fruict a nostre nation francoise, _l'ay aussy +translate en nostre langue_." See also chap. iii. of Professors Baum, +Cunitz, and Reuss, Introd. to Institution de la religion chretienne +(Calv. Opera, t. iii.).] + +[Footnote 398: Opera Calvini (Amst., 1667), t. ix.] + +[Footnote 399: "La dedicace a Francois I^er, qui est peut-etre une des +plus belles choses que possede notre langue." Paul L. Jacob, bibliophile +(Lacroix), "Avertissement" prefixed to Oeuvres francaises de Calvin. +The Institutes he designates "ce chef-d'oeuvre de science theologique, +de philosophie religieuse et de style." "Here," says Henri van Laun, +"was a force and concision of language never before heard in France.... +The influence of Calvin's writings upon the style of his successors, and +upon the literary development of his country, cannot easily be +over-estimated. With him French prose may be said to have attained its +manhood; the best of his contemporaries, and of those who had preceded +him, did but use as a staff or as a toy that which he employed as a +burning sword." History of French Literature (New York, 1876), i. 338, +339.] + +[Footnote 400: Yet it is more probable, as Staehelin suggests (Joh. +Calvin, ii. 93), that the classical associations of Italy drew him to +the peninsula, which was at that time the home of art, than that his +fame, having already penetrated to Ferrara, procured him a direct +invitation from Renee to visit her.] + +[Footnote 401: Showing, according to Brantome, "en son visage et en sa +parole qu'elle estoit bien _fille du Roy et de France_." Dames +illustres, Renee de France.] + +[Footnote 402: See the pompous ceremonial on this occasion and the +epithalamium of Clement Marot, in Cronique du Roy Francois I^er (G. +Guiffrey, 1860), 68-73.] + +[Footnote 403: Dames illustres, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 404: "Que voulez-vous? Ce sont des pauvres Francois de ma +maison; et _lesquels si Dieu m'eust donne barbe au menton_ et que je +fusse homme, _seroient maintenant tous mes sujets_. Voire me +seroient-ils tels, _si cette meschante Loy Salicque ne me tenoit trop de +rigueur_." Ibid., _ubi supra_. A readable account of the life of this +remarkable woman is given in "Some Memorials of Renee of France, Duchess +of Ferrara" (2d edit., London, 1859), a volume enriched, to some extent, +with letters drawn from the Paris National Library, and from less +accessible collections in Great Britain.] + +[Footnote 405: Possibly including the wonderfully precocious child, +Olympia Morata. See M. Jules Bonnet's monograph, Vie d'Olympia Morata, +episode de la Renaissance et de la Reforme en Italie. Staehelin has well +traced Calvin's religious influence upon Renee and the important family +of Soubise. Joh. Calvin, i. 94-110. The extant letters of Calvin to +Renee are full of manly and Christian frankness, and affectionate +loyalty. Lettres francaises, i. 428, etc.] + +[Footnote 406: Staehelin is skeptical about, and Prof. Billiet and M. +Douen reject altogether the story of Calvin's labors at Aosta. Thus much +M. Bonnet believes to be established by concurrent MS. and traditional +authority: That, early in the year 1536, Calvin had succeeded in gaining +over to the reformed doctrines a number of influential men in this +Alpine valley, of the families of La Creste, La Visiere, Vaudan, +Borgnion, etc.; that he and his converts were accused of plotting to +induce the district to embrace Protestantism, and imitate the example of +its Swiss neighbors, by constituting itself a canton, free of the Duke +of Savoy; that the estates, on the 28th of February, 1536, declared +their intention (with a unanimity procured, perhaps, by the expulsion of +the opposite party) to live and die in the obedience of the Duke of +Savoy and of mother Holy Church; that Calvin and his principal adherents +escaped with difficultly into Switzerland; and that expiatory +processions were instituted at Aosta, in token of gratitude for +deliverance from heresy, in which the bishop and the most prominent +noblemen, as well as the common people, "walked with bare feet and in +sackcloth and ashes, notwithstanding the rigor of the season." Tradition +still points out the "_farm-house_ of Calvin," his "_bridge_," and the +_window_ by which he is said to have escaped. The event is commemorated +by a monument of the market-place, bearing an inscription that testifies +to its having been erected in 1541, and renewed in 1741 and 1841. See +the interesting Aostan documents contributed by M. Bonnet to the +Bulletin de l'hist. du protest. francais, ix. (1860) 160-168, and his +letter to Prof. Rilliet, ibid., xiii. (1864) 183-192.] + +[Footnote 407: This is Calvin's distinct statement: "quum rectum iter +Argentoratum tendenti bella clausissent, hac (Geneva) celeriter transire +statueram, ut _non longior quam unius noctis morae_ in urbe mihi foret." +Calvin, Preface to Psalms.] + +[Footnote 408: "Unus homo, qui nunc turpi defectione iterum ad Papistas +rediit, statim fecit ut innotescerem." Ibid., _ubi supra_. Consequently +Beza, in his Latin Life of Calvin, is mistaken when he asserts: "eos +[sc. Farel and Viret] igitur quum, ut inter bonos fieri solet, Calvinus +transiens invisisset," etc.; for it was Farel that sought _him_ out, on +Du Tillet's information.] + +[Footnote 409: Calvin, in the preface to the Psalms already quoted, +says: "Genevae non tam _consilio_, vel _hortatu_, quam _formidabili_ +Gulielmi Farelli _obtestatione_ retentus sum, _ac si Deus violentam mihi +e coelo manum injiceret_. Et quum privatis et occultis studiis me +intelligeret esse deditum, ubi se vidit _rogando_ nihil proficere, +_usque ad maledictionem descendit, ut Deus otio meo malediceret, si me a +ferendis subsidiis in tanta necessitate subducerem. Quo terrore +perculsus_ susceptum iter ita omisi," etc.--Beza throws these words into +Farel's mouth: "At ego tibi, inquit, studia tua praetextenti denuntio +Omnipotentis Dei nomine, futurum ut nisi in opus istud Domini nobiscum +incumbas, tibi non tam Christum quam teipsum quaerenti Dominus +maledicat." Vita Calvini (Op. Calv., Amst. 1661, tom. i).] + +[Footnote 410: This interesting letter, dated Neufchatel, June 6, 1564, +was communicated by M. Herminjard to the editor of the fine edition of +Farel's _Du Vray Usage de la Croix_, printed by J. G. Fick, Geneva, +1865, who gives it entire, pp. 314, etc.] + +[Footnote 411: "Sane non possum de aliis aliud sentire quam quod de me +statuo." Farel to Calvin, Sept. 8, 1553, Calv. Opera, ix. (Epistolae), +71.] + +[Footnote 412: Declaration pour maintenir la vraye foy que tiennent tous +chrestiens de la Trinite des personnes en un seul Dieu. Par Jean Calvin. +Contre les erreurs detestables de Michel Servet Espaignol. Ou il est +aussi monstre, qu'il est licite de punir les heretiques: et qu'a bon +droict ce meschant a este execute par justice en la ville de Geneve. +1554.--In this famous little book the author classifies doctrinal errors +according to their gravity. Slight superstitions and the ignorance into +which simple folk have fallen, are to be borne with till God reveal the +truth to them. Offences of greater magnitude, because injurious to the +church, should be visited with mild penalties. "But when malicious +spirits attempt to overthrow the foundations of religion, utter +execrable blasphemies against God, and disseminate damnable speeches, +like deadly poison, to drag souls to perdition--in short, engage in +schemes to cause the people to revolt from the pure doctrine of +God--then it is necessary to have recourse to the extreme remedy, so +that the evil may not spread farther" (pp. 48, 49).] + +[Footnote 413: See Calvin to C. and T. Zollicoffre, March 28, and the +same to Peloquin and De Marsac, Aug. 22, 1553. Servetus was burned Oct. +27.] + +[Footnote 414: Two months before the execution Calvin wrote to Farel, +Aug. 20, 1553: "Spero capitale saltem fore judicium _poenae vero +atrocitatem remitti cupio_;" and on the 26th of October, he again wrote, +"_Genus mortis conati sumus mutare_, sed _frustra_. Cur non +profecerimus, coram narrandum differo." Calv. Opera, ix. 70, 71. As it +is thus in evidence not only that Calvin _did not burn_ Servetus, but +_desired him not to be burned_, and made an ineffectual attempt _to +rescue him from the flames_, we might anticipate for the stale calumny a +speedy end, were not the tenacity of life characterizing such inventions +so notorious as to have passed into a proverb.] + +[Footnote 415: Melanchthon, for example, after expressing his entire +satisfaction with Calvin's treatise, and his conviction that the church +both now and hereafter owes and will owe him gratitude for it, adds: +"Affirmo etiam, vestros magistratus _juste fecisse, quod hominem +blasphemum_, re ordine judicata, _interfecerunt_." Mel. to Calvin, Oct. +14, 1554, Opera (Bretschneider), viii. 362.] + +[Footnote 416: Laborie, one of the heroic "five," sending from prison an +account of his examination, states that, when one of his judges asked +him whether he did not know that God had by Moses sanctioned the +punishment of heretics, he freely admitted it: "Haereticos certe +puniendos _facile concessi_, et in exemplum proposui _impurum illum +canem Servetum_, qui Genevae ultimo supplicio affectus fuit: verum sedulo +caverent, _ne in Christianos et Dei filios_ velut haereticos +animadvertant," etc. Letter in Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta Martyrum +(Genevae, 1560), fol. 291.] + +[Footnote 417: "Ego qui natura timido, molli et pusillo animo esse +fateor." Preface to the Psalms.] + +[Footnote 418: "Porro, an propositum esset mihi famam aucupari, patuit +ex brevi discessu, praesertim quum nemo illic sciverit me authorem esse." +Ibid.] + +[Footnote 419: "Me tamen non tanta sustinnit magnanimitas, quin +turbulenta ejectione plus quam deceret laetatus sim." Ibid.] + +[Footnote 420: "Praestantissimus Christi minister, M. Bucerus me iterum +simili qua usus fuerat Farellus, obsecratione, ad novam stationem +retraxit. Jonae itaque exemplo, quod proposuerat, territus," etc. Ibid.] + +[Footnote 421: "La difficulte est," he writes to M. de Falaise, April, +1546, "des fascheries et rompemens de teste qui interviennent, pour +_interrompre vingt fois une lettre_, ou encore d'advantaige." He adds +(and the details are interesting) that, although his general health is +good, "je suis tormente sans cesse d'une doleur qui _ne me souffre quasi +rien faire_. Car oultre les _sermons et lectures_, il y a desja un mois +que _je n'ay gueres faict_, tellement que j'ay presque honte _de vivre +arnsi inutile_." Lettres francaises, i. 141, 142. Many a scholar of his +day, or of ours, would consider a week of _health_ well occupied with +the preparation and delivery of two sermons and three theological +lectures.] + +[Footnote 422: "Ginevra ... che e la minera di questa sorte di metallo." +Relazione di M. Suriano, 1561. Relations des Amb. Venitiens, i. 528.] + +[Footnote 423: This period of his life was referred to by him in his +last address to the body of his colleagues: "J'ay vescu icy en combats +merveilleux; j'ay este salue par mocquerie le soir devant ma porte de 50 +ou 60 coups d'arquebute. Que pensez-vous que cela pouvoit estonner un +pauvre escholier, timide comme je suis, et comme je l'ay toujours este, +je le confesse?... On m'a mis les chiens a ma queue, criant _here, +here_, et m'ont prins par la robbe et par les jambes." Adieux de Calvin, +_apud_ Bonnet, Lettres francaises, ii. 575.] + +[Footnote 424: "This sacrifice," M. Gaberel forcibly observes, "has +scarcely a parallel in history. Men willingly consent to make the +greatest efforts, to perform the most painful acts of self-denial, with +the aim of saving their country. Formerly the Genevese suffered unto +death to preserve their independence. Now the same unselfish spirit is +demanded of them in ordinary times that they exhibited in evil days. +And, if the people accepts the 'Ordinances,' it is because it has +narrowly scanned the slavery to which that moral license was leading it, +which Rome authorizes in order to confiscate all other liberties. It +accepts the 'Ordinances' because it has just escaped the treacherous +machinations, the servitude prepared for it by men whose principle is to +go just as their own heart leads them.... Strengthened by this vote, +Calvin can henceforth hope to succeed in his project, and make of Geneva +the Protestant metropolis, bearing as its motto, 'Holiness to the +Lord.'" Histoire de l'eglise de Geneve, i. 346, 347.] + +[Footnote 425: Recherches de la France (ed. of 1621), p. 769. Giovanni +Michiel, in 1561, told the Doge of Venice: "Ne potria vostra Serenita +creder l'intelligenza e le pratiche grandi che ha nel regno il principal +ministro di Genevra che chiamano il Calvino, Francese e Picardo di +nazione, uomo di estraordinaria autorita, per la vita, per la dottrina, +e per i scritti appresso tutti quelli di questa sette." Rel. des Amb. +Ven., i. 415.] + +[Footnote 426: Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 13-17; Crespin, Actiones et +Monimenta (Geneva, 1560), fol. 65, etc.] + +[Footnote 427: Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 15.] + +[Footnote 428: "En maneire que pensions nostredit royaume en estre purge +du tout et nettoye," Francis is made to say in the Edict of +Fontainebleau. Isambert, Recueil des anciennes lois francaises, xii. +677, etc.] + +[Footnote 429: "Tellement qu'il est fort a douter que les nouveaux +erreurs soient pires que les premiers." Ibid., xii. 677.] + +[Footnote 430: "Plusieurs gros personnages, qui secrettement les +recelent, supportent et favorisent en leurs fausses doctrines, leur +aydans et subvenans de leurs biens, de lieux, et de places secrettes et +occultes, esquelles ils retirent leurs sectateurs, pour les instruire +esdites erreurs et infections." Ibid., xii. 677.] + +[Footnote 431: "Attendu que tels erreurs et fausses doctrines +contiennent en soy crime de leze majeste divine et humaine, sedition du +peuple, et perturbation de nostre estat et repos public." Ibid., xii. +680.] + +[Footnote 432: "Mais tantost et incontinent qu'ils en seront advertis, +les reveler a justice, et de tout leur pouvoir aider a les extirper, +_comme un chacun doit courir a esteindre le feu public_." Ibid., xii. +680.] + +[Footnote 433: President Louis Caillaud to the chancellor (Antoine Du +Bourg), Oct. 22, 1538. Musee des archives nationales; Documents orig. +exposes dans l'Hotel Soubise (Paris, 1872), 347.] + +[Footnote 434: Among others, two "Lutherans," otherwise unknown to us, +whose execution a young German student, Eustathius de Knobelsdorf, +witnessed on the Place Maubert, and described in a letter to George +Cassander, professor at Bruges, like himself a Roman Catholic. One of +the "Lutherans," a beardless youth of scarcely twenty years, the son of +a shoemaker, after having his tongue cut out and his head smeared with +sulphur, far from showing marks of terror, signified, by a motion to the +executioner, his perfect willingness to meet death. "I doubt, my dear +Cassander," writes De Knobelsdorf, "whether those celebrated +philosophers, who have written so many books on the contempt of death, +would have endured so cruel tortures with such constancy. So far did +this youth seem to be raised above what is of man." Letter of July 10, +1542. Translated in Bulletin, vi. (1858), 420-423; and Baum, Theodor +Beza, i. 52-55.] + +[Footnote 435: "En sorte que la justice, punition, correction, et +demonstration en soit faite telle et si griefve, que ce puisse estre +perpetuel exemple a tous autres."] + +[Footnote 436: Isambert, Recueil des anciennes lois francaises, xii. +785-787.] + +[Footnote 437: "Lui a dit qu'il voulait qu'aucun sacramentaire ne fut +admis a abjurer, ains fut puni de mort." Reg. secr. du Parl. de +Bordeaux, July 7, 1543, Boscheron des Portes, i. 47, 48.] + +[Footnote 438: "Conspirateurs occultes contre la prosperite de nostre +estat, dependant principalement et en bonne partie de la conservation de +l'integrite de la foy catholique en nostredit royaume, rebelles et +desobeyssans a nous et a nostre justice." Recueil des anc. lois +francaises, xii. 819.] + +[Footnote 439: Ibid., xii. 820.] + +[Footnote 440: The preamble of the royal letters giving execution to the +Twenty-five Articles of the Sorbonne mentions as a moving cause +"plusieurs scandales et schismes par cy devant intervenus, et mesmement +en cest advent de Noel dernier passe, par le moyen et a l'occasion de +contentions, contradictions et altercations de certain predicateurs +preschans et publians divers et contraires doctrines." Recueil des anc. +lois francaises, xii. 820.] + +[Footnote 441: Recueil des anc. lois franc., xii. 821-825. Among other +recommendations appended to the articles, was the following somewhat +interesting one, designed to correct the irreverence of the age: "Quand +il vient a propos d'alleguer le nom des saincts apostres et evangelistes +ou saincts docteurs, qu'ils _n'ayent a les nommer par leurs norm +simplement_, sans aucune preface d'honneur, _comme ont accoustume dire, +'Paul,' 'Jacques,' 'Mathieu,' 'Pierre,' 'Hierosme,' 'Augustin_,' etc. Et +ne leur doit estre grief adjouster et preposer le nom de 'sainct,' en +disant, 'sainct Pierre,' 'sainct Paul,' etc.!"] + +[Footnote 442: Ibid., xii. 820. In answer to these Articles, Calvin +wrote his "Antidote aux articles de la faculte Sorbonique de Paris."] + +[Footnote 443: Ory, Oriz, or Oritz, as his name was indifferently +written, was a prominent character in subsequent scenes of blood, and +was, as we may hereafter see, the agent employed by Henry II. to cajole, +or frighten his aunt, Renee, and bring her back into the bosom of the +Roman Church. The letters-patent giving this personage, who is styled +"doctor of theology and prior of the preaching friars (Dominicans) of +Paris," authority to exercise the functions of inquisitor of the faith +throughout the kingdom, in place of Valentin Lievin, deceased, are of +May 30, 1536, Recueil des anc. lois fr., xii. 503. Similar letters were +issued April 10, 1540. His confirmation by Henry II., June 22, 1550, +ibid., xiii. 173.] + +[Footnote 444: Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 13. It is, in fact, an +interesting circumstance that Rocheli, or Rochetti, the deputy +inquisitor referred to in the text, not long after became a convert to +Protestantism, and applied himself to preaching the doctrines he had +once labored to overturn.] + +[Footnote 445: The first, entitled "Epistolae duae; prima de fugiendis +impiorum illicitis sacris et puritate Christianae religionis; secunda de +Christiani hominis officio in sacerdotiis papalis ecclesiae vel +administrandis vel abjiciendis," 1537. The second, "Contre la secte +fantastique et furieuse des Libertins qui se disent spirituels," 1544. +The latter, from its pointed reference to Quintin and Pocquet, two +notorious leaders, seems to have given offence to Margaret of Navarre, +by whom they had been harbored in ignorance of their true character. A +letter written to the queen by Calvin immediately upon learning this, +April 28, 1545 (Bonnet, Lettres francaises, i. 111-117), is at once one +of the best examples of his nervous French style, and a fine +illustration of manly courage tempered with respect for a princess who +had deserved well of Protestantism. A single sentence admirably portrays +his attitude toward the formidable sect which had so devastated the Low +Countries and had now entered France in the persons of two of its worst +apostles--a sect regarded by him as more pernicious and execrable than +any previously existing: "Un chien abaye, s'il voit qu'on assaille son +maistre; je seroys bien lasche, si en voyant la verite de Dieu ainsi +assaillie, je faisoys du muet sans sonner mot."] + +[Footnote 446: "A exhorte et prie la cour de vouloir faire punir et +bruler les vrais heretiques," etc. Reg. du Parl., May 24, 1543, +Boscheron des Portes, Hist. du parlement de Bordeaux, i. 63.] + +[Footnote 447: "Reclame son privilege de fille de France ecrit dans un +livre qui est a Saint Denis, de faire ouvrir les prisons," etc. Ibid., +_ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 448: The text of this singular document, dated Rheims, Sept. +8, 1543, is in Gerdes., Hist. Reform., iv. (Monumenta) 107-109. When the +"Instructions" fell into the hands of Charles V., he naturally tried to +make capital of a paper so little calculated to please Roman Catholics, +emanating from a son of the "Most Christian king." And Francis thought +himself compelled to clear himself from the charge of lukewarmness in +the faith, if not of actual heretical bias, by exercising fresh +severities upon the devoted Protestants of his own dominions.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE VAUDOIS OF MERINDOL AND CABRIERES, AND LAST DAYS OF +FRANCIS THE FIRST. + + +[Sidenote: The Vaudois of Provence.] + +[Sidenote: Their industry and thrift.] + +[Sidenote: Vaudois settlements even in the Comtat Venaissin.] + +That part of Provence, the ancient Roman Provincia, which skirts the +northern bank of the Durance, formerly contained, at a distance of +between twenty and fifty miles above the confluence of the river with +the Rhone near Avignon, more than a score of small towns and villages +inhabited by peasants of Waldensian origin. The entire district had been +desolated by war about a couple of centuries before the time of which we +are now treating. Extensive tracts of land were nearly depopulated, and +the few remaining tillers of the soil obtained a precarious subsistence, +at the mercy of banditti that infested the mountains and forests, and +plundered unfortunate travellers. Under these circumstances, the landed +gentry, impoverished through the loss of the greater part of their +revenues, gladly welcomed the advent of new-comers, who were induced to +cross the Alps from the valleys of Piedmont and occupy the abandoned +farms.[449] By the industrious culture of the Vaudois, or Waldenses, the +face of the country was soon transformed. Villages sprang up where there +had scarcely been a single house. Brigandage disappeared. Grain, wine, +olives, and almonds were obtained in abundance from what had been a +barren waste. On lands less favorable for cultivation numerous flocks +and herds pastured.[450] A tract formerly returning the scanty income of +four crowns a year now contained a thriving village of eighty +substantial houses, and brought its owners nearly a hundredfold the +former rental.[451] On one occasion at least, discouraged by the +annoyance to which their religious opinions subjected them, a part of +the Vaudois sought refuge in their ancient homes, on the Italian side of +the mountains. But their services were too valuable to be dispensed +with, and they soon returned to Provence, in answer to the urgent +summons of their Roman Catholic landlords.[452] In fact, a very striking +proof both of their industry and of their success is furnished by the +circumstance that Cabrieres, one of the largest Vaudois villages, was +situated within the bounds of the _Comtat Venaissin_, governed, about +the time of their arrival, by the Pope in person, and subsequently, as +we have seen, by a papal legate residing in Avignon.[453] + +[Sidenote: They send delegates to the Swiss and German reformers.] + +The news of an attempted reformation of the church in Switzerland and +Germany awakened a lively interest in this community of simple-minded +Christians. At length a convocation of their ministers[454] at Merindol, +in 1530, determined to send two of their number to compare the tenets +they had long held with those of the reformers, and to obtain, if +possible, additional light upon some points of doctrine and of practice +respecting which they entertained doubt. The delegates were George +Morel, of Freissinieres, and Pierre Masson, of Burgundy. They visited +Oecolampadius at Basle, Bucer and Capito at Strasbourg, Farel at +Neufchatel, and Haller at Berne. From the first-named they received the +most important aid, in the way of suggestions respecting the errors[455] +into which the isolated position they had long occupied had insensibly +led them. Grateful for the kindness manifested to them, and delighted +with what they had witnessed of the progress of the faith they had +received from their fathers, the two envoys started on their return. But +Morel alone succeeded in reaching Provence; his companion was arrested +at Dijon and condemned to death. Upon the report of Morel, however, the +Waldenses at once began to investigate the new questions that had been +raised, and, in their eagerness to purify their church, sent word to +their brethren in Apulia and Calabria, inviting them to a conference +respecting the interests of religion.[456] + +[Sidenote: They furnish means for publishing the Scriptures.] + +A few years later (1535) the Waldenses by their liberal contributions +furnished the means necessary for publishing the translation of the Holy +Scriptures made by Pierre Robert Olivetanus, and corrected by Calvin, +which, unless exception be made in favor of the translation by Lefevre +d'Etaples, is entitled to rank as the earliest French Protestant +Bible.[457] It was a noble undertaking, by which the poor and humble +inhabitants of Provence, Piedmont, and Calabria conferred on France a +signal benefit, scarcely appreciated in its full extent even by those +who pride themselves upon their acquaintance with the rich literature of +that country. For, while Olivetanus in his admirable version laid the +foundation upon which all the later and more accurate translations have +been reared, by the excellence of his modes of expression he exerted an +influence upon the French language perhaps not inferior to that of +Calvin or Montaigne.[458] + +[Sidenote: Preliminary persecutions.] + +Intelligence of the new activity manifested by the Waldenses reaching +the ears of their enemies, among whom the Archbishop of Aix was +prominent, stirred them up to more virulent hostility. The accusation +was subsequently made by unfriendly writers, in order to furnish some +slight justification for the atrocities of the massacre, that the +Waldenses, emboldened by the encouragement of the reformers, began to +show a disposition to offer forcible resistance to the arbitrary arrests +ordered by the civil and religious authorities of Aix. But the +assertion, which is unsupported by evidence, contradicts the well-known +disposition and practice of a patient people, more prone to submit to +oppression than to take up arms even in defence of a righteous +cause.[459] + +[Sidenote: The Dominican De Roma foremost in the work.] + +[Sidenote: Iniquitous order of the Parliament of Aix.] + +For a time the persecution was individual, and therefore limited. But in +the aggregate the number of victims was by no means inconsiderable, and +the flames burned many a steadfast Waldensee.[460] The Dominican De Roma +enjoyed an unenviable notoriety for his ferocity in dealing with the +"heretics," whose feet he was in the habit of plunging in boots full of +melted fat and boiling over a slow fire. The device did, indeed, seem to +the king, when he heard of it, less ingenious than cruel, and De Roma +found it necessary to avoid arrest by a hasty flight to Avignon, where, +upon papal soil, as foul a sink of iniquity existed as anywhere within +the bounds of Christendom.[461] But other agents, scarcely more merciful +than De Roma, prosecuted the work. Some of the Waldenses were put to +death, others were branded upon the forehead. Even the ordinary rights +of the accused were denied them; for, in order to leave no room for +justice, the Parliament of Aix had framed an iniquitous order, +prohibiting all clerks and notaries from either furnishing the accused +copies of legal instruments, or receiving at their hands any petition or +paper whatsoever.[462] Such were the measures by which the newly-created +Parliament of Provence signalized its zeal for the faith, and attested +its worthiness to be a sovereign court of the kingdom.[463] From its +severe sentences, however, appeals had once and again been taken by the +Waldenses to Francis, who had granted them his royal pardon on condition +of their abjuration of their errors within six months.[464] + +[Sidenote: Inhabitants of Merindol cited.] + +The slow methods heretofore pursued having proved abortive, in 1540 the +parliament summoned to its bar, as suspected of heresy, fifteen or +twenty[465] of the inhabitants of the village of Merindol. On the +appointed day the accused made their way to Aix, but, on stopping to +obtain legal advice of a lawyer more candid than others to whom they had +first applied, and who had declined to give counsel to reputed +Lutherans, they were warned by no means to appear, as their death was +already resolved upon. They acted on the friendly injunction, and fled +while it was still time. + +[Sidenote: The atrocious Arret de Merindol, Nov. 18, 1540.] + +Finding itself balked for the time of its expected prey, the parliament +resolved to avenge the slight put upon its authority, by compassing the +ruin of a larger number of victims. On the eighteenth of November, 1540, +the order was given which has since become infamous under the +designation of the "_Arret de Merindol_." The persons who had failed to +obey the summons were sentenced to be burned alive, as heretics and +guilty of treason against God and the King. If not apprehended in +person, they were to be burned in effigy, their wives and children +proscribed, and their possessions confiscated. As if this were not +enough to satisfy the most inordinate greed of vengeance, parliament +ordered _that all the houses of Merindol be burned and razed to the +ground, and the trees cut down for a distance of two hundred paces on +every side, in order that the spot which had been the receptacle of +heresy might be forever uninhabited_! Finally, with an affectation which +would seem puerile were it not the conclusion of so sanguinary a +document, the owners of lands were forbidden to lease any part of +Merindol to a tenant bearing the same name, or belonging to the same +family, as the miscreants against whom the decree was fulminated.[466] + +[Sidenote: It is condemned by public opinion.] + +A more atrocious sentence was, perhaps, never rendered by a court of +justice than the _Arret de Merindol_, which condemned the accused +without a hearing, confounded the innocent with the guilty, and +consigned the entire population of a peaceful village, by a single +stroke of the pen, to a cruel death, or a scarcely less terrible exile. +For ten righteous persons God would have spared guilty Sodom; but +neither the virtues of the inoffensive inhabitants, nor the presence of +many Roman Catholics among them, could insure the safety of the +ill-fated Merindol at the hands of merciless judges.[467] The +publication of the _Arret_ occasioned, even within the bounds of the +province, the most severe animadversion; nor were there wanting men of +learning and high social position, who, while commenting freely upon the +scandalous morals of the clergy, expressed their conviction that the +public welfare would be promoted rather by restraining and reforming the +profligacy of the ecclesiastics, than by issuing bloody edicts against +the most exemplary part of the community.[468] + +[Sidenote: Preparations to carry it into effect.] + +Meantime, however, the archbishops of Arles and of Aix urged the prompt +execution of the sentence, and the convocations of clergy offered to +defray the expense of the levy of troops needed to carry it into effect. +The Archbishop of Aix used his personal influence with Chassanee, the +First President of the Parliament, who, with the more moderate judges, +had only consented to the enactment as a threat which he never intended +to execute.[469] And the wily prelate so far succeeded by his +arguments, and by the assurance he gave of the protection of the +Cardinal of Tournon, in case the matter should reach the king's ears, +that the definite order was actually promulgated for the destruction of +Merindol. Troops were accordingly raised, and, in fact, the vanguard of +a formidable army had reached a spot within three miles of the devoted +village, when the command was suddenly received to retreat, the soldiers +were disbanded, and the astonished Waldenses beheld the dreaded outburst +of the storm strangely delayed.[470] + +[Sidenote: It is delayed by friendly interposition.] + +[Sidenote: The "mice of Autun."] + +The unexpected deliverance is said to have been due to the remonstrance +of a friend, M. d'Allens. D'Allens had adroitly reminded the president +of an amusing incident by means of which Chassanee had himself +illustrated the ample protection against oppression afforded by the law, +in the hands of a sagacious advocate and a righteous judge; and he had +earnestly entreated his friend not to show himself less equitable in the +matter of the defenceless inhabitants of Merindol than he had been in +that of the "mice of Autun."[471] + +[Sidenote: Francis I. instructs Du Bellay to investigate.] + +The delay thus gained permitted a reference of the affair to the king. +It is said that Guillaume du Bellay is entitled to the honor of having +informed Francis of the oppression of his poor subjects of Provence, and +invoked the royal interposition.[472] However this may be, it is certain +that Francis instructed Du Bellay to set on foot a thorough +investigation into the history and character of the inhabitants of +Merindol, and report the results to himself. The selection could not +have been more felicitous. Du Bellay was Viceroy of Piedmont, a province +thrown into the hands of Francis by the fortunes of war. A man of calm +and impartial spirit, his liberal principles had been fostered by +intimate association with the Protestants of Germany. Only a few months +earlier, in 1539, he had, in his capacity of governor, made energetic +remonstrances to the Constable de Montmorency touching the wrongs +sustained by the Waldenses of the valleys of Piedmont at the hands of a +Count de Montmian, the constable's kinsman. He had even resorted to +threats, and declared "that it appeared to him wicked and villanous, if, +as was reported, the count had invaded these valleys and plundered a +peaceful and unoffending race of men." Montmian had retorted by accusing +Du Bellay of falsehood, and maintaining that the Waldenses had suffered +no more than they deserved, on account of their rebellion against God +and the king. The unexpected death of Montmian prevented the two +noblemen from meeting in single combat, but a bitter enmity between the +constable and Du Bellay had been the result.[473] + +[Sidenote: Du Bellay's favorable report.] + +The viceroy, in obedience to his instructions, despatched two agents +from Turin to inquire upon the ground into the character and antecedents +of the people of Merindol. Their report, which has fortunately come down +to us, constitutes a brilliant testimonial from unbiassed witnesses to +the virtues of this simple peasantry. They set forth in simple terms the +affecting story of the cruelty and merciless exactions to which the +villagers had for long years been subjected. They collected the +concurrent opinions of all the Roman Catholics of the vicinity +respecting their industry. In two hundred years they had transformed an +uncultivated and barren waste into a fertile and productive tract, to +the no small profit of the noblemen whose tenants they were. They were a +people distinguished for their love of peace and quiet, with firmly +established customs and principles, and warmly commended for their +strict adherence to truth in their words and engagements. Averse alike +to debt and to litigation, they were bound to their neighbors by a tie +of singular good-will and respect. Their kindness to the unfortunate and +their humanity to travellers knew no bounds. One could readily +distinguish them from others by their abstinence from unnecessary oaths, +and their avoidance even of the very name of the devil. They never +indulged in lascivious discourse themselves, and if others introduced it +in their presence, they instantly withdrew from the company. It was true +that they rarely entered the churches, when pleasure or business took +them to the city or the fair; and, if found within the sacred enclosure, +they were seen praying with faces averted from the paintings of the +saints. They offered no candles, avoided the sacred relics, and paid no +reverence to the crosses on the roadside. The priests testified that +they were never known to purchase masses either for the living or for +the dead, nor to sprinkle themselves with holy water. They neither went +on pilgrimages, nor invoked the intercession of the host of heaven, nor +expended the smallest sum in securing indulgences. In a thunderstorm +they knelt down and prayed, instead of crossing themselves. Finally, +they contributed nothing to the support of religious fraternities or to +the rebuilding of churches, reserving their means for the relief of tho +poor and afflicted.[474] + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE VAUDOIS VILLAGES IN PROVENCE. + +_To face p. 240._] + +[Sidenote: Francis signs a letter of pardon.] + +Although the enemies of the Waldenses were not silenced, and wild +stories of their rebellious acts still found willing listeners at +court,[475] it was impossible to resist the favorable impression made by +the viceroy's letter. Consequently, on the eighth of February, 1541, +Francis signed a letter granting pardon not only to the persons who by +their failure to appear before the Parliament of Aix had furnished the +pretext for the proscriptive decree, but to all others, meantime +commanding them to abjure their errors within the space of three months. +At the same time the over-zealous judges were directed henceforth to use +less severity against these subjects of his Majesty.[476] + +[Sidenote: Parliament issues a new summons.] + +[Sidenote: The Vaudois publish a confession.] + +[Sidenote: Bishop Sadolet's kindness.] + +Little inclined to relinquish the pursuit, however, parliament seized +upon the king's command to abjure within three months, as an excuse for +issuing a new summons to the Waldenses. Two deputies from Merindol +accordingly presented themselves, and offered, on the part of the +inhabitants, to abandon their peculiar tenets, so soon as these should +be refuted from the Holy Scriptures--the course which, as they believed, +the king himself had intended that they should take. As it was no part +of the plan to grant so reasonable a request, the sole reply vouchsafed +was a declaration that all who recanted would receive the benefit of +the king's pardon, but all others would be reputed guilty of heresy +without further inquiry. Whereupon the Waldenses of Merindol, in 1542, +drew up a full confession of their faith, in order that the excellence +of the doctrines they held might be known to all men.[477] The important +document was submitted not merely to parliament, but to Cardinal +Sadolet, Bishop of Carpentras. The prelate was a man of a kindly +disposition, and did not hesitate, in reply to a petition of the +Waldenses of Cabrieres, to acknowledge the falsity of the accusations +laid to their charge.[478] Not long after, he successfully exerted his +influence with the vice-legate to induce him to abandon an expedition he +had organized against the last-mentioned village; while, in an interview +which he purposely sought with the inhabitants, he assured them that he +firmly intended, in a coming visit to Rome, to secure the reformation of +some incontestable abuses.[479] + +[Sidenote: Intercession of the Germans.] + +The Merindol confession is said to have found its way even to Paris, and +to have been read to the king by Chatellain, Bishop of Macon, and a +favorite of the monarch. And it is added that, astonished at the purity +of its doctrine, Francis asked, but in vain, that any erroneous teaching +in it should be pointed out to him.[480] It is not, indeed, impossible +that the king's interest in his Waldensian subjects may have been +deepened by the receipt of a respectful remonstrance against the +persecutions now raging in France, drawn up by Melanchthon in the name +of the Protestant princes and states of Germany.[481] + +[Sidenote: Death of President Chassanee, who is succeeded by Baron +d'Oppede.] + +[Sidenote: Military preparations stopped by a second royal order.] + +The _Arret de Merindol_ yet remained unexecuted when, Chassanee having +died, he was succeeded, in the office of First President of the +Parliament of Provence, by Jean Meynier, Baron d'Oppede. The latter was +an impetuous and unscrupulous man. Even before his elevation to his new +judicial position, Meynier had looked with envious eye upon the +prosperity of Cabrieres, situated but a few miles from his barony; and +scarcely had he taken his place on the bench, before, at his bidding, +the first notes of preparation for a great military assault upon the +villages of the Durance were heard. The affrighted peasants again had +recourse to the mercy of their distant sovereign. A second time Francis +(on the twenty-fifth of October, 1544) interfered, evoking the case from +parliament, and assuming cognizance of it until such time as he might +have instituted an examination upon the spot by a "Maitre de requetes" +and a theologian sent by him.[482] + +[Sidenote: Calumnious accusations.] + +The interruption was little relished. A fresh investigation was likely +to disclose nothing more unfavorable to the Waldenses than had been +elicited by the inquiries of Du Bellay, or than the report which had led +Louis the Twelfth, on an earlier occasion (1501), to exclaim with an +oath: "They are better Christians than we are!"[483] and, what was +worse, the poor relations, both of the prelates and of the judges, had +only a sorry prospect of enriching themselves through the confiscation +of the property of the lawful owners.[484] It was time to venture +something for the purpose of obtaining the coveted prize. Accordingly, +the Parliament of Aix, at this juncture, despatched to Paris one of its +official servants, with a special message to the king. He was to beg +Francis to recall his previous order. He was to tell him that Merindol +and the neighboring villages had broken out into open rebellion; that +fifteen thousand armed insurgents had met in a single body. They had +captured towns and castles, liberated prisoners, and hindered the course +of justice. They were intending to march against Marseilles, and when +successful would establish a republic fashioned on the model of the +Swiss cantons.[485] + +[Sidenote: Francis, misinformed, revokes his last orders.] + +Thus reinforced, Cardinal Tournon found no great difficulty in exciting +the animosity of a king both jealous of any infringement upon his +prerogative, and credulous respecting movements tending to the +encouragement of rebellion. On the first of January, 1545, Francis sent +a new letter to the Parliament of Aix. He revoked his last order, +enjoined the execution of the former decrees of parliament, so far as +they concerned those who had failed to abjure, and commanded the +governor of Provence, or his lieutenant, to employ all his forces to +exterminate any found guilty of the Waldensian heresy.[486] + +[Sidenote: His letter construed as authorizing a new crusade.] + +The new order had been skilfully drawn. The "Arret de Merindol," +although not alluded to by name, might naturally be understood as +included under the general designation of the parliament's decrees +against heretics; while the direction to employ the governor's troops +against those who had not abjured could be construed as authorizing a +local crusade, in which innocent and guilty were equally likely to +suffer. Such were the pretexts behind which the first president and his +friends prepared for a carnage which, for causelessness and atrocity, +finds few parallels on the page of history. + +[Sidenote: An expedition stealthily organized.] + +Three months passed, and yet no attempt was made to disturb the peaceful +villages on the Durance. Then the looked-for opportunity came. Count De +Grignan, Governor of Provence, was summoned by the king and sent on a +diplomatic mission to Germany. The civil and military administration +fell into the Baron d'Oppede's hands as lieutenant. The favorable +conjuncture was instantly improved. On a single day--the twelfth of +April--the royal letter, hitherto kept secret, that the intended victims +might receive no intimations of the impending blow, was read and +judicially confirmed, and four commissioners were appointed to +superintend the execution.[487] Troops were hastily levied. All men +capable of bearing arms in the cities of Aix, Arles, and Marseilles were +commanded, under severe penalties, to join the expedition;[488] and some +companies of veteran troops, which happened to be on their way from +Piedmont to the scene of the English war, were impressed into the +service by D'Oppede, in the king's name.[489] + +[Sidenote: Villages burned and their inhabitants butchered.] + +On the thirteenth of April, the commissioners, leaving Aix, proceeded to +Pertuis, on the northern bank of the Durance. Thence, following the +course of the river, they reached Cadenet. Here they were joined by the +Baron d'Oppede, his sons-in-law, De Pouriez and De Lauris, and a +considerable force of men. A deliberation having been held, on the +sixteenth, Poulain, to whom the chief command had been assigned by +D'Oppede, directed his course northward, and burned Cabrierette, Peypin, +La Motte and Saint-Martin, villages built on the lands of De Cental, a +Roman Catholic nobleman, at this time a minor. The wretched inhabitants, +who had not until the very last moment credited the strange story of the +disaster in reserve for them, hurriedly fled on the approach of the +soldiery, some to the woods, others to Merindol. Unable to defend them +against a force so greatly superior in number and equipment, a part of +the men are said to have left their wives, old men, and children in +their forest retreat, confident that if discovered, feminine weakness +and the helplessness of infancy or of extreme old age would secure +better terms for them than could be hoped for in case of a brave, but +ineffectual defence by unarmed men.[490] It was a confidence misplaced. +Unresisting, gray-headed men were despatched with the sword, while the +women were reserved for the grossest outrage, or suffered the mutilation +of their breasts, or, if with child, were butchered with their unborn +offspring. Of all the property spared them by previous oppressors, +nothing was left to sustain the miserable survivors. For weeks they +wandered homeless and penniless in the vicinity of their once +flourishing settlements; and there one might not unfrequently see the +infant lying on the road-side, by the corpse of the mother dead of +hunger and exposure. For even the ordinary charity of the humane had +been checked by an order of D'Oppede, savagely forbidding that shelter +or food be afforded to heretics, on pain of the halter.[491] + +Lourmarin, Villelaure, and Treizemines were next burned on the way to +Merindol. On the opposite side of the Durance, La Rocque and St. Etienne +de Janson suffered the same fate, at the hands of volunteers coming from +Arles. Happily they were found deserted, the villagers having had timely +notice of the approaching storm. + +[Sidenote: The destruction of Merindol.] + +Early on the eighteenth of April, D'Oppede reached Merindol, the +ostensible object of the expedition. But a single person was found +within its circuit, and he a young man reputed possessed of less than +ordinary intellect. His captor had promised him freedom, on his pledging +himself to pay two crowns for his ransom. But D'Oppede, finding no other +human being upon whom to vent his rage, paid the soldier the two crowns +from his own pocket, and ordered the youth to be tied to an olive-tree +and shot. The touching words uttered by the simple victim, as he turned +his eyes heavenward and breathed out his life, have been preserved: +"Lord God, these men are snatching from me a life full of wretchedness +and misery, but Thou wilt give me eternal life through Jesus Thy +Son."[492] + +[Sidenote: The village razed.] + +Meantime the work of persecution was thoroughly done. The houses were +plundered and burned; the trees, whether intended for shade or for +fruit, were cut down to the distance of two hundred paces from the +place. The very site of Merindol was levelled, and crowds of laborers +industriously strove to destroy every trace of human habitation. Two +hundred dwellings, the former abode of thrift and contentment, had +disappeared from the earth, and their occupants wandered, +poverty-stricken, to other regions.[493] + +[Sidenote: Treacherous capture of Cabrieres.] + +Leaving the desolate spot, D'Oppede next presented himself, on the +nineteenth of April, before the town of Cabrieres. Behind some weak +entrenchments a small body of brave men had posted themselves, +determined to defend the lives and honor of their wives and children to +their last drop of blood. D'Oppede hesitated to order an assault until a +breach had first been made by cannon. Then the Waldenses were plied with +solicitations to spare needless effusion of blood by voluntary +surrender. They were offered immunity of life and property, and a +judicial trial. When by these promises the assailants had, on the +morrow, gained the interior of the works, they found them guarded by +Etienne de Marroul and an insignificant force of sixty men, supported by +a courageous band of about forty women. The remainder of the population, +overcome by natural terror at the strange sight of war, had taken +refuge--the men in the cellars of the castle, the women and children in +the church. + +[Sidenote: Men butchered and women burned.] + +The slender garrison left their entrenchments without arms, trusting in +the good faith of their enemies. It was a vain and delusive reliance. +They had to do with men who held, and carried into practice, the +doctrine that no faith is to be observed with heretics. Scarcely had the +Waldenses placed themselves in their power, when twenty-five or more of +their number were seized, and, being dragged to a meadow near by, were +butchered in cold blood, in the presence of the Baron d'Oppede. The rest +were taken to Aix and Marseilles. The women were treated with even +greater cruelty. Having been thrust into a barn, they were there burned +alive. When a soldier, more compassionate than his comrades, opened to +them a way of escape, D'Oppede ordered them to be driven back at the +point of the pike. Nor were those taken within the town more fortunate. +The men, drawn from their subterranean retreats, were either killed on +the spot, or bound in couples and hurried to the castle hall, where two +captains stood ready to kill them as they successively arrived. It was, +however, for the sacred precincts of the church that the crowning orgies +of these bloody revels were reserved. The fitting actors were a motley +rabble from the neighboring city of Avignon, who converted the place +consecrated to the worship of the Almighty into a charnel-house, in +which eight hundred bodies lay slain, without respect of age or +sex.[494] + +In the blood of a thousand human beings D'Oppede had washed out a +fancied affront received at the hands of the inhabitants of Cabrieres. +The private rancor of a relative induced him to visit a similar revenge +on La Coste, where a fresh field was opened for the perfidy, lust, and +greed of the soldiery. The peasants were promised by their feudal lord +perfect security, on condition that they brought their arms into the +castle and broke down four portions of their wall. Too implicit reliance +was placed in a nobleman's word, and the terms were accepted. But when +D'Oppede arrived, a murderous work began. The suburbs were burned, the +town was taken, the citizens for the most part were butchered, the +married women and girls were alike surrendered to the brutality of the +soldiers.[495] + +[Sidenote: The results.] + +For more than seven weeks the pillage continued.[496] Twenty-two towns +and villages were utterly destroyed. The soldiers, glutted with blood +and rapine, were withdrawn from the scene of their infamous excesses. +Most of the Waldenses who had escaped sword, famine, and exposure, +gradually returned to the familiar sites, and established themselves +anew, maintaining their ancient faith.[497] But multitudes had perished +of hunger,[498] while others, rejoicing that they had found abroad a +toleration denied them at home, renounced their native land, and settled +upon the territory generously conceded to them in Switzerland.[499] In +one way or another, France had become poorer by the loss of several +thousands persons of its most industrious class.[500] + +[Sidenote: The king led to give his approval.] + +The very agents in the massacre were appalled at the havoc they had +made. Fearing, with reason, the punishment of their crime, if viewed in +its proper light,[501] they endeavored to veil it with the forms of a +judicial proceeding. A commission was appointed to try the heretics whom +the sword had spared. A part were sentenced to the galleys, others to +heavy fines. A few of the tenants of M. de Cental are said to have +purchased reconciliation by abjuring their faith.[502] But, to conceal +the truth still more effectually, President De la Fond was sent to +Paris. He assured Francis that the sufferers had been guilty of the +basest crimes, that they had been judicially tried and found guilty, and +that their punishment was really below the desert of their +offences.[503] Upon these representations, the king was induced--it was +supposed by the solicitation of Cardinal Tournon--to grant letters (at +Arques, on the eighteenth of August, 1545) approving the execution of +the Waldenses, but recommending to mercy all that repented and +abjured.[504] + +[Sidenote: An investigation subsequently ordered.] + +Thus did the authors of so much human suffering escape merited +retribution at the hands of earthly justice during the brief remainder +of the reign of Francis the First. If, as some historians have asserted, +that monarch's eyes were at last opened to the enormities committed in +Provence, it was too late for him to do more than enjoin on his son and +successor a careful review of the entire proceedings.[505] After the +death of Francis an opportunity for obtaining redress seemed to offer. +Cardinal Tournon and Count De Grignan were in disgrace, and their places +in the royal favor were held by men who hated them heartily. The new +favorites used their influence to secure the Waldenses a hearing. +D'Oppede and the four commissioners were summoned to Paris. Count De +Grignan himself barely escaped being put on trial--as responsible for +the misdeeds of his lieutenant--by securing the advocacy of the Duke of +Guise, which he purchased with the sacrifice of his domains at Grignan. +For fifty days the trial of the other criminals was warmly prosecuted +before the Parliament of Paris; and so ably and lucidly did Auberi +present the claims of the oppressed before the crowded assembly, that a +severe verdict was confidently awaited. + +[Sidenote: Meagre effect.] + +The public expectation, however, was doomed to disappointment. Only one +of the accused, the advocate Guerin, being so unfortunate as to possess +no great influence at court, was condemned to the gallows. D'Oppede +escaped with De Grignan, through the protection of the Duke of Guise, +and, like his fellow-defendants, was reinstated in office.[506] For the +rendering of a decision so flagrantly unjust the true cause must be +sought in the sanguinary character of the Parisian judges themselves, +who, while they were reluctant, on the one hand, to derogate from the +credit of another parliament of France, on the other, feared lest, in +condemning the persecuting rage of others, they might seem to be passing +sentence upon themselves for the uniform course of cruelty they had +pursued in the trial of the reformers.[507] + +The oppressed and persecuted of all ages have been ready, not without +reason, to recognize in signal disasters befalling their enemies the +retributive hand of the Almighty himself lifting for a moment the veil +of futurity, to disclose a little of the misery that awaits the +evil-doer in another world. But, in the present instance, it is a candid +historian of different faith who does not hesitate to ascribe to a +special interposition of the Deity the excruciating sufferings and death +which, not long after his acquittal, overtook Baron d'Oppede, the chief +actor in the mournful tragedy we have been recounting.[508] + +[Sidenote: New persecution at Meaux.] + +The ashes of Merindol and Cabrieres were scarcely cold, before in a +distant part of France the flame of persecution broke out with fresh +energy.[509] The city of Meaux, where, under the evangelical preachers +introduced by Bishop Briconnet, the Reformation had made such auspicious +progress, had never been thoroughly reduced to submission to papal +authority. "The Lutherans of Meaux" had passed into a proverb. +Persecuted, they retained their devotion to their new faith; compelled +to observe strict secrecy, they multiplied to such a degree that their +numbers could no longer be concealed. Twenty years after their +destruction had been resolved upon, the necessity of a regular church +organization made itself felt by the growing congregations. Some of the +members had visited the church of Strasbourg, to which John Calvin had, +a few years before, given an orderly system of government and +worship--the model followed by many Protestant churches of subsequent +formation. On their return a similar polity was established in Meaux. A +simple wool-carder, Pierre Leclerc, brother of one of the first martyrs +of Protestant France, was called from the humble pursuits of the artisan +to the responsible post of pastor. He was no scholar in the usual +acceptation of the term; he knew only his mother-tongue. But his +judgment was sound, his piety fervent, his familiarity with the Holy +Scriptures singularly great. So fruitful were his labors, that the +handful of hearers grew into assemblies often of several hundreds, drawn +to Meaux from villages five or six leagues distant. + +[Sidenote: A woman's pointed remark.] + +[Sidenote: A favorite psalm.] + +Betrayed by their size, the conventicles came to the knowledge of the +magistrates, and on the eighth of September, 1546, a descent was made +upon the worshipping Christians. Sixty-two persons composed the +gathering. The lieutenant and provost of the city, with their meagre +suite, could easily have been set at defiance. But the announcement of +arrest in the king's name prevented any attempt either at resistance on +their part, or at rescue on that of their friends. Respecting the +authority of law, the Protestants allowed themselves to be bound and led +away by an insignificant detachment of officers. Only the pointed remark +of one young woman to the lieutenant, as she was bound, has come down to +us: "Sir, had you found me in a brothel, as you now find me in so holy +and honorable a company, you would not have used me thus." As the +prisoners passed through the streets of Meaux, their friends neither +interfered with the ministers of justice, nor exhibited solicitude for +their own safety; but accompanying them, as in a triumphal procession, +loudly gave expression to their trust in God, by raising one of their +favorite psalms, in Clement Marot's translation:[510] + + Les gens entrez sont en ton heritage: + Ils ont pollu, Seigneur, par leur outrage, + Ton temple sainct, Jerusalem destruite, + Si qu'en monceaux de pierres, l'on reduite. + +It was neither the first time, nor was it destined to be by any means +the last, that those rugged, but nervous lines thrilled the souls of the +persecuted Huguenots of France as with the sound of a trumpet, and +braced them to the patient endurance of suffering or to the performance +of deeds of valor. + +[Sidenote: The "Fourteen of Meaux."] + +Dragged with excessive and unnecessary violence to Paris, the prisoners +were put on trial, and, within a single month, sentence was passed on +them. The crime of having celebrated the Lord's Supper was almost +inexpiable. Fourteen men, with Leclerc their minister, and Etienne +Mangin, in whose house their worship had been held, were condemned to +torture and the stake; others to whipping and banishment; the remainder, +both men and women, to public penance and attendance upon the execution +of their more prominent brethren. Upon one young man, whose tender years +alone saved him from the flames, a sentence of a somewhat whimsical +character was pronounced. He was to be suspended under the arms during +the auto-da-fe of his brethren, and, with a halter around his neck, was +from his elevated position to witness their agony, as an instructive +warning of the dangerous consequence of persistence in heretical errors. +Mangin's house was to be razed, and on the site a chapel of the Virgin +erected, wherein a solemn weekly mass was to be celebrated in honor of +the sacramental wafer, the expense being defrayed by the confiscated +property of the Protestants. + +Neither in the monasteries to which they were temporarily allotted, nor +on their way back to Meaux, did the courage of the "Fourteen" desert +them. It was even enhanced by the boldness of a weaver, who, meeting +them in the forest of Livry, cried out: "My brethren, be of good cheer, +and fail not through weariness to give with constancy the testimony you +owe the Gospel. Remember Him who is on high in heaven!"[511] + +[Sidenote: Their execution.] + +On the seventh of October, Mangin and Leclerc on hurdles, the others on +carts, were taken to the market-square, where fourteen stakes had been +set up in a circle. Here, facing one another, amid the agonies of death, +and in spite of the din made by priests and populace frantically +intoning the hymns "_O salutaris hostia_" and "_Salve Regina_" they +continued till their last breath to animate each other and to praise the +Almighty Giver of every blessing. But if the humane heart recoils with +horror from the very thought of the bloody holocaust, the scene of the +morrow inspires even greater disgust; when Picard, a doctor of the +Sorbonne, standing beneath a canopy glittering with gold, near the yet +smoking embers, assured the people that it was essential to salvation to +believe that the "Fourteen" were condemned to the lowest abyss of hell, +and that even the word of an angel from heaven ought not to be credited, +if he maintained the contrary. "For," said he, "God would not be God did +He not consign them to everlasting damnation." Upon which charitable and +pious assertions of the learned theologian the Protestant chronicler had +but a simple observation to make: "However, he could not persuade those +who knew them to be excellent men, and upright in their lives, that this +was so. Consequently the seed of the truth was not destroyed in the city +of Meaux."[512] + +[Sidenote: Wider diffusion of the reformed doctrines.] + +Far from witnessing the extinction of the Reformation in his dominions, +the last year of the life of Francis the First was signalized by its +wider diffusion. At Senlis, at Orleans, and at Fere, near Soissons, +fugitives from Meaux planted the germs of new religious communities. +Fresh fires were kindled to destroy them; and in one place a preacher +was burned in a novel fashion, with a pack of books upon his back.[513] +Lyons and Langres, in the east, received reformed teachers about the +same time; although from the latter place the pastor and four members of +his flock were carried to the capital and perished at the stake. Even +Sens, see of the primate, contributed its portion of witnesses for the +Gospel, who sealed their testimony in their blood.[514] + +[Sidenote: The printer, Jean Chapot, before parliament.] + +In Paris itself parliament tried a native of Dauphiny, Jean Chapot, who, +having brought several packages of books from Geneva, had been denounced +by a brother printer. His defence was so apt and learned that the judges +were nearly shaken by his animated appeals. It fared ill with three +doctors of the Sorbonne, Dean Nicholas Clerici, and his assistants, +Picard and Maillard, who were called in to refute him; for they could +not stand their ground, and were forced, avoiding proofs from the Holy +Scriptures, to have recourse to the authority of the church. In the end +the theologians covered their retreat with indignant remonstrances +addressed to parliament for listening to such seductive speakers; and +the majority of the judges, mastering their first inclination to acquit +Chapot, condemned him to the stake, reserving for him the easier death +by strangling, in case he recanted. An unusual favor was allowed him. He +was permitted to make a short speech previously to his execution. Faint +and utterly unable to stand, in consequence of the tortures by which his +body had been racked, he was supported on either side by an attendant, +and thus from the funeral cart explained his belief to the by-standers. +But when he reached the topic of the Lord's Supper, he was interrupted +by one of the priests. The milder sentence of the halter was inflicted, +in order to create the impression that he had been so weak as to repeat +the "_Ave Maria_." But the practice henceforth uniformly followed by the +"_Chambre ardente_" of parliament, of cutting out the tongues of the +condemned before sending them to public execution, confirmed the report +that Maillard had exclaimed that "all would be lost, if such men were +suffered to speak to the people."[515] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 449: This was true particularly of the wealthy noble family to +whom belonged the fief of Cental, perhaps at a somewhat later date. +Among the Waldensian villages owned by it were those of La Motte +d'Aigues, St. Martin, Lourmarin, Peypin, and others in the same +vicinity. Bouche, Histoire de Provence, i. 610.] + +[Footnote 450: Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta (Geneva, 1560), fols. 88, +90, 100.] + +[Footnote 451: Ibid., _ubi supra_, fol. 100; Garnier, Histoire de +France, xxvi. 27.] + +[Footnote 452: Leber, Collection de pieces rel. a l'hist. de France, +xvii. 550.] + +[Footnote 453: The Comtat Venaissin was not reincorporated in the French +monarchy until 1663. Louis XIV., in revenge for the insult offered him +when, on the twentieth of August of the preceding year, his ambassador +to the Holy See was shot at by the pontifical troops, and some of his +suite killed and wounded, ordered the Parliament of Aix to re-examine +the title by which the Pope held Avignon and the Comtat. The parliament +cited the pontiff, and, when he failed to appear, loyally declared his +title unsound, and, under the lead of their first president (another +Meynier, Baron d'Oppede), proceeded at once to execute sentence by force +of arms, and oust the surprised vice-legate. No resistance was +attempted. Meynier was the first to render homage to the king for his +barony; and the people of Avignon, according to the admission of the +devout historian of Provence, celebrated their independence of the Pope +and reunion to France by Te Deums and a thousand cries of joy and +thanksgiving to Almighty God. Bouche, Histoire de Provence, ii. (Add.) +1068-1071.] + +[Footnote 454: "Ministri, quos _Barbas_ eorum idiomate id est, +_avunculos_, vocabant." Crespin, fol. 88.] + +[Footnote 455: The Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 22, while admitting that +the Vaudois "had never adhered to papal superstition," asserts that "par +longue succession de temps, la purete de la doctrine s'estoit grandement +abastardie." From the letter of Morel and Masson to Oecolampadius, it +appears that, in consequence of their subject condition, they had formed +no church organization. Their _Barbes_, who were carefully selected and +ordained only after long probation, could not marry. They were sent out +two by two, the younger owing implicit obedience to the elder. Every +part of the extensive territory over which their communities were +scattered was visited at least once a year. Pastors, unless aged, +remained no longer than three years in one place. While supported in +part by the laity, they were compelled to engage in manual labor to such +an extent as to interfere much with their spiritual office and preclude +the study that was desirable. The most objectionable feature in their +practice was that they did not themselves administer the Lord's Supper, +but, while recommending to their flock to discard the superstitions +environing the mass, enjoined upon them the reception of the eucharist +at the hands of those whom they themselves regarded as the "members of +Antichrist." Oecolampadius, while approving their confession of faith +and the chief points of their polity, strenuously exhorted them to +renounce all hypocritical conformity with the Roman Church, induced by +fear of persecution, and strongly urged them to put an end to the +celibacy and itinerancy of their clergy, and to discontinue the +"sisterhoods" that had arisen among them. The important letters of the +Waldensee delegates and of Oecolampadius are printed in Gerdes., Hist. +Evang. Renov., ii. 402-418. An interesting account of the mission is +given by Hagenbach, Johann Oekolampad und Oswald Myconius, 150, 151.] + +[Footnote 456: Crespin, fol. 89; Hist. eccles., i. 22; Herminjard, iii. +66.] + +[Footnote 457: Printed at Neufchatel, by the famous Pierre de Wringle, +_dit_ Pirot Picard; completed, according to the colophon, June 4, 1535. +The Waldenses having determined upon its publication at the Synod of +Angrogna, in 1532, collected the sum, enormous for them, of 500 (others +say 1,500) gold crowns. Adam (Antoine Saunier) to Farel, Nov. 5, 1532, +Herminjard, ii. 452. Monastier, Hist. de l'eglise vaudoise, i. 212. The +part taken by the Waldenses in this publication is attested beyond +dispute by ten lines of rather indifferent poetry, in the form of an +address to the reader, at the close of the volume: + + "Lecteur entendz, si Verite addresse, + Viens done ouyr instamment sa promesse + Et vif parler: lequel en excellence + Veult asseurer nostre grelle esperance. + L'esprit Jesus qui visite et ordonne. + Noz tendres meurs, icy sans cry estonne + Tout hault raillart escumant son ordure. + Remercions eternelle nature, + Prenons vouloir bienfaire librement, + Jesus querons veoir eternellement." + +Taking the first letter of each successive word, we obtain the lines: + + "_Les Vaudois, peuple evangelique + Ont mis ce thresor en publique_." + +See L. Vulliemin, Le Chroniqueur, Recueil historique (Lausanne, 1836), +103, etc. Bulletin de l'hist. du prot. francais, i. 82.] + +[Footnote 458: "D'un commun accord," says an able critic, "on a mis +Calvin a la tete de tous nos ecrivains en prose; personne n'a songe a +meconnaitre les obligations que lui a notre langue. D'ou vient qu'on a +ete moins juste envers Robert Olivetan, tandis qu'a y regarder de pres, +il y a tout lieu de croire que sa part a ete au moins egale a celle de +Calvin dans la reformation de la langue? L'_Institution_ de Calvin a eu +un tres-grand nombre de lecteurs; mais il n'est pas probable qu'elle ait +ete lue et relue comme la _Bible_ d'Olivetan." Le Semeur, iv. (1835), +167. By successive revisions this Bible became that of Martin, of +Osterwald, etc.] + +[Footnote 459: Sleidan (Fr. trans. of Courrayer), ii. 251, who remarks +of this charge of rebellion, "C'est l'accusation qu'on intente +maintenant le plus communement, et qui a quelque chose de plus odieux +que veritable."] + +[Footnote 460: Professor Jean Montaigne, writing from Avignon, as early +as May 6, 1533, said: "Valdenses, qui Lutheri sectam jamdiu sequuntur +istic male tractantur. _Plures jam vivi combusti fuerunt, et quotidie +capiuntur aliqui_; sunt enim, ut fertur, illius sectae plus quam _sex +millia_ hominum. Impingitur eis quod non credant _purgatorium_ esse, +quod non orent _Sanctos_, imo dicant non esse orandos, teneant _decimas_ +non esse solvendas presbyteris, et alia quaedam id genus. _Propter quae +sola vivos comburunt, bona publicant._" Basle MS., Herminjard, iii. 45.] + +[Footnote 461: Crespin and the Hist. eccles. place De Roma's exploits +_before_, De Thou relates them _after_ the massacre. As to the +surpassing and shameless immorality of the ecclesiastics of Avignon, it +is quite sufficient to refer to Crespin, ubi supra, fol. 97, etc., and +to the autobiography of Francois Lambert, who is a good witness, as he +had himself been an inmate of a monastery in that city.] + +[Footnote 462: Crespin, fol. 103, b.] + +[Footnote 463: The Parliament of Provence, with its seat at Aix, was +instituted in 1501, and was consequently posterior in date and inferior +in dignity to the parliaments of Paris, Toulouse, Grenoble, Bordeaux, +Dijon, and Rouen.] + +[Footnote 464: By royal letters of July 16, 1535, and May 31, 1536. +Histoire eccles., i. 23.] + +[Footnote 465: There is even greater discrepancy than usual between the +different authorities respecting the number of Waldenses cited and +subsequently condemned to the stake. Crespin, fol. 90, gives the _names_ +of _ten_, the royal letters of 1549 state the number as _fourteen_ or +_fifteen_, the Histoire ecclesiastique as _fifteen_ or _sixteen_. M. +Nicolai (Leber, Coll. de pieces rel. a l'hist. de France, viii. 552) +raises it to nineteen, which seems to be correct.] + +[Footnote 466: Histoire eccles., i. 23; Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta, +fol. 90; De Thou, i. 536; Nicolai, _ubi supra_; Recueil des anc. lois +francaises, xii. 698. See the _arret_ in Bouche, Hist. de Provence, _ubi +supra_. The last-mentioned author, while admitting the proceedings of +the Parliament of Aix to be apparently "somewhat too violent," excuses +them on the ground that the Waldenses deserved this punishment, "non +tant par leurs insolences et impietez cy-devant commises, mais _pour +leur obstination a ne vouloir changer de religion_;" and cites, in +exculpation of the parliament, the "bloody order of Gastaldo," in +consequence of which, in 1655, fire, sword, and rapine were carried into +the peaceful valley of Luserna (ibid., 615, 623)! The massacre of the +unhappy Italian Waldenses thus becomes a capital vindication of the +barbarities inflicted a century before upon their French brethren.] + +[Footnote 467: See the remark of M. Nicolai (Leber, Coll. de pieces rel. +a l'hist. de France, viii. 556).] + +[Footnote 468: Crespin (fols. 91-94) gives an interesting report of some +discussions of the kind. It may be remarked that the Archbishop of Aix, +who was the prime mover in the persecution, had exposed himself to +unusual censure on the score of irregularity of life.] + +[Footnote 469: The remark is ascribed to Chassanee: "itaque decretum +ipsi tale fecissent, eo consilio factum potius, ut Lutheranis, quorum +multitudinem augeri quotidie intelligebant, metus incuteretur, quam ut +revera id efficeretur quod ipsius decreti capitibus continebatur." +Crespin, _ubi supra_, fol. 98.] + +[Footnote 470: Crespin, _ubi supra_, fol. 100.] + +[Footnote 471: The ludicrous story of the "mice of Autun," which thus +obtains a historic importance, had been told by Chassanee himself. It +appears that on a certain occasion the diocese of Autun was visited with +the plague of an excessive multiplication of mice. Ordinary means of +stopping their ravages having failed, the vicar of the bishop was +requested to excommunicate them. But the ecclesiastical decree was +supposed to be most effective when the regular forms of a judicial trial +were duly observed. An advocate for the marauders was therefore +appointed--no other than Chassanee himself; who, espousing with +professional ardor the interests of his quadrupedal clients, began by +insisting that a summons should be served in each parish; next, excused +the non-appearance of the defendants by alleging the dangers of the +journey by reason of the lying-in-wait of their enemies, the cats; and +finally, appealing to the compassion of the court in behalf of a race +doomed to wholesale destruction, acquitted himself so successfully of +his fantastic commission, that the mice escaped the censures of the +church, and their advocate gained universal applause! See Crespin, fol. +99; De Thou, i. 536, Gamier, xxvi. 29, etc. Crespin, writing at least as +early as 1560, speaks of the incident as being related in Chassanee's +_Catalogus Gloriae Mundi_; but I have been unable to find any reference +to it in that singular medley.] + +[Footnote 472: De Thou, i. 539.] + +[Footnote 473: This striking incident is not noticed in the well-known +Memoirs of Du Bellay, written by his brother. The reader will agree with +me in considering it one of the most creditable in Du Bellay's eventful +life. Calvin relates it in two letters to Farel, published by Bonnet +(Calvin's Letters, i. 162, 163-165). The reformer had had it from Du +Bellay's own lips at Strasbourg, and had perused the letter in which the +latter threw up his alliance with Montmian, and stigmatized the baseness +of his conduct.] + +[Footnote 474: De Thou, i. 539; Crespin, _ubi supra_, fols. 100, +101.--Historians have noticed the remarkable points of similarity this +report presents to that made by the younger Pliny to the Emperor Trajan +regarding the primitive Christians. Plinii Epistolae, x. 96, etc.] + +[Footnote 475: Calvin's Letters (Bonnet), i. 228, 229. Strange to say, +even M. Nicolai, otherwise very fair, credits one of these absurd rumors +(Leber, _ubi supra_, xvii. 557). While the inhabitants of Merindol +entered into negotiations, it is stated that those of Cabrieres, +subjects of the Pope, took up arms. Twice they repulsed the +vice-legate's forces, driving them back to the walls of Avignon and +Cavaillon. Flushed with success, they began to preach openly, to +overturn altars, and to plunder churches. The Pope, therefore, Dec., +1543, called on Count De Grignan for assistance in exterminating the +rebels. But the incidents here told conflict with the undeniable facts +of Cardinal Sadolet's intercession for, and peaceable relations with the +inhabitants of Cabrieres in 1541 and 1542; as well as with the royal +letters of March 17, 1549 (1550 New Style), and the report of Du Bellay. +Bouche, on the weak authority of _Meynier_, De la guerre civile, gives +similar statements of excesses, ii. 611, 612.] + +[Footnote 476: Hist. eccles., i. 24; Crespin, fol. 101; De Thou, i. 539; +Bouche, ii. 612. The last asserts that this unconditional pardon was +renewed by successive royal letters, dated March 17, 1543, and June 14, +1544; but that in those of Lyons, 1542, the king had meanwhile, at +Cardinal Tournon's instigation, exhorted the Archbishop and Parliament +of Aix to renewed activity in proceeding against the heretics. Ibid, ii. +612-614.] + +[Footnote 477: Given in full by Crespin, _ubi supra_, fols. 104-110, and +by Gerdes., Hist. Reform., iv. 87-99; in its brief form, as originally +composed in French to be laid before the Parliament of Provence, in +Bulletin de l'hist. du prot. francais, viii. 508, 509. Several articles +were added when it was laid before Sadolet. Crespin, fol. 110.] + +[Footnote 478: De Thou, i. 540; Crespin, fol. 110.] + +[Footnote 479: Crespin, fols. 110, 111.] + +[Footnote 480: Ibid., fol. 110.] + +[Footnote 481: May 23, 1541. Bretschneider, Corpus Reform., iv. 325-328; +Gerdes., iv. (Doc). 100,101. But when the Germans intervened later in +behalf of the few remnants of the dispersed Waldenses, they received a +decided rebuff: "Il leur repondit assez brusquement, qu'il ne se meloit +pas de leurs affaires, et qu'ils ne devoient pas entrer non plus dans +les siennes, ni s'embarrasser de ce qu'il faisoit dans ses Etats, et de +quelle maniere il jugeoit a propos de chatier ses sujets coupables." De +Thou, i. 541.] + +[Footnote 482: Hist. eccles., i. 27, 28; Crespin, fol. 114.] + +[Footnote 483: Vesembec, _apud_ Perrin, History of the Old Waldenses +(1712), xii. 59; Garnier, xxvi. 23.] + +[Footnote 484: Henry II.'s letters of March 17, 1549, summoning Meynier +and his accomplices to the bar of the Parliament of Paris, state +distinctly the motives of the perpetrators of the massacre, as alleged +by the Waldenses in their appeal to Francis I.: "Auquel ils firent +entendre, qu'ils etaient journellement travailles et molestes par les +_eveques_ du pays et par les _presidens_ et _conseillers_ de notre +parlement de Provence, qui _avaient demande leurs confiscations et +terres pour leurs parens_," etc. Hist. eccles., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 485: "Sur ce que l'on auroit fait entendre audit feu Seigneur +Roi, qu'ils etaient en armes en grande assemblee, forcant villes et +chateaux, eximant les prisonniers des prisons," etc. Letters Patent of +Henry II., _ubi supra_, i. 46; also, i. 28; De Thou, i. 541. +Notwithstanding the evident falsity of these assertions of Courtain, the +parliament's messenger, writers of such easy consciences as Maimbourg +(Hist. du calvinisme, liv. ii. 83) and Freschot (Origine, progressi e +ruina del Calvinismo nella Francia, di D. Casimiro Freschot, Parma, +1693, p. 34) are not ashamed to endorse them. Freschot says: "_Nello +stesso tempo_ che mandavano a Parigi le loro proposizioni, travagliavano +ad accrescere le loro forze, non che ad assicurare il proprio Stato. Per +il che conseguire avendo praticato alcune intelligenze nella citta di +Marsiglia, s'avanzarono sin' al numero di sedici mila per +impossessarsene," etc. The assertions of so ignorant a writer as +Freschot shows himself to be, scarcely require refutation. See, however, +Le Courrayer, following Bayle, note to Sleidan, ii. 256. The impartial +Roman Catholic continuation of the Eccles. Hist. of the Abbe Fleury, +xxviii. 540, gives no credit to these calumnies.] + +[Footnote 486: The substance of the royal order of January 1, 1545, is +given in the Letters-Patent of Henry II., dated Montereau, March 17, +1549 (1550, New Style), which constitute our best authority: "Le feu dit +Seigneur permit d'executer les arrets donnes contre eux, revoquant +lesdites lettres d'evocation, pour le regard des recidifs non ayant +abjure, et ordonna que tous ceux qui se trouveraient charges et +coupables d'heresie et secte Vaudoise, fussent extermines," etc. Hist. +eccles., i. 46.] + +[Footnote 487: The names are preserved: they were the second president, +Francois de la Fond; two counsellors, Honore de Tributiis and Bernard +Badet; and an advocate, Guerin, acting in the absence of the "Procureur +general." Letters-Patent of Henry II., _ubi supra_; De Thou, i. 541; +Hist. eccles., i. 28.] + +[Footnote 488: De Thou, _ubi supra_; Sleidan, Hist. de la reformation +(Fr. trans. of Le Courrayer), ii. 252.] + +[Footnote 489: The fleet carrying these troops, consisting of +twenty-five galleys, was under the joint command of Poulin, Poulain, or +Polin--afterward prominent in military affairs, under the name of Baron +de la Garde--and of the Chevalier d'Aulps. Bouche, ii. 601. The Baron de +la Garde is made the object of a special notice by Brantome.] + +[Footnote 490: Crespin, fol. 115. Sleidan and De Thou give a similar +incident as befalling fugitives from Merindol. Garnier, alluding to the +absence of any attempt at self-defence on the part of the Waldenses, +pertinently remarks: "On put connoitre alors la faussete et la noirceur +des bruits que l'on avoit affecte de repandre sur leurs preparatifs de +guerre: _pas un ne songea a se mettre en defense_: des cris aigus et +lamentables portes dans un moment de villages en villages, avertirent +ceux qui vouloient sauver leur vie de fuir promptement du cote des +montagnes." Hist. de France, xxvi. 33.] + +[Footnote 491: So say the Letters-Patent of Henry II.: "Furent faites +defenses a son de trompe tant par autorite dudit Menier, que dudit de la +Fond, de non bailler a boire et manger aux Vaudois, sans savoir qui ils +etaient; et ce sur peine de la corde." Hist. eccles., i. 47; Crespin, +fol. 115.] + +[Footnote 492: Crespin, and Hist. eccles., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 493: Many, overtaken in their flight, were slain by the sword, +or sent to the galleys, and about twenty-five, having taken refuge in a +cavern near Mus, were stifled by a fire purposely kindled at its mouth. +Sleidan, ii. 255.] + +[Footnote 494: Hist. eccles., i. 29; Crespin, fol. 116; De Thou, _ubi +supra_; Sleidan, ii. 254. The deposition of Antoine d'Alagonia, Sieur de +Vaucler, a Roman Catholic who was present and took an active part in the +enterprise (Bouche, ii. 616-619), is evidently framed expressly to +exculpate D'Oppede and his companions, and conflicts too much with +well-established facts to contribute anything to the true history of the +capture of Cabrieres.] + +[Footnote 495: De Thou, i. 543; Sleidan, ii. 255. Of the affair at La +Coste, the Letters-Patent of Henry II. say: "Au lieu de La Coste y +auroit eu plusieurs hommes tues, femmes et filles forcees jusques au +nombre de vingt-cinq dedans une grange." _Ubi supra_, i. 47.] + +[Footnote 496: "Et infinis pillages etaient faits par l'espace de plus +de sept semaines." Ibid, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 497: Hist. eccles., i. 30.] + +[Footnote 498: Letters-Patent of Henry II., _ubi sup._] + +[Footnote 499: At Geneva the fugitives were treated with great kindness. +Calvin was deputed by the Council of the Republic, in company with +Farel, to raise contributions for them throughout Switzerland. Reg. of +Council, May, 1545, _apud_ Gaberel, Hist. de l'eglise de Geneve, i. 439. +Nine years later the council granted a lease of some uncultivated lands +near Geneva to 700 of these Waldenses. The descendants of the former +residents of Merindol and Cabrieres are to be found among the +inhabitants of Peney and Jussy. Reg. of Council, May, 10, 1554, Gaberel, +i. 440.] + +[Footnote 500: Bouche, ii. 620, states, as the results of the +investigations of Auberi, advocate for the Waldenses, that about 3,000 +men, women and children were killed, 666 sent to the galleys, of whom +200 shortly died, and 900 houses burned in 24 villages of Provence.] + +[Footnote 501: Francis I., on complaint of Madame De Cental, whose son +had lost an annual revenue of 12,000 florins by the ruin of his +villages, had, June 10, 1545, called upon the Parliament of Aix to send +full minutes of its proceedings. Bouche, ii. 620, 621.] + +[Footnote 502: De Thou, i. 544.] + +[Footnote 503: "Et sachant que la plainte en etait venue jusqu'a [notre] +dit feu pere, auraient envoye ledit De la Fond devers lui, lequel ... +aurait obtenu lettres donnees a Arques, le 18me jour d'aout 1545, +approuvant paisiblement ladite execution; n'ayant toutefois fait +entendre a notre dit feu pere la verite du fait; mais suppose par +icelles lettres que tous les habitane des villes brulees etaient connus +et juges heretiques et Vaudois." Letters-Patent of Henry II., _ubi +supra_, i. 47; De Thou, i. 544.] + +[Footnote 504: Letters-Patent of Henry II., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 505: De Thou, i. 544; Hist. eccles., i. 30. It is worthy of +notice, however, that the letters of Henry II., from which we have so +often drawn, and which would naturally have alluded to this incident, +are silent in regard to the supposed change of view on Francis's part.] + +[Footnote 506: De Thou, i. 545. Care was even taken to state that Guerin +was punished for a different crime--that of forging papers to clear +himself from accusations of malfeasance in other official duties than +those in which the Waldenses were concerned, and which came to light in +consequence of a quarrel between D'Oppede and himself. Garnier, xxvi. +40; Bouche, ii. 622. The leniency with which D'Oppede was treated may be +accounted for in part, perhaps, by the fact that the Pope addressed +Henry II. a very pressing letter in his behalf, as "persecuted in +consequence of his zeal for religion." Martin, Hist. de France, ix. +480.] + +[Footnote 507: "Mais, craignant ceux d'entre les juges qui n'etaient pas +moins cruels et sanguinaires en leurs coeurs que les criminels qu'ils +devaient juger, qu'en les condamnant ils ne vinssent a rompre le cours +des jugemens qu'euxmemes prononcaient tous les jours en pareilles cause, +et voulant aussi sauver l'honneur d'un autre parlement," etc. Hist. +eccles., i. 50.] + +[Footnote 508: "Mais il fut saisi pen apres d'une douleur si excessive +dans les intestins, qu'il rendit son ame cruelle au milieu des plus +affreux tourmens; Dieu prenant soin lui-meme de lui imposer le chatiment +auquel ses juges ne l'avoient pas condamne, et qui, pour avoir ete un +peu tardif, n'en fut que plus rigoureux." De Thou, i. 545. See a more +detailed account of his death, and the exhortations of a pious surgeon, +Lamotte, of Aries, in Crespin, fol. 117. Other instances in Hist. +ecclesiastique.] + +[Footnote 509: The story of the martyrdom of the "Fourteen of Meaux" is +told in detail by Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta, fols. 117-121, and the +Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 31-33.] + +[Footnote 510: Ps. 79. I quote, with the quaint old spelling, from a +Geneva edition of 1638, in my possession, which preserves unchanged the +original words and the grand music with which the words were so +intimately associated.] + +[Footnote 511: The hero of this action was of course arrested. Crespin, +fol. 120.] + +[Footnote 512: Hist. eccles., i. 33; Crespin, fol. 121.] + +[Footnote 513: Hist. eccles., i. 33-35.] + +[Footnote 514: Ibid., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 515: Hist. eccles., i. 34. Occasionally, instead of cutting +out the tongue of the "Lutheran," a large iron ball was forced into his +mouth, an equally effective means of preventing distinct utterance. This +was done to two converted monks, degraded and burned in Saintonge, in +August, 1546. A. Crottet, Hist. des eglises ref. de Pons, Gemozac et +Mortagne, 212.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HENRY THE SECOND, AND THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANT +CHURCHES. + + +[Sidenote: Death of Francis I.] + +[Sidenote: Impartial estimates of his character.] + +On the thirty-first of March, 1547, Francis the First died, leaving the +throne to his only surviving son. With whatever assiduity the poets and +scholars of whom the late king had been a munificent patron, and the +courtiers who had basked in the sunshine of his favor, might apply +themselves to the celebration of his resplendent merits, posterity, less +blind to his faults, has declined to confirm the title of "great" +affixed to his name by contemporaries. The candid historian, undazzled +by the glitter of his chivalric enterprises, may condemn the animus, but +can scarcely deny the substantial truth of the bitter reproaches in +which the Emperor Charles the Fifth indulged, respecting the uniform +faithlessness of his ancient rival.[516] Much less can he pardon the +cruel persecution which Francis allowed to be exercised against an +unoffending part of his subjects, less from zeal for the tenets of the +church whose cause he espoused than from a selfish fear lest his +prerogative might be impaired. + +[Sidenote: His three sons.] + +[Sidenote: Henry, Duke of Orleans.] + +[Sidenote: Character of the new king.] + +Of the three sons of Francis, the dauphin and his youngest brother, the +Duke of Angouleme, had been snatched away by death during the lifetime +of their father.[517] The Duke of Orleans, who now ascended the throne +as Henry the Second, was not a favorite son.[518] More than once he had +incurred his father's grave displeasure by insubordination. A mad +frolic, in which the young prince undertook in sport to distribute the +high offices of state, as if his father were already dead, and disclosed +his intention to recall to power the monarch's disgraced courtiers, +occasioned a serious breach. More important consequences might have +flowed from the unfortunate incident, had not the youth and the giddy +companions of his revel sought safety in temporary exile from +court.[519] From his father Henry inherited great bodily vigor, and +remarkable skill in all games of strength and agility. His frame, +naturally well proportioned, was finely developed by exercise.[520] He +was accounted the fleetest runner, and the most graceful rider in +France. He rarely suffered a day to pass without playing ball, not +unfrequently after having hunted down a stag or two. In the more +dangerous pastimes of mock combat and jousting he delighted to engage, +to the no small alarm of all spectators.[521] Unfortunately, however, +the intellectual and moral development of the young prince had by no +means kept pace with the growth of his physical powers. The sluggishness +of his dull and unready comprehension had, at an earlier date, been +noticed by the Venetian Marino Cavalli, while, with a courtier's +flattery, he likened him to those autumnal fruits that are more tardy in +ripening, but are of better quality and last longer than the fruits of +summer.[522] Although he had reached the age of twenty-eight years on +the very day of his accession, he was still a child in all that +respected the serious concerns of life and the duties of his elevated +position. Averse to that careful deliberation which the public affairs +demanded, and willing to be led by those who would _think_ for him, it +immediately became evident that he was destined to be the mere image of +a king, while the powers of royalty were to be enjoyed by his trusted +advisers and by those who could minister to his immoderate love of +pleasure. The issue abundantly proved the truth of the assertion that +his reign ought rather to be called the reign of Diana of Poitiers, of +Montmorency, and of the Cardinal of Lorraine; of whom the last, it was +said, had the king's conscience in his sleeve, and the first his body, +as by some species of sorcery.[523] + +[Sidenote: Wotton's view of the French court.] + +Scarcely had Francis breathed his last when shrewd observers of the +current of political influence were able to make up their minds pretty +fully upon the favorites that were to rule under Henry's name. "The +French king, straight after his father's death," wrote Dr. Wotton, "hath +revoked the _Constable_ to the court again; who is now in as great +triumph (as men say) as ever he was, if it be not more.... Of the +younger sort of those that are at the court already, these seem to be +the chief favorites: _Andelot_, younger brother to Chatillon, and his +brother, the _Cardinal of Chatillon_; the Duke of Guise's sons, in a +manner all, but especially these: _Monsieur d'Aumale_ [Francis, later +Duke of Guise], the _Bishop of Rheims_ [Cardinal Charles of Lorraine], +and the _Bishop of Troyes_, who, as I hear say, are all three of the +council. Monsieur d'Aumale is in very great favour ... but in greatest +estimation and favour of all, as it appeareth hitherto, either of them +of the older sort or of the younger sort, seemeth to be the said Bishop +of Rheims, who had the chief ordering of the king's house, he being +Dolphin; whom I could wish to be of as good judgment in matters of +religion as I take the Cardinal du Bellay to be, but I hear he is not +so, but _very earnest in upholding the Romish blindness_.... Of the +dames, Madame la Grande Senechale seemeth to be highly esteemed."[524] + +To gain a clear view of the various influences--at one time neutralizing +each other, and thus tending to the protection of the reformed +doctrines and their professors, but much more frequently acting in +concert, and tending to the suppression of those doctrines--it is +necessary that we examine in some detail the position of Diana, of the +Constable, and of the Guises. + +[Sidenote: Diana of Poitiers.] + +[Sidenote: The king's infatuation.] + +Diana of Poitiers, daughter of Monsieur de St. Vallier, and widow of De +Breze, Grand Seneschal of Normandy, had in her youth been celebrated for +her beauty, by which she had first captivated Francis the First, and +afterward made Henry forget the claims of his Florentine bride upon his +affections. But she was now a matron of forty-seven years of age, and +the public wondered as they saw the undiminished devotion of the new +monarch to a woman nearly a score of years older than himself. It is +true that the courtier's pen of Brantome ascribes to her all the +freshness of youth even at the close of the reign of Henry the Second. +His eulogium, however, is scarcely more worthy of credit than Homer's +praise of the undiminished personal beauty of Helen, when, twenty years +subsequently to the departure of the expedition to Troy, the Ithacan +prince found her reigning again at Sparta. But of the influence which +Diana possessed over Henry there could be no doubt. By the vulgar it was +attributed to the use of charms and love-potions. The infatuation of the +monarch knew no bounds. He loaded her with gifts; he entrusted her with +the crown jewels;[525] he conferred upon her the dignity of a duchess of +Valentinois. In her apartments he spent hours daily, in company with his +most intimate courtiers. Through love for her he adopted her favorite +colors, and took for his device the crescent, with the words, "Totum +donec compleat orbem." The public edifices of his time, it is said, +still bear testimony to this dishonorable attachment, in the initials or +emblems of Henry and Diana sculptured together upon their facades; and +the Venetian Soranzo, at a later period in Henry's reign, magnifying her +influence upon every department of the administration, affirms, in +particular, that the dispensation of ecclesiastical offices was in her +hands.[526] It is not surprising that, being of an avaricious +character, she soon accumulated great wealth. + +[Sidenote: Constable Anne de Montmorency.] + +[Sidenote: His cruelty.] + +Anne de Montmorency, one of the four marshals of France, grand-master of +the palace, and constable, was among the most notable personages of the +sixteenth century. Sprung from a family claiming descent from the first +Frank that followed the example of Clovis in renouncing paganism, and +bearing on its escutcheon the motto, "God defend the first Christian," +he likewise arrogated the foremost rank in the nobility as the first +baron of the kingdom. From his youth he was accustomed to association +with royalty. Margaret of Navarre was his early friend, and at a later +period had occasion to complain of his ingratitude. He was at this time +fifty-five years of age, severe, stern, fond of arms, complaisant to +royalty, but harsh and overbearing in his relations with inferiors. Of +his personal valor there can be no doubt, and he was generally regarded +as the ablest general in France--an opinion, it is true, which his +subsequent ill-success contributed much to shake.[527] But his martial +glory was dimmed by his well-known avarice, his ignorance,[528] and a +cruelty that often approached ferocity. Of this last trait a signal +instance was afforded when Montmorency was sent, in the year after +Henry's accession, to suppress a formidable revolt which had broken out +in Guyenne, in consequence of a considerable increase of the already +burdensome impost upon salt. He haughtily refused to accept the keys of +the city of Bordeaux tendered to him by the citizens on his approach. +His artillery, he said, would serve him as well in gaining admission. +The severity of the retribution meted out under his superintendence to +those who had ventured to resist the royal authority was unparalleled in +French history.[529] If the constable's ferocity did not diminish with +age, it acquired a tinge of the ludicrous from his growing superstition. +Never would he omit his devotions at the appointed hour, whether at home +or in the field--"so conscientious was he." But he would interrupt the +recital of his _pater-nosters_ with such orders as the emergency might +demand, or his inclination prompt: "Seize such a man! Hang that one to a +tree! Run that fellow through at once with your pikes, or shoot him down +before my eyes! Cut the knaves to pieces that have undertaken to hold +that belfry against the king! Burn that village! Fire everything to the +distance of a quarter of a league!" So terrible a reputation did his +devotions consequently acquire, that it was a current saying: "Beware of +the constable's pater-nosters!"[530] + +[Sidenote: His unpopularity.] + +In fact, Anne de Montmorency was ill-fitted to win popularity. A +despatch of Sir John Mason, three years later, gives a glimpse of his +relations with his fellow-courtiers. "There is a little _square_," he +writes, "between the Duchess of Valentinois, who ruleth the roast, and +the constable. A great many of the court _wisheth the increase thereof. +He is very ill-beloved_, for that he is a hinderer of all men saving his +own kinsfolks, whom he doth so advance as no man may have anything by +his will but they, and for that also he feedeth every man with fair +words, and performeth nothing."[531] + +[Sidenote: Recalled from disgrace by Henry II.] + +For six years before the death of Francis the First the constable had +been living in retirement upon his estates. The occasion of his +banishment from court is stated, by one who enjoyed the best +opportunities for learning the truth, to have been the advice which he +had given the monarch to permit the Emperor Charles the Fifth to pass +through his dominions when going to Netherlands to suppress the revolt +of the burghers of Ghent.[532] Francis, indeed, is said on his deathbed +to have warned his son against the dangers with which the ambition of +the constable and of the family of Guise threatened his kingdom. But, as +we have seen, Henry had no sooner received tidings of his father's +death, than he at once summoned Montmorency to court, and resigned to +him undisputed control of the affairs of state. The Venetian Dandolo, +sent to congratulate the monarch upon his advent to the throne, +felicitated the favorite on his merited resumption of his former rank +and the honor of the "_universal charge_" which he held.[533] He was now +all-powerful. The Duchess d'Etampes, mistress of the late king, to whose +influence his disgrace was in part owing, for this and other offences +was exiled from court and sent to the castle of her husband.[534] +Admiral Annebaut and the Cardinal of Tournon were removed from the head +of the administration. The former, of whose sterling worth Francis +entertained so high an appreciation that he had bequeathed to him the +sum of 100,000 livres, was compelled to resign his place as Marshal of +France in favor of a new favorite--Jacques d'Albon de St. Andre, of whom +more particular mention must be made presently.[535] + +[Sidenote: The family of Guise.] + +[Sidenote: Duke Claude.] + +[Sidenote: The first Cardinal of Lorraine.] + +Francis is reported to have included the family of Guise with Constable +Montmorency in the warning addressed to his son, and the story, received +by the people as an undoubted truth, circulated in a poetical form for +many years.[536] The Guises were of foreign extraction, and had but +recently become residents of France. Claude, the fifth son of the Duke +of Lorraine, at that time an independent state, came to the French +court, in the early part of the sixteenth century, in quest of +opportunities to advance his fortunes greater than were open to a +younger member of the reigning family in his father's contracted +dominions. Partly through the influence of Montmorency, partly in +consequence of his marriage with Antoinette of Bourbon, a princess of +royal blood, in some degree also by his own abilities, the young +foreigner was rapidly advanced, from the comparatively insignificant +position at first assigned him, to more important trusts. At length he +became royal lieutenant of the provinces of Champagne and Burgundy, and +his small domain of Guise was erected into a duchy.[537] His younger +brother John, who had entered the church as offering the most promising +road to the attainment of his ambitious designs, had also come westward; +and, proving to be a jovial companion whose presence imposed no +restraint upon the license of a profligate court, he fared even better +in securing ecclesiastical preferment than his brother in obtaining +secular advantages.[538] In his favor Francis made use, in a manner +lavish beyond precedent, of the right of nomination to benefices secured +to the crown by the concordat. Even an age well accustomed to the abuse +of the plurality of offices was amazed to see John of Lorraine at one +and the same time Archbishop of Lyons, Rheims, and Narbonne, Bishop of +Metz, Toul, Verdun, Therouenne, Lucon, Alby, and Valence, and Abbot of +Gorze, Fecamp, Clugny, and Marmoutier.[539] To gratify the French +monarch, Pope Leo the Tenth added to the dignity of the young +ecclesiastic, by conferring upon him the Cardinal's hat a year or two +before he had attained his majority.[540] Shrewd and plausible, the +Cardinal of Lorraine, as he was henceforth called, contributed not a +little to his brother's rapid advancement; and, as it was well +understood that the rich benefices he held and the accumulation of his +wealth would go, at his death, to enrich his nephews, he was treated +with great deference by all the members of his brother's family. + +[Sidenote: Marriage of James V. of Scotland to Mary of Lorraine.] + +An important era in the history of the Guises is marked by the marriage +effected, in 1538, between James the Fifth of Scotland and Mary of +Lorraine, the eldest daughter of Claude. This royal alliance secured for +the Guises a predominant influence in North British affairs after the +death of James. It brought them into close connection with the crown of +France, when Mary, Queen of Scots, the fruit of this union, was +affianced to the son of Henry the Second, the dauphin, afterward Francis +the Second. It encouraged the adherents of this house to attribute to it +an almost regal dignity, and to intimate more and more plainly its claim +upon the throne of France, as descended through the Dukes of Lorraine +from Charlemagne--a title superior to that of the Valois, who could +trace their origin to no higher source than the usurper Hugh Capet. + +[Sidenote: The duke's sons.] + +[Sidenote: Francis of Guise.] + +[Sidenote: Charles, Cardinal of Guise, and afterward of Lorraine.] + +But the second generation of the Guises was destined to exert, during +the reign of Henry the Second, an influence more controlling than the +brothers Claude and John had exerted during his father's reign. The six +sons of Claude--all displaying the grasping disposition of the house +from which they sprang, all aiming at the acquisition of position and +wealth, each of them insatiable, yet never exhibiting a rivalry that +might prove detrimental to their common expectations--throw into +obscurity the surprising success of their father and uncle, by their own +marvellous prosperity. Scarcely had a third part of Henry's reign gone +by, before foreign ambassadors wrote home glowing accounts of the +influence of the younger favorites. "The credit of the house of Guise in +this court," said one, "passeth all others. For albeit the constable +hath the outward administration of all things, being for that service +such a man as hard it were to find the like, yet have they so much +credit _as he with whom he is constrained to sail_, and many times to +take that course that he liketh never a whit."[541] Francis, the eldest +son, known until his father's death as the Count of Aumale, and +afterward succeeding him as Duke of Guise, entered the inviting +profession of arms. The second son, Charles, chose the life of an +ecclesiastic, and soon assumed with respect to his brothers a commanding +position similar to that which John had occupied. At an early age he had +been elevated to the Archbishopric of Rheims, voluntarily ceded to him +by his uncle. Henry, soon after his accession, obtained from the pontiff +a place in the consistory for the young ecclesiastic, who then became +known as the Cardinal of Guise, and, after his uncle's death, in 1550, +as Cardinal of Lorraine. The four younger brothers respectively figured +in subsequent years as the Duke of Aumale, the Cardinal of Guise, the +Marquis of Elbeuf, and the Grand Prior of France.[542] + +[Sidenote: Character of Francis.] + +Francis of Guise, although but twenty-eight years of age, was already +regarded as a brilliant general and an accomplished courtier. Vain and +ostentatious, yet possessed of more real military ability than his +unfortunate Italian campaign of 1556 would seem to indicate, he won +laurels at Metz, at Calais, and at Thionville.[543] Outside of the +pursuits of war he was grossly ignorant, and in all civil and religious +matters he allowed himself to be governed by the advice of his brother +Charles. Even the Protestants, whom he so deeply injured, would for the +most part have acquiesced in the opinion of the cabinet minister, De +l'Aubespine, that the Duke of Guise was a captain capable of rendering +good service to his native land, had he not been hindered and infected +by his brother's ambition. It is the same trustworthy authority who +states that the duke was more than once induced to exclaim of his +brother Charles: "That man in the end will ruin us."[544] + +[Sidenote: Various estimates of the second Cardinal of Lorraine.] + +The portraits of men who, for weal or woe, have exercised a powerful +influence upon their times, are frequently painted so differently by +their advocates and by their opponents, that for him who would obtain an +impartial view of their merits or defects it will prove a difficult task +to discover any means of removing the discrepancies in the +representations and attaining the truth. Fortunate must he esteem +himself if he chance to find some contemporary, less directly interested +in the events and persons described, to furnish him with the results of +unbiassed observation. In the conflict of the Protestant and Roman +Catholic writers of France respecting Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, the +"relations" of the Venetian ambassadors, devoted adherents of the Holy +See, made to the doge and senate of their native state, and given under +the seal of secrecy, must be esteemed a rich historical legacy. The +cardinal's intellect, these envoys tell us, was wonderfully acute. He +understood the point at which those who conversed with him were aiming +when they had scarcely opened their mouth. His memory was more than +usually retentive. He was well educated, and learned not only in Greek, +Latin, and Italian, but in the sciences, and especially in theology. He +had a rare gift of talking. In the fulfilment of his promises he was +less famous. According to one ambassador, he had the reputation of +rarely speaking the truth. Another styles him little truthful, and of a +deceitful and avaricious disposition.[545] Both agree in representing +him as covetous "beyond the avarice natural to the French, even +employing dishonorable means to increase his wealth."[546] Both unite in +extolling his administrative abilities. In observance of the precepts +of the church he was exemplary. Yearly did he retire from court to spend +the season of Lent on some one of his numerous possessions. In life, "so +far as the outside is concerned," he observed the decorum appropriate to +his rank, thus presenting a striking contrast to the other cardinals and +prelates of the kingdom, who were "of a most licentious character." But +he was vindictive, slow in rewarding services, and so violent that it +was probable that no other event was so much desired in France as his +death.[547] The scandalous stories related by Brantome, which have +generally been understood to apply to Cardinal _Charles_ of Lorraine, +really refer, as Ranke has observed,[548] to his uncle, the Cardinal +_John_; but the abbe, who was certainly not unfriendly to the Guises, +mingles praise and censure as equal ingredients in sketching the +character of the former. If he was "very religious," after Brantome's +idea of religion, he was also esteemed a "great hypocrite," with whom +religion served as a stepping-stone to greatness. If he was a "holy" +man, he was "not too conscientious." If gracious and affable at times, +it was only when something had gone wrong with him; for in prosperity no +one was more overbearing.[549] + +Such, according to writers of his own religion, was the churchman of +whom, with Diana of Poitiers, the cabinet minister who knew both well +wrote: "It were to be desired that this woman and the cardinal had +never been born; for they two alone have been the spark that kindled our +misfortunes."[550] Pasquin well reflected the sentiments of the people +when he altered the motto that accompanied the device of the +cardinal--an ivy-clad pyramid--from "Te stante, virebo" to "Te virente, +peribo."[551] + +[Sidenote: Rapacity of the new favorites.] + +[Sidenote: Marshal Saint-Andre.] + +[Sidenote: Servility toward Diana of Poitiers.] + +With a weak-minded prince, averse to anything except the gratification +of his passions, and under the influence of such counsellors, France +became almost of necessity a scene of rapacity beyond all precedent. The +princes of the blood continued in their exclusion from official +positions. Each of the new favorites was not only eager to obtain wealth +for himself, but had a number of relations for whom provision must also +be made. To the more prominent courtiers above enumerated was added +Jacques d'Albon de Saint-Andre, son of Henry's tutor, who, from +accidental intimacy with the king in childhood, was led to aspire to +high dignities in the state, and was not long in obtaining a marshal's +baton.[552] Herself securing not only the rank of Duchess of +Valentinois, with the authority of a queen,[553] but the enormous +revenues derived from the customary confirmation of offices at the +beginning of a new reign, Diana permitted the constable, the Guises, and +Saint-Andre to partake to a less degree in the spoils of the kingdom. A +contemporary writer likens the brood of courtiers she gathered about her +to swallows in pursuit of flies on a summer's evening. Nothing escaped +them--rank, dignity, bishopric, abbey, office, or other dainty +morsel--all alike were eagerly devoured. Spies and salaried agents were +posted in all parts of the kingdom to convey the earliest intelligence +of the death of those who possessed any valuable benefices. Physicians +in their employ at Paris sent in frequent bulletins of the health of +sick men who enjoyed offices in church or state; nor were instances +wanting in which, for the present of a thousand crowns, they were said +to have hastened a wealthy patient's death. Even the king was unable to +give as he wished, and sought to escape the importunity of his favorites +by falsely assuring them that he had already made promises to others. +Thus only could they be kept at bay.[554] The Guises and Montmorency, to +render their power more secure, courted the favor of the king's +mistress. The Cardinal of Lorraine, in particular, distinguished himself +by the servility which he displayed. For two years he put himself to +infinite trouble to be at the table of Diana.[555] After her elevation +to the peerage, he addressed to her a letter, still extant, in which he +assured her that henceforth his interest and hers were inseparable.[556] +To give yet greater firmness to the bond uniting them, the Guises +brought about a marriage between their third brother, the Duke of +Aumale, and one of the daughters of the Duchess of Valentinois; while +the Constable of Montmorency, at a later time, undertook to gain a +similar advantage for his own family by causing his son to wed Diana, a +natural daughter of the king. + +[Sidenote: Persecution to atone for moral blemishes.] + +It may at first sight appear somewhat incongruous that a king and court +thus given up, the former to flagrant immorality, the latter to the +unbridled pursuit of riches and honors, should early have exhibited a +disposition to carry forward in an aggravated form the system of +persecution initiated in the previous reign. The secret of the apparent +inconsistency may be found in the fact that the courtiers were not slow +in perceiving, on the one hand, the almost incalculable gains which the +confiscation of the goods of condemned heretics might be made to yield, +and, on the other, the facility with which a monarch of a disposition +naturally gentle and humane[557] could be persuaded to countenance the +most barbarous cruelties, as the supposed means of atoning for the +dissoluteness of his own life. The observance of the strict precepts of +the moral law, they argued, was of less importance than the purity of +the faith. The title of "Very Christian" had been borne by some of his +predecessors whose private lives had been full of gallantries. His claim +to it would be forfeited by the adoption of the stern principles of the +reformers; while the Pontiff who conferred it would never venture to +remove the honorable distinction, or refuse to unlock the gates of +paradise to him who should prove himself an obedient son of the church +and a persecutor of its enemies. To fulfil these conditions was the +easier, as the persons upon whom were to be exercised the severities +dictated by heaven, plotted revolutions and aspired to convert France +into a republic, on the pattern of the cantons of Switzerland. Lending a +willing ear to these suggestions, Henry the Second no sooner began to +reign than he began to persecute.[558] + +[Sidenote: The "Chambre ardente."] + +[Sidenote: Edict of Fontainebleau against books from Geneva.] + +[Sidenote: Deceptive title-pages.] + +Toward the close of the reign of Francis, the prisons of Normandy had +become so full of persons incarcerated for religion's sake, that a +separate and special chamber had been instituted in the Parliament of +Rouen, to give exclusive attention to the trial of such cases.[559] One +of Henry's first acts was to establish a similar chamber in the +Parliament of Paris.[560] Judges selected with such a commission were +not likely to incline to the side of mercy; and the chamber speedily +earned for itself, by the numbers of victims it sent to the flames, the +significant popular name of "_la Chambre ardente_."[561] The rapid +propagation of the reformed doctrines by the press gave occasion to the +publication of a new edict. The printing of any book containing matters +pertaining to the Holy Scriptures was strictly forbidden. Equally +prohibited was the sale of books brought from Geneva, Germany, or other +foreign parts, without the approval of the Theological Faculty of Paris. +All annotated copies of the Bible must contain the name of the author, +and the publisher's name and address. Persons of all ranks were warned +against retaining in their possession any condemned work.[562] But these +restrictions had little effect in repressing the spread of the +Reformation. If a severe blow was struck at the publishing trade in +France, the dissemination of books printed abroad, and, frequently, with +spurious title-pages,[563] was largely increased. It now assumed, +however, a more stealthy and cautious character. + +[Sidenote: Execution of Brugiere.] + +[Sidenote: The tailor of the Rue St. Antoine.] + +Blood flowed in every part of the kingdom. Not only the capital, but +also the provinces furnished their constant witnesses to the truth of +the "Lutheran" doctrines. The noted trial and execution of John Brugiere +revealed to the First President of Parliament the humiliating fact that +the Reformation had gained a strong foothold in his native +Auvergne.[564] At Paris, one Florence Venot was confined seven weeks in +a cell upon the construction of which so much perverted ingenuity had +been expended that the prisoner could neither lie down nor stand erect, +and the hour of release from weary torture was waited for with ardent +longing, even if it led to the stake.[565] But the death of a nameless +tailor has, by the singularity of its incidents, acquired a celebrity +surpassing that of any other martyrdom in the early part of this reign. +In the midst of the tourneys and other festivities provided to signalize +the occasion of the queen's coronation and his own solemn entry into +Paris, the desire seized Henry to see with his own eyes and to +interrogate one of the members of the sect to whose account such serious +charges were laid. A poor tailor, arrested in his shop in the Rue St. +Antoine, a few paces from the royal palace, for the crime of working on +a day which the church had declared holy, was brought before him. So +contemptible a dialectician could do little, it was presumed, to shake +the faith of the Very Christian King. But the result disappointed the +expectations of the courtiers and ecclesiastics that were present. The +tailor answered with respectful boldness to the questions propounded by +Chatellain, Bishop of Macon, a prelate once favorable to the +Reformation. Hereupon Diana of Poitiers, an interested opponent, whose +coffers were being filled with the goods of condemned heretics, +undertook to silence him with the tongue of a witty woman. The tailor, +who had patiently borne the ridicule and scorn with which he had +hitherto been treated, turned upon the mistress of the king a look of +solemn warning as he said: "Madam, let it suffice you to have infected +France, without desiring to mingle your poison and filth with so holy +and sacred a thing as the true religion of our Lord Jesus Christ." The +courtiers were thunderstruck at the turn taken by a discussion to which +they had flocked as to a scene of diversion, and the enraged king +ordered the tailor's instant trial and punishment. He even desired with +his own eyes to see him undergo the extreme penalty of the law. A solemn +procession had been ordered to proceed from St. Paul's to Notre Dame. +The prayers there offered for the destruction of heresy were followed by +an "exemplary demonstration" of the king's pious disposition, in the +execution of four "Lutherans" in as many different squares of the +city.[566] In order the better to see the punishment inflicted upon the +tailor of the Rue St. Antoine, Henry posted himself at a window that +commanded the entire spectacle. But it was no coward's death that he +beheld. Soon perceiving and recognizing the monarch before whom he had +witnessed so good a profession, the tailor fixed his gaze upon him, nor +would he avert his face, however much the king ordered that his position +should be changed. Even in the midst of the flames he still continued to +direct his dying glance toward the king, until the latter, abashed, was +compelled to withdraw from the window. For days Henry declared that the +spectre haunted his waking hours and drove sleep from his eyes at night; +and he affirmed with an oath that never again would he witness so +horrible a scene.[567] Happy would it have been for his memory had he +adhered, in the case of Anne du Bourg, to so wise a resolution! + +[Sidenote: Other victims of intolerance.] + +The ashes of one martyr were scarcely cold before new fires were +kindled--now before the cathedral, now before some parish church, again +in the crowded market or in the distant provincial town. At one time it +was a widow that welcomed the rope that bound her, as the zone given her +by a heavenly bridegroom in token of her approaching nuptials. A few +years later, it was a nobleman who, when in view of his rank the +sentence of the judges would have spared him the indignity of the halter +which was placed around the neck of his companions, begged the +executioner to make no exception in his case, saying: "Deny me not the +collar of so excellent an order."[568] + +[Sidenote: Severe edicts and quarrels with Rome.] + +[Sidenote: Edict of Chateaubriand, June 27, 1551.] + +[Sidenote: War upon the books from Geneva.] + +The failure, however, of these fearful exhibitions to strike terror into +the minds of the persecuted, or accomplish the end for which they were +undertaken, is proved by their frequent recurrence, and not less by the +new series of sanguinary laws running through the reign of Henry. An +edict from Paris, on the nineteenth of November, 1549, endeavored to +remove all excuse for remissness on the part of the prelates, by +conferring on the ecclesiastical judges the unheard-of privilege of +arresting for the crime of heresy, the exclusive right of passing +judgment upon simple heresy, and conjoint jurisdiction with the civil +courts in cases in which public scandal, riot, or sedition might be +involved.[569] Less than two years later, when Henry, uniting with +Maurice of Saxony and Albert of Brandenburg, received the title of +Defender of the Empire against Charles the Fifth, and was on the point +of making war on Pope Julius the Third, he issued an edict forbidding +his subjects, under severe penalties, from carrying gold or silver to +Rome.[570] But, to convince the world of his orthodoxy, he chose the +same time for the publication of a new and more truculent measure, known +as the _Edict of Chateaubriand_ (on the twenty-seventh of June, 1551), +directed against the reformed.[571] This notable law reiterated the old +complaint of the ill-success of previous efforts, and the statement of +the impossibility of attaining the desired end save by diligent care and +rigorous procedure. Its most striking peculiarity was that it committed +the trial of heretics to the newly appointed "presidial" judges, whose +sentence, when ten counsellors had been associated with them, was to be +final.[572] Thus was it contemplated to put an end to the vexatious +delays by means of which the trial of many a reputed "Lutheran" had been +protracted and not a few of the hated sect had in the end escaped. But +the large number of additional articles exhibit in a singular manner the +extent to which the doctrines of the Reformation had spread, the means +of their diffusion, and the method by which it was hoped that they might +be eradicated. Prominent among the provisions appear those that relate +to the products of the press. Evidently the Cardinal of Lorraine and the +other advisers of the king were of the same mind with the great advocate +of unlicensed printing, when he said: "Books are not absolutely dead +things, but do contain a progeny of life in them to be as active as that +soul was whose progeny they are.... I know they are as lively and as +vigorously productive as those fabulous dragon's teeth; and being sown +up and down, may chance to spring up armed men."[573] The edict utterly +prohibited the introduction of any books from Geneva and other places +notoriously rebellious to the Holy See, the retention of condemned books +by booksellers, and all clandestine printing. It instituted a +semi-annual visitation of every typographical establishment, a clerical +examination of all packages from abroad, a special inspection thrice a +year at the great fairs of Lyons, through which many suspected books +found their way into the kingdom. The "porte-panier," or pedler, was +forbidden to sell books at all, because many pedlers brought in books +from Geneva under pretext of selling other merchandise. The bearers of +letters from Geneva were to be arrested and punished. The goods and +chattels of those who had fled to Geneva were to be confiscated. +Informers were promised one-third of the property of the condemned. And +lest the tongue should contaminate those whom the printed volume might +not reach, all unlettered persons were warned not even to _discuss_ +matters of faith, the sacraments, and the polity of the church, whether +at the table, in the field, or in secret conventicle.[574] + +[Sidenote: The book-pedlers of Switzerland, etc.] + +It is clear that the "dragon's teeth" were beginning to spring up +warriors full armed; but the sowing still went on. From Geneva, from +Neufchatel, from Strasbourg, and from other points, devoted men of +ardent piety, and often of no little cultivation, entered France and +cautiously sold or distributed the contents of the packs they carried. +Often they penetrated far into the country. To such as were detected the +penalty of the law was inexorably meted out. A pedler, after every bone +of his body had been dislocated in the vain attempt to compel him to +betray the names of those to whom he had sold his books, was burned at +Paris in the midst of the applauding shouts of a great crowd of persons, +who would have torn him to pieces had they been allowed.[575] The +printers of French Switzerland willingly entrusted their publications to +these faithful men, not without danger of the loss of their goods; and +it was almost incredible how many men offered themselves to the extreme +perils which threatened them.[576] The Edict of Chateaubriand, intended +to destroy the rising intellectual and moral influence of Geneva, it +must be noticed, had the opposite effect; for nothing had up to this +time so tended to collect the scattered Protestants of France in a city +where, free from the temptation to conformity with the dominant +religion, they received a training adapted to qualify them for +usefulness in their native land.[577] + +[Sidenote: Marshal Vieilleville refuses to profit by confiscation.] + +Yet the publication of the Edict of Chateaubriand was the signal for the +renewal of the severity of the persecution. Every day, says the +historian De Thou, persons were burned at Paris on account of religion. +Cardinal Tournon and Diana of Poitiers, he tells us, shared in the +opprobrium of being the instigators of these atrocities. With the latter +it was less fanaticism than a desire to augment the proceeds of the +confiscation of the property of condemned heretics which she had lately +secured for herself, and was employing to make up the ransom of her two +sons-in-law, now prisoners of war.[578] Very few of the courtiers of +Henry's court had a spark of the magnanimity that fired the breast of +the Marshal de Vieilleville. The name of this nobleman had, unknown to +him, been inserted in a royal patent giving to him and others, who +desired to shield themselves behind his honorable name, the confiscated +goods of all condemned usurers and Lutherans in Guyenne and five other +provinces of Southern France. When the document was placed in his hands, +and he was assured that it would yield to each of the six patentees +twenty thousand crowns within four months, the marshal exclaimed: "And +here we stand registered in the courts of parliament as devourers of the +people!... Besides that, for twenty thousand crowns to incur +individually the curses of a countless number of women and children that +will die in the poor-house in consequence of the forfeiture of the lives +and property of their husbands and fathers, by fair means or foul--this +would be to plunge ourselves into perdition at too cheap a rate!" So +saying, Vieilleville drove his dagger through his own name in the +patent, and others, through shame, following his example, the document +was torn to pieces.[579] + +[Sidenote: The "Five Scholars of Lausanne."] + +Of the considerable number of those upon whom the "very rigorous +procedures" laid down by the Edict of Chateaubriand were executed in +almost all parts of France, according to the historian of the reformed +churches,[580] the "_Five Scholars of Lausanne_" deserve particular +mention. Natives of different points in France, these young men, with +others, had enjoyed in the distinguished school instituted in the chief +city of the Pays de Vaud, under the protection of the Bernese, the +instructions of Theodore Beza and other prominent reformed theologians. +Their names were: Martial Alba, a native of Montauban; Pierre Ecrivain, +of Boulogne, in Gascony; Bernard Seguin, of La Reolle, in Bazadois; +Charles Favre, of Blanzac; and Pierre Naviheres, of Limoges. A short +time before Easter, 1552, these young men, who had reached different +stages in their course of study,[581] conceived it to be their duty to +return to their native land, whence the most pressing calls for +additional laborers qualified to instruct others were daily coming to +Switzerland. Their plan was cordially endorsed by Beza, before whom it +was first laid by one of their number who had been an inmate of his +home, and then by the Church of Lausanne; for it evidenced the purity +and sincerity of their zeal. Provided with cordial letters from +Lausanne, as well as from Geneva, through which they passed, they +started each for his native city, intending to labor first of all for +the conversion of their own kindred and neighbors. But a different +field, and a shorter term of service than they had anticipated, were in +store for them. At Lyons, having accepted the invitation of a +fellow-traveller to visit him at his country-seat, they were surprised +on the first of May, 1552, by the provost and his guards, and, although +they had committed no violation of the king's edicts by proclaiming the +doctrines they believed, were hurried to the archiepiscopal prison, and +confined in separate dungeons. From their prayers for divine assistance +they were soon summoned to appear singly before the "official"--the +ecclesiastical judge to whom the archbishop deputed his judicial +functions.[582] The answers to the interrogatories, of which they +transmitted to their friends a record, it has been truly said, put to +shame the lukewarmness of our days by their courage, and amaze us by the +presence of mind and the wonderful acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures +they display.[583] He who will peruse them in the worm-eaten pages of +the "Actiones Martyrum," in which their letters were collected by the +pious zeal of a contemporary, cannot doubt the proficiency these +youthful prisoners had attained, both in sacred and in human letters, at +the feet of the renowned Beza. Their unanswerable defence, however, only +secured their more speedy condemnation as heretics. On the thirteenth of +May they were sentenced to the flames; but an appeal which they made +from the sentence of the ecclesiastical judge, on the plea that it +contravened the laws of France, secured delay until their case could be +laid before parliament. Months elapsed. Tidings of the danger that +overhung the young students of Lausanne reached Beza and Calvin, and +called forth their warm sympathy.[584] + +[Sidenote: Unavailing intercessions.] + +The best efforts of Beza and Viret were put forth in their behalf. A +long succession of attempts to secure their release on the part of the +canton of Berne individually, and of the four Protestant cantons of +Switzerland collectively, was the result. One letter to Henry received a +highly encouraging reply. An embassy from Zurich, sent when the king's +word had not been kept, was haughtily informed that Henry expected the +cantons to trouble him no further with the matter, and to avoid +interfering with the domestic affairs of his country, as he himself +abstained from intermeddling with theirs.[585] Subsequent letters and +embassies to the monarch, intercessions with Cardinal de Tournon, +Archbishop of Lyons, who would appear to have given assurances which he +never intended to fulfil, and all the other steps dictated by Christian +affection, were similarly fruitless. In fact, nothing protracted the +term of the imprisonment of the "Five Scholars" but the need in which +Henry felt himself to be of retaining the alliance and support of Berne. +Yet when, as a final appeal, that powerful canton begged the life of its +"stipendiaries" as a "purely royal and liberal gift, which it would +esteem as great and precious as if his Majesty had presented it an +inestimable sum of silver or gold," other political motives prevented +him from yielding to its entreaties. The fear lest his compliance might +furnish the emperor and Pope, against whom he was contending, with a +handle for impugning his devotion to the church, was more powerful than +his desire to conciliate the Bernese. The Parliament of Paris decreed +that the death of the "Five" by fire should take place on the sixteenth +of May, 1553, and the king refused to interpose his pardon.[586] + +Their mission to France had not, however, been in vain. It is no +hyperbole of the historian of the reformed churches, when he likens +their cells to five _pulpits_, from which the Word of God resounded +through the entire city and much farther.[587] The results of their +heroic fortitude, and of the wide dissemination of copies of the +confession of their Christian faith, were easily traced in the +conversion of many within and without the prison; while the memory of +their joyful constancy on their way to the place of execution--which +rather resembled a triumphal than an ignominious procession--and in the +flames, was embalmed in the heart of many a spectator.[588] + +[Sidenote: Activity of the canton of Berne.] + +The Bernese were not discouraged by the ill-success of their +intercessions. Three times in the early part of the succeeding year +(1554) they begged, but with no better results, for the release of Paris +Panier, a man learned in the civil law.[589] With equal earnestness they +took the part of the persecuted reformers against the violence of their +enemies on many successive occasions. It was all in vain. The libertine +king, who saw no merit in the purity of life of the professors of the +"new doctrines," and no mark of Antichrist in the profligacy of Paul the +Third or of Julius the Third, but viewed with horror the permission +granted by the latter to the faithful of Paris to eat eggs, butter and +cheese during Lent,[590] maintained his more than papal orthodoxy, and +stifled the promptings of a heart by nature not averse to pity. + +[Sidenote: Progress in Normandy.] + +More than three years had passed away since the publication of the +Edict of Chateaubriand, but none of the fruits which its authors had +predicted were visible. The number of the reformed brought to trial, and +especially of those condemned to the flames, gradually diminished, +whilst it was notorious that the opponents of the dominant church were +rapidly multiplying. In some provinces--in Normandy, for example--their +placards were mysteriously posted on the walls, and their songs deriding +the Franciscan monks were sung in the dark lanes of the cities. Once +they had ventured to interrupt the discourse of a preacher on the topic +of purgatory, by loud expressions of dissent; but when on the next day +the subject was resumed, numbers of hearers left the church with cries +of "_au fol, au fol_," and forced those who would have arrested them in +the name of the Cardinal Archbishop of Rouen, to seek refuge from a +shower of stones in an adjoining monastery.[591] + +[Sidenote: Proposal to establish the Spanish Inquisition.] + +The zealous friends of the church, as well as those who were enriched by +confiscations, represented to the king that this state of things arose +from the fact that the higher magistrates, themselves tainted with +heresy, connived at its spread, and that the "presidial" judges +abstained from employing the powers conferred by the edict, through fear +of compromising themselves with the sovereign courts. Nor could +ecclesiastical courts accomplish much, since the secular judges, to whom +an appeal was open, found means to clear the guilty. They insisted that +the only remedy was the introduction of the _Inquisition_ in the form in +which it had proved so efficacious in Spain and Italy. This, it was +said, could be attained by taking away the appeal that had hitherto been +allowed from the decisions of the church courts, and compelling the +nearest secular court to enforce their sentences. It was, furthermore, +proposed to confiscate, for the king's benefit, all the property of +fugitives, disregarding the claims even of those who had purchased from +them without collusion.[592] + +[Sidenote: Opposition of parliament.] + +In secret sessions held at the house of Bertrand, keeper of the seals, +at which were present several of the presidents of parliament known to +be least friendly to the Reformation, the necessary legislation was +matured at the instance of the Cardinal of Lorraine.[593] But, when the +edicts establishing the Spanish inquisition were submitted, by order of +the king, to the Parliament of Paris, it soon became evident that not +even the intrigues of the presidents who were favorable to them could +secure their registration. In the hope of better success, the edicts +were for the time withdrawn, and submitted, a few months later, to the +part of parliament that held its sessions in summer,[594] accompanied by +royal letters strictly enjoining their reception (lettres de jussion). +Twice the _gens du roi_ were heard in favor of the new system, pleading +its necessity, the utility of enlarging the jurisdiction of the church +courts, especially in the case of apostatizing monks and fanatical +preachers, and the fact that parliament itself had testified that it was +not averse to an inquisition--not only by recording the edicts of St. +Louis and Philip the Fair, but also by two recent registrations of the +powers of the Inquisitor of the Faith, Matthieu Ory.[595] After many +delays and a prolonged discussion, parliament decided by a large +majority that it could not comply with the king's commands, and would +indicate to his Majesty other means of eradicating heresy more +consistent with the spirit of Christianity.[596] + +The president, Seguier, and a counsellor (Adrien du Drac) were deputed +to justify before the monarch the course taken by parliament. The royal +court was at this time at Villers-Cotterets, not far from Soissons, and +the commissioners were informed on their arrival that Henry, displeased +and scandalized at the delays of parliament, had begun to suspect it of +being badly advised respecting religion and the obedience due to the +church. He had said "that, if twelve judges were necessary to try +Lutherans, they could not be found among the members of that body." The +deputies were warned that they must expect to hear harsh words from the +king's lips. Admitted, on the twenty-second of October, into Henry's +presence, President Seguier delivered before the Duke of Guise, +Constable Montmorency, Marshal St. Andre, and other dignitaries civil +and ecclesiastical, an address full of noble sentiments.[597] + +[Sidenote: Speech of President Seguier in opposition.] + +"Parliament," said Seguier, "consists of one hundred and sixty members, +who, for ability and conscientious discharge of duty, cannot be matched. +I know not any of the number to be alienated from the true faith. +Indeed, no greater misfortune could befall the judicature, than that +the supreme court should forfeit the confidence of the monarch by whom +its members were appointed. It is not from personal fear that we oppose +the introduction of the Inquisition. An inquisition, when well +administered, may not, perhaps, always be injurious. Yet Trajan, an +excellent emperor, abolished it as against the early Christians, +persecuted as the 'Lutherans' now are; and he preferred to depend upon +the declarations of those who revealed themselves, rather than to foster +the spread of the curse of informers and sow fear and distrust in +families. But it is as _magistrates_ that we dread, or rather abhor, the +establishment of a bloody tribunal, before which denunciation takes the +place of proof, where the accused is deprived of the natural means of +defence, and where no judicial forms are observed. We allege nothing of +which we cannot furnish recent examples. Many of those whom the agents +of the Inquisition had condemned have appealed to parliament. In +revising these procedures, we found them so full of absurdities and +follies, that, if charity forbids our suspecting those who already +discharge this function among us of dishonesty and malice, it permits +and even bids us deplore their ignorance and presumption. Yet it is to +such judges that you are asked, Sire, to deliver over your faithful +subjects, bound hand and foot, by removing the resource of appeal." + +Is it politic, the orator proceeded to ask, for the king to introduce an +edict standing in direct contradiction to that by which he has given to +his own courts exclusive jurisdiction in the trial of the laity and +simple clerks, and thus initiate a conflict of laws? Or has the +monarch--by whose authority, as supreme head of justice, the decisions +of parliament are rendered, whose name stands at the beginning, and +whose seal is affixed to the termination of every writ--the right to cut +off an appeal to himself, which his subjects, by reason of their paying +tribute, can justly claim in return? Rather let the sovereign remedy be +applied. In order to put an end to heresy, let the pattern of the +primitive church be observed, which was established not by sword or by +fire, but which, on the contrary, resisted both sword and fire through +long years of persecution. Yet it endured, and even grew, by the +doctrine and exemplary life of good prelates and pastors, residing in +their charges. At present the prelates are non-residents, and the people +hunger for the Word of God. Now, it is every man's duty to believe the +Holy Scriptures, and to bear testimony to his belief by good works. +Whoever refuses to believe them, and accuses others of being +"Lutherans," is more of a heretic than the "Lutherans" themselves.[598] +The remonstrance of parliament, said Seguier, in fine, is in the +interest of the poor people and of the courtiers themselves, whom others +more needy will seek to strip of their possessions by means of the +Inquisition and a brace of false witnesses.[599] + +The speech was listened to with attention by Henry, and its close was +applauded by his courtiers, who appreciated the truth of the warning +conveyed. Two days later the king informed the deputies that he had +determined to take the matter into further consideration; and, after +their return, not only Henry, but also Guise and Montmorency, sent +letters to parliament in which the mission of Seguier and Du Drac was +referred to in complimentary terms.[600] + +[Sidenote: Villegagnon sent with Protestant emigrants to Brazil.] + +While the influence of the royal court was exerted, in the manner just +indicated, to obtain entrance for the Spanish Inquisition, two events +occurred equally deserving our attention--an attempt at the colonization +of the New World with emigrants of the reformed faith, and the +organization of the first Protestant church in France. Through the +countenance and under the patronage of an illustrious personage whose +name will, from this time forward, frequently figure on these +pages--Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France--a knight of Malta named +Villegagnon, Vice-admiral of Brittany, obtained from Henry "two large +ships of two hundred tons burthen," fully equipped and provided with the +requisite armament, as well as a third vessel carrying provisions.[601] +Having embarked with a large number of gentlemen, artisans, and sailors, +and having lost some time by being driven back into port to refit after +a storm, he at length set sail for America, and anchored in the bay of +Rio de Janeiro on the thirteenth of November, 1555. Most of the +colonists were adherents of the religion at this time violently +persecuted in France; and it is said that Coligny's support had been +gained for the enterprise by the promise, on the part of Villegagnon, +that in America the reformed should find a safe asylum.[602] + +[Sidenote: Fort Coligny founded.] + +No sooner, therefore, had the small company effected a lodgment on a +small and rocky islet, opposite the present city of Rio de Janeiro, than +Villegagnon conferred on the fort he had erected the name of Coligny, +and wrote to the admiral, as he did subsequently to Calvin, requesting +that pastors should be sent from Geneva.[603] The petition being +granted, Pierre Richier and Guillaume Chartier were despatched--the +first Protestant ministers to cross the Atlantic. They were received by +the vice-admiral with extravagant demonstrations of joy. A church was +instituted on the model of that of Geneva; and Villegagnon recognized +the validity of its rites by partaking of the holy communion when for +the first time administered, on the shores of the Western Continent, +according to the reformed practice. + +[Sidenote: Villegagnon becomes an enemy to the Protestants,] + +[Sidenote: and brings ruin to the expedition.] + +Before long, however, a complete revolution of sentiment and plan was +disclosed. The pretext was an animated discussion touching the +eucharist, between the Protestant pastors, on the one hand, and +Villegagnon, supported by Jean Cointas, a former doctor of the Sorbonne, +on the other.[604] The solicitations of the Cardinal of Lorraine, +together with a keener appreciation of the danger of harboring the "new +doctrines," may have been the cause.[605] Chartier was put out of the +way by being sent back to Europe, ostensibly to consult Calvin. Richier +and others were so roughly handled that they were glad to leave the +island for the continent, and subsequently to return in a leaky vessel +to their native land.[606] But the infant enterprise had received a +fatal blow. Nearly all the deceived Protestants carried home the tidings +of their misfortunes, and deterred others from following their +disastrous example. Three, remaining in Brazil, were thrown into the sea +by Villegagnon's command. A few suffered martyrdom after the fall of the +intended capital of "Antarctic France" into the hands of the Portuguese. +As to Villegagnon himself, he returned to Europe the virulent enemy of +Coligny, and turned his feeble pen to the refutation of +Protestantism.[607] + +[Sidenote: The first Protestant church organized in Paris.] + +But if ruin overtook an enterprise from which French statesmen had +looked for new power and wealth for their country, and the reformers had +anticipated the rapid advance of their religion in the New World, the +founding of the first Protestant church in Paris proved a more +auspicious event. More than thirty years had Protestantism been +gradually gaining ground; but, up to the year 1555, it had been wanting +in organization. The tide of persecution had surged too violently over +the evangelical Christians of the capital to permit them to think of +instituting a church, with pastors and consistory, after the model +furnished by the free city of Geneva, or of holding public worship at +stated times and places, or of regularly administering the sacraments. +"The martyrs," says a contemporary writer, "were, properly speaking, the +only preachers."[608] But now, the courage of the Parisian Protestants +rising with the increased severity of the cruel measures devised +against them, they were prepared to accept the idea of organizing +themselves as an ecclesiastical community. To this a simple incident led +the way. In the house of a nobleman named La Ferriere, a small body of +Protestants met secretly for the reading of the Scriptures and for +prayer. Their host had left his home in the province of Maine to enjoy, +in the crowded capital, greater immunity from observation than he could +enjoy in his native city, and to avoid the necessity of submitting his +expected offspring to the rite of baptism as superstitiously observed in +the Roman Catholic Church. On the birth of his child, he set before the +little band of his fellow-believers his reluctance to countenance the +corruptions of that church, and his inability to go elsewhere in search +of a purer sacrament. He adjured them to meet his exigency and that of +other parents, by the consecration of one of their own number as a +minister. He denounced the anger of the Almighty if they suffered his +child to die without a participation in the ordinance instituted by the +Master whom they professed to serve. So earnest an appeal could not be +resisted. After fasting and earnest prayer the choice was made +(September, 1555). John le Macon, surnamed La Riviere, was a youth of +Angers, twenty-two years of age, who for religion's sake had forsaken +home, wealth, and brilliant prospects of advancement. He had narrowly +escaped the clutches of the magistrates, to whom his own father, in his +anger, would have given him up. This person was now set apart as the +first reformed minister of Paris. A brief constitution for the nascent +church was adopted. A consistory of elders and deacons was established. +In this simple manner were laid the foundations of a church destined to +serve as the prototype of a multitude of others soon to arise in all +parts of France.[609] It was not the least remarkable circumstance +attending its origin, that it arose in the midst of the most hostile +populace in France, and at a time when the introduction of a new and +more odious form of inquisition was under serious consideration. Nor can +the thoughtful student of history regard it in any other light than that +of a Providential interposition in its behalf, that for two years the +infant church was protected from the fate of extermination that +threatened it, by the rise of a fresh war between France and Spain--a +war originating in the perfidy of the Pope and of Henry the Second, the +two great enemies of the reformed doctrines in France--and terminating +in a peace ignominious to the royal persecutor. + +[Sidenote: The example followed in the provinces.] + +[Sidenote: The fagot still reigns.] + +The signal given by Paris was welcomed in the provinces. In rapid +succession organized churches arose in Meaux, Angers, Poitiers, Bourges, +Issoudun, Aubigny, Blois, Tours, Pau, and Troyes--all within the compass +of two years.[610] The Protestants, thirsting for the preaching of the +Word of God, turned their eyes toward Geneva, Neufchatel, and Lausanne, +and implored the gift of ministers qualified for the office of +instruction. Hitherto the awakening of the intellect and heart long +stupefied by superstition had been partial. Now it seemed to be general. +Three months had scarcely elapsed since the foundation of the church at +Paris, before it was asking of the Swiss reformers a second +minister.[611] A month later, Angers already had a corps of three +pastors. "Entreat the Lord," writes the eminent theologian who has left +us these details, "to advance His kingdom, and to confirm with the +spirit of faith and patience our brethren that are in the very jaws of +the lion. _Assuredly the tyrant will at length be compelled either to +annihilate entire cities, or to concede someplace for the truth._[612]" +Meanwhile the fires of persecution blazed high in various parts of +France, but produced no sensible impression on the growth of the +Reformation.[613] + +[Sidenote: Henry II. breaks the truce of Vaucelles.] + +[Sidenote: Cardinal Caraffa.] + +On the fifth of February, 1556, Henry concluded with Charles the Fifth, +who had lately abdicated the imperial crown, and with Philip the Second, +his son, the truce of Vaucelles, which either side swore to observe for +the space of five years.[614] In the month of July of the same year +Henry broke the truce and openly renewed hostilities. Paul the Fourth, +the reigning pontiff, was the agent in bringing about this sudden +change. The inducement held out to Henry was the prospect of the +investiture of the duchy of Milan and the kingdom of Naples; and Paul +readily agreed to absolve the French monarch from the oath which he had +so solemnly taken only five months before. Constable Montmorency and his +nephew, Admiral Coligny, opposed the act of perfidy; but it was +advocated by the Duke of Guise, by the Cardinal of Lorraine, and by one +whose seductive entreaties were more implicitly obeyed than those of all +others--the dissolute Diana of Poitiers.[615] And the negotiation had +been intrusted to skilful hands.[616] Cardinal Caraffa, the pontiff's +nephew, was surpassed in intrigue by no other member of the Sacred +College. No conscientious scruples interfered with the discharge of his +commission. For Caraffa was at heart an unbeliever. As his hand was +reverently raised to pronounce upon the crowds gathered to witness his +entry into Paris the customary benediction in the name of the triune +God, and his lips were seen to move, there were those near his person, +it is said, that caught the ribald words which were really uttered +instead: "Let us deceive this people, since it wishes to be +deceived."[617] + +[Sidenote: Fresh projects to introduce the Spanish Inquisition.] + +[Sidenote: Henry's letter to the Pope.] + +It was fitting that to such a legate should be committed the task of +making a fresh effort to introduce the Spanish Inquisition into France. +The Cardinal of Lorraine had been absent in Italy the year before, when +the first attempt failed through the resolute resistance of parliament. +He was now present to lend his active co-operation. Yet with all his +exertions the king could not silence the opposition of the judges,[618] +and was finally induced to defer a third attempt until the year 1557, +and to give a different form to the undertaking. In the month of +February of this year, Henry applied to the Pontiff, begging him to +appoint, by Apostolic brief, a commission of cardinals or other +prelates, who "_might proceed to the introduction of the said +inquisition_ in the lawful and accustomed form and manner, under the +authority of the Apostolic See, and with the invocation of the secular +arm and temporal jurisdiction." He promised, on his part, to give the +matter his most lively attention, "_since he desired nothing in this +world so much as to see his people delivered from so dangerous a +pestilence as this accursed heresy_."[619] And he solicited the greatest +expedition on the part of the Pope, for it was an affair that demanded +diligence. + +[Sidenote: The papal bull.] + +[Sidenote: The three inquisitors-general.] + +[Sidenote: Odet, Cardinal of Chatillon.] + +[Sidenote: His Protestant proclivities.] + +Paul, who was in the constant habit of saying that the inquisition was +the sole weapon suited to the Holy See, the only battering-ram by means +of which heresy could be demolished,[620] did not decline the royal +invitation. On the twenty-sixth of April he published a bull appointing +a commission consisting of the Cardinals of Lorraine, Bourbon, and +Chatillon, with power to delegate their authority to others. Of the +three prelates, the first was the real instigator of the cruelties +practised during this and the subsequent reigns. The Cardinal of Bourbon +was known to be as ignorant as he was inimical to the Reformation, and +could be depended upon to support his colleague. The Cardinal of +Chatillon, brother of Admiral Coligny and of D'Andelot, was added, it is +not improbable, from motives of policy. He was already suspected of +favoring the reformed doctrines, which subsequently he openly espoused. +Indeed, nearly six years before, the English ambassador, Pickering, +after alluding to new measures of persecution devised against the +Protestants, wrote: "Cardinal Chatillon, as I hear, is a great aider of +Lutherans, and hath been a great stay in this matter, which otherwise +had been before now concluded, to the destruction of any man that had +almost spoken of God's Word. Nevertheless, the Protestants here fear +that it cannot come to a much better end, where such a number of bishops +and cardinals bear the swing."[621] Chatillon's enemies hoped, by +placing him on this inquisitorial commission, where his vote would be +powerless in opposition to that of the other two cardinals, to compel +him either to enter the rank of persecutors, or declare himself openly +for the Reformation, and thus destroy his own credit and that of his +powerful family.[622] + +[Sidenote: The bull confirmed by Henry II.] + +The papal bull was promptly confirmed by the king, who, in a declaration +given at Compiegne, on the twenty-fourth of July, 1557, permitted "his +very dear cousins," the three cardinals, to exercise the office of +inquisitors-general throughout the monarchy. From sentences given by +their subalterns, this document permitted an appeal to be taken, but it +was to a body appointed for the purpose by the inquisitors +themselves.[623] Parliament, however, again interposed the prerogative +it had assumed, of remonstrance and delay, and the king's declaration, +as well as the papal bull, remained inoperative.[624] + +[Sidenote: Judicial sympathy with the victims.] + +[Sidenote: Edict of Compiegne, July 24, 1557.] + +It is not surprising, perhaps, that the institution of the sacred +office, with its bloody code and relentless tribunal, was pressed so +repeatedly upon the French monarch and parliament for their acceptance. +The number of the Protestants was not only increasing in a most alarming +manner,[625] but the very judges before whom, when discovered, the +Protestants were brought, began to show signs of compassion, if not of +sympathy. So it happened that, in one provincial town, two persons +caught with the packages of "Lutheran" books they had brought into +France, after they had made an explicit confession of their faith, were +condemned, not to the flames, but to the trifling punishment of public +whipping; and scarcely had the blows begun to fall upon the backs of the +pedlers, when some of the magistrates themselves threw their cloaks +around the culprits, whose confiscated books were afterward secretly +returned to them, or bought and paid for.[626] To such a formidable +height had this irregularity grown, that, on the very day upon which the +confirmation of the three proposed inquisitors-general was made, Henry +published a new edict (at Compiegne, on the twenty-fourth of July, 1557) +intended to secure an adherence to the penalties prescribed by previous +laws. The reader of this edict, remembering the frequency with which the +_estrapade_ had done its bloody work for the last quarter of a century, +will not be astonished to read that the punishment of death is affixed +to the secret or public profession of any other religion than the Roman +Catholic. But he will rejoice, for the sake of our common humanity, to +learn that "it very frequently happens that our said judges are moved +with pity by _the holy and malicious words_ of those found guilty of the +said crimes;" and that, to secure the uniform infliction of the extreme +penalty upon the professors of the reformed faith, it was now necessary +for the king to remove from the judges the slightest pretext or +authority for mitigating the sentence that condemned a Protestant to the +flames or gallows.[627] + +[Sidenote: Defeat of St. Quentin, Aug. 10, 1557.] + +Under cover of the war during three years, Protestantism made rapid +strides in France. But the contest itself was disastrous to its +originators. The constable, having, when hostilities had once been +undertaken contrary to his advice, been unwilling to resign the chief +command to which his office entitled him, assumed the defence of Paris +from the north, while to his younger rival in arms, the Duke of Guise, +was assigned the more brilliant part in the enterprise--the conquest of +the kingdom of Naples. Montmorency's success, however, fell far short of +the reputation he enjoyed for consummate generalship. Not only did he +fail to relieve his nephews Coligny and D'Andelot, who had shut +themselves up with a handful of men in the fortress of St. Quentin; but +he himself (on the tenth of August, 1557) met with a signal defeat in +which the flower of the French army was routed, and many of its leaders, +including the constable himself, were taken prisoners.[628] + +[Sidenote: Rage against the "Lutherans."] + +The French capital was thrown into a paroxysm of fear on receipt of the +intelligence. The road to Paris lay open to the victorious army. The +king, not less than the people, expected to hear the Spaniards within a +few brief days thundering at the very gates of the city. Charles the +Fifth, from his retirement at Yuste, is said to have asked the courier +with impatience, whether his son was already in Paris.[629] In the minds +of the populace, disappointment and fear were mingled with rage against +"the accursed sect of the Lutherans"--the reputed authors of all the +public calamities. Every prediction which the priests had for a +generation been ringing in the ears of the people seemed now to be in +course of fulfilment. In the startling defeat of a large and +well-appointed army of France, led by an experienced general, all eyes +read tokens of the evident displeasure of the Almighty, not because of +the ignorance and immorality of the people, or the bad doctrine and +worse lives of its spiritual leaders, or the barbarous cruelty, the +shameless impurity, and unexampled bad faith of the court; but because +of the existence of heretics who denied the authority of the Pope, and +refused to bow down and worship the transubstantiated wafer. The popular +anger was the more ready to kindle because the harsh measures of the +government had confessedly failed of accomplishing their object, and +because--to use the expressive language of the royal edict--the fire +still burned beneath the ashes.[630] An incident which happened little +more than a fortnight after the battle of St. Quentin disclosed the +bitter fruits of the slanderous reports and violent teachings +disseminated among the excitable inhabitants of Paris. + +[Sidenote: The affair of the Rue St. Jacques, Sept. 4, 1557.] + +[Sidenote: Assault upon the worshippers.] + +The Protestants of the capital, far from rejoicing over the misfortunes +of the kingdom, as their adversaries falsely asserted, met even more +frequently than before to offer their united prayers in its behalf. On +the evening of the fourth of September, 1557,[631] three or four hundred +persons, of every rank of society, quietly repaired to a house in the +Rue St. Jacques, almost under the very shadow of the Sorbonne, where the +sacrament of the Lord's Supper was to be administered according to +previous appointment. Their coming together had not been so noiseless, +however, as to escape the attention of some priests, residing in the +College du Plessis, on the other side of the way, whose suspicions had +for some time been fixed upon the spot.[632] The reformed were not +disturbed during the exercise of their worship. But when, toward +midnight, they prepared to return to their homes, the fury of their +enemies discharged upon them the full force of its pent-up energies. A +fanatical crowd blocked the street or filled the opposite windows, ready +to overwhelm with a shower of stones and missiles of all descriptions +any that might leave the protection of the house. Continual accessions +were made of those whom the cries of "Thieves!" "Robbers!" "Conspirators +against the realm!" attracted to the place. The discovery of the fact +that it was a company not of robbers, but of "Lutherans," only inflamed +the rage of the new-comers. The cry was now for blood. Every avenue of +escape was guarded, and bonfires lighted here and there dispelled the +friendly darkness. Carts and wagons were drawn across the streets, and +armed men occupied the street-corners, or, if too cowardly to expose +themselves to any danger, stood ready at doors and windows to thrust the +fugitives through with their pikes. + +The assembled Protestants, awakened to their danger, at first expected a +general massacre. But the exhortations of their pastors and elders gave +them new courage. In the midst of the storm raging without, they betook +themselves to prayer. At length the necessity was recognized of coming +to a prompt decision. To await the coming of the civil authorities, for +whom their enemies had sent, was to give themselves up to certain death. +Nothing remained but to force their way out--a course recommended, we +are told, by those who knew the cowardice of a Parisian mob. The men who +were provided with swords were placed in the front rank, the unarmed +followed in their wake. Again and again small companies issued into the +street and faced the angry storm. Each successive company reached a safe +refuge. In fact, of all that adopted the bolder course of action, only +one person was knocked down and left upon the ground to be brutally +murdered and suffer the most shameful indignities. There were, however, +many--one hundred and twenty or more women and children, with a few +men--whom fear prevented from following the example of their companions. +Around them the rabble, balked of the greater part of its expected +victims, raged with increased fury. At one moment they presented +themselves at the windows to the view of their enemies, in the vain hope +that the sight of so much innocence and helplessness would secure +compassion. When only blind hatred and malice were exhibited in return, +they withdrew and quietly awaited the fate which they believed to be in +store for them at the hands of the mob. From this they were delivered by +the sudden arrival of Martine, the king's "procureur" belonging to the +Chatelet, with a strong detachment of commissaries and sergeants. + +With great difficulty restraining the impetuosity of the mob, the +magistrate made on the very spot an examination into the services that +had been held. The whole story was told him in simple terms. He found +that, while the Protestants had been assembling, the Scriptures had for +a long time been read in the French language. The minister had next +offered prayer, the whole company kneeling upon the floor. He had +afterward set forth the institution of the holy supper as given by St. +Paul, had exhibited its true utility and how it ought to be approached, +and had debarred from the communion all seditious, disobedient, impure, +and other unworthy participants, forbidding them to come near to the +sacred table. Then those who had been deemed to be in a fit frame to +receive the sacrament had presented themselves, and received the bread +and the wine from the hands of the ministers, with the words: "This is +the communion of the body and blood of the Lord." Prayers had followed +for the king and the prosperity of his kingdom, for all the poor in +their affliction, and for the church in general. The services had closed +with the singing of several psalms. + +[Sidenote: Treatment of the prisoners.] + +So clear a confession was amply sufficient to justify the arrest of the +entire company. Men, women, and children were dragged at early dawn to +the prison. But their escort was too small, or too indifferent, to +afford protection from the insults and violence of the immense throng +through the midst of which they passed.[633] Not content with applying +alike to men and to women the most opprobrious epithets, the rabble tore +their clothing, covered them with mud and filth, and dealt many a +blow--especially to those who from their long robes or age were +suspected of being preachers.[634] Into these outrages no judicial +investigation was ever instituted, so prevalent was the persuasion that +the zeal of the people in defence of the established faith must not be +too narrowly watched. + +[Sidenote: Malicious rumors.] + +The blame for these excesses must not, however, be laid exclusively to +the account of the populace. There were rumors afloat that owed their +origin to the deliberate and malicious invention of the better +instructed, and that were firmly believed by the ignorant masses. The +nocturnal meetings, to which the Protestants were driven by persecution, +were represented as devoted to the most abominable orgies. The +Protestants were accused of eating little children. It was boldly stated +that a luxurious banquet was spread, and that at its conclusion the +candles were extinguished, and a scene of the most indiscriminate +lewdness ensued.[635] One of the judges of the tribunal of the Chatelet +was found sufficiently pliant to declare, in contradiction to the +unanimous testimony of the accused, that preparations for the repetition +of similar crimes had been discovered in the rooms of the house in the +rue St. Jacques, where the Protestants had been surprised. These +infamous accusations even found their way into print, and were +disseminated far and wide by the priestly party. + +[Sidenote: Trials and executions.] + +While the poor prisoners were confined in the most loathsome +cells--highwaymen and murderers being removed to better quarters to make +room for Christians[636]--a judicial investigation was set on foot. The +king himself expedited the trials.[637] Within little more than three +weeks from the time of their apprehension, three Protestants were put to +death (on the twenty-seventh of September). Both sexes and the extremes +of youth and old age were represented in these victims. To one, a +beautiful young lady of wealth and rank, barely twenty-three years old, +the favor was granted of being strangled before her body was consigned +to the flames. Yet even in her case the cruel executioner had not +abstained from first applying a firebrand wantonly and indecently to +different parts of her person.[638] Her companions were burned alive. +One of them was an advocate in parliament; both were elders of the +reformed church. Five days later a physician and a solicitor met the +same fate, but endured greater sufferings, as the wind blew the flames +from beneath them, prolonging their torture; and these were quickly +followed by two students at Paris, both of them from the southern part +of the realm (on the twenty-third of October).[639] + +[Sidenote: Intercession of the Swiss cantons and others.] + +[Sidenote: Calvin's interest.] + +Meanwhile the wretched prisoners were not deserted by their brethren. +Their innocence of the dreadful crimes laid to their charge was +maintained in pamphlets, which showed that these accusations were but +repetitions of slanders invented by the heathen to overwhelm the early +Christians. Their doctrinal orthodoxy was proved by citations from the +early church fathers.[640] The Protestants of Paris found means to +introduce a long remonstrance into the very chamber of the king. +Unfortunately, it had as little influence upon him as similar +productions had had with his predecessor. In Switzerland and in a +portion of Germany the tidings made a deep impression. Less than two +weeks after the blow had been struck at the small community of Parisian +Protestants, Calvin wrote the first of a series of letters calculated to +sustain their drooping courage, and suggested some of the wise ends +Providence might have in view in permitting so severe a discipline.[641] +Meantime he applied himself vigorously to arouse in their behalf an +effective intervention. "My good brethren," he wrote to the people of +Lausanne, "though all the rest should not suffice to move the hearts of +those brethren to whom an appeal is made, yet this emergency admits of +no delay. It can scarcely be but that, amid so many tortures, first one +and then another be involved in them, until the number of sufferers +become an infinite one. In short, the whole kingdom will be in flames. +The question no longer is how to satisfy the desire of the poor +brethren, but, if we have a single spark of humanity within us, to +succor them in such extremity.... Though money be not promptly obtained +elsewhere, yet shall I make such efforts, should I be obliged to pledge +my head and my feet, that it be forthcoming here."[642] + +Beza, with his associates, Carmel, Farel, and Bude, at the same time, by +Calvin's request, took active steps to induce the Protestant cantons and +princes to intercede with Henry, and their exertions were not in +vain.[643] It was the object of the reformers to enlist the intervention +of those Protestant powers, in particular, whose alliance and assistance +might be deemed indispensable by the French king in his present +straits.[644] The four "evangelical" Swiss cantons, encouraged by the +success of a recent mission in behalf of the Waldenses of Piedmont, sent +to Paris a deputation, whose appearance was greeted by the Protestants +with the utmost joy. The ambassadors, however, allowed themselves to be +cajoled and deceived by the Cardinal of Lorraine, to whom they had the +imprudence to intrust their petition. In reply to their address to the +king, they were told (on the fifth of November), in the name of his +Majesty, that he invited the confederates in future to trouble +themselves no further with the internal affairs of his kingdom, +especially in matters of religion, since he was resolved to follow in +the steps of his predecessors.[645] Discouraged by this rebuff, they +did not even attempt to press the matter upon the king's notice, or by a +personal interview endeavor to mitigate his anger against their +brethren. It had been better never to have engaged in the intercession +than support it so weakly.[646] The German princes could not be induced +to give to the affair the consideration it merited; but a letter of the +Count Palatine seems to have somewhat diminished the violence of the +persecution.[647] + +[Sidenote: Constancy of most of the prisoners.] + +The constancy of the victims, by disconcerting the plans of their +enemies, doubtless contributed much to the temporary lull. No one +attracted in this respect greater attention than the most illustrious +person among the prisoners--the daughter of the Seigneur de Rambouillet +and wife of De Rentigny, standard-bearer of the Duke of Guise--who +resolutely rejected the pardon, based on a renunciation of her faith, +which her father and husband brought her from the king, and urged her +with tears to accept.[648] Others, who, on account of their youth, were +expected to be but poor advocates of their doctrinal views, proved more +than a match for their examiners. The course was finally adopted of +distributing the prisoners, about one hundred in number, in various +monastic establishments, whose inmates might win them back to the Roman +Catholic Church, whether by argument or by harsher means. The judges +could thus rid themselves of the irksome task of lighting new fires, and +the energies of the religious orders were put to some account. But the +result hardly met the expectations formed. If a few Protestants obtained +their liberty, and incurred the censures of their brethren, by unworthy +confessions of principle,[649] many more were allowed to escape by the +monks, who soon had reason to desire "that their cloisters might be +purged of such pests, through fear lest the contagion should spread +farther," and found it "burdensome to support without compensation so +large a number of needy persons."[650] + +[Sidenote: Controversial pamphlets.] + +While the Protestants were thus demonstrating, by the fortitude with +which they encountered severe suffering and even death, the sincerity of +their convictions and the purity of their lives, their enemies were +unremitting in exertions to aggravate the odium in which they were held +by the people. An inquisitor and doctor of the Sorbonne, the notorious +De Mouchy, or Demochares, as he called himself, wrote a pamphlet to +prove them heretics by the decisions of the doctors. A bishop found the +signs of the true church in the _bells_ at the sound of which the +Catholics assembled, and marks of Antichrist in the _pistols_ and +_arquebuses_ whose discharge was said to be the signal for the gathering +of the heretics. A third controversialist went so far as to accuse the +Protestants not only of impurity, but of denying the divinity of Christ, +the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and even the +existence of God.[651] + +[Sidenote: Capture of Calais, January, 1558.] + +Meanwhile, public affairs assumed a more encouraging aspect. Francis of +Guise, recalled from Italy, where his ill-success had been the salvation +of the poor Waldenses in their Alpine valleys,[652] had assumed command +of a large force, consisting partly of the troops he had taken to Italy, +partly of noblemen and gentlemen that flocked to his standard in answer +to the king's summons for the defence of the French capital. With this +army he succeeded in capturing, in the beginning of January, 1558, the +city of Calais, for two hundred years an English possession.[653] The +achievement was not a difficult one. The fortifications had been +suffered to go to ruin, and the small garrison was utterly insufficient +to resist the force unexpectedly sent against it.[654] But the success +raised still higher the pride of the Guises. + +[Sidenote: Registry of the inquisition edict.] + +[Sidenote: Antoine of Navarre, Conde, and other princes favor the +Reformation.] + +The auspicious moment was seized by the Cardinal of Lorraine to induce +Henry, on the ninth of January, to hold in parliament a _lit de +justice_, and compel the court to register in his presence the obnoxious +edict of the previous year, establishing the _inquisition_.[655] But the +engine which had been esteemed both by Pope and king the only sure +means of repressing heresy, failed of its end. New churches arose; those +that previously existed rapidly grew.[656] The Reformation, also, now, +for the first time, was openly avowed by men of the first rank in the +kingdom. Its opponents were filled with dismay upon beholding Antoine de +Bourbon, King of Navarre, his brother Louis, Prince of Conde, and +Francois d'Andelot, brother of Admiral Coligny, at the head of the +hitherto despised "Lutherans." Antoine de Bourbon-Vendome was, next to +the reigning monarch and his children, the first prince of the blood. +Since his marriage with Jeanne d'Albret--in consequence of which he +became titular King of Navarre--he had resided for much of the time in +the city of Pan, where his more illustrious son, Henry the Fourth, was +born. Here he had attended the preaching of Protestant ministers. On his +return to court, not long after the capture of Calais, he took the +decided step of frequenting the gatherings of the Parisian Protestants. +Subsequently he rescued a prominent minister--Antoine de Chandieu--from +the Chatelet, in which he was imprisoned, by going in person and +claiming him as a member of his household.[657] Well would it have been +for France had the Navarrese king always displayed the same courage. +Conde and D'Andelot were scarcely less valuable accessions to the ranks +of the Protestants. + +[Sidenote: Embassy from the Protestant Electors of Germany.] + +Other causes contributed to delay the full execution of the plan of the +Inquisition. A united embassy from the three Protestant Electors of +Germany--the Count Palatine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Marquis of +Brandenburg--and from the Dukes of Deux Ponts and Wurtemberg, bearing a +powerful appeal to Henry in behalf of his persecuted subjects, arrived +in Paris.[658] Such noble and influential petitioners could not be +dismissed--especially at a time when their assistance was +indispensable--without a gracious reply;[659] and, in order that the +German princes might not have occasion to accuse Henry of too flagrant +bad faith, the persecution was allowed for a short time to abate. + +[Sidenote: Psalm-singing on the Pre aux Clercs.] + +An incident of an apparently trivial character, which happened at Paris +not long after, proved very clearly that the severities inflicted on +some of those connected with the meeting in the Rue St. Jacques had +utterly failed of accomplishing their object. On the southern side of +the Seine, opposite the Louvre, there stretched, just outside of the +city walls, a large open space--the public grounds of the university, +known as the _Pre aux Clercs_.[660] This spot was the favorite promenade +of the higher classes of the Parisians. It happened that, on a certain +afternoon in May,[661] a few voices in the crowd began to sing one of +the psalms which Clement Marot and Theodore de Beze had translated into +French. At the sound the walks and games were forsaken. The tune was +quickly caught up, and soon the vast concourse joining in the words, +either through sympathy or through love of novelty, the curious were +attracted from all quarters to listen to so strange an entertainment. +For many successive evenings the same performance was repeated. The +numbers increased, it was said, to five or six thousand. Many of the +chief personages of the kingdom were to be seen among those who took +part. The King and Queen of Navarre were particularly noticed because +of the pleasure they manifested. By the inmates of the neighboring +College of the Sorbonne the demonstration was interpreted as an open +avowal of heresy. The use of the French language in devotional singing +was calculated to throw contempt upon the time-honored usage of +performing divine service in the Latin tongue.[662] To the king, at this +time absent from the city, the psalm-singing was represented as a +beginning of sedition, which must be suppressed lest it should lead to +the destruction at once of his faith and of his authority. Henry, too +ready a listener to such suggestions, ordered the irregularity to cease; +and the Protestant ministers and elders of Paris, desirous of giving an +example of obedience to the civil power in things indifferent, enjoined +on their members to desist from singing the psalms elsewhere than in +their own homes.[663] + +[Sidenote: Conference of Cardinals Lorraine and Granvelle.] + +The visit of the Dowager Duchess of Lorraine, who was permitted to meet +her son upon the borders of France, afforded a good opportunity for an +informal discussion of the terms of the peace that was to put an end to +a war of which both parties were equally tired. There, in the fortress +of Peronne, the Cardinal of Lorraine held a conference with Antoine +Perrenot, Cardinal of Granvelle; and a friendship was cemented between +the former and the Spanish court boding no good for the quiet of France +or the stability of the throne. + +[Sidenote: D'Andelot, Coligny's younger brother, denounced.] + +Little was effected in the direction of peace. But Cardinal Lorraine +received valuable hints touching the best method for humbling the +enemies of his house. Of these no one was more formidable than +D'Andelot, who had distinguished himself greatly in the war on the +Flemish borders. This young nobleman, the Bishop of Arras affirmed, had +been found, during the captivity from which he had recently escaped, to +be infected with the contagion of the "new doctrines." Since his return +to France, he had even ventured to send a heretical volume to console +his brother, the admiral, in prison. The cardinal, jealous of the houses +of Chatillon and Montmorency, promptly reported to the king the story of +D'Andelot's defection from the faith. His brother, the Duke of Guise, +loudly declared that, although he was ready to march to the siege of +Thionville, he could entertain no hope of success if D'Andelot were +suffered to accompany him, in command of the French infantry.[664] + +[Sidenote: D'Andelot in Brittany.] + +The sympathy of the younger Chatillon was daily becoming more openly +avowed. On a recent visit to Brittany (April, 1558), he had taken with +him Fleury and Loiseleur, Protestant ministers. For the first time, the +westernmost province of France heard the doctrines preached a generation +before in Meaux. The crowd of provincial nobles, flocking to pay their +respects to D'Andelot and his wife, Claude de Rieux, heiress of vast +estates in this region, were both surprised and gratified at enjoying +the opportunity of listening to preachers whose voice had penetrated to +almost every nook of France save this. So palpable were the effects, +that D'Andelot's brief tour in Brittany furnished additional grounds for +Henry's suspicions respecting the young nobleman's soundness in the +faith.[665] + +[Sidenote: D'Andelot summoned to appear before the king.] + +[Sidenote: His manly defence.] + +D'Andelot was summoned to appear before the king and clear himself of +the charges preferred against him. Henry is said, indeed, to have sent +previously D'Andelot's brother, the Cardinal of Chatillon, and his +cousin, Marshal Montmorency, the constable's eldest son, to urge him to +make a submissive and satisfactory explanation. But their exertions were +futile. Henry began the conversation by reminding D'Andelot of the great +intimacy he had always allowed him and the love he bore him. He told him +that he had expected of him anything rather than a revolt from the +religion of his prince and an adherence to new doctrines. And he +announced as the principal points in his conduct which he condemned, +that he had allowed the "Lutheran" views to be preached on his estates, +that he had frequented the _Pre aux Clercs_, that he absented himself +from the mass, and that he had sent "books from Geneva" to his brother, +the admiral, in his captivity. D'Andelot replied with frankness and +intrepidity. He professed gratitude for the many favors he had received +from the monarch, a gratitude he had never tired of making known by +perilling life and property in that prince's cause. But the doctrine he +had caused to be preached was good and holy, and such as his forefathers +had held. He denied having been at the _Pre aux Clercs_, but avowed his +entire approval of the service of praise in which the multitude had +there engaged. As for his absence from the mass, he thanked God for +removing the veil of ignorance that once covered his eyes, and declared +that, with the Almighty's favor, he would never again be present at its +celebration. In fine, he begged Henry to regard his life and property as +being entirely at the royal disposition, but to leave him a free +conscience. The Cardinal of Lorraine, who alone of the courtiers was +present, here interposed to warn the speaker of the bad way into which +he had entered; but D'Andelot replied by appealing to the prelate's own +conscience in testimony of the truth of the doctrines he had once +favored, but now, from ambitious motives, persecuted. + +[Sidenote: Henry orders him to be imprisoned.] + +[Sidenote: Embarrassment of the court.] + +Greatly displeased with so frank an avowal of sentiments that would have +cost one less nobly connected his life, Henry now pointed to the collar +of the "Order of St. Michael" around D'Andelot's neck, and exclaimed: "I +did not give you this order to be so employed; for you swore to attend +mass and to follow my religion." "I knew not what it is to be a +Christian," responded D'Andelot; "nor, had God then touched my heart as +He now has, should I have accepted it on such a condition."[666] Unable +any longer to endure the boldness of D'Andelot--who richly deserved the +title he popularly bore, _the fearless knight_[667]--Henry angrily +commanded him to leave his presence. The young man was arrested and +taken by the archers of the guard to Meaux, whence he was subsequently +removed to Melun.[668] The position of the court was, however, an +embarrassing one. Henry manifested no desire to retain long as a +prisoner, much less to bring to the _estrapade_, the nephew of the +constable, and a warrior who had himself held the honorable post of +Colonel-General of the French infantry, and was second to none in +reputation for valor and skill. The most trifling concession would be +sufficient to secure the scion of the powerful families of Chatillon and +Montmorency. Even this concession, however, could not for a considerable +time be gained. D'Andelot resisted every temptation, and his +correspondence breathed the most uncompromising determination. + +[Sidenote: D'Andelot's constancy.] + +[Sidenote: His temporary weakness.] + +In a long and admirable letter to Henry, it is true, he humbly asked +pardon for the offence his words had given. And he begged the king to +believe that, "save in the matter of obedience to God and of +conscience," he would ever faithfully expose life and means to fulfil +the royal commands. But he also reiterated his inability to attend the +mass, and plainly denounced as blasphemy the approval of any other +sacrifice than that made upon the Cross.[669] To the ministers of Paris +he wrote, expressing a resolution equally strong; and the letters of the +latter, as well as of the great Genevese reformer, were well calculated +to sustain his courage. But D'Andelot was not proof against the +sophistries of Ruze, a doctor of the Sorbonne and confessor of the king. +Moved by the entreaties of his wife,[670] of his uncle the constable, +and of his brother the Cardinal of Chatillon, he was induced, after two +months of imprisonment, to consent to be present, but without taking any +part, at a celebration of the mass. By the same priest D'Andelot sent a +submissive message to the king, to which the bearer, we have reason to +believe, attributed a meaning quite different from that which D'Andelot +had intended to convey. The noble prisoner was at once released; but the +voice of conscience, uniting with that of his faithful friends, soon led +him to repent bitterly of his temporary, but scandalous weakness. From +this time forward he resumes the character of the intrepid defender of +the Protestant doctrines--a character of which he never again divests +himself.[671] + +[Sidenote: The bloody decemvirate.] + +[Sidenote: Anxiety for peace.] + +Meanwhile, Henry and his adviser, the Cardinal of Lorraine, who really +little deserved the reproaches showered on them by the Pope, took steps +to encounter the new assaults which the reformed doctrines were making +on the established church in every quarter of the kingdom. If the +Parliament of Paris began to exhibit reluctance to shed more innocent +blood, it was far otherwise with the decemvirate to whom the three +cardinals had delegated their inquisitorial functions, and whose power +was supreme.[672] But, to the prosecution of the work of exterminating +heresy in France, the continuance of the war with Spain offered +insurmountable obstacles. It diverted the attention of the government +from the multiplication of "Lutheran" churches and communities. It +hampered the court, by compelling it to mitigate its severities, in +consequence of the importunate intercessions of its indispensable +allies, the Protestant princes across the Rhine and the confederated +cantons of Switzerland. Besides, the war had borne no fruit but +disappointment. If Calais had been recovered, St. Quentin and other +strongholds, which were the key to Paris, had been lost. The brilliant +capture of Thionville (on the twenty-second of June, 1558) had been more +than balanced by the disastrous rout of Marshal de Thermes at Gravelines +(on the thirteenth of July).[673] + +The almost uninterrupted hostilities of the last twelve years had not +only exhausted the few thousand crowns which Henry had found in the +treasury at his accession to the throne, but had reduced the French +exchequer to as low an ebb as that of the Spanish king.[674] His +antagonist was as anxious as Henry to reduce his expenditures, and +obtain leisure for crushing heresy in the Low Countries and wherever +else it had shown itself in his vast dominions. Constable Montmorency, +too, employed his powerful influence to secure a peace which would +restore him liberty, and the place in the royal favor likely to be +usurped by the Guises, if his absence from court were to last much +longer. And Paul the Fourth was now as earnestly desirous of effecting a +reconciliation between the contending monarchs--that they might unitedly +engage in the holy work of persecution--as he had been a few years +before to embroil them in war.[675] + +[Sidenote: The treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, April 3, 1559.] + +The common desire for peace found expression in the appointment of +plenipotentiaries, who met, about the middle of October, in the +monastery of Cercamps, near Cambray. France was represented by +Montmorency, the Cardinal of Lorraine, Marshal St. Andre, Morvilliers, +Bishop of Orleans, and Claude de l'Aubespine, Secretary of State. The +Duke of Alva, William of Orange, Ruy-Gomez de Silva, the Bishop of +Arras, and Viglius appeared on the part of Philip. England and Savoy +were also represented by their envoys. After preliminary discussions, +the conference adjourned, to meet in February of the succeeding year at +Cateau-Cambresis.[676] Here, on the third of April, 1559, was concluded +a treaty of peace that terminated the struggle for ascendancy in which +France and Spain had been engaged, with brief intermissions, ever since +the accession of Francis the First and Charles the Fifth. + +So far as France was concerned, it was an inglorious close. By a single +stroke of the pen Henry gave up nearly two hundred places that had been +captured by the French from their enemies during the last thirty years. +In return he received Ham, St. Quentin, and three other strongholds held +by Philip on his northern frontier. All the fruits of many years of war +and an infinite loss of life and treasure[677] were surrendered in an +instant for a paltry price. The Duke of Savoy recovered states which had +long been incorporated in the French dominions. The jurisdictions of two +parliaments of France became foreign territory. The inhabitants of Turin +were left to forget the language they had begun to speak well. The King +of Spain could now come to the very gates of Lyons, which before the +peace had stood, as it were, in the middle of the kingdom, but was now +turned into a border city.[678] + +[Sidenote: Sacrifice of French interests.] + +Such were the concessions Henry was willing to make for the purpose of +obtaining peace abroad, that he might turn his arms against his own +subjects. Philip, if equally zealous, was certainly too prudent to +exhibit his eagerness so clearly to his opponent. The interests of +France had been sacrificed to the bigotry of her monarch and the +selfishness of his advisers. When the terms of the agreement were made +known, they awakened in every true Frenchman's breast a feeling of shame +and disgust.[679] Henry himself manifested embarrassment when +attempting to justify his course.[680] Abroad the improbable tidings +were received with incredulity.[681] + +[Sidenote: Was there a secret treaty for the extermination of the +Protestants?] + +The treaty of Cateau-Cambresis contained but one article on the subject +of religion--that which bound the monarchs of Spain and France to put +forth their united exertions for securing a "holy universal council." +But common report had it that the omission of more detailed reference to +the subject lying so near to the heart of both kings was fully +compensated by a secret treaty taken up exclusively with this +subject.[682] That treaty was represented as developing a plan which +contemplated nothing less than the entire and violent destruction of +heresy by the united efforts of their Catholic and Very Christian +Majesties. By a single concerted massacre of all dissidents, the whole +of Europe was to be brought back to its allegiance to the see of St. +Peter.[683] Unfortunately, the secret treaty, if it ever existed, has +never come to light; nor have we the testimony of a single person who +pretends to have seen it, or to be acquainted with its contents. Indeed, +the circumstances of the case seem to render such a united effort as +the conjectural treaty supposes either Quixotic or +superfluous--Quixotic, if the two monarchs, without the concurrence of +the empire, whose crown had passed from Charles, not to his son Philip, +but to his brother Ferdinand, should institute a scheme for a general +crusade against the professors of the doctrines that had already gained +a firm foothold in one-half of Germany, in Great Britain, and the +Scandinavian lands of Northern Europe; superfluous, if it respected only +the dominions of the high contracting powers. For the purpose of Henry +was no less clearly and repeatedly proclaimed than that of Philip. No +subject of either crown could ignore at whom the first blow would be +struck, after the pressure of the foreign war had been removed.[684] +Nor, in the execution of their plans, could either monarch imagine +himself to stand in need of the assistance of his royal brother; for it +was not an open war to be carried on, but as yet a struggle with +_persons_, numerous without doubt, but, nevertheless, _suspected_ rather +than _convicted_ of heresy, and discovered, for the most part, only by +diligent search. + +[Sidenote: The Prince of Orange learns Henry's and Philip's designs.] + +But, if we have reason to think that the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis was +accompanied by no secret and formal stipulations having reference to a +combined assault upon Protestantism, we at least know that the +negotiations it occasioned gave rise to a singular disclosure of the +policy of Philip the Second in the Netherlands--a policy which he deemed +applicable to Christendom entire. Among the ambassadors of Philip and +the hostages for the execution of the treaty was William of Orange, the +future deliverer of the United Provinces. Henry, supposing that the +nobleman to whom so honorable a trust had been committed enjoyed the +confidence of his master to an equal extent with the Duke of Alva, his +colleague, imprudently broached the subject of the suppression of +heresy. The prince wisely encouraged the misapprehension, in order to +avoid incurring the contempt in which he would have been held had the +discovery been made that Philip had not taken him into his confidence. +Henry, waxing earnest on the theme, revealed the intention of Philip and +Alva to establish in the Netherlands "a worse than Spanish Inquisition." +Thus much the prince himself published to the world.[685] The learned +President De Thou adds that Philip's subsequent design was to join his +arms to those of France, to make a joint attack upon the "new +sectaries."[686] This is not altogether impossible. But the plan was +general and vague. Its execution was still in the distant future. Its +details were probably but little elaborated. If, outside of the +dominions of the two monarchs, any points of attack were proposed with +distinctness, they were the free city of Strasbourg, the Canton of Berne +with its dependency, the _Pays de Vaud_--but, above all, _Geneva_. + +[Sidenote: Danger menacing the city of Geneva.] + +That small republic, insignificant in size, but powerful through the +influence of its teachers and the books with which its presses teemed, +was the eyesore of Roman Catholic France. It was the home of French +refugees for religion's sake; and the strictest laws could not check the +stream of money that flowed thither for their support. It was the +nursery of the reformed doctrines; and the death penalty was ineffectual +to cut off intercourse, or to dam up the flood of Calvinistic books +which it poured over the kingdom. + +Calvin himself and his friends momentarily expected the blow to fall +upon their devoted heads.[687] But the same hand that so often in the +eventful history of Geneva interposed in its behalf, by a signal +occurrence warded off the stroke. + +[Sidenote: A joint expedition against Geneva proposed by Henry,] + +[Sidenote: but declined by the Duke of Alva.] + +The apprehensions of the Genevese were well founded. In June, 1559, and +but a few days before the date of Calvin's letter, Philip the Second +made the offer to the French king, through the Duke of Alva, then in +Paris, to aid him in exterminating the Protestants of France. Henry +declined for the moment to avail himself of the assistance, which he +regarded as unnecessary; but he sent the Constable Montmorency to +propose that both monarchs should make a joint expedition against +Geneva, and declared himself ready to employ all his forces in the pious +undertaking. It may surprise us to learn that the prudent duke in turn +rejected the crusade against the Protestant citadel. Even Philip and his +equally bigoted agents could close their ears to the call to become the +instruments in the extirpation of heresy. While they could see neither +reason nor religion in the temporizing policy occasionally manifested by +other Roman Catholic sovereigns in their dealings with Protestant +subjects, Philip and Alva never suffered their hatred of schism to be so +uncompromising as to interfere with what they considered a material +interest of the state. Unfortunately for Philip, the quarrel of Geneva +would inevitably be espoused by the Bernese and the inhabitants of the +other Protestant cantons of Switzerland; and it was certainly +undesirable to provoke the enmity of a powerful body of freemen, +situated in dangerous proximity to the "Franche Comte"--the remnant of +Burgundy still in Spanish hands. It was no less imprudent, in view of +future contingencies, to render still more difficult the passage from +his Catholic Majesty's dominions in Northern Italy to the Netherlands. +So Alva, as he himself reports to his master, rejected the constable's +proposition, contenting himself with a few empty phrases respecting the +great profit that would flow to the cause of God and of royalty from an +exclusion of Roman Catholic subjects from that pestilent city on the +shores of Lake Leman.[688] + +[Sidenote: Parliament suspected of heretical leanings.] + +Henry had deemed the progress of the reformed doctrines in France so +formidable[689] as to dictate the necessity of making peace with Philip, +even upon humiliating terms. But where should he begin the savage work +for which he had made such sacrifices? His spiritual advisers pointed to +the courts of justice, which they accused of being lukewarm, and even +infected with heresy. For years they had been dwelling upon the same +theme. In 1556 the Sorbonne had denounced the parliament itself as +altogether heretical;[690] and, although Henry showed some indignation +at the suggestion, and sarcastically asked whether the theologians +aspired to become the supreme judges of the kingdom, it was notorious, +two years later, that they had succeeded in sowing in his breast a +general distrust respecting the orthodoxy of the entire body.[691] Nor +was the suspicion groundless. Chosen from among the most highly educated +of French jurisconsults, belonging to a court upon which high +prerogatives had been conferred, holding for life a post of enviable +distinction, and regarded as the supreme guardians of law and equity, it +was in accordance with the very nature of things that the counsellors of +the Parisian parliament should so far participate in the progress of +ideas in the sixteenth century as to begin to look with abhorrence upon +the bloody task imposed on them by the royal edicts. Into what +profession would liberal views gain an earlier admission than that of +the appointed expositors of the rules of right? + +Some recent occurrences not only seemed to demonstrate the fact that the +principles of clemency had penetrated into the halls of parliament, but +pointed out the very chamber which was most influenced by them. In the +_Tournelle_, or criminal chamber of parliament--before which those +accused of Protestantism most naturally came--under the presidency of +Seguier,[692] the majority of the counsellors had recently conducted a +trial of four youths, on a charge of "Lutheranism," in so skilful a +manner as to avoid asking any question the answer to which might +compromise the prisoners. And when the bigots insisted on propounding a +crucial inquiry, and elicited a decided expression of Protestant +sentiments, some of the judges showed unmistakable sympathy, and the +chamber, to save appearances in some slight degree, condemned them to +leave the country within a fortnight, instead of instantly confirming +the sentence of death which had been pronounced against three of their +number by the inferior courts.[693] Other "Christaudins" had been sent +to their bishops for trial, although their guilt was patent to all.[694] +In fine, the Cardinal of Lorraine laid to the account of parliament the +spread of the new doctrines throughout France.[695] + +[Sidenote: The Mercuriale.] + +In order to discover the truth of the charges, a convocation of the +members of all the chambers was ordered for the last Wednesday of April, +Such a gathering for inquiry into the sentiments and morals of the +judges was called, from the day of the week on which it was held, a +_Mercuriale_.[696] The object of the convocation was announced by the +royal procureur-general, Bourdin, to be the establishment of an +understanding between the "Grand' chambre" and the "Tournelle"--the +former of which relentlessly condemned the "Lutherans" to the flames, +while the latter, to the great scandal of justice, had let off several +with simple banishment. The wily adversary of the "new doctrines," +therefore, called upon the judges to express their opinions respecting +the best method of effecting a return to uniformity. The snare was not +laid in vain. For in the free declaration of sentiment, in which the +members according to custom indulged, several judges were bold enough to +call for the assembling of the Oecumenical Council promised by the +lately ratified treaty of peace, as the sole method of extirpating +error, and to propose meanwhile the suspension of the capital penalties +ordained by the royal edicts.[697] + +At his admission into parliament each judge had taken an oath to +maintain inviolable secrecy in reference to the deliberations of the +court. This was rightly supposed to relate in particular to the +expressions of opinion before any formal decision. Nevertheless, the +king was at once acquainted by the First President, Le Maistre, and by +Minard, one of the presidents _a mortier_, with the entire proceedings +of the _Mercuriale_. He was told that the "Lutheranism" of certain +judges was now manifest. They had spoken in abominable terms of the +mass, of the ecclesiastical ordinances, and of prevailing abuses. It +would be the ruin of the church if such daring were suffered to pass by +unrebuked.[698] + +The representation of these enormities inflamed Henry's anger. His +courtiers took good care not to suffer it to cool. What if, emboldened +by impunity, the Protestants, of whose rapid growth in all parts of +France such startling reports were brought to him, should attempt to +carry out the plan that was talked of among them, and seize the +opportunity of the wedding festivities solemnly to present to his +Majesty, by the hands of one of the nobles, the confession of faith of +their churches? What punishment of the audacious agent employed would +remove from the minds of the orthodox foreign princes present at court +the sinister impression that heresy had struck deep root in the realm of +the Very Christian King?[699] + +[Sidenote: Henry goes in person to listen to the deliberations, June 10, +1559.] + +If a candid gentleman of the bed-chamber, like Vieilleville, privately +urged Henry to reject the advice of prelates in secular matters, and +respectfully decline the assumption of the post of theologian or +inquisitor-general of the faith, his remonstrances were overborne by the +suggestions of Diana and the Guises, who hoped to reap a rich harvest +from new confiscations.[700] The king was entreated to go in person to +listen to the discussions in parliament. Early on the morning of the +tenth of June, his chamber was visited by a host of ecclesiastics--among +them four cardinals, two archbishops, two bishops, and several doctors +of the Sorbonne, with De Mouchy, the inquisitor, at their head. They +urged him to follow out their suggestion, and were so successful in +overcoming his reluctance that, as a contemporary wrote, he thought +himself consigned to perdition if he failed to go.[701] + +[Sidenote: Parliament meets in the Augustinian monastery.] + +The magnificent hall of the royal palace on the island of the "Cite," in +which parliament was accustomed to meet, was in course of preparation +for the festivities that were to accompany the marriages of Elizabeth, +Henry's daughter, with Philip the Second of Spain, and of his only +sister, Margaret, with the Duke of Savoy. Parliament was consequently +sitting in the monastery of the Augustinian friars on the southern bank +of the Seine.[702] Thither Henry proceeded in state with a retinue of +noblemen, and accompanied by the archers of his body-guard. Taking his +seat upon the elevated throne prepared for him, with the constable, the +Guises, and the princes that had attended him, on his right and left, +Henry made to the judges a short address indicative of his purpose to +take advantage of the peace in order to labor for the re-establishment +of the faith, and of his desire to obtain the advice of his supreme +court.[703] When the king had concluded, Bertrand, Cardinal Archbishop +of Sens and Keeper of the Seals, announced the command of his Majesty +that the consideration of the religious questions undertaken in the +_Mercuriale_ should be resumed. + +[Sidenote: Fearlessness of the counsellors.] + +[Sidenote: Anne du Bourg.] + +The counsellors could be in no doubt respecting the motives of this +solemn and unusual audience; yet they entered upon the discussion with +the utmost fearlessness.[704] Claude Viole boldly recommended the +convocation of an oecumenical council. Du Faur declaimed against the +flagrant abuses of the church. While admitting that the trouble of the +kingdom arose from diversity in religion, he pointed out the necessity +of a careful scrutiny into the true authors of those troubles, lest the +accuser of others should himself be met with a retort similar to that of +the ancient prophet to King Ahab--"It is thou that troublest +Israel."[705] But Anne du Bourg, a nephew of a late Chancellor of +France, and a learned and eloquent speaker, committed himself still +further to the cause of liberty and truth. He gave thanks to Almighty +God for having brought Henry to listen to the decision of so worthy a +matter, and entreated the monarch to give it his attention, as the cause +of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ought to be upheld by kings. He +advocated a suspension of all persecution against those who were +stigmatized as heretics, until the assembling of a council; and warned +his hearers that it was a thing of no slight importance to condemn to +death those who, in the midst of the flames, called on the name of the +Saviour of men.[706] Another counsellor advocated the granting to all +the "Lutherans" of the kingdom a term of six months, within which they +might recant their errors, and at its close might withdraw from France. +But there were others who recommended the employment of severe measures; +and the first president recalled with approval the example of Philip +Augustus, who, in one day, had burned six hundred heretics, and the fate +of the Waldenses, suffocated in the houses and caves in which they had +taken refuge.[707] + +[Sidenote: Henry is displeased, and orders the arrest of two of the +counsellors.] + +At the conclusion of the deliberation, Henry summoned to him the +noblemen who had accompanied him, and, after having consulted them, +angrily declared his great displeasure at the discovery that many of his +judges had departed from the faith, and his determination to inflict +upon them an exemplary punishment. Then turning to Montmorency, he +ordered him to arrest two of the counsellors that had spoken in his +presence--Louis du Faur and Anne du Bourg. The constable at once obeyed, +and gave them over into the custody of Gabriel, Count Montgomery, +captain of the Scottish body-guard. Three other judges soon shared their +rigorous imprisonment in the Bastile,[708] and as many more escaped only +by flight. It was, however, with the boldness of Du Bourg that Henry was +chiefly enraged. He swore that he would see him burned with his own +eyes.[709] + +[Sidenote: The first National Synod, May, 1559.] + +But, whilst the enemies of the Reformation were devising new schemes of +persecution, and were preparing to strike a blow at the more tolerant +sentiments which had stolen into the breasts of the very judges of +parliament, its friends took a step that was at once indicative of its +progress and dictated by its necessities. A few days before Henry was +persuaded to call for a continuation of the discussion commenced at the +"Mercuriale"--on the twenty-sixth of May[710]--the first National Synod +of the French Protestants convened in the city of Paris. It was a small +assemblage in comparison with some others on the list of these national +councils extending down for about a century, and its sessions were held +with the utmost secrecy in a house in the Faubourg St. Germain. But it +performed for French Protestantism the two important services of giving +an authoritative statement of its system of doctrine, and of +establishing the principles of its form of government. The confession of +faith was full and explicit, as well on the points in which the +Protestant and the Roman churches agreed, as respecting the distinctive +tenets of the reformed. The "diabolical imaginations" of Servetus were +equally condemned with the gross abuses of monastic vows, pilgrimages, +celibacy, auricular confession, and indulgences. The pure observance of +the sacraments was established, as well against their corrupt and +superstitious use in the papal church, as against the "fantastic +sacramentarians" who rejected them entirely. Nor need we be surprised to +find the warrant of magistrates to interfere _in behalf_ of the truth +formally recognized. The right of the individual conscience was a right +for the most part ignored by thinking men on both sides during the +sixteenth century--covered and hidden by the fallacious application of +the principle of universal obligation to the inflexible law of right and +of God. The lesson of liberty based upon order was learned only in the +school of long and severe persecution. Even after thirty-seven or eight +years of violent suffering, the Protestant church of France admitted as +an article in her creed, that "God has placed the sword in the hand of +magistrates to repress the sins committed not only against the _second_ +table of God's commandments, but also against the _first_!"[711] + +[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical discipline adopted.] + +The "Ecclesiastical Discipline" laid the foundation of the organization +of the Protestants in France. Thoroughly democratic and representative +in its character, it instituted, or rather recognized, a court--the +consistory--in each particular congregation, with its popular element in +the _superintendents_ (surveillants) or _elders_, who sat with the +pastors to adjudicate upon the inferior and local concerns of the +members. It provided for the more direct participation of the people in +the control of affairs by making the offices of elder and deacon +elective, and not perpetual. It provided a court of appeal in the +provincial _colloques_ or _synods_, to be held at least twice a year, in +which each church was to be represented by its pastor and elder. Above +all stood the _National Synod_, the ultimate ecclesiastical authority. +The constitution strove to preclude the establishment of a hierarchy, by +declaring all churches and ministers equal, and to secure correctness of +teaching, not only by requiring the ministers to sign the confession, +but by providing for the deposition of those who had lapsed from the +faith. + +Thus it was that, in the midst of a monarchy surpassed by none for its +arbitrary and tyrannical administration, and not many hundred paces from +the squares where for a generation the eyes of the public had been +periodically feasted with the sight of human sacrifices offered up in +the name of religion, the founders of the Huguenot church framed the +plan of an ecclesiastical republic, in which the elements of popular +representation and decisive authority in an ultimate tribunal, the +embodiment of the judgment of the entire church, were perhaps more +completely realized than they had ever before been since the times of +the early Christians.[712] The few ministers that had met in an upper +room, at the hazard of their lives, to vindicate the profession of faith +of their persecuted co-religionists, and to sketch the plan of their +churchly edifice, as noiselessly retraced their steps to the +congregations committed to their charge. But they had planted the seed +of a mighty tree which would stand the blasts of many a tempest--always +buffeted by the winds, and bearing the scars of many a conflict with the +elements--but proudly pre-eminent, and firm as the rock around which its +sturdy roots were wound. + +[Sidenote: Marriages and festivities of the court.] + +Henry had sworn to behold with his own eyes the punishment of Anne du +Bourg. But the grateful sight was not in store for him. From the +Mercuriale and the persecution of heretics he turned his attention to +the celebration of the marriages which were to cement the indissoluble +peace that had at length been concluded between the kingdoms of France +and Spain. The most splendid preparations were made for the +entertainment of the brilliant train of noblemen who came to represent +the dignity of the crown of Spain, and to claim the destined bride of +Philip. The "Hotel des Tournelles"--a favorite palace of more than one +king of France--was magnificently decorated; for in its great hall the +nuptials were appointed to be celebrated. In the broad street of Saint +Antoine, in front of this palace, the lists were erected, and the beauty +and nobility of France viewed, from the windows on either side, the +contest of the most distinguished knights, and applauded their feats of +daring and skill. A few paces farther, and just inside the moat, stood a +frowning pile, whose sombre and repulsive front might have struck a +beholder as being as much out of place as the skeleton at the feast--the +ill-omened Bastile.[713] Five prisoners, immured for their conscientious +boldness in its gloomy dungeons, and awaiting a terrible fate, +distinctly heard, day after day, as the tourney continued, the +inspiriting notes of the clarion and hautboy, deepening by contrast the +horrors of their situation.[714] There was the same incongruity between +the king's pursuit of pleasure and his ferocity. From the festivities, +it is said, he turned aside to order Montgomery to proceed, the very +moment the tourney was over, to the _Pays de Caux_--a hot-bed of the +"Lutheran" heresy--to destroy with the sword the resisting, to put out +the eyes of the suspected, and to torture and burn the guilty.[715] It +was believed, moreover, that he himself would then proceed to the +southern parts of France, and set on foot a rigorous persecution of the +Protestants, with whom those regions swarmed.[716] + +The nuptial torches burned not less bright for the gloom overhanging the +despised and abominated Lutherans. But in an instant, as by the touch of +a magician's wand, they were turned into the funereal tapers of Henry +the Second.[717] + +[Sidenote: The tournament, June 30, 1559.] + +[Sidenote: Henry mortally wounded by Montgomery's lance.] + +[Sidenote: His death.] + +On the thirtieth of June,[718] when the sports of the day were about +ending, the gay monarch must needs re-enter the lists in person, and +break another lance in honor of Diana of Poitiers, whose colors he wore. +The queen had indeed begged him to avoid, for that day at least, the +dangerous pastime; she had been terrified, so she said, by one of those +strangely vivid dreams that wear, after the event, so much of the guise +of prophetic sight.[719] But Henry made light of her fears, and closed +his ears to her warning. His choice of an antagonist fell upon +Montgomery, captain of his Scottish archers; and although the latter +begged leave to decline the perilous honor, the king refused to excuse +him.[720] At the appointed signal, the knights rode rapidly to the rude +encounter. But Henry's visor was not proof against the lance of +Montgomery, and either broke or was unclasped in the shock. The lance +itself was splintered by the blow, and the piece which Montgomery, in +his surprise and fright, had neglected instantly to lower, entering +above the monarch's eye, penetrated far toward the brain.[721] Rescued +from falling, but covered with blood, the wounded prince was hastily +stripped of his armor, amid the loud lamentations of the horror-stricken +spectators, and borne into the magnificent saloon of the _Palais des +Tournelles_. Here, after lingering a few days, he died on the tenth of +July. + +It was a month, to the hour, since Henry's visit to parliament.[722] + +The body was laid out in state in the very room appointed for the +nuptial balls. A splendidly wrought tapestry representing the conversion +of St. Paul hung near the remains, but the words, "Saul, Saul, why +persecutest thou me?" embroidered upon it, admitted too pointed an +application, and the cloth was soon put out of sight.[723] The public, +however, needed no such pictorial reminder. The persecutor had been +stopped as suddenly in his career of blood as the young Pharisee near +Damascus. But it may be doubted whether the eyes with which he had sworn +to see Anne du Bourg burned beheld such a vision of glory as blinded the +future apostle's vision. It is more than probable, indeed, that Henry +never spoke after receiving the fatal wound;[724] although the report +obtained that, as he was carried from the unfortunate tilting-ground, he +turned his bleeding face toward the prison in which the parliament +counsellors were languishing, and expressed fear lest he had wronged +them--a suggestion which the Cardinal of Lorraine hastened to answer by +representing it as a temptation of the Prince of Evil.[725] + + * * * * * + + [Sidenote: "La Facon de Geneve"--the Huguenot service.] + + The charge of having prayed, or administered the sacrament of + Baptism or of the Lord's Supper, or taken part in the celebration + of Marriage, "according to the fashion of Geneva," so frequently + appears in the documents of the first century after the + establishment of the Reformation in France as the chief offence of + its early adherents and martyrs, that it is worth while to examine + in some detail the model of worship that has exerted so important + an influence upon the practice of the Huguenots and their + descendants down to the present time. + + While discarding the cumbrous ceremonial of the Roman Church, on + the ground that it was not only overloaded with superfluous + ornament, but too fatally disfigured by irrational, superstitious, + or impious observances to be susceptible of correction or + adaptation to the wants of their infant congregations, the founders + of the reformed churches of the continent did not leave the + inexperienced ministers to whose care these congregations were + confided altogether without a guide in the conduct of divine + worship. Esteeming a written account of the manner in which the + public services were customarily performed to be the safest + directory for the use of the young or ill-equipped, as well as the + surest means of silencing the shameless calumnies of their + malignant opponents, they early framed liturgies, not to be imposed + as obligatory forms, but rather to serve an important end in + securing an orderly conformity in the general arrangement followed + in their churches. + + [Sidenote: Farel's "Maniere et fasson," 1533.] + + The earliest of these liturgical compositions appears to have been + a small and thin volume of eighty-seven pages, which, as we learn + from the colophon, was "printed by Pierre de Wingle at Neufchatel, + on the twenty-ninth day of August in the year 1533;" that is to + say, on the same press which, about a twelvemonth later, sent forth + the famous "Placards" against the mass, and a year afterward the + Protestant version of the Bible, translated into French by + Olivetanus. It is entitled "_La Maniere et fasson qu'on tient es + lieux que Dieu de sa grace a visites_." It was undoubtedly composed + by Guillaume Farel, and, like all the other tracts of that vigorous + and popular reformer, it has become extremely rare. Indeed, the + work was altogether unknown until a single copy, the only one thus + far discovered, was found by Professor Baum, of Strasbourg, in the + Library of Zurich.[726] + + What lends additional interest to the liturgy of Farel, is the + circumstance that it is at the same time, as the modern editor + remarks, "_the earliest Confession of Faith_ of the Reformed + Churches, _their first apology_ in answer to the atrocious, absurd + and lying accusations which the hatred of their enemies, especially + among the clergy, had invented at will, or had borrowed from pagan + calumnies against the Christians of the first centuries." "Do they + not exclaim," writes Farel in his preface, "that those accursed + dogs of heretics who would uphold this new law live like beasts, + renouncing everything, maintaining neither law nor faith, abjuring + all the sacraments; that they reject Baptism, and make light of + the Holy Table of our Lord; that they despise the Virgin Mary and + the saints, and observe no marriage." To remove the prejudice thus + engendered from the minds of the ignorant, is the chief design of + the writer, who accordingly appeals at each step for his warrant to + the Holy Scriptures, and entreats the reader to have no regard for + the antiquity of the abuses he combats, or for the reputation of + their advocates, but simply to examine for himself what "our good + Saviour Jesus has instituted and commanded." The offices are five + in number; for Baptism, Marriage, the Lord's Supper, Preaching, and + the Visitation of the Sick; but to a certain extent, and + particularly in the last-mentioned office, they are little more + than a series of directions for the orderly conduct of worship. In + other cases the service is very fully written out. + + [Sidenote: Calvin's liturgy, 1542.] + + Nine years after the publication of this very simple liturgy of + Farel, appeared the first edition of the liturgy of Geneva, + composed by Calvin, or the "Prayers after the fashion of Geneva," + as they were usually designated by contemporary Roman Catholic + writers. Until recently the first edition was supposed to have been + published in 1543, but Professor Felix Bovet, of Neufchatel, has + been so fortunate as to find a copy in the Royal Library of + Stuttgart, bearing the date of 1542. This is probably the solitary + remaining specimen of the original impression.[727] Although + without name of place, it was doubtless printed in Geneva. The + title is: "_La Forme des Prieres et Chantz Ecclesiastiques, avec la + Maniere d'administrer les Sacremens et consacrer le Marriage, selon + la coustume de l'Eglise Ancienne. M.DXLII._" + + The following brief sketch will perhaps convey a sufficient idea of + the form "which is ordinarily used" for the public worship of the + morning of the Lord's day. + + A brief _invocation_ ("Our help be in the name of the Lord who made + heaven and earth") is followed by an _exhortation_ addressed to the + congregation ("My brethren, let each one of you present himself + before the face of the Lord with confession of his faults and sins, + following in his heart my words"). The _Confession_, which is the + most beautiful and characteristic part of the liturgy, comes next. + Used by Theodore de Beze and his companions at the Colloquy of + Poissy, with wonderful impressiveness, as preparatory to that + reformer's grand vindication of the creed of the Protestants of + France, it has been imagined by many that it was composed by him + for this occasion. But it had already constituted a part of the + public devotions of the French and Swiss Protestants for eighteen + or twenty years. A _Psalm_ was then sung, and a prayer offered "to + implore God for the grace of His Holy Spirit, to the end that His + Word may be faithfully expounded to the honor of His Name and the + edification of the church, and may be received with such humility + and obedience as are becoming." The form is "at the discretion of + the minister." After the sermon comes a longer prayer for all + persons in authority; for Christian pastors; for the enlightenment + of the ignorant and the edification of those who have been brought + to the truth; for the comfort of the afflicted and distressed;[728] + closing with supplications for temporal and spiritual blessings in + behalf of those present. The service was concluded by the form of + benediction, Numbers, vi. 24-26. + + Colladon, in his life of the reformer, tells us that Calvin + "collected (recueillit), for the use of the church of Geneva, the + form of ecclesiastical prayers, with the manner of administering + the sacraments and celebrating marriage, and a notice for the + visitation of the sick, as they are now placed with the Psalms." + (Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss, vi., pp. xvii., xviii.) And Calvin + himself, in his farewell address to his fellow-ministers (April 28, + 1564), as taken down from memory by Pinaut, observed: "As to the + prayers for Sunday, I took the form of Strasbourg, and borrowed the + greater part of it." (Adieux de Calvin, Bonnet, Lettres francaises, + ii. 578.) The Strasbourg liturgy to which Calvin here refers was + one which he had himself composed for the use of the French refugee + church of Strasbourg, when acting as its pastor, during his exile + from Geneva (1538-1541). The earliest edition known to be extant is + that of which a single copy exists in the collection of M. Gaiffe, + and of which M. O. Douen has for the first time given an account in + his "Clement Marot et le Psautier huguenot," Paris, 1878, i. + 334-339. This Strasbourg liturgy of 1542 (the pseudo-_Roman_ + edition already referred to, p. 275), like that of 1545 (which + Professors Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss described in their edition of + Calvin's works, vi. 174, 175), contains some striking variations + from the Geneva forms. In particular, immediately after the + "Confession of Sins," it inserts these words: "Here the Minister + recites some word of Scripture to comfort consciences, and then + pronounces the absolution as follows: + + "Let each one of you recognize himself to be truly a sinner, + humbling himself before God, and believe that our Heavenly Father + will be gracious unto him in Jesus Christ. + + "To all those who thus repent and seek Jesus Christ for their + salvation, I declare the absolution of their sins, in the name of + the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." + + It was this Strasbourg liturgy of Calvin that was in the hands of + the framers of the English "Book of Common Prayer," and from this + they derived the introductory portion of the daily service. + "According to the first book of Edward VI., that service began with + the Lord's Prayer. The foreign reformers consulted recommended the + insertion of some preliminary forms; and hence the origin of the + Sentences, the Exhortation, the Confession, and the Absolution. + These elements were borrowed, not from any ancient formulary, but + from a ritual drawn up by Calvin for the church at Strasbourg." (C. + W. Baird, Eutaxia, or the Presbyterian Liturgies: Historical + Sketches, New York, 1855, p. 190.) + + The origin of only one of the minor offices of the Geneva liturgy + can be distinctly traced to another and older source. The form for + the celebration of marriage is taken bodily from the "Maniere et + Fasson" of Farel, with the omission of two or three unimportant + sentences, and the alteration of a very few words--a trifling + change, dictated in each case by Calvin's keener literary taste. + The form for baptism, Calvin tells us expressly, was somewhat + roughly drafted by himself at Strasbourg, when the children of + Anabaptists were brought to him for baptism from distances of five + or ten leagues around. (Adieux de Calvin, Bonnet, ii. 578.) + + The liturgy of Geneva, composed with rapidity under the pressure of + the times, but with the skill and fine literary finish that are + wont to characterize even the most hurried of Calvin's productions, + has maintained its position undisputed to the present time, being + the oldest of existing forms of worship in the reformed churches. + The gradual change in the French language since the date of its + composition has rendered necessary some modernizing of the style + both of the prayers and of the accompanying psalms. These + modifications, much more radical in the case of the metrical + psalms, took place in the eighteenth century, and commended + themselves so fully to the good sense of all French-speaking + Protestants as soon to be everywhere adopted. The MS. records of + the French church in New York (folio 45) contain, under date of + March 6, 1763, a resolution unanimously adopted in a meeting of the + heads of families and communicants, to change "la vielle version + des Pseaumes de David qui est en uzage parmy nous, et de prandre et + introduire dans notre Eglize les Pseaumes de la plus nouvelle + version qui est en uzage dans les Eglises de Geneve, Suisse et + Hollande." The liturgy has always been printed at the end of the + psalter, and the change of the one involved that of the other. It + has been noted above that the "Confession of Sins" was the most + characteristic part of Calvin's liturgy. In fact, the initial words + of this confession, "Seigneur Dieu, _Pere Eternel_ et + Toutpuissant," came to stand in the minds of the Roman Catholics + who heard them for the entire Protestant service. Bernard Palissy + accordingly tells us (Recepte Veritable, 1563, Bulletin, i. 93) + that a favorite expression of the Roman Catholics from Taillebourg, + when committing all sorts of excesses against the Protestants of + Saintes, was: "_Agimus_ a gagne _Pere Eternel_!" As _Agimus_ was + the first word of the customary grace said at meals by devout Roman + Catholics--"Agimus tibi gratias, omnipotens Deus," etc.--this + apparently enigmatical expression was only a profane formula to + celebrate the triumph of the Roman over the reformed church. See + Bulletin, xii. 247 and 469. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 516: Alluding to the compacts into which Francis had entered, +the emperor accuses him of having purposely violated them all: "los +quales nunca a guardado, como es notorio, sino por el tiempo que no a +podido renobar guerra, o a querido esperar de hallar oportunidad de +danarme con disimulacion." From Henry he anticipates little better +treatment. Instruct. of Charles V. to the Infante Philip, Augsburg, Jan. +18, 1548, Pap. d'etat du Card, de Granvelle, iii. 285. It ought to be +added, however, that both Francis and his son retorted with similar +accusations; and that, in this case at least, all three princes seem to +have spoken the exact truth.] + +[Footnote 517: The dauphin Francis died at Tournon, Aug. 10, 1536, +probably from the effects of imprudently drinking ice-water when heated +by a game at ball. None the less was one of his dependants--the Count of +Montecuccoli--compelled by torture to avow, or invent the story, that he +had poisoned him at the instigation of Charles the Fifth. He paid the +penalty of his weakness by being drawn asunder by four horses! How +little Francis I. believed the story is seen from the magnificence and +cordiality with which, three years later, he entertained the supposed +author and abettor of the crime. See an interesting note of M. Guiffrey, +Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er, 184-186. The imperialists replied by +attributing the supposed crime, with equal improbability, to Catharine +de' Medici, the youthful bride of Henry, who succeeded to his brother's +title and expectations. Charles of Angouleme, a prince whose inordinate +ambition, if we may believe the memoirs of Vieilleville, led him to +exhibit unmistakable tokens of joy at a false report of the drowning of +his two elder brothers, died on the 8th of September, 1545, of +infection, to which he wantonly exposed himself by entering a house and +handling the clothes of the dead, with the presumptuous boast "that +never had a son of France been known to die of the plague."] + +[Footnote 518: See Brantome, Hommes illustres (Oeuvres, vii. 369, +370).] + +[Footnote 519: This was as early as 1538. Memoires de Vieilleville (Ed. +Petitot), liv. v. c. 24, 25.] + +[Footnote 520: "The king is a _goodly tall gentleman_, well made in all +the parts of his body, _a very grim countenance_, yet very gentle, meek, +and well beloved of all his people." The Journey of the queen's +ambassadors to Rome, anno 1555 (the last to pay reverence to the Pope, +under Mary), printed in Hardwick, State Papers, I. 68.] + +[Footnote 521: "Non senza pericolo," says Matteo Dandolo, "perche +corrono molte volte alle sbarre con poco vedere, si che si abbatterono +un giorno a correre all' improvviso il padre (Francis) contra il figlio, +e diede lui alla buona memoria di quello un tal colpo nella fronte, che +gli levo la carne piu che se gli avesse dato una gran frignoccola." +Relazioni Venete, ii. 171.] + +[Footnote 522: Relations Ven. (Ed. Tommaseo), i. 286.] + +[Footnote 523: Histoire ecclesiastique, i., 43. The most striking +features of the character of Henry are well delineated by the Venetian +ambassadors who visited the court of France during the preceding and the +present reigns. Even the Protestants who had experienced his severity +speak well of his natural gentleness, and deplore the evils into which +he fell through want of self-reliance. The discriminating Regnier de la +Planche styles him "prince de doux esprit, mais de fort petit sens, et +du tout propre a se laisser mener en lesse" (Histoire de l'estat de +France, ed. Pantheon litt., 202). Claude de l'Aubespine draws a more +flattering portrait, as might be expected from one who served as +minister of state in the councils of Francis I. and the three succeeding +monarchs: "Ce prince estoit, a la verite, tres-bien nay, tant de corps +_que de l'esprit_.... Il avoit un air si affable et humain que, des le +premier aspect, il emportoit le coeur et la devotion d'un chacun. +Aussi a il este constamment chery et aime de tous ses subjets durant sa +vie, desire et regrette apres sa mort" (Histoire particuliere de la cour +du Roy Henry II., Cimber et Danjou, Archives curieuses, iii. 277). +Tavannes is less complimentary: "Le roy Henry eut les mesmes defauts de +son predecesseur, l'esprit plus foible, et se peut dire le regne du +connestable, de Mme. de Valentinois et de M. de Guise, non le sien." +(Memoires de Gaspard de Saulx, seigneur de Tavannes, ed. Petitot, i. +410.)] + +[Footnote 524: Dr. Wotton to the Council, Paris, April 6, 1547, State +Paper Office, and printed in Fraser-Tytler, England under the Reigns of +Edward VI. and Mary, i. 35, etc.] + +[Footnote 525: De l'Aubespine (Cimber et Danjou), iii. 284, 285.] + +[Footnote 526: Relaz. Venete, ii. 437, 438.] + +[Footnote 527: The legate Santa Croce describes his qualities thus: +"Erat Montmorantius animo alacri et prompto, ingenio acri, corpora +vivido, somni ac vini parcissimus, negotiis vehementer deditus, etc." He +mentions as remarkable the facility with which, in the midst of the most +pressing affairs of state or military exigencies, he could give his +attention, as grand master of the royal household, to the most minute +matters respecting the king's food or dress. De Civilibus Gall. Dissens. +Comment. (Martene et Durand, Ampliss. Coll., v. 1429).] + +[Footnote 528: The devoted "_connestabliste_" Begnier de la Planche does +not conceal the aversion the head of the family which he delights in +exalting entertained for letters: "Il avoit opinion," he writes, "que +les lettres amolissoyent les gentilshommes et les faisoyent degenerer de +leurs majeurs, et mesmes estoit persuade que les lettres avoyent +engendre les heresies et accreu les lutheriens en telle nombre qu'ils +estoyent au royaume; en sorte qu'il avoit en peu d'estime les scavans, +et leurs livres." Histoire de l'estat de la France tant de la republique +que de la religion sous le regne de Francois II., p. 309.] + +[Footnote 529: The people were as a body declared attainted of treason, +their _hotel-de-ville_ was razed to the ground, their written privileges +were seized and reduced to ashes. The bells that had sounded out the +tocsin, at the outbreak of the insurrection, were for the most part +broken in pieces and melted. One miserable man was hung to the clapper +of the same bell that he had rung to call the people to arms. Others for +the like crime were broken on the wheel or burned alive. Tristan de +Moneins, lieutenant of the King of Navarre, had been basely murdered by +the citizens: they were now compelled to disinter his remains, being +allowed the use of no implements, but compelled to scrape off the earth +with their nails! De Thou, i. 459, etc.] + +[Footnote 530: Brantome, Homines illustres (Oeuvres, viii., 129).] + +[Footnote 531: Sir John Mason to Council, Poissy, Sept. 14, 1550, State +Paper Office.] + +[Footnote 532: Claude de l'Aubespine, Histoire particuliere de la cour +du Roy Henry II. (Cimber et Danjou), iii. 277.] + +[Footnote 533: "Onorevolissimo universal carico che tiene." Relazioni +Venete, ii. 166. It is somewhat painful to find from a letter of +Margaret of Navarre, written after Henry's accession, that this amiable +princess was compelled to depend, for the continuance of her paltry +pension of 25,000 livres as sister of Francis, upon the kind offices of +the constable. Lettres de Marguerite d'Angouleme, t. i., No. 154. The +king's affection for Montmorency was so demonstrative that he ordered +that, after their death, the constable's heart and his own should be +buried together in a single monument, as an indication to posterity of +his partiality. Jod. Sincerus (Itinerarium Galliae, 1627, pp. 281-284) +takes the trouble to transcribe not less than three of the epitaphs in +the Church of the Celestines, in which Montmorency receives more than +his proportion of fulsome praise.] + +[Footnote 534: Relazioni Venete, ii. 175, 176.] + +[Footnote 535: De Thou, i. 237, 245.] + +[Footnote 536: A contemporary writer (_apud_ De Thou, i. 237, note) +pretends to cite the monarch's precise words. The current quatrain was +the following: + + Le feu roy devina ce poinct, + Que ceux de la maison de Guyse, + Mettroyent ses enfans en pourpoint, + Et son pauvre peuple en chemise. + +Regnier de la Planche, Hist. de l'estat de France sous Francois II., ed. +Pantheon lit., p. 261. The lines are given, with a few variations, by +almost every history of the times; Recueil des choses memorables, etc., +1565, p. 31; Memoires de Conde, i. 533. De Thou is a firm believer in +the truth of the vulgar report (_ubi supra_), and even Davila (Eng. +trans. of Sir Charles Cottrell, 1678, p. 7) admits that later events +have added much credit to the current belief.] + +[Footnote 537: By arrangement with his elder brother Antoine (A. D. +1530), Claude received, as his portion of the paternal estate, four or +five considerable seigniories enclosed within the territorial limits of +France: _Guise_ on the north, not far from the boundary of the +Netherlands; _Aumale_ and _Elbeuf_ in Normandy; _Mayenne_ in Maine, on +the borders of Brittany; and _Joinville_, in Champagne, on the +northeastern frontier of the kingdom; besides others of minor +importance. Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine (Nancy, 1752), v. 481, 482.] + +[Footnote 538: De Thou draws no flattering sketch of his course: "Le +dernier de ces deux prelats avoit eu beaucoup de part aux bonnes graces +de Francois I^er, _sans autre merite que de s'etre rendu utile a ses +plaisirs_ et d'avoir su se distinguer par une liberalite folle et +indiscrete, deux moyens par lesquels il avoit ete assez heureux pour +adoucir la juste indignation de ce prince contre son frere, Claude duc +de Guise." Hist. univ., i. 523.] + +[Footnote 539: Soldan, Gesch. des Protestantismus in Frankreich, i. 214. +A still longer list is given by Dom Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, v. 482.] + +[Footnote 540: In 1518. Abbe Migne, Dictionnaire des Cardinaux; table +chronologique.] + +[Footnote 541: Sir John Mason to Council, Feb. 23, 1551. State Paper +Office.] + +[Footnote 542: Memoires de Castlenau, liv. i., c. 1; Migne, _ubi +supra_.] + +[Footnote 543: Pasquier, an impartial writer, but somewhat given to +panegyric, paints a very flattering portrait of Guise, in a letter +written after the death of the duke: "Il fut seigneur fort debonnaire, +bien emparle tant en particulier qu'en public, vaillant et magnanime, +prompt a la main," etc. Oeuvres choisies, ii. 258.] + +[Footnote 544: "Le due de Guyse, grand chef de guerre, et capitaine +capable de servir sa patrie, si l'ambition de son frere ne l'eust +prevenu et empoisonne. Aussi a-il dict plusieurs fois de luy: Cest homme +enfin nous perdra." De l'Aubespine, Hist. part., iii. 286.] + +[Footnote 545: "Di dir poche volte il vero. Poco veredico, di natura +duplice ed avara, non meno nel suo particolare che nelle cose del re." +Suriano regards the cardinal as without a rival in this particular: "Che +di saper dissimulare non ha pari al mondo." Tommaseo, i. 526.] + +[Footnote 546: Not to speak of the property he obtained by dispossessing +the rightful owners, he received, by favor of Diana, on the death of his +uncle, Cardinal John, the benefices the latter had enjoyed, with all his +personal wealth. Charles now had 300,000 livres of income; but he never +thought of paying off his uncle's enormous debts: "Laissa toutes les +debtes d'iceluy, qui estoyent immenses, a ses creanciers, _pour y +succeder par droit de bangueroute!_" De l'Aubespine, iii. 281. The papal +envoy, Cardinal Prospero di Santa Croce, combines the traits of +ambition, avarice, and hypocrisy in his portrait of his colleague in the +sacred consistory, and makes little of his learning: "Carolus a +Lotharingia ... juvenis _non illiteratus_, ac ingenio versuto et +callido, _maxime ambitioni et avaritiae dedito_, quae vitia _religionis ac +sanctimoniae simulatione obtegere conabatur_." Prosperi Santacrucii de +Civilibus Galliae dissensionibus commentariorum libri tres (Martene et +Durand Amplissima Collectio), v. 1438. After these delineations of his +character by not unfriendly pens, it is scarcely surprising that a +caustic contemporary pamphlet--_Le livre des marchands_ (1565)--should +describe him as "ce cardinal si avare, et si ambitieux de nature, que +l'avarice et l'ambition mise dedans des balances, elles demeureroyent +egalles entre deux fers." (Ed. Pantheon, p. 423.)] + +[Footnote 547: "Non credo fosse in quel regno desiderata alcuna cosa piu +che la sua morte." Relaz. di Gio. Michiel, Tommaseo, i. 440. I have +united the accounts of two ambassadors, Soranzo and Michiel, the first +belonging to 1558, the other to 1561. Both are contained in Tommaseo's +edit. of the Relations Venitiens.] + +[Footnote 548: Werke, viii. 141.] + +[Footnote 549: Brantome, Oeuvres (Ed. of Fr. Hist. Soc.), iv. 275, +etc.] + +[Footnote 550: "Et seroit a desirer que ceste femme et le cardinal +n'eussent jamais este; car ces deux seuls out este les flamesches de nos +malheurs." De l'Aubespine, iii. 286. The reader will, after this, make +little account of the extravagant panegyric by the Father Alby (inserted +by Migne in his Dict. des Card., s. v. Lorraine); yet he may be amused +at the precise contradiction between the estimate of the cardinal's +political services made by this ecclesiastic and that of the practical +statesman given above. He seems to the priest born for the good of +others: "ayant pour cela merite de la posterite toutes les louanges d'un +homme ne pour le bien des autres, et le titre meme de cardinal de +France, qui lui fut donne par quelques ecrivains de son temps." This +blundering eulogist makes him to have been assigned by Francis I. as +counsellor of his son.] + +[Footnote 551: Brantome, Hommes illustres (Oeuvres, viii. 63).] + +[Footnote 552: Mem. de Vieilleville, i. 179.] + +[Footnote 553: La Planche, 205.] + +[Footnote 554: Mem. de Vieilleville, i. 186-189.] + +[Footnote 555: "Pour du tout s'asseurer, ils se jetterent du +commencement au party de ceste femme; et specialement le cardinal, _qui +estoit des plus parfaicts en l'art de courtiser_. Comme tel _il se +gehenna_ tellement par l'espace de pres de deux ans, que ne tenant point +de table pour sa personne, _il disnoit a la table de Madame_; ainsi +estoit-elle appellee par la Royne mesme." L'Aubespine, Hist. +particuliere, iii. 281.] + +[Footnote 556: "Ne pouvant doresenavant estre aultre mon interest que le +vostre. De quoy Dieu soit loue," etc. Letter of the Card. of Lorraine, +Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. franc., ix. (1860), 216.] + +[Footnote 557: De Thou, i. 496. Henry was a _religious_ prince also, +according to Dandolo. The ambassador's standard, however, was not a very +severe one: "Sua maesta si dimostra religiosa, _non cavalca la domenica, +almen la mattina_." Relaz. Venete, ii. 173.] + +[Footnote 558: Histoire eccles. des egl. ref., i, 43, 44.] + +[Footnote 559: Une chambre speciale composee de "dix ou douze +conseillers des plus scavants et des plus zeles, pour connoistre du +faict d'heresie, sans qu'elle pust vacquer a d'autres affaires." Reg. +secr., 17 avril, 1545; Floquet, Hist. du. parl. de Normandie, ii. 241.] + +[Footnote 560: In the preamble to the edict of Paris issued two years +later, Henry rehearses the ordinance and its motives: "Et pour ceste +cause des nostre nouvel avenement a la couronne, voulans a l'exemple et +imitation de feu nostredit seigneur et pere, travailler et prester la +main a purger et nettoier nostre royaume d'une telle peste, nous aurions +pour plus grande et prompte expedition desdites matieres et procez sur +le fait desdites heresies, erreurs et fausses doctrines ordonne et +estably _une chambre particuliere en nostre parlement a Paris, pour +seulement vaquer ausdites expeditions, sans se divertir a autres +actes_." Isambert, xiii. 136. Cf. Martin, Hist. de France, ix. 516.] + +[Footnote 561: Martin, Hist. de France, ix. 516.] + +[Footnote 562: Edict of Fontainebleau, Dec. 11, 1547. Isambert, xiii. +37, 38.] + +[Footnote 563: A singular illustration of this device is given in a +letter recently discovered. In 1542 a printer, to secure for his edition +of the Protestant liturgy and psalter a more ready entrance into Roman +Catholic cities, added the whimsical imprint: "_Printed in Rome, with +privilege of the Pope_"!--Naturally enough, this very circumstance +aroused suspicion at the gates of Metz, and 600 copies were stopped. The +ultimate fate of the books is unknown. Letter of Peter Alexander, May +25, 1542, Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss, Calvini Opera, vi. p. xv. A single +copy of this _Roman_ edition has recently come to light. It proves to be +the earliest edition thus far discovered of Calvin's Strasbourg Liturgy, +the prototype of his Geneva Liturgy. O. Douen, Clement Marot et le +Psautier huguenot (Paris, 1878), i. 334-339; and farther on in note at +the close of this chapter.] + +[Footnote 564: Crespin, fols. 152-155. De Thou (i. 446) mistakes the +date of the sentence of the Parliament of Paris, March 3, 1548 (1547 Old +Style), for that of the execution. The awkward old French practice of +making the year begin with _Easter_, instead of January 1st, has in +this, as in many other instances, led to great confusion, even in the +minds of those who were perfectly familiar with the custom. The +"Histoire ecclesiastique," for instance, places the execution of +Brugiere in the reign of Francis I., whereas it belongs to the first +year of the reign of his son. So does White, Massacre of St. +Bartholomew, p. 19.] + +[Footnote 565: Crespin, fol. 156.] + +[Footnote 566: Inedited letter of Constable Montmorency of July 8, 1549, +in the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., ix. (1860) 124, 125. +"Voila," says this document, "le debvoir ou ledit seigneur s'est mis +pour continuer la possession de ce nom et titre de Tres-Chrestien."] + +[Footnote 567: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 50, 51. Crespin, fol. +157, etc. The registers of parliament can spare for the auto-da-fe but a +few lines at the conclusion of a lengthy description of the magnificent +procession, and inaccurately designate the locality: "Cette apresdinee +fut faicte execution d'aucuns condamnez au feu pour crime d'heresie, +tant au parvis N. D. que en la place devant Ste. Catherine du Val des +Escolliers." Reg. of Parl., July 4, 1549 (Felibien, Preuves, iv. 745, +746).] + +[Footnote 568: Anne Audeberte and Louis de Marsac. Hist. eccles. des +egl. ref., i. 52, 58; Crespin, fols. 156, 227-234.] + +[Footnote 569: Isambert, Recueil gen. des anc. lois fr., xiii. 134-138. +Of course the provision giving to church courts the right of arrest, so +opposed to the spirit of the "Gallican Liberties," displeased +parliament, which duly remonstrated (Preuves des libertez de l'eg. +gall., iii. 171), but was compelled to register the law, with conditions +forbidding the exaction of pecuniary fines, and the sentence of +perpetual imprisonment.] + +[Footnote 570: De Thou, i. 167. Hist. eccles., i. 53.] + +[Footnote 571: De Thou, _ubi supra_. Mezeray well remarks that the +Protestants recognized the fact then, as they always have done since, in +similar circumstances, that there is no more disastrous time for them +than when the court of France has a misunderstanding with that of Rome. +Abrege chronologique, iv. 664.] + +[Footnote 572: "A right of appeal to the supreme courts has hitherto +been, and still is, granted to persons guilty of poisoning, of forgery, +and of robbery; yet this is denied to Christians; they are condemned by +the ordinary judges to be dragged straight to the flames, without any +liberty of appeal.... All are commanded, with more than usual +earnestness, to adore the breaden god on bended knee. All parish priests +are commanded to read the Sorbonne Articles every Sabbath for the +benefit of the people, that a solemn abnegation of Christ may thus +resound throughout the land.... Geneva is alluded to more than ten times +in the edict, and always with a striking mark of reproach." Calvin's +Letters (Bonnet), Eng. tr., iii. 319, 320. I cannot agree with Soldan +(Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 228) in the statement that the +Edict of Chateaubriand left the jurisdiction essentially as fixed by the +ordinance of Nov. 19, 1549. For the edict does not, as he asserts, +permit "the civil judges--presidial judges as well as +parliaments--equally with the spiritual, to commence every process." It +deprives the ecclesiastical judge, 1st, of the right which the ordinance +of 1549 had conferred, of _initiating_ any process where scandal, +sedition, etc., were joined to simple heresy, and these cases--under the +interpretation of the law--constituted a large proportion of cases; 2d, +of the right of deciding with the secular judges in these last-named +cases; and 3d, of the power of arrest. De Thou, himself a president of +parliament (ii. 375, liv. xvi.), therefore styles it "un edit, par +lequel le Roi se reservoit une entiere connoissance du Lutheranisme, et +l'attribuoit a ses juges, sans aucune exception, a moins que l'heresie +dont il s'agissoit ne demandat quelque eclaircissement, ou que les +coupables ne fussent dans les ordres sacres."] + +[Footnote 573: Milton's Areopagitica. This was the view somewhat +bitterly expressed in one of the poems of the "Satyres Chrestiennes de +la cuisine Papale " (Geneva, 1560; reprinted 1857), addressed "aux +Rostisseurs," p. 130: + + "Je cognoy, Cagots, que mes liures + Vous sont fascheusement nouueaux. + Bruslez, si en serez deliures + Pour en servir de naueaux. + Mais scavez-vous que c'est, gros veaux, + _Fuyez le feu qui s'en fera: + Car la fumee en vos cerueauz + Seulmient vous estouffera_." +] + +[Footnote 574: Recueil gen. des anc. lois fr., xiii. 189-208.] + +[Footnote 575: Hist. eccles., i. 59.] + +[Footnote 576: Letter of Beza to Bullinger, Lausanne, May 10, 1552 +(Baum, Thedor Beza, i. 423): "Et tamen vix credas quam multi sese +libenter his periculis objiciant ut aedificent Ecclesiam Dei."] + +[Footnote 577: Beza to Bullinger, Oct. 28, 1551, Baum, i. 417: "Tantum +abest ut Evangelii amplificationem ea res (cruentissimum regis edictum) +impediat ut contra nihil aeque prodesse sentiamus ad oves Christi undique +dispersas in unum veluti gregem cogendas. Id testari vel una Geneva +satis potest, in quam hodie certatim ex omnibus et Galliae et Italiae +regionibus tot exules confluunt, ut tantae multitudini vix nunc +sufficiat."] + +[Footnote 578: De Thou, ii. 181.] + +[Footnote 579: Memoires de Vieilleville (written by his secretary, +Vincent Carloix), ed. Petitot, i. 299-301. This incident belongs to the +year 1549.] + +[Footnote 580: Histoire eccles., i. 54-60.] + +[Footnote 581: Soldan is scarcely correct (Gesch. des Prot. in Frank., +i. 235) in representing them to have _completed_ their course of study; +"alii diutius quam alii," are the words of Crespin, Actiones et +Monimenta Martyrum, fol. 185.] + +[Footnote 582: In fact, there seem to have been two "_officials_" at +Lyons--the ordinary "_official_" so-called, or "_official buatier_" as +he is styled in the narrative of Ecrivain (Baum, i. 392), and the +"_official de la primace_," _i. e._, of the Archbishop, as Primate of +France (Ibid., i. 388).] + +[Footnote 583: Baum, Theodor Beza, i. 176.] + +[Footnote 584: See a letter of Calvin to the prisoners, in Bonnet, +Lettres franc. de Calvin, i. 340.] + +[Footnote 585: It was in view of this response of the king that +Bullinger wrote to Calvin: "He lives that delivered His people from +Egypt; He lives who brought back the captivity from Babylon; He lives +who defended His church against Caesars, kings, and profligate princes. +Verily we must needs pass through many afflictions into the kingdom of +God. But _woe to those who touch the apple of God's eye_!" See Calvin's +Letters (Eng. trans.), ii. 349, note.] + +[Footnote 586: Prof. Baum has graphically described the unsuccessful +intercession of the Swiss cantons in his Theodor Beza, i. 177-179.] + +[Footnote 587: Histoire eccles. des egl. ref., i. 57.] + +[Footnote 588: Ibid., _ubi supra_; Crespin, Actiones et Mon., fols. +185-217 (also in Galerie Chretienne, i. 268-330); De Thou, ii. 180, 181. +The description of the closing scenes of the lives of the Five Scholars +of Lausanne is among the most touching passages in the French +martyrology, but the limits of this history do not admit of its +insertion (see Baum, i. 179-181, and Soldan, i. 236-238). Their progress +to the place of execution was marked by the recital of psalms, the +benediction, "The God of peace, that brought again from the dead, etc.," +and the Apostles' creed; and, after mutual embraces and farewells, their +last words, as their naked bodies, smeared with grease and sulphur, hung +side by side over the flames, were: "Be of good courage, brethren, be of +good courage!"] + +[Footnote 589: Beza to Bullinger, Dec. 24, 1553, and May 8, 1554; Baum, +Theodor Beza, i. 431, 438.] + +[Footnote 590: The bull of Julius the Third sanctioning the use of these +proscribed articles of food--at whose instigation it was given is +uncertain--was regarded by the Parliament of Paris as allowing a +"scandalous relaxation" of morals, and the keeper of the seals gave +orders, by cry of the herald, that all booksellers and printers be +forbidden to sell copies of it (Feb. 7, 1553). But this was not +sufficient, since the bull was afterward publicly burned by order of +Henry the Second and the parliament. Reg. of Parliament, in Felibien, +Hist. de Paris, iv. 763; see also ibid., ii. 1033.] + +[Footnote 591: Floquet, Hist. du parlement de Normandie, ii. 258-260.] + +[Footnote 592: Garnier, Hist. de France, xxvii. 49, etc., whose account +of the attempted introduction of the Spanish Inquisition into France is +the most correct and comprehensive.] + +[Footnote 593: Ibid., _ubi supra_; De Thou, ii. 375. The edict +establishing the Spanish inquisition is not contained in any collection +of laws, as it was never formally registered. Dulaure (Hist. de Paris, +iv. 133, 134) gives, apparently from the Reg. criminels du parl., +registre cote 101, au 20 mai 1555, an extract from it: "Que les +inquisiteurs de la foi et juges ecclesiastiques peuvent librement +proceder a la punition des heretiques, tant clercs que laics, jusqu'a +sentence definitive inclusivement; que les accuses qui, avant cette +sentence, appelleront comme d'abus resteront toujours prisonniers, et +leur appel sera porte au parlement. Mais, nonobstant cet appel, si +l'accuse est declare heretique par les inquisiteurs, et pour ne pas +retarder son chatiment, il sera livre au bras seculier." (Soldan, from +Lamothe-Langon, iii. 458, reads _exclusivement_, which must be wrong, +if, indeed, the whole be not a mere paraphrase, which I suspect.)] + +[Footnote 594: By the advice of the Cardinal of Lorraine, the Parliament +of Paris had been divided into two sections, holding their sessions each +for six months, and each vested with the powers of the entire body. This +change went into effect July 2, 1554, and lasted three years. It was +made ostensibly to relieve the judges and expedite business, but really +in the interest of despotism, to diminish the authority of the undivided +court sitting throughout the year. De Thou, ii. 246, 247.] + +[Footnote 595: The post of Inquisitor-General of the Faith in France, +having his seat at Toulouse, had, as we have already seen, long existed. +It was filled in 1536 by friar Vidal de Becanis (the letters patent +appointing whom are given in the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. +fr., i. (1853), 358). He was succeeded by Louis de Rochetti, who left +the Roman Catholic Church, and was burned alive at Toulouse, Sept. 10, +1538. Afterward Becanis was reinstated (Ibid., _ubi supra_). A circular +letter of this inquisitor-general, accompanying a list of heretical and +prohibited works, is given, Ibid., i. 362, 363, 437, etc.] + +[Footnote 596: Garnier, Hist. de France, xxvii. 49-54.] + +[Footnote 597: The date, Oct. 16th, usually given (by De Thou, Garnier, +etc.) for this harangue is incorrect. The publication of the valuable +"Memoires-journaux du Duc de Guise," which Messrs. Michaud and Poujoulat +(1851) have brought out of their obscurity, affords us the advantage of +reading the account of the deputation and speech of Seguier in the words +of his own report, from the Registers of Parliament (pp. 246-249). From +this we learn that Seguier and Du Drac left Paris on Saturday, Oct. +19th, reached Villera-Cotterets on Monday the 21st, and had an audience +on Tuesday the 22d.] + +[Footnote 598: "Qu'il falloit croire l'Escriture et rendre tesmoignage +de sa creance par bonnes oeuvres, et qui ne la veut croire et accuse +les autres estre lutheriens, est plus heretique que les mesmes +lutheriens." Memoires de Guise, 248.] + +[Footnote 599: Memoires de Guise, 246-249; Gamier, xxvii. 55-70; De +Thou, liv. xvi., ii. 375-377.] + +[Footnote 600: Mem. de Guise, 249, 250.] + +[Footnote 601: According to Claude Haton (p. 38), a part of the +emigrants were, by the king's permission, drawn from the prisons of +Paris and Rouen. Nor does the pious curate see anything incongruous in +the attempt to employ the released criminals in converting the +barbarians to the true faith. However, although Villegagnon was a native +of Provins, where Haton long resided, the curate's authority is not +always to be received with perfect assurance.] + +[Footnote 602: The reconciliation between the statements of the text (in +which I have followed the unimpeachable authority of the Hist. eccles. +des eglises reformees) and the assertion of the equally authoritative +life of Coligny by Francis Hotman (Latin ed., 1575, p. 18, Eng. tr. of +D. D. Scott, p. 70). that Coligny's "love for true religion and vital +godliness, and his desire to worship God aright," dated from the time of +his captivity after the fall of St. Quentin (1557), and the opportunity +he then enjoyed for reading the Holy Scriptures, is to be found probably +in the view that, having previously been convinced of the truth of the +reformed doctrines, he was not brought until then to their bold +confession and courageous espousal--acts so perilous in themselves and +so fatal to his ambition and to his love of ease. Respecting +Villegagnon's promise to establish the "sincere worship of God" in his +new colony, see the rare and interesting "Historia navigationis in +Braziliam, quae et America dicitur. Qua describitur autoris navigatio, +quaeque in mari vidit memoriae prodenda: Villegagnonis in America gesta, +etc. A Joanne Lerio, Burgundo, etc., 1586." Jean l'Hery or Lery was a +young man of twenty-two, who accompanied the ministers and skilled +workmen whom Villegagnon invited to Brazil, partly from pious motives, +partly, as he tells us, from curiosity to see the new world (page 6). +Despite his sufferings, the adventurous author, in later years, longed +for a return to the wilderness, where among the savages better faith +prevailed than in civilized France: "Ita enim apud nos fides nulla +superest, resque adeo nostra tota _Italica_ facta est," etc. (page +301).] + +[Footnote 603: Jean Lery, _ubi supra_, 4-6.] + +[Footnote 604: What Villegagnon actually believed was an enigma to Lery, +for the vice-admiral rejected both transubstantiation and +consubstantiation, and yet maintained a _real_ presence. Lery, 58, 54. +Cointas had at first solemnly abjured Roman Catholicism, and applied for +admission to the Reformed Church. Ibid., 46.] + +[Footnote 605: Lery himself is in doubt respecting the exact occasion of +the change in Villegagnon's conduct. Some of the colonists were fully +persuaded "inde id accidisse, quod a Cardinali Lotharingo, aliisque qui +ad eum e Gallia scripserunt ... graviter fuisset reprehensus, quod a +Catholica Romanensi Ecclesia descivisset: hisque literis eum ita +perterritum fuisse, ut sententiam repente mutaverit." Others believed +him guilty of premeditated treachery: "Post meum tamen reditum accepi +Villagagnonem cum Card. Lotharingo consilium jam inivisse, antequam e +Gallia excederet, de vera Religione simulanda, ut facilius auctoritate +Colignii maris praefecti abuterentur," etc. Hist. navig. in Brasiliam, +62, 63.] + +[Footnote 606: The Protestants were bearers of a Bellerophontic letter, +addressed to the magistrates of whatever French port they might enter, +intended to compass their destruction as heretics and rebels. They made +the harbor of Hennebon, in Brittany, whose Protestant officers disclosed +the secret plan and welcomed the half-famished fugitives. Lery, 304-330; +Hist. eccles., i. 102; La Place, Commentaires de l'estat de la rel. et +republ., 25.] + +[Footnote 607: De Thou, ii. 381-384; Hist. eccles., 100-102; Lery, 339 +_et passim_; La Place, _ubi supra_. "Clarissimi, erudissimique viri D. +Nicolai Villagagnonis, equitis Rhodii, adversus novitium Calvini ... +dogma de sacramento Eucharistiae, opuscula tria, Coloniae, 1563." In the +preface of the first of these treatises, Villegagnon denies the reports +of his fickleness and cruelty as slanders of the returning Protestants, +and defends his conduct in throwing the three _monks_ into the sea. In a +dedication to Constable Montmorency (dated 1560) he clears himself from +the charge of atheism brought against him because he expelled the +ministers "on discovering the vanity of their religion." There are +subjoined Richier's articles, etc.] + +[Footnote 608: Hist. eccles., i. 61.] + +[Footnote 609: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 61-63.] + +[Footnote 610: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 63-71.] + +[Footnote 611: "In Gallia pergunt ecclesiae zelo plane mirabili. +_Parisienses_ novum ministrum petunt, quern brevi, ut spero, missuri +sumus." Beza to Bullinger, Jan. 1, 1556 (Baum, i. 450).] + +[Footnote 612: Beza to Bullinger, Feb. 12, 1556 (Ib., i. 453). The +curate of Meriot deplores the progress of the Reformation during this +year. "L'heresie prenoit secretement pied en France.... Mais ah! le +malheur advint tel que la plus part des grands juges de la court de +parlement, comme presidens et conseillers, furent et estoient intoxiquez +et empoisonnez de ladite heresie lutherienne et calvinienne, et qui pis +est de la moytie, se trouva finallement des evesques qui estoient tous +plains et couvers de ceste mauldite farinne. Et pour ce que le roy +tenoit le main forte pour faire pugnir de la peine du feu les +coulpables, y en avait mille a sa suitte et en la ville de Paris, +_lesquelz faisoient bonne mine et meschant jeu_, feignoient d'estre +vrays catholiques, et en leur secret et consciences estoient parfaictz +hereticques." Mem. de Claude Haton, 27.] + +[Footnote 613: The execution of the "Five from Geneva" at Chambery, in +Savoy--then, as now again, a part of France--and the violent persecution +in the neighborhood of Angers, are well known (Crespin, fols. 283-321; +Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 68, 69). The inclination to resist force +by force, manifested by some Protestants in Anjou, was promptly +discouraged by Calvin; letter of April 19, 1556 (Lettres franc., ii. +90). The number and names of the martyrs will probably never be +ascertained. "N'estoit quasi moys de l'an qu'on n'en bruslast a Paris, a +Meaux et a Troie en Champagne deux ou trois, en aulcun moy plus de +douze. Et si pour cela les aultres ne cessoient de poursuivre leur +entreprinse de mettre en avant leur faulce religion." Mem. de Cl. Haton, +48. The Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., vii. (1858) 14, +extracts from the registers of the Parliament of Toulouse, June 11, +1556, the sentence of a victim hitherto unknown--one Blondel. He had +dared to protest against the impiety of the procession of the +"Fete-Dieu," or "Corpus Christi," by singing "a profane hymn of Clement +Marot." Parliament turned aside from the procession, and in the sacristy +of the church of St. Stephen rapidly tried him, and ordered him to be +burned the same day at the stake in a public square, as a "reparation of +the injury done to the holy faith." Certainly a church dedicated to the +Christian protomartyr was not the most appropriate place for drawing up +such a decree!] + +[Footnote 614: De Thou, ii. 404.] + +[Footnote 615: De Thou, ii. 412-416.] + +[Footnote 616: The papal letter sent by the hands of Caraffa to Henry +(together with a sword and hat solemnly blessed by Paul himself) is +reprinted in Cimber et Danjou, Archives curieuses, iii. 425, 426.] + +[Footnote 617: De Thou, ii. 417.] + +[Footnote 618: A letter of Henry himself to M. de Selve, his ambassador +at Rome, gives us the fact of the effort and of its failure: "Voyant les +heresies et faulces doctrines, qui a mon tres grand regret, ennuy et +desplaisir, pullulent en mes royaume et pays de mon obeissance, j'avoys +despieca advise, selon les advis _que le cardinal Caraffe estant +dernierement pardeca m'en a donne de la part de nostre Saint-Pere, de +mettre sus et introduire l'inquisition_ selon la forme de droict, pour +estre le vray moien d'extirper la racine de telles erreurs, pugnir et +corriger ceulx qui lea font et commettent avec leurs imitateurs, toutes +fois pour ce que en cela se sont trouvez quelques difficultez, alleguant +ceulx des estats de mon royaume, lesquels ne veulent recevoir, +approuver, ne observer la dicte inquisition, les troubles, divisions et +aultres inconveniens qu'elle pourroit apporter avec soy, et mesmes, en +ce temps de guerre, il m'a semble pour le mieulx de y parvenir par +aultre voye," etc. Memoires de Guise, p. 338. The letter is inaccurately +given in Sismondi, Hist. des Francais, xviii. 623. See Dulaure, H. de +Paris, iv. 135.] + +[Footnote 619: "Comme celluy qui ne desire autre chose en ce monde, que +veoir mon peuple nect et exempt d'une telle dangereuse peste et vermyne +que sont lesdictes heresies et faulces et reprouvees doctrines." Henry +to De Selve, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 620: Sismondi, Hist. des Francais, xviii. 62.] + +[Footnote 621: Sir Wm. Pickering to Council, Melun, Sept. 4, 1551, State +Paper Office MSS. Patrick Fraser Tytler, Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary, +i. 420.] + +[Footnote 622: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 72.] + +[Footnote 623: See the declaration of Henry, in Preuves des Libertez de +l'Egl. gallicane, part iii. 174.] + +[Footnote 624: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 72, 73.] + +[Footnote 625: "Hoc quidem tibi possum pro comperto affirmare regnum Dei +tantum nunc progressum _in decem minimum Galliae urbibus ac Lutetiae +praesertim_ facere ut magni nescio quid Dominus illic moliri aperte +videatur." Beza to Bullinger, March 27, 1557, Baum, Theodor Beza, i. +461.] + +[Footnote 626: At Autun, in Sept., 1556. Hist. eccles., i. 70. No wonder +that the example set by the judges of Autun "served greatly to instruct +others!"] + +[Footnote 627: Recueil gen. des anc. lois fr., xiii. 494-497. The +respective jurisdictions of the clerical and lay judges remained the +same. An article, however, was appended declaring that in future the +confiscated property of condemned heretics should no more inure to the +crown, or be granted to private individuals, but should be applied to +charitable purposes. What a feeble barrier this provision proved to the +cupidity of the courtiers, long glutted with the spoils of +"Lutherans"--real or pretended--the case of Philippine de Luns showed +very clearly, some two or three months later.] + +[Footnote 628: Besides the accounts of the disastrous battle of St. +Quentin given by the Memoires of Rabutin, Coligny and other +contemporaries, and by De Thou and other historians of a somewhat later +date, the graphic narrative of its incidents contained in Prescott's +Reign of Philip the Second (lib. i., c. vii.) is well worthy of +perusal.] + +[Footnote 629: Prescott, i. 240, note.] + +[Footnote 630: "Comme feu soubs la cendre." Recueil gen. des anc. lois +fr., xiii. 134.] + +[Footnote 631: By an unpardonable negligence, Mr. Browning places the +"affaire de la rue St. Jacques" before the battle of St. Quentin, in the +month of May, 1557. History of the Huguenots, i. 45.] + +[Footnote 632: A contemporary account of the affair by the reformer +Knox, dated Dieppe, Dec. 7, 1557, although it adds little to our +knowledge of the incidents, is of considerable interest. I cite a few +sentences: "Almost in everie notabill Citie within France thair be +assemblit godlie Congregationis of sic as refusit all societie with the +sinagoge of Sathan, so were (and yit are) dyvers Congregationis in +Paris, and kirkis having thair learnit ministeris for preishing Chrystis +Evangell, and for trew ministratioun of the halie Sacramentis instited +be him. The brute whairof being spred abrod, great search was maid for +thair aprehensioun, and at lenth, according to the pre-disingnit consall +of oure God, who hath apoyntit the memberis to be lyke to the heid, the +bludthirstie wolves did violentlie rusche in amongis a portioun of +Chrystis simpill lambis. For thois hell-houndis of Sorbonistis, +accompanyit with the rascall pepill, and with sum sergeantis maid apt +for thair purpois, did so furiouslie invade a halie assemblie convenit +(nye the number of four hundreth personis) to celebrat the memorie of +oure Lordis deth," etc. Printed from MS. volume in possession of Dr. +McCrie, in David Laing's Works of John Knox (Edinb., 1855), iv. 299.] + +[Footnote 633: "As ravisching wolves rageing for blood, murderit sum, +oppressit all, and schamfullie intreatit both men and wemen of great +blude and knawin honestie." Knox, _ubi supra_, p. 300.] + +[Footnote 634: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 73-75. This detailed and +most authentic account is taken verbatim from that of Crespin, which may +be read in the Galerie chretienne, ii. 253-259; De la Place (ed. +Pantheon lit.), p. 4; De Thou, v. 530. Claude Haton gives a story which +bears but a faint resemblance to the truth--the mingled result of +imperfect information and prejudice. Memoires, i. 51-53.] + +[Footnote 635: "And yit is not this the end and chief point of thair +malice; for thai, as children of thair father, wha is the autour of all +lies, incontinent did spread a most schamfull and horribill sclander, to +wit, that thai convenit upon the nycht for no uthir cause but to +satisfie the filthie lustis of the flesche." Knox, _ubi supra_, p. 300. +For an unfriendly account of the pretended orgies, see Claude Haton +(Mem.), i. 49-51.] + +[Footnote 636: Foul play was even employed, in addition to barbarous +treatment, if Knox was rightly informed: "But theis cruell tirantis and +privie murdereris, as thai have permittit libertie of toung to none, sa +by poysone haif thai murderit dyvers in prisone." Knox, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 637: Henry ordered parliament to try the accused by a +commission consisting of two presidents and sixteen counsellors, and +enjoined that this matter should take precedence of all others. Hist. +eccles des egl. ref., _ubi infra_; Crespin, _ubi infra_.] + +[Footnote 638: The courageous words of Philippine de Luns, when she was +bidden to give her tongue to have it cut off, were long remembered: +"Since I bemoan not my body," said she, "shall I bemoan my tongue?" Beza +alludes to her as "matrona quaedam et genere et pietate valde nobilis, +fidem ad extremum usque spiritum professa signis omnibus, quum, abscisa +lingua et _ardente face pudendis ipsius turpissime ac crudelissime +injecta_, torreretur." Beza ad Turicenses (inhabitants of Zurich), Nov. +24, 1557; given in Baum, App. to vol. i. 501; Hist. eccles., i. 82. A +courtier, the Marquis of Trans, son-in-law of the keeper of the seals, +was not ashamed to ask for and obtain the confiscation of her estates, +in violation of the provision of the late Edict of Compiegne, "que +plusieurs trouverent mauvais." De la Place, Commentaires de l'estat de +la religion et republique, soubs les rois Henry et Francois Seconds et +Charles Neufviesme, p. 4.] + +[Footnote 639: Beza to Farel, Nov. 11, 1557, Baum, i. 490.] + +[Footnote 640: The Scotch reformer, John Knox, being detained by +unfavorable tidings at Dieppe, on his return from Geneva, not only +devoted himself to visiting and strengthening his persecuted brethren in +France (M'Crie, Life of Knox, i. 202; Brandes, J. Knox, Elberfeld, 1862, +p. 136), but had the Apology of the Parisian Protestants translated into +English, himself adding the prefatory remarks, from which several +quotations have been made above. The treatise seems never to have been +printed until the present century, the probable reason, according to Mr. +Laing, being the subsequent release of so many of the prisoners as +survived.] + +[Footnote 641: "Jusques icy ceulx qui out este appelez au martyre ont +este _contemptibles au monde_, tant pour la _qualite_ de leurs +personnes, que pource que le _nombre_ n'a pas este si grand pour ung +coup. Que scavons-nous s'il a desja appreste une issue telle qu'il y +aura de quoy nous esjouir et le glorifier au double?" Letter of Calvin, +Sept 16, 1557. Bonnet, Lett. fr. de Calv., ii. 139-145.] + +[Footnote 642: Calvin aux eglises de Lausanne, de Mouden, et de Payerne, +Ibid., ii. 150, 151.] + +[Footnote 643: The MS. letter of Beza and his companions to the +"Seigneurs" of Berne (to whom their allies had referred the entire +matter, in order to obviate all delay), dated Basle, Sept. 27, 1557, is +in the archives of Berne, and has been printed for the first time in the +Bulletin, xvii. (April, 1868) 164-166. The writers urge the utmost +haste, both for the sake of the prisoners of Paris and of some other +Protestants confined in the dungeons of Dijon.] + +[Footnote 644: This was particularly the advice of the friendly Count +George of Montbeliard, as recorded by Beza: "Comes fuit in ea sententia, +ut, dum Helvetii priores cum rege agerent, sollicitaremus alios etiam +Germanos principes, ac praesertim eos, a quibus _Pharao_ ille nova +auxilia hoc ipso tempore postularet." Letter to Zurich, Nov. 24, 1557, +Baum, i. 495.] + +[Footnote 645: "Par la response que le roy fit dernierement aux deputes +que les seigneurs des cantons de Zurich, Berne, Basle et Schaffouse, ses +tres-chers et bons amys envoyerent par deca a la requeste de ceulx de la +vallee d'Angrogne, pour le faict de la religion, Sa Majeste estimoit que +les dicts seigneurs des dicts cantons se contenteroient et ne +prendroient plus d'occasion de renvoyer devers luy pour semblable cause, +comme ils ont faict les seigneurs Johan Escher, Jean Wyss, Jacob Goetz +et Louys Oechsly, presens porteurs ... ce que le dict seigneur a trouve +un pen estrange, pour la consideration qu'il a tousiours eue envers les +dicts seigneurs des cantons et aultres ses amys de ne s'empescher ni +soulcier des choses qui touchent l'administration de leurs Estats, ni la +justice de leurs subiets, ainsi qu'il luy semble qu'ils doibvent [faire] +envers luy, _priant les dicts seigneurs des dicts cantons estre contans +de doresnavant ne se donner peine de ce qu'il fera et executera en son +royaulme, et moings au faict de la religion, qu'il veult et a delibere +d'observer et suivre, telle que ses predecesseurs et luy (comme roys +tres-chrestiens) ont faict par le passe, et contenir ses dicts subiects +en icelle, dont il n'a a rendre compte a aultre que a Dieu_, par l'aide, +bonte et protection duquel il s'asseure maintenir son dict royaulme en +estat, en la tranquillite et prosperite la ou il a este jusques icy." +Reponse du roi. The Swiss envoys were intrusted on their return with a +letter from the Cardinal of Lorraine to the magistrates of the +Protestant cantons, full as usual of honeyed words. It closed with these +words: "Priant Dieu, Messieurs, vous donner ce que plus desyrez. De +Sainct-Germain en Laye, le 6^e jour de novembre 1557. Vostre meilleur +voysin et amy, Cardinal de Lorraine." This was pretty fair dissembling +even for the smooth tongue of the arch-persecutor of the Huguenots. It +must be confessed, however, that the sheep's clothing never seemed to +fit him well; the wolfish foot or the bloodthirsty jaws had an +irresistible propensity to show themselves. The letter of the cantons, +the king's reply, and Lorraine's letter, from the MSS. in the archives +of Basle, are printed in the Bulletin de la Societe de l'hist. du prot. +francais, xvii. 164-167.] + +[Footnote 646: Baum, Theodor Beza, i. 317; Heppe, Leben Theod. Beza, +52-58.] + +[Footnote 647: "Ab eo tempore (Oct. 23d) audimus perlectis Palatini +literis datas aliquas judiciorum inducias." Beza's letter of Nov. 24th, +_ubi supra_. It is not improbable that the interference of Henry's +allies had some salutary effect, in spite of the rough answer they +received. Hist. eccles. des eglises ref., i. 84, which, however, says +nothing of the reply to the Swiss.] + +[Footnote 648: Beza, letter of Nov. 24, 1557, _ubi supra_. See a letter +of Calvin to this noblewoman (Dec. 8, 1557), Lettres franc. (Bonnet), +ii. 159.] + +[Footnote 649: Hist. eccles., i. 84.] + +[Footnote 650: Calvin to Bullinger, Bonnet (Eng. tr.), iii. 411; Baum, +i. 317, 318.] + +[Footnote 651: Histoire ecclesiastique des eglises reformees, i. 78.] + +[Footnote 652: Cf. the anonymous letter to Henry the Second, inserted in +La Place, Commentaires de l'estat de la religion et republique (ed. +Pantheon Litteraire), p. 5; and in Crespin (see Galerie chretienne, ii. +246).] + +[Footnote 653: Guise's glory was, according to parliament, in +registering (Feb. 15th) the king's gift to him of the "maison des +marchands" at Calais, "d'avoir expugne une place et conquis un pays que +depuis deux cens ans homme n'avoit non seulement entrepris de faict, +mais ne compris en l'esprit." Reg. of Parliament, _apud_ Memoires de +Guise, p. 422.] + +[Footnote 654: De Thou, ii. 549-552; Prescott, Philip the Second, i. +255-257.] + +[Footnote 655: Hist. eccles. i. 87, 88.] + +[Footnote 656: In Normandy the burdens imposed by the war indirectly +favored the growth of Protestantism. "The troubles of religion were +great in this kingdom during the year 1558," writes a quaint local +antiquarian. "The common people was pretty easily seduced. Moreover, the +'imposts' and 'subsidies' were so excessive that, in many villages, no +assessments of 'tailles' were laid; the 'tithes' (on ecclesiastical +property) were so high that the curates and vicars fled away, through +fear of being imprisoned, and divine service ceased to be said in a +large number of parishes adjoining this city of Caen: as in the villages +of Plumetot, Periers, Sequeville, Puto, Soliers, and many others. Seeing +which, some preachers who had come out of Geneva took possession of the +temples and churches." Les Recherches et Antiquitez de la ville de Caen, +par Charles de Bourgueville, sieur du lieu, etc. Caen, 1588. Pt. ii. +162.] + +[Footnote 657: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 89.] + +[Footnote 658: The letter, dated March 19th, is reproduced in the +Galerie chret., abridgment of Crespin, ii. 266-269. Melanchthon wrote, +in the name of the theologians assembled at Worms, an earnest appeal to +the same monarch, on the 1st of Dec, 1557. Opera Mel. (Bretschneider), +ix. 383-385.] + +[Footnote 659: Hist. eccles., i. 89. Galerie chretienne, ii. 270.] + +[Footnote 660: See Dulaure's plan of Paris under Francis I. Hist. de +Paris, Atlas.] + +[Footnote 661: The date is fixed as well by the Reg. of Parliament (cf. +_infra_), as by a passage in a letter of Calvin to the Marquis of Vico, +of July 19, 1558 (Lettres franc., Bonnet, ii. 212), in which the +psalm-singing is alluded to as having occurred "about two months +ago"--"il y a environ deux moys."] + +[Footnote 662: De Thou, ii. 578.] + +[Footnote 663: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 90. How large a body of +Parisians took part in these demonstrations appears from the Registers +of Parliament. On the 17th of May, 1558, the Bishop of Paris reported to +parliament that he had given orders to find out "les autheurs des +assemblees qui se sont faictes _ces jours icy, tant au pre aux Clercs, +que par les rues de cette ville de Paris, et a grandes troupes de +personnes, tant escolliers, gentilshommes, damoiselles que autres +chantans a haute voix chansons et pseaumes de David en Francois_." On +the following day the procureur general was directed to inquire into the +"monopoles, conventicules et assembees illicites, qui _se font chacun +jour en divers quartiers et fauxbourgs de cette ville de Paris_, tant +d'hommes que de femmes, dont la pluspart sont en armes, et chantent +publiquement a haute voix chansons concernant le faict de la religion, +et tendant a sedition et commotion populaire, et perturbation du repos +et tranquillite publique." Reg. of Parl., _apud_ Felibien, Hist. de +Paris, Preuves, iv. 783. The charge of carrying arms seems to have been +true only so far that the "gentilshommes" wore their swords as usual.] + +[Footnote 664: La Place, Commentaires de l'estat, etc., p. 9; De Thou, +ii. 563.] + +[Footnote 665: Hist. eccles. de Bretagne depuis la reformation jusqu'a +l'edit de Nantes, par Philippe Le Noir, Sieur de Crevain. Published from +the MS. in the library of Rennes, by B. Vaurigaud, Nantes, 1851, 2-17.] + +[Footnote 666: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 91.] + +[Footnote 667: Ib., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 668: De Thou, ii. 566, 567; Hist. eccles., _ubi supra_; La +Place, Commentaires de l'estat, pp. 9, 10; Calvin, Lettres franc. (July +19th), ii. 212, 213.] + +[Footnote 669: The closing words of this letter, written probably in +May, 1558, and published for the first time in the Bull. de la Soc. de +l'hist. du prot. fr. (1854), iii. 243-245, from the MS. belonging to the +late Col. Henri Tronchin, are so brave and so loyal, that the reader +will readily excuse their insertion: "Et ce que je vous demande, Sire, +n'est point, graces a Dieu, pour crainte de la mort, et moins encore +pour desir que j'aye de recouvrer ma liberte, car je n'ay rien si cher +que je n'abandonne fort voluntiers pour le salut de mon ame et la gloire +de mon Dieu. Mais, toutefois, la perplexite ou je suis de vous vouloir +satisfaire et rendre le service que je vous doibs, et ne le pouvoir +faire en cela avec seurete de ma conscience, me travaille et serre le +cueur tellement que pour m'en delivrer j'ay este contrainct de vous +faire ceste tres humble requeste."] + +[Footnote 670: Cf. Calvin's letter to the Marq. of Vico, July 19, 1558. +Bonnet, Lettres franc., ii. 213, 214: "Sa femme luy monstrant son ventre +pour l'esmouvoir a compassion du fruict qu'elle portoit."] + +[Footnote 671: Among the many important services which the French +Protestant Historical Society has rendered, the rescue from oblivion of +the interesting correspondence relating to D'Andelot's imprisonment +merits to be reckoned by no means the least (Bulletin, iii. 238-255). +Even the graphic narrative of the Histoire ecclesiastique fails to give +the vivid impression conveyed by a perusal of these eight documents +emanating from the pens of D'Andelot, Macar (one of the pastors at +Paris), and Calvin. The dates of these letters, in connection with a +statement in the Hist. eccles., fix the imprisonment of D'Andelot as +lasting from May to July, 1558. A month later Calvin wrote to Garnier: +"D'Andelot, the nephew of the constable, has basely deceived our +expectations. After having given proofs of invincible constancy, in a +moment of weakness he consented to go to mass, if the king absolutely +insisted on his doing so. He declared publicly, indeed, that he thus +acted against his inclinations; he has nevertheless exposed the gospel +to great disgrace. He now implores our forgiveness for this offence.... +This, at least, is praiseworthy in him, that he avoids the court, and +openly declares that he had never abandoned his principles." Letter of +Aug. 29th, Bonnet, Eng. tr., iii. 460; see also Ath. Coquerel, Precis de +l'histoire de l'egl. ref. de Paris, Pieces historiques, pp. +xxii.-lxxvi.; twenty-one letters of Macar belonging to 1558. If the +reformers condemned D'Andelot's concession, Paul the Fourth, on the +other hand, regarded his escape from the _estrapade_ as proof positive +that not only Henry, but even the Cardinal of Lorraine, was lukewarm in +the defence of the faith! Read the following misspelt sentences from a +letter of Card. La Bourdaisiere, the French envoy to Rome, to the +constable (Feb. 25, 1559), now among the MSS. of the National Library of +Paris. The Pope had sent expressly for the ambassador: "Il me declara +que cestoit pour me dire quil sebayssoit grandement comme _sa mageste ne +faysoit autre compte de punyr les hereticques de son Royaume et que +limpunite de monsieur dandelot donnoit une tres mauvayse reputation a +sadicte mageste_ devant laquelle ledict Sr. dandelot avoit confesse +destre sacramentayre et _qui leust_ (qu 'il l'eut) _mene tout droit au +feu comme il meritoit_ ... que _monsieur le cardinal de Lorrayne_, +lequel sa Sainctete a fait son Inquisiteur, ne se sauroit excuser quil +nayt _grandement failly_ ayant laysse perdre une si belle occasion dun +_exemple si salutayre_ et qui luy pouvoit porter tant dhonneur et de +reputation, mais _quil monstre bien que luy mesme favorise les +hereticques_, dautant que lors que ce scandale advynt, il estoit seul +pres du roy, sans que personne luy peust resister ne l'empescher duser +de la puyssance que sadicte Sainctete luy a donnee." Of course, Paul +could not let pass unimproved so fair an opportunity for repeating the +trite warning that subversion of kingdoms and other dire calamities +follow in the train of "mutation of religion." The punishment of +D'Andelot, however, to which he often returned in his conversation, the +Pontiff evidently regarded as a thing to be _executed_ rather than +_spoken about_, and he therefore begged the French ambassador to write +the letter to the king in his own cipher, and advise him "to let no one +in the world see his letter." Whereupon Card. La Bourdaisiere rather +irreverently observes: "Je croy que le bonhomme pense que le roy +dechiffre luy mesme ses lettres!" a supposition singularly absurd in the +case of Henry, who hated _business_ of every kind. La Bourdaisiere +conceived it, on the other hand, to be for his own interest to take the +first opportunity to give private information of the entire conversation +to the constable, D'Andelot's uncle, and to advise him that it would go +hard with his nephew, should he fall into Paul's hands ("quil feroit un +mauvais parti sil le tenoit"). Soldan, Gesch. des Prot. in Frank., i. +(appendix), 607, 608; Bulletin de l'histoire du prot. francais, xxvii. +(1878), 103, 104.] + +[Footnote 672: Letter of Calvin, Aug. 29, 1558, Bonnet, Eng. tr., iii. +460.] + +[Footnote 673: De Thou (liv. 20), ii. 568, etc., 576, etc.] + +[Footnote 674: Prescott, Philip II., i. 268-270, has described the +straits in which Philip found himself in consequence of the deplorable +state of his finances. Henry was compelled to resort to desperate +schemes to procure the necessary funds. As early as February, 1554--a +year before the truce of Vaucelles--he published an edict commanding all +the inhabitants of Paris to send in an account of the silver plate they +possessed. Finding that it amounted to 350,000 livres, he ordered his +officers to take and convert it into money, which he retained, giving +the owners twelve per cent. as interest on the compulsory loan. They +were informed, and were doubtless gratified to learn, that the measure +was not only one of urgency, but also precautionary--lest the necessity +should arise for the _seizure_ of the plate, without compensation, it +may be presumed. Reg. des ordon., _apud_ Felibien, H. de Paris, preuves, +v. 287-290.] + +[Footnote 675: Prescott, Philip the Second, i. 270.] + +[Footnote 676: De Thou, ii. 584, 585, 660, etc.] + +[Footnote 677: More than one hundred thousand lives and forty millions +crowns of gold, if we may believe the Memoires de Vieilleville, ii. 408, +409. "Quod multo sanguine, pecunia incredibili, spatio multorum annorum +Galli acquisierant, uno die _magna cum ignominia_ tradiderunt," says the +papal nuncio, Santa Croce, De civil. Gall. diss. com., 1437. See, +however, Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, Am. tr., p. 127.] + +[Footnote 678: Mem. de Vieilleville, _ubi supra_. The text of the treaty +is given in Recueil gen. des anc. lois francaises, xiii. 515, etc., and +in Du Mont, Corps diplomatique, v. pt. 1, pp. 34, etc.; the treaty +between France and England, with scrupulous exactness, as usual, in Dr. +P. Forbes, State Papers, i. 68, etc.] + +[Footnote 679: The prevalent sentiment in France is strongly expressed +by Brantome, by the memoirs of Vieilleville, of Du Villars, of Tavannes, +etc. "La paix honteuse fut dommageable," says Tavannes; "les associez y +furent trahis, les capitaines abandonnez a leurs ennemis, le sang, la +vie de tant de Francais negligee, cent cinquante forteresses rendues, +pour tirer de prison un vieillard connestable, et se descharger de deux +filles de France." Mem. de Gaspard de Saulx, seign. de Tavannes, ii. +242. Du Villars represents the Duke of Guise as remonstrating with Henry +for giving up in a moment more than he could have lost in thirty years, +and as offering to guard the least considerable city among the many he +surrendered against all the Spanish troops: "Mettez-moy dedans la pire +ville de celles que vous voulez rendre, je la conserveray plus +glorieusement sur la bresche, etc." (Ed. Petitot, ii. 267, liv. 10). But +the duke's own brother was one of the commissioners; and Soldan affirms +the existence of a letter from Guise to Nevers (of March 27, 1559) in +the National Library, fully establishing that the duke and the cardinal +understood and were pleased with the substance of the treaty (Soldan, +Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 266, note).] + +[Footnote 680: "Henricus rex se propterea quacumque ratione pacem inire +voluisse dicebat, 'quod intelligeret, regnum Franciae ad heresim +declinare, magnumque in numerum venisse, ita ut, si diutius diferret, +neque ipsius conscientiae, neque regni tranquillitati prospiceret: ... se +propterea ad quasvis pacis conditiones descendisse, ut regnum haereticis +ac malis hominibus purgaret.' Haec ab eo satis frigide et cum pudore +dicebantur." Santa Croce, De civil. Gall. diss. comment., 1437.] + +[Footnote 681: Ibid., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 682: "Selon l'article secret de la paix," says Tavannes (Mem., +ii. 247, Ed. Petitot), "les heretiques furent bruslez en France, plus +par crainte qu'ils ne suivissent l'exemple des revoltez d'Allemagne, que +pour la religion." But, it may be asked, was there anything novel in +this? It had needed no _secret article_, for a generation back, to +conduct a "Christaudin" to the flames.] + +[Footnote 683: The English commissioners, Killigrew and Jones, in a +despatch written eight or nine months later, express the current belief +respecting the wide scope of the persecution: "Wheras, upon the making +of the late peace, _there was an appoinctement made betwene the late +Pope, the French King, and the King of Spaine, for the joigning of their +forces together for the suppression of religion_; it is said, that this +King mindethe shortly to send to this new Pope [Pius IV.], for the +renewing of the same league; _th' end wherof was to constraine the rest +of christiendome, being protestants, to receive the Pope's authorite and +his religion_; and therupon to call a generall counsaill." Letter from +Blois, January 6, 1559/60, Forbes, State Papers, i. 296.] + +[Footnote 684: "Voila," says Agrippa d'Aubigne, "les conventions d'une +paix en effect pour les royaumes de France et d'Espagne, en apparence de +toute la Chrestiente, glorieuse aux Espagnols, desaventageuse aux +Francois, _redoutable aux Reformez: car comme toutes les difficultez qui +se presenterent au traicte estoient estouffees par le desir de repurger +l'eglise_, ainsi, apres la paix establie, les Princes qui par elle +avoient repos du dehors, _travaillerent par emulation a qui traitteroit +plus rudement ceux qu'on appeloit Heretiques_: et de la nasquit l'ample +subject de 40 ans de guerre monstrueuse." Histoire universelle, liv. i., +c. xviii. p. 46.] + +[Footnote 685: "Mais quand estant en France j'eus entendu de la propre +bouche du Roy Henry, que le Duc d'Alve traictoit des moyens pour +exterminer tous les suspects de la Religion en France, en ce Pays et par +toute la Chrestiente, et que ledit Sieur Roy (qui pensoit, que comme +j'avois este l'un des commis pour le Traicte de la Paix, avois eu +communication en si grandes affaires, que je fusse aussi de cette +partie) m'eust declare le fond du Conseil du Roy d'Espaigne et du Duc +d'Alve: pour n'estre envers Sa Majeste en desestime, comme si on m'eust +voulu cacher quelque chose, je respondis en sorte que ledit Sieur Roy ne +perdit point cette opinion, ce qui luy donna occasion de m'en discourir +asses suffisament pour entendre le fonds du project des Inquisiteurs." +Apologie de Guillaume IX., Prince d'Orange, etc., Dec. 13, 1580; _apud_ +Du Mont, Corps diplomatique, v., pt. 1, p. 392.] + +[Footnote 686: De Thou, ii. (liv. xxii.), 653.] + +[Footnote 687: "De nostre coste nous ne scavons pas si nous sommes loing +des coups; tant y a _que nous sommes menassez par-dessus tout le +reste_." Calvin to the Church of Paris, June 29, 1559. Lettres franc., +ii. 282, 283. On the next day the author of the threats was mortally +wounded in the tournament.] + +[Footnote 688: The Duke of Alva gives all the details of this remarkable +negotiation in a letter to Philip, June 26, 1559, now among the Papiers +de Simancas, ser. B., Leg. no. 62-140, which M. Mignet has printed in +his valuable series of articles reviewing the Collection of Calvin's +French Letters by M. Bonnet, published in the Journal des Savants, 1857, +pp. 171, 172. An extract, without date, from a MS. in the Library at +Turin, seems to refer to this time: "Le roi (Henri II.) declare +criminels de lese-majeste tous ceux qui auront quelque commerce avec +Geneve, ou en recevront lettres. Cette ville est cause de tous les +malheurs de la France, et il la poursuivra a outrance pour la reduire. +Il promet secours de gens de pied et de cheval au duc de Savoie, et +vient d'obtenir du pape un bref pour decider le roi d'Espagne. Ils vont +unir leurs forces pour une si sainte enterprise." Gaberel, Hist. de +l'egl. de Geneve, i. 442.] + +[Footnote 689: And he did not exaggerate the importance of the crisis. +The adherents of the reformed faith had become numerous, and many were +restive under their protracted sufferings. "I am certainly enformid," +wrote the English ambassador, Throkmorton, to Secretary Cecil (May 15, +1559), "that about the number of fifty thousand persones in Gascoigne, +Guyen, Angieu, Poictiers, Normandy, and Main, have subscribed to a +confession in religion conformable to that of Geneva; which they mind +shortly to exhibit to the King. There be of them diverse personages of +good haviour (_sic_): and it is said amongst the same, that after they +have delivered their confession to the King, that the spiritualty of +Fraunce will do all they can to procure the King, to the utter +subversion of them: for which cause, they say, _the spiritualty seemeth +to be so glad of peaxe_, for that they may have that so good an occasion +to worke their feate. But," he adds, "on th' other side these men minde, +in case any repressing and subversion of their religion be ment and put +in execution against them, to resist to the deathe." Forbes, State +Papers, i. 92.] + +[Footnote 690: "Heri scriptum est ad me Lutetia.... Sorbonicos ad Regem +cucurrisse et tempus ejus eonveniendi aucupatos petiisse curam +inquirendorum Lutheranorum. Quum Rex respondisset: 'Se eam curam Senatui +mandasse, iique respondissent, '_totam curiam Parlamenti Parisienis +inquinatam esse_,' iracunde intulisse, 'quid vultis igitur faciam, aut +quid consilii capiam? An ut vos in eorum locum substituam, et +Rempublicam meam administretis?'" Letter of Hotman to Bullinger, Aug. +15, 1556, _apud_ Baum, Theod. Beza, i. 294.] + +[Footnote 691: "The king, however, looks on all the judges with a +suspicious eye." Calvin to Garnier, Aug. 29, 1558. Bonnet, Eng. tr., +iii. 460.] + +[Footnote 692: Seguier, the leading jurist in the Parisian Parliament, +like most of the judges that possessed much legal acumen, and all those +that were inclined to tolerant sentiments, was reputed unsound in the +faith. Sir Nicholas Throkmorton, the English ambassador, says of him: +"One of the Presidentes of the court of Parliament, named Siggier, a +verey wise man, and one whome the constable for his judgement dothe +muche stay upon, is noted to be a Protestant, and of the chiefest +setters forward and favorers of the rest of that courte against the +cardinalles." The same accurate observer states that, of the "six score" +counsellors present in the Parliamentary session which Henry attended, +only "one of the Presidentes called Magistri and fourteen others were of +the King and the cardinalles side, and did agree with them and +condescend to the punishment of suche as shuld seme to resist to the +cardinalles orders devised for reformation toching religion: the said +Siggier, Rancongnet, and another President, with the rest of the +counsaillors, were all against the cardinalles. Whereupon it is judged," +he adds, "that the House of Guise hathe taken this occasion to weaken +the constable: and because they wold not directly begynne with Siggier, +for feare of manifesting their practise, they have founde the meanes to +cause these counsaillors to be taken; supposing, that in th' examination +of them somme mater may be gathered to toche Siggier withall, and therby +to overthrow him." Despatch of June 13, 1559, Forbes, State Papers, i. +127.] + +[Footnote 693: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 106.] + +[Footnote 694: When President Seguier was defending himself and his +colleagues from the charge made by the Cardinal of Lorraine that they +did not punish the heretics, and alleged as proof the fact that only +three accused of "Lutheranism" remained in their prison, the cardinal +rejoined: "Voire, vous les avez expediez en les renvoyant devant leurs +evesques! Vrayement voyla une belle expedition, a ceux mesmes qui out +faict profession de leur foy devant vous, tout au contraire de la +saincte eglise de Rome!" Pierre de la Place, Commentaires de l'estat de +la rel. et rep., p. 11.] + +[Footnote 695: "Non, non, dict-il, monsieur le president; mais vous +estes cause que non seulement Poictiers, mais tout Poictou jusques au +pays de Bordeaux, Tholouse, Provence, et generalement France est toute +remplie de ceste vermine, qui s'augmente et pullule soubs esperance de +vous." Ib., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 696: Ib., _ubi supra_, Hist. eccles., i. 107, 108.] + +[Footnote 697: La Place, Comm. de l'estat de la rel. et rep., p 12.] + +[Footnote 698: Idem. Serranus, de statu, etc., i., fol. 14.] + +[Footnote 699: "There is another consideration of the proceadings of +these maters, whiche (savyng your Majestie's correction) in myne +opinion, is as great as the rest: ... that forasmuch as the multitude of +Protestantes, being spred abrode in sundry partes of this realme in +diverse congregations, ment now amiddes of all these triumphes to use +the meane of somme nobleman to exhibit to the King their confession +(wherof your Majeste shall receive a copie herwithal) to th' intent the +same mighte have bene openly notified to the world; the King being +lothe, that at the arrivall here of the Duke of Savoy, the Duke of Alva, +and others, these maters shuld have appeared so farre forward, hathe +thought good before hande, for the daunting of suche as might have semed +to be doers therin, to prevent their purpose by handeling of these +counsaillors in this sorte." Throkmorton to Queen Elizabeth, June 13, +1559, Forbes, State Papers, i. 128.] + +[Footnote 700: Vieilleville, ii. 401-404; De Thou, ii. 667; Forbes, +State Papers, i. 127.] + +[Footnote 701: Mem. de Vieilleville, ii. 405. The date of Henry's visit +to parliament is not free from the same contradictory statements that +affect many of the most important events of history. De Thou, and, +following him, Felibien, Browning, and others, place it five days later +than I have done in the text. La Place, the anonymous "Discours de la +mort du Roy Henry II." (in the Recueil des choses memorables, published +in 1565, and later in the Memoires de Conde), Castelnau, the Histoire +eccles., etc., are our best authorities. As Sir Nicholas Throkmorton +gave an account of the _Mercuriale_ in his despatch to the queen of June +13th (Forbes, State Papers, i. 126-130), I am surprised that Dr. White, +who refers, to this interesting paper (although by an oversight +ascribing it to June 19th) should, while correcting M. de Felice's +error, have preferred the date of June 15th. "Massacre of St. +Bartholomew," Am. ed., p. 51.] + +[Footnote 702: Discours de la mort du Roy Henry II. (Recueil des choses +memorables, 1565.) Dulaure, Hist. de Paris, ii. 434-437. Cf. also the +maps accompanying that work.] + +[Footnote 703: The Discours de la mort du Roy Henry II. add that Henry +demanded the reason of the Parliament's delay to register an edict they +had received from him against the "Lutherans"--doubtless the +last--establishing the inquisitorial commission of three cardinals. +"Cest edict estoit sorti de l'oracle dudict cardinal de Lorreine." Baum, +Theodore Beza, ii. 31, note, etc., has already called attention to the +gross inaccuracies of Browning, in his description of the incidents of +the _Mercuriale_, as well as of the king's visit to parliament. (Hist. +of the Huguenots, i. 54, etc.). Among other assertions altogether +unwarranted by the evidence, he states that Henry, in order to entrap +the unwary, "declared himself free from every kind of angry feeling +against those counsellors who had adopted the new religion, and begged +them all to speak their opinions freely," etc. (p. 55). If true, this +would rob Du Bourg's course of half its heroism.] + +[Footnote 704: "Whereas," wrote Throkmorton to Queen Elizabeth, "the +Kinge's presence is very rare, and hathe seldome happened but upon somme +great occasion; so I endevored myself (as much as I could) to learne the +cause of their assemble." Forbes, State Papers, i. 126.] + +[Footnote 705: Strangely enough, Mr. Smedley, History of the Reformed +Religion in France, i. 87, note, following a careless annotator of De +Thou, discovers an inaccuracy in the allusion where no inaccuracy +exists. It was not to Ahab's _question_, but to Elijah's _retort_, that +Du Faur made reference. See La Place, p. 13.] + +[Footnote 706: La Place, Comm. de l'estat, etc., p. 13; Hist. eccles., +i. 122; (Crespin, Gal. chret., ii. 303); De Thou, ii. 670. Felibien, +Hist. de Paris, ii. 1066.] + +[Footnote 707: La Place, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 708: Among them Paul de Foix, "who is cousin to the King of +Navarre." Throkmorton to Queen Elizabeth, June 23, 1559, Forbes i. 126.] + +[Footnote 709: La Place, Com. de l'estat, etc., p. 14; Discours de la +mort du Roy Henry II.; De Thou, ii. 671; Felibien, Hist. de Paris, ii. +1067; Vieilleville, ii. 405-406; Hist. eccles. i., 122-123. Even Anne de +Montmorency was struck with Du Bourg's boldness, and exclaimed, "Vous +faictes la bravade." Forbes, State Papers, i. 126.] + +[Footnote 710: The date is variously given as the 25th or 26th of May. +The latter, adopted by the Histoire ecclesiastique, is probably correct. +See Triqueti, Premiers jours du protestantisme en France (Paris, 1859), +253, 254.] + +[Footnote 711: "Confession de Foy faite d'un commun accord par les +Francoys, qui desirent vivre selon la purite de l'Evangile," etc. In the +Recueil des choses memorables (1565) this document is published with the +preface and the supplicatory letter addressed to the king (Francis II.) +after the "Tumulte d'Amboise."] + +[Footnote 712: The proceedings of the first French National Synod are +best given in Aymon, Tous les synodes nationaux des eglises ref. de +France (La Haye, 1710), i. 1-12; Hist. univ. du sieur d'Aubigne, liv. +ii., c. iii., t. i., pp. 56-64. They are faithfully, although not always +literally, translated in Quick's Synodicon in Gallia Reformata (London, +1692), i., viii.-xv., 2-7. See also Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 108-121; +La Place, Com. de l'estat de la religion, et republique soubs les roys +Henry et Francois Seconds, etc., 14-16.] + +[Footnote 713: See the history of the Hotel des Tournelles and the plan +of Paris in the reign of Francis I., in Dulaure, Hist. de Paris, iii. +355-357, and Atlas.] + +[Footnote 714: "Duquel lieu tous les prisonniers de leans pouvoyent ouir +les clairons, hault-bois et trompettes dudict tournoy." Discours de la +mort du Roy Henry II., Recueil des choses memorables, p. 5; Memoires de +Conde, i. 216.] + +[Footnote 715: Ibid., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 716: "I am credibly enformed, that the Frenche King, after the +perfection of the ceremonies toching his doughter and King Philip, and +his suster to the Duke of Savoy, myndeth himself to make a journey to +the countreis of Poictou, Gascoigne, Guyon, and other places, for the +repressing of religion; and to use th' extremest persecution he may +against the protestants in his countreys, and the like in Scotlande; and +that with celerite, ymediatly after the finishing of the same +ceremonies." Throkmorton to Cecil, May 23, 1559, Forbes, State Papers, +i. 101.] + +[Footnote 717: "Paix blasmable, dont les flambeaux de joye furent les +torches funebres du roy Henry II." Mem. de Tavannes, ii. 242.] + +[Footnote 718: "The last of this present." Throkmorton to Council, June +30 and July 1, 1559. Forbes, State Papers, i. 151. So in a subsequent +letter, relating a message to him from the constable on July 1st, he +speaks of "the mischaunce happened the daie before to the king." Ibid., +i. 154.] + +[Footnote 719: Hist. eccles., i. 123, 124. Catharine de' Medici's dream, +in which the Huguenots saw a parallel to that of Pilate's wife, was not +a fabrication of theirs. According to her daughter Margaret, Catharine +had many such visions on the eve of important events. "Mesme _la nuict +devant la miserable course de lice_, elle songea comme elle voyoit le +feu Roy mon pere blesse a l'oeil, comme il fust; et estant esveillee, +elle le supplia _plusieurs fois_ de ne vouloir point courir ce jour, et +vouloir se contenter de voir le plaisir du tournoi, sans en vouloir +estre. Mais l'inevitable destin ne permit tant de bien a ce royaume, +qu'il put recevoir cet utile conseil." Memoires de Marguerite de Valois +(edition of French Hist. Soc.), 42.] + +[Footnote 720: Pierre de Lestoile, 14.] + +[Footnote 721: Lettere di Principi, iii. 196, apud Ranke, Civil Wars and +Monarchy in France in the 16th and 17th centuries, Am. tr., p. 167. Sir +Nicholas Throkmorton, who alone of the diplomatic corps was an +eye-witness, thus describes the scene in a letter written the same +evening: "Wherat it happened, that the King, after he had ronne a good +many courses very well and faire, meeting with yong Monsieur de Lorges, +capitaine of the scottishe garde, received at the said de Lorge his +hands such a counterbuff, as, the blow first lighting upon the King's +head, and taking away the pannage which was fastened to his hedpece with +yron, he dyd break his staff withall; and so with the rest of the staff +hitting the King upon the face gave him such a counterbuff, as he drove +a splinte right over his eye on his right side: the force of which +stroke was so vehement, and the paine he had withall so great, as he was +moch astonished, and had great ado (with reling to and from) to kepe +himself on horseback; and his horse in like manner dyd somwhat yeld. +Wherupon with all expedition he was unarmed in the field, even against +the place where I stode.... I noted him to be very weake, and to have +the sens of all his lymmes almost benommed; for being caryed away, as he +lay along, nothing covered but his face, he moved nether hand nor fote, +but laye as one amased." Letter to the Council, June 30 and July 1, +1559, Forbes, State Papers, i. 151.] + +[Footnote 722: Discours de la mort du Roy Henry II., _in fine_. Recueil +des choses memorables, and Mem. de Conde, i. 216.] + +[Footnote 723: Hist. eccles., i. 123, 124. The singular coincidence is +no invention of the Protestants. It is confirmed by a contemporary +pamphlet by the "king-at-arms of Dauphiny" (Paris, 1559), _Le Trespas et +Ordre des Obseques, ... de feu de tresheureuse memoire le Roy Henry +deuxieme_, etc., which says: "La dicte salle, ensemble lesdicts +theatres, estoient tendus tout autour d'une tapisserie d'or et de soie a +grandes figures, _des actes des apostres_." (Reprint of Cimber et +Danjou, iii. 317.)] + +[Footnote 724: De Thou, ii. 674. Yet Francis II., in the preamble to the +commission as lieutenant-general given to Guise, March 17, 1560, seems +incidentally to vouch for the contrary: "Voire de telle sorte que +nostredit seigneur et _pere, a son decez_, ne nous auroit rien tant +recommande, que d'user a nosdits subjets de toutes gracieusetez," etc. +Recueil de choses mem., 20. Card. Santa Croce speaks of him as "ita ex +vulnere concussus, ut primo die sensum fere omnem amiserit." De +civilibus Galliae dissentionibus commentaria (Martene et Durand, Ampliss. +Collectio), v. 1438, 1439.] + +[Footnote 725: Discours de la mort du Roy Henry II., Recueil des choses +mem., _in initio_, and Mem. de Conde, i. 213-216; La Planche, 202; La +Place, Commentaires, etc., 20; J. de Serres, De statu rel., etc. (1570), +i., fol. 18; Hist. eccles., i. 123; De Thou, ii. 674; Davila (Cottrell's +tr.), p. 11; Santa Croce, v. 1438, etc. It is characteristic that so +important a date as that of the fatal tournament should be differently +stated; La Place, the Hist. eccles., and De Thou making it June 29th. +The confusion is increased by subsequent writers. Motley (Rise of the +Dutch Republic, i. 204) making Henry die on the 10th of July of the +wound inflicted _eleven_ days before, and Prescott (Philip the Second, +i. 295) representing him as lingering _ten_ days and dying on the +_ninth_ of July.] + +[Footnote 726: Professor Baum published the "Maniere et Fasson," on the +occasion of the Tercentenary of the French Reformed Church, in 1859, in +an elegantly printed pamphlet, itself a fac-simile of the original in +all respects, except the use of Roman in place of Gothic letters. This +pamphlet in turn is out of print, and it is to Professor Baum's kindness +that I am indebted for the copy of which I have made use.] + +[Footnote 727: Printed with marginal notes giving all modifications in +other early editions in Joh. Calvini Opera (Baum, Cunitz, et Reuss), +1867, v. 164-223--a work which is the result of almost incredible labor +and research. In February, 1868, the distinguished senior editor wrote +to me: "Nous avons deja maintenant copie de notre main et collationne a +Neufchatel, a Geneve et autres endroits, quelque chose comme _six mille +pieces, lettres et consilia et autres calviniana_."] + +[Footnote 728: The beautiful petitions for "all our poor brethren who +are dispersed under the tyranny of Antichrist," and for prisoners and +those persecuted by the enemies of the Gospel, were not in the original +edition, but appear in that of 1558. Calv. Opera, Baum, Cunitz and +Reuss, vi. 177, note.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +FRANCIS THE SECOND AND THE TUMULT OF AMBOISE. + + +[Sidenote: The victims breathe more freely.] + +[Sidenote: Epigrams on the death of Henry.] + +The plans carefully matured by Henry for the suppression of the reformed +doctrines were disarranged by his sudden death. The expected victims of +the Spanish Inquisition, which he was to have established in France, +breathed more freely. It was not wonderful that the "Calvinists," +according to an unfriendly historian, preached of the late monarch's +fate as miraculous, and magnified it to their advantage;[729] for they +saw in it an interposition of the Almighty in their behalf, as signal as +any illustrating the Jewish annals. Epigrams of no little merit were +composed on the event, and were widely circulated. One likened the lance +of Montgomery to the stone from David's sling, which became "the +unexpected salvation of the saints."[730] In another, Henry is the +soldier who pierces the Crucified through the side of those whom He +styles His members; but the impious weapon--such is Heaven's avenging +decree--shall be stained with the murderer's own blood.[731] These +verses, and others like them, obtaining great currency, offended the +ears of the late king's favorites and of the devoted adherents of the +Roman Catholic Church, who ceased not for years to pour forth +lamentations over the untimely death of Henry the Second, and the +ill-starred peace with which it was so closely connected.[732] + +[Sidenote: The young king.] + +From the hands of a monarch in the prime of life, the sceptre had passed +into those of a stripling of sixteen, who was unfortunately endowed +neither with his grandfather's intellect nor with his father's vigor of +body; but who inherited the enfeebled mental and physical constitution +which was, perhaps, the result of the excesses of both. Although married +to the beautiful Queen of Scots, some time before his father's reign +came to its tragic conclusion, Francis the Second exhibited few of the +instincts of a man and of a king, and showed himself to be even more of +a minor in intelligence than in years. Content to leave the cares of +government to his favorites, he sought only for repose and pleasure. Yet +in this, as has been the case in more than one other instance, the most +turbulent lot fell to him who would gladly have chosen quiet and sloth. + +[Sidenote: Fall of the constable's power.] + +With Henry's last breath, the supremacy of Constable Montmorency in the +councils of state came to an end. In view of the minority of the +successor to the throne, two measures were dictated by the customs of +the realm--the appointment of the nearest prince of royal blood as +regent, and the immediate convocation of the States General to confirm +the selection, and to assign to the regent a competent council of +state.[733] Unfortunately for the interests of France during the +succeeding half-century, there were powerful personages interested in +opposing this most natural and just arrangement, and there were specious +excuses behind which their ambitious designs might shelter themselves. +The Cardinal of Lorraine and the Duke of Guise, with the queen mother, +maintained that Francis was in all respects competent to rule; that he +had already passed the age at which previous kings had assumed the reins +of government; that the laws had prescribed the time from which the +majority of subjects, not of the monarch, should be reckoned;[734] +that, if too young himself to bear the entire burden of the +administration, he could delegate his authority to those of his own kin +in whom he reposed implicit confidence. There was, therefore, no +necessity for establishing a regency, still less for assembling the +States General--an impolitic step even in the most quiet times, but +fraught with special peril when grave dissensions threaten the kingdom. + +[Sidenote: Catharine de' Medici assumes an important part.] + +With the advent of her eldest son to the throne, Catharine de' Medici +first assumed a prominent position, although not an all-controlling +influence at court. During the reign of Francis the First she had +enjoyed little consideration. Her marriage with Henry, in 1533, had +given, as we have seen, little satisfaction to the people, who believed +that her kinsman, Pope Clement the Seventh, had deceived the king; and +Francis himself, disappointed in his ambitious designs by the pontiff's +speedy death, looked upon her with little favor. For several years she +had borne no children, and Henry was urged to put her away on the ground +of barrenness. Nor was she more happy when her prayers had been +answered, and a family of four sons and three daughters blessed her +marriage. Her husband's infatuation respecting Diana of Poitiers +embittered her life when dauphiness, and compelled her as queen to +tolerate the presence of the king's mistress, and pay her an insincere +respect. Excluded from all participation in the control of affairs, she +fawned upon power where her ambitious nature would have sought to rule. +Concealing her chagrin beneath an exterior of contentment, she +exhibited, if we may believe the Venetian Soranzo, such benignity of +disposition, especially to her own countrymen, that it would be +impossible to convey an idea of the love entertained for her both by the +court and by the entire kingdom.[735] + +[Sidenote: Her timidity and dissimulation.] + +[Sidenote: She dismisses Diana of Poitiers.] + +Hypocrisy is the vice of timid natures. Such, we have the authority of a +contemporary, and one who knew her well, for stating the nature of +Catharine was.[736] In her, however, dissimulation was a well-known +family trait, which she possessed in common with her kinsman, Pope Leo +the Tenth, and all her house.[737] And it must be admitted that the +idiosyncrasy had had a fair chance to develop during the five-and-twenty +years she had spent in France, threatened with repudiation, contemned as +an Italian upstart, suffering the gravest insult at the hands of her +husband, but forced to dissemble, and to hide the pain his neglect gave +her from the eyes of the curious world. Nor was her position altogether +an easy one even now. It is true that her womanly revenge was gratified +by the instant dismissal of the Duchess of Valentinois, who, if she +retained the greater part of her ill-gotten wealth, owed it to the joint +influence of Lorraine and Guise, whose younger brother, the Duke of +Aumale, had married Diana's daughter.[738] But her ambitious plan, while +securing the authority of her children, to rule herself, was likely to +be frustrated by the pretensions of the two families of Montmoreney and +Guise, raised by the late monarch to inordinate power in the state, and +by the claim to the regency which Antoine of Bourbon-Vendome, King of +Navarre, might justly assert. To establish herself in opposition to all +these, her sagacity taught her was impossible. To prevail by allying +herself to the most powerful and those from whom she could extort the +best terms seemed to be the most politic course. Her choice was quickly +made. It was unfortunate for France that her prudence partook more of +the character of low cunning than of true wisdom, and that, in seeking +a temporary ascendancy, she neglected the true interests of her own +children and of the kingdom they inherited. + +[Sidenote: Her alliance with the Guises.] + +In order to prevent the convocation of the States and the appointment of +the King of Navarre as regent, but one course appeared to be open to +Catharine: she must throw herself into the arms of the Guises. Only thus +could she become free from the odious dictation of the constable, under +which she had groaned during her husband's reign. The Guises had had a +narrow escape, it was said; for Henry the Second, having tardily +discovered the insatiable ambition of the Lorraine family, had +definitely made up his mind to banish them from court.[739] Now availing +themselves of the great influence of their niece, Mary Stuart, over her +royal husband, the duke and the cardinal prepared, by a bold stroke, to +become masters of the administration, and made to Catharine such liberal +offers of power that she readily acquiesced in their plans. + +Of their formidable rivals, the King of Navarre was at a distance, in +the south. The constable alone was dangerously near. But an immemorial +custom furnished a convenient excuse for setting him aside. The body of +the deceased monarch must lie in state for the forty days previous to +its interment, under protection of a guard of honor selected from among +his most trusty servants. Upon Montmorency, as grand master of the +palace, devolved the chief care of his late Majesty's remains.[740] +Delighted to have their principal rival so well occupied, the cardinal +and the duke hastened from the Tournelles to secure the person of the +living monarch. + +[Sidenote: The Guises make themselves masters of the king.] + +When the delegates of the parliaments of France came, a few days later, +to congratulate Francis on his accession, and inquired to whom they +should henceforth address themselves, the programme was already fully +arranged. The king had been well drilled in his little speech. He had, +he said, committed the direction of the state to the hands of his two +uncles, and desired the same obedience to be shown to them as to +himself.[741] + +[Sidenote: The court fool's sensible remark.] + +The Cardinal of Lorraine was intrusted with the civil administration and +the finances. His brother became head of the department of war, without +the title, but with the full powers, of constable.[742] Of royalty +little was left Francis but the empty name.[743] There was sober truth +lurking beneath the saucy remark of Brisquet, the court fool, who told +Francis that in the time of his Majesty's father he used to put up at +the "_Crescent_," but at present he lodged at the "_Three Kings_!"[744] + +[Sidenote: Montmorency retires to his own estates,] + +Montmorency did, indeed, attempt resistance to the assumption of +absolute authority which the Guises thus appropriated rather than +received from the young monarch. But he was equally unsuccessful in +influencing Francis and the queen mother. The former, when the constable +waited upon him in the Louvre, according to one story, scarcely deigned +to look at him;[745] but, according to a more trustworthy account, +received him with a show of cordiality, and assured him that he would +maintain his sons and his nephews, the Chatillons, in the dignities they +had attained under previous kings; at the same time, however, adding +that, in compassion for the constable's age and long services, he had +determined to relieve him of his onerous charges, and to give him full +liberty to retire to his estates and obtain needful rest and diversion! +Montmorency was too much of a courtier to be taken unawares, and +promptly replied that he had come expressly to beg as a favor what the +king so graciously offered him.[746] Catharine, to whom he next paid his +respects, was less friendly, and, indeed, told him bluntly that, if she +were to do her duty, he would lose his head for his insolence to her and +her children.[747] Meantime Montmorency had fared no better in his +negotiations with Antoine of Bourbon-Vendome. The latter had not +forgotten the little account made in the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis of +his wife's claim upon Spanish Navarre, and was indisposed to form a +close alliance with the chief negotiator. He preferred, he said, to +stand aloof from a movement intended only to ruin "his cousins of +Guise."[748] + +[Sidenote: where he maintains almost regal magnificence.] + +The prudent old warrior, long since accustomed to the most startling +vicissitudes, determined to bid adieu for a time to the royal court, and +to retire to Chantilly, one of his paternal estates, where, in close +proximity to the capital, he was accustomed to maintain an almost regal +magnificence.[749] So powerful a nobleman, the representative of a +family which, from its antiquity and neighboring greatness, was held in +special esteem by the Parisians, among the wealthiest of whom it boasted +of having two thousand persons its tenants,[750] could not safely be +attacked. Accordingly, Montmorency, after having faithfully performed +his duty as grand master, and deposited the remains of Henry in the +abbey church of St. Denis, returned home with so numerous and powerful a +retinue, that the king's appeared but small in comparison.[751] + +[Sidenote: Decided measures of the new favorites.] + +The power thus boldly seized by the cardinal and duke was energetically +wielded. The partisans of the constable were at once removed from all +offices of trust, and devoted adherents of the house of Lorraine were +substituted. It was not difficult, if we may believe the historian of +this reign, to bring the parliaments into similar subjection. The system +of venality introduced by Cardinal Duprat had so corrupted the highest +courts of justice that they had lost all traces of their former noble +independence. The sons of usurers sat in places which had been occupied +by the most distinguished jurisconsults of the kingdom, and so debased +the administration of law that, in the eye of a contemporary, +parliament had become a den of robbers.[752] Marshal de St. Andre made +proposals, which were accepted, to form an offensive and defensive +alliance with the Guises, promising to give his only daughter in +marriage to a member of that family, and to settle upon her the immense +property which he had accumulated during the last reign by extortion and +confiscations, retaining for himself only the life interest.[753] In +order to rid the court of the princes of the blood, Conde was sent on a +mission to Flanders, to confirm the peace, and the Prince of +La-Roche-sur-Yon and the Cardinal of Bourbon were deputed to accompany +Princess Elizabeth, Philip's bride, to the Spanish frontier.[754] + +[Sidenote: Antoine of Bourbon, King of Navarre.] + +[Sidenote: His remissness and pusillanimity.] + +[Sidenote: His desire to be indemnified for Navarre.] + +Meanwhile the eyes not only of the reformers, who had no more inveterate +enemies than the Guises, but also of the friends of order, whatever +their creed might be, were anxiously directed to Antoine, King of +Navarre. His younger brother, Conde, his cousin, La Roche-sur-Yon, and +other great nobles came to meet him at Vendome, and set forth the +disastrous consequences not only to them, but to their children and to +the entire kingdom, that would certainly follow the base surrender of +the government into the hands of foreigners.[755] Earnestly was he +reminded of his undeniable claim to the regency, and entreated to +dispossess the usurpers. Nor did the weak prince openly disregard the +prayers of the ministers and people, who begged him to view his +deliverance from so many perils as intended not merely to advance his +own personal interests, but to secure the welfare of those whose tenets +he had at heart espoused. But, where vigorous and instantaneous action +was requisite, he exhibited only supineness and delay. His manly body +contained a womanish soul.[756] His intimate counsellors were already +in the secret pay of the Guises, and, in return for the large rewards +promised,[757] disclosed every movement and plan of their master, while +they gave him such advice as was calculated to render all his +undertakings abortive.[758] When, after long hesitation, he at length +left for St. Germain, he advanced slowly and by short stages, +intimidated by the example of the treason of the Constable of Bourbon, +in the reign of Francis the First, of the consequences of which the +agents of his enemies did not fail frequently to remind him, and +apprehensive of the intentions of Philip upon his small principality of +Bearn.[759] It is true that at Poitiers, where he was waited upon by a +large deputation of ministers from Paris, Orleans, Tours, and other +principal cities, and urged, by renouncing the mass and openly espousing +the cause of God, to fulfil the expectations of the persecuted faithful, +he returned a favorable reply, and declared that, if he still conformed +to an idolatry which he abhorred, it was in order not to lose the only +means of being serviceable to them. The sturdy men, who admitted no +compromises in matters of conscience, and had for years been exposing +their bodies to the peril of the flames or gibbet, manfully replied +that, if he would find God propitious, he must not endeavor to make his +own terms with Him; and that his own experience of divine protection +ought to prevent him from temporizing.[760] To Henry Killigrew, who came +to meet him at Vendome with a friendly message from Queen Elizabeth, he +spoke with more definiteness and volunteered the expression of the most +pious intentions. He declared "that he thought that God had hitherto +preserved her Majesty from so many dangers for the setting forth of His +word; and, he trusted, had done the like by him, in having preserved +him from many perils; and how desirous he was to set forth religion as +much as was in him; which he wished might be for the quiet, and setting +forth of God's glory through Christendom (which he minded for his part) +and to the discouragement of such as should stand in contrary."[761] But +the hopes which Antoine thus held forth were delusive. The trusty agent +of the Guises had already notified them that, so far as he could learn, +Navarre's principal desire was to be cordially received by the king and +his council, in order that the Spanish visitors at Paris might carry +home to their master so favorable a report that Philip, convinced that +Antoine was no insignificant personage in France,[762] _might condescend +to indemnify him for the wrong he had done him_![763] + +[Sidenote: Is received at court with studied discourtesy.] + +[Sidenote: Antoine is deaf to remonstrance.] + +But if the King of Navarre expected to make any deep impression upon the +subjects of Philip through the friendly reception which he thus +solicited by the most craven abasement, his arrival at St. +Germain-en-Laye speedily undeceived him. Francis, instead of meeting him +on his approach, in accordance with the customary rules of royal +courtesy, and entertaining him graciously as they rode side by side to +the palace, was purposely taken in an opposite direction on a hunting +excursion. Humiliated by this neglect, the adherents of Navarre were +still more annoyed when they found that no chamber had been set apart in +the castle for the first prince of the blood, to whom immemorial usage +conceded the apartments next to those of the reigning monarch. But +neither these insults, nor the contemptuous treatment he received at the +hands of the courtiers, by whom he was compelled to make every advance, +were sufficient to arouse the prince to any noble resolution.[764] To +regain the kingdom of which, by his marriage with Jeanne d'Albret, he +had become the titular sovereign, was the great ambition of his life. +This was impracticable without the support of the French court. He could +not, therefore, afford to break with the all-powerful Guises. What were +the prerogatives of the first prince of the blood in the administration +of the French government, in comparison with the absolute sovereignty of +the little kingdom on either slope of the Pyrenees? In vain did his +faithful attendants remonstrate with him, and portray the path of honor +as that of ultimate success and safety. Disgusted at his unmanly +weakness, they returned crestfallen to their homes, or threw up his +service for that of noblemen who, if ancient enemies, could at least +prove themselves valuable and trustworthy patrons. The partisans of the +Reformation, after waiting fruitlessly to hear a single word uttered in +behalf of the churches, now everywhere rapidly multiplying, but still +subjected to bitter persecution, disappointed, but full of faith in God, +renounced their trust in princes, and awaited a deliverance, in Heaven's +own time, from a higher source. Theodore Beza cited Navarre's shameful +fall as a new and signal illustration of our Lord's own words: "A rich +man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven!"[765] + +[Sidenote: Meets fresh indignities.] + +[Sidenote: Philip offers Catharine assistance.] + +[Sidenote: Antoine's appeals to Philip II.] + +But the abasement of this irresolute prince was not yet complete. +Submitting to the open contempt in which he was held, he not only took +part in the solemn ceremony of the new king's anointing at Rheims,[766] +where his inferiors were preferred to him, but attended the meetings of +the royal council, where he was little wanted. At one of these sessions +a fresh indignity was put upon him. Alarmed by the rising murmurs +against the illegal rule of the Guises, Catharine had taken the first of +a series of disgraceful steps, by invoking the intervention of a foreign +prince in the affairs of France. She implored her royal son-in-law of +Spain to lend her his support against the King of Navarre and other +princes, who were desirous of "reducing her to the condition of a +chambermaid," and of disturbing an otherwise peaceful country. Philip +replied by an offer of his own assistance and of forty thousand men whom +he professed to hold in readiness for a campaign against the rebels that +meditated the overthrow of the French monarchy. The letter of his +Catholic Majesty was purposely read in full council, in the hearing of +Navarre. But, instead of arousing his indignation, it only excited new +fears for the safety of his wife's dominions, and made him more +submissively kiss the rod of iron with which the Guises ruled him.[767] +Soon afterward he returned to Bearn, whence he made, before the close of +the year, two ineffectual attempts to move the inflexible determination +of Philip. In October he sent to the court of Spain Pierre, the Bastard +of Navarre, who obtained the promise of an equivalent for Navarre, but +was unable to secure any decided answer to his request for the island of +Sardinia. But when, in December, Antoine despatched a second messenger, +at the suggestion of the Duke of Albuquerque, to solicit permission for +himself and Queen Jeanne to visit the King of Spain and "kiss his +[Philip's] hand," with the view of obtaining such "an indemnity for his +kingdom as some secret injunction of the emperor [Charles the Fifth], +toward the end of his days, or his own conscience" might have suggested, +the unfortunate prince discovered in how base and humiliating a manner +he had been duped. It was not worth his while--such was the rude +reply--for Antoine to expose his wife and himself to the fatigue of so +long a journey, since no other answer could be given him than that which +had been given to his predecessors, and to himself on the occasion of +the late treaty of peace.[768] Was it with the expectation of such +rewards that the first prince of the blood had pusillanimously declined +to assert the rights of his rank and family, and to espouse the cause of +the persecuted? + +[Sidenote: The persecution continues.] + +For persecuted the Protestants continued to be. The death of Henry did +not for an instant interrupt the work of searching for and punishing +reputed heretics. The brief term must be improved, during which the +Spaniards and other strangers who had come to witness the marriage +festivities were still present, to fulfil the promises given to the +Dukes of Alva and Savoy, and demonstrate the catholicity of the Very +Christian King.[769] Three days after the fatal termination of Henry's +wound in the tournament, the English ambassador wrote to his government: +"In the midst of all these great matters and business, they here do not +stay to make persecution and sacrifice of poor souls: for the twelfth of +this present, two men and one woman were executed for religion; and the +thirteenth of the same there was proclamation made by the sound of +trumpet, that all such as should speak either against the church or the +religion now used in France should be brought before the bishops of the +dioceses, and they to do execution upon them."[770] On the fourteenth of +July, only four days after Henry's death, new steps were taken to bring +to trial the five counsellors of parliament arrested on the day of the +famous "Mercuriale." An account of these proceedings, and in particular +of those instituted against Anne du Bourg, will presently be given. + +[Sidenote: Denunciation and treachery at Paris.] + +The increase of the Protestants in France during the past few months had +been great. Even in the capital the progress of the new doctrines could +not be hidden; but so carefully had the veil of secrecy been drawn over +the conventicles, that, until a short time before Henry's death, the +names and residences of the Parisian reformers had been almost entirely +unknown to the argus-eyed clergy. But the treachery of one De +Russanges--a goldsmith, who, for appropriating the charitable +contributions of the church, had been deposed from the +eldership--furnished to the enemy a complete list of the ministers, +elders, and other principal men among the Protestants.[771] The +information thus obtained was for a time left unimproved, in consequence +of the sudden removal of the king; but the zeal of the chief persecutors +had not cooled down. New and more stringent edicts were published, +consigning to the flames, without form of process, all that made or +attended conventicles. Liberal rewards were offered to stimulate +denunciation. Domiciliary visits were enjoined upon the proper officers. +Extraordinary powers were given to the "lieutenant-criminel" and a few +of the counsellors of the Chatelet, known to be inimical to the "new +doctrines," to act during the recess of parliament. It was even ordained +by letters-patent of the king, that the very houses in which unlawful +assemblages had taken place by night and the Lord's Supper had been +profanely administered contrary to the rites of the Roman Catholic +Church, should be razed to the ground, and never rebuilt, as a memorial +for all time.[772] The church followed the example of the civil power. +The parishes resounded with excommunications of all that failed to +reveal the heretical sentiments of their acquaintance, and with +exhortations to watchfulness.[773] Parliament itself had lent its +authority to the inquisitorial work, by enjoining upon owners or +occupants of houses in the city or suburbs "to make diligent inquiry as +to the good and Christian life" of such as lodged with them. In +particular they were to inform against such as did not attend upon +divine worship in the churches, especially upon feast-days.[774] + +[Sidenote: Other informers.] + +[Sidenote: "La petite Geneve" a scene of pillage.] + +Meanwhile, to De Russanges other informers were added. One was a weak +and unstable man whom persecution had once before--in the famous year of +the Placards--driven to the basest of offices. Among others two +apprentices, brought forward to testify against the Protestant employers +who had dismissed them, were pliant instruments in the hands of the +heretic-hunters. By a well-concerted movement a simultaneous descent was +made, and entire families were put under arrest.[775] In some places, +however, an unexpected resistance was encountered. The guests of one +Visconte, with whom travellers from Switzerland and Germany frequently +lodged, supposed the house to be attacked by robbers, and defended +themselves with such bravery against their assailants, that they +effected their retreat in safety. Their host's wife and his aged father +alone were taken into custody. A dressed capon and some uncooked meat +found in the larder--it was on a Friday that the incursion was +made--graced the triumph of the captors. "Little Geneva," as that +portion of the Faubourg St. Germain-des-Pres most frequented by +Protestants was familiarly called, became a scene of indiscriminate +pillage. The valuables of those who, through fear, had absented +themselves, were greedily appropriated by the officials of the Chatelet +and other courts, or fell into the hands of an unorganized force of +robbers who gleaned what the others had left behind. In a day the rich +became poor and the poor became rich. The depredations extended to other +parts of the city where the existence of heresy or wealth was suspected. +Paris, we are told, resembled a city taken by assault. Everywhere armed +men on foot or on horseback were leading to prison men, women, and +children of all ranks. The thoroughfares were clogged by wagons laden +with furniture and other spoils. The street-corners were filled with +plunder offered for sale. Never before, even when the inhabitants had +fled panic-stricken from Paris in time of war, had the price of such +commodities been so low. Numbers of little children, roaming the streets +and ready to die of hunger, formed a pitiful accompaniment to the scene. +But the tender mercies of the populace were cruel, and few dared to give +a "Lutheran" shelter through fear of incurring extreme danger. The most +incredible tales of midnight orgies were studiously circulated among the +simple-minded people, and served to inflame yet more the lust of cruelty +and gain.[776] + +[Sidenote: The Protestants appeal to the queen mother.] + +[Sidenote: She gives them encouragement.] + +In this emergency the Protestants had recourse to the queen mother. +Afraid to trust herself entirely to the Guises, the crafty Italian had, +from the very commencement of the reign, sought to leave open a retreat +in case a change should become necessary. And, in truth, jealousy of the +cardinal and his brother, who seemed disposed to keep all the power in +their own hands, while giving Catharine only a semblance of authority, +was combined in her mind with hatred of Mary of Scots, their niece,[777] +whose influence was as powerful with her son and as adverse to herself +as that of Diana of Poitiers had been with her husband. Scarcely had the +reformers perceived, by the zeal with which Du Bourg's trial was +pressed, that the death of Henry had not bettered their condition, when +they implored the Prince of Conde, his mother-in-law, Madame de Roye, +and Admiral Coligny, to intercede in their behalf with Catharine. At the +suggestion of the latter, they even addressed her a letter, in which +they informed her of the great hopes they had in the preceding reign +founded upon her kind and gentle disposition, and the prayers they had +offered to God that she might prove a second Esther. They entreated her +to prevent the new reign from being defiled with innocent blood, and to +avert the anger of Heaven, which could only be appeased by putting an +end to persecution. The crafty queen, desirous of retaining an influence +that might one day be of great service, and solicitous, at any rate, of +obtaining their confidence, at first assumed an offended tone. "With +what am I menaced?" she said. "For what greater evil could God do me +than He has done, removing him whom I loved and prized the most?" But +presently becoming more gracious, she promised the noble suppliants to +cause the persecution to cease, if the Protestants would intermit their +conventicles and live quietly and without scandal.[778] A private letter +of remonstrance, written by a gentleman formerly in the service of Queen +Margaret of Navarre, is said to have had some weight in extorting this +pledge. He reminded her that her present evil advisers were the same +persons who had, in the first years of her married life, been advocates +of her repudiation; that then in her affliction she had recourse to God, +whose word she had read, choosing as her favorite psalm the 141st, +albeit not of Marot's translating.[779] Her prayers had been answered in +the birth of her children. But the cardinal had banished the psalm-book +from the palace, and introduced the immodest songs of Horace and other +lewd poets; and from that time there had come upon her a succession of +misfortunes. Finally, he begged her to drive away the usurpers of the +place that rightfully belonged to the princes of royal blood, and to +bring up her children after the example of good king Josiah.[780] + +[Sidenote: A second and more urgent address.] + +But the promises of Catharine were given only to be broken. Finding the +atrocious persecution still in operation, and seeing themselves hunted +in their houses, the Protestants again approached her. They denounced +the anger of God who would not leave Du Bourg unavenged. They warned her +of the danger that over-much oppression would breed revolt--not on the +part of those who had embraced the reformed doctrines as taught in the +Gospel, from whom she might expect all obedience--but from others, a +hundred-fold more numerous, whose eyes were open to the abuses of the +papacy, but who, not having submitted themselves to the discipline of +the church, would not brook persecution. The embankment, it was to be +feared, might give way to the violence of the pressure, and the pent-up +waters pour themselves abroad, carrying devastation and ruin to all the +neighboring lands.[781] The implied menace aroused the affected +indignation of Catharine; but, loth to lose her hold upon the +Protestants, she again professed her pity for a sect whose adherents +went to the most cruel torments as cheerfully as to a wedding feast, and +she expressed a desire to have an interview with one of their ministers. +The Protestants did their part, but Catharine failed to keep the +appointment; and all that the minister could effect was to convey to her +a copy of the yet unpublished Confession of Faith of the French +Churches, which, it is more than likely, she never read.[782] + +[Sidenote: Pretended orgies in "la petite Geneve."] + +The insincerity of the queen mother's professions was by this time +sufficiently apparent; yet the Protestants may be excused for applying, +in their distress, to any one in power who made even a _show_ of +compassionate feelings. The outrages visited upon the inhabitants of "la +petite Geneve" were brought to her notice, and she deigned to inquire +into their occasion. But Charles of Lorraine had a ready mode of +quieting her curiosity. Some verses found among the effects of the +Protestants made mention of the death of Henry as an instance of the +divine retribution. Other lines condemned Catharine for her excessive +complaisance to the cardinal. These were first placed in her hands. Then +the two apprentices, after having been well drilled in their lesson, +were brought into her presence. It was a fearful tale they told, and +much did it shock the ears of the virtuous Catharine. They pretended to +describe orgies at which they had been present. In particular they +remembered a conventicle of Protestants in the house of one +Trouillas,[783] an advocate, held on Thursday of Holy Week. A great +number of men and women, married and unmarried, had been present. The +hour was about midnight. The sectaries had first listened to their +preaching. Then a pig had been eaten in lieu of the paschal lamb. +Finally the lamp had been extinguished, and indiscriminate lewdness +followed. + +[Sidenote: The device succeeds.] + +The testimony of the boys--for such they were in years, if not in +proficiency in vice--was enforced and embellished in the queen mother's +hearing by the Cardinal of Lorraine. The trick had the desired effect. +Believing, or feigning to believe, the improbable story, Catharine +consented that the persecution of the "Christaudins" should proceed; +while to some of her maids of honor, strongly suspected of leaning to +the doctrines of the Reformation, she declared that she gave such full +credit to this information, that, were she certain that they were +Protestants, she would not hesitate, whatever favor or friendship she +had hitherto borne them, to have them put to death. Fortunately, +however, for the calumniated sect, there were among its adherents those +who prized honor above life. Trouillas and his family, although among +the number of those who had made good their escape, voluntarily returned +and gave themselves into the hands of the civil authorities. When the +latter would have put them on trial for their alleged heresy, they +declined to answer to the charges on this point until the slanderous +accusations affecting their personal morals had been investigated. The +examination not only completely vindicated their character and revealed +the grossness of the imposture of which they were the innocent victims, +but exhibited the unpleasant fact that an attempt had been made to +corrupt witnesses by representing to them that, against such execrable +wretches as the accursed "Lutherans," it was a meritorious act to allege +even what was false.[784] It is perhaps superfluous to add that +Trouillas, in spite of his manly and successful defence, was unable to +secure the punishment of his accusers. In fact, while the latter +remained at large, both he and his family were kept in prison, until +liberated, without satisfaction for the insult received, upon the +publication of the edict of amnesty of March, 1560.[785] + +[Sidenote: Cruelty of the populace.] + +It would be a task neither easy nor altogether agreeable to chronicle +the executions of Protestants in various cities of the realm. "Never," +wrote Hubert Languet, "have the papists raged so; never before was there +a more cruel persecution. The prisons are full of wretched men. The +woods and solitary places can scarce contain the fugitives."[786] The +Parliaments of Toulouse and Aix, as usual, vied in ferocity with that of +Paris, where the Guises had not long since restored the "chambre +ardente."[787] But the populace of Paris surpassed the judges in +envenomed hatred. Not content with applauding the slow roasting of those +whom the courts had condemned to this torture, they sought to aggravate +the barbarity of other sentences. In August, 1559, a young carpenter was +taken from prison to suffer death for his heretical views. He was to +have been strangled and then burned. The mob, however, resented the +leniency, or were indignant that a pleasant show should lose one-half +of its attraction. They therefore resolved to defraud the hangman of his +share in the work, and suspended the youth, yet living, above the +roaring flames.[788] + +[Sidenote: Traps for heretics.] + +An ingenious method was devised for the detection of the reformers. At +almost every street-corner a picture or image of the Virgin Mary, or of +some one of the saints, was set up, crowned with chaplets of flowers, +and with waxen tapers burning in its honor. Around this object of +devotion were collected at all hours a crowd of porters, water-carriers, +and the very dregs of the populace, boisterously singing the praises of +the saint. Woe to the unlucky wight who, purposely or through +negligence, failed to doff his hat or drop a coin into the box placed in +convenient proximity! He was an impious man, a heretic, and fortunate +was it for him if he escaped with his life. To refuse to swell the +collection of the monk or nun that came to a man's own door to solicit +funds for the trial of the Protestants, was equally perilous. In short, +it was no unfrequent device for a debtor to get rid of the importunity +of his creditor by raising the cry, "Au Christaudin, an Lutherien!" It +went hard with the former if he did not both free himself from debt and +spoil his creditor.[789] + +It is time, however, that we should turn to chronicle the fortunes of a +more illustrious victim--the most illustrious victim, in fact, of the +first period of French Protestantism. + +[Sidenote: Trial of President Anne du Bourg.] + +[Sidenote: His successive appeals.] + +Among the five counsellors of parliament arrested by Henry's orders at +the "Mercuriale," as related in a previous chapter, Anne du Bourg had +incurred his special displeasure by his fearless harangue, and with Du +Bourg the trials began. A special commission was appointed for the +purpose, consisting of President St. Andre, a _maitre de requetes_ and +two counsellors of parliament, Du Bellay, Bishop of Paris, and +Demochares, Inquisitor of the Faith. Brought before it, Du Bourg refused +to plead, asserting his prerogative to be judged only by the united +chambers of parliament. Letters-patent were therefore obtained from +Henry, ordering the prisoner to acknowledge the authority of the +commission, under pain of being declared guilty of heresy and of +treason. Upon the results of the interrogatories, the Bishop of Paris +declared Du Bourg a heretic, ordering him to be degraded from those holy +orders which he had assumed, and then delivered over to the secular arm. +From this sentence Du Bourg appealed to parliament, on the ground that +it was an abuse of ecclesiastical power.[790] The judges--among whom his +most determined enemies, the Cardinal of Lorraine and Cardinal Bertrand +(the latter as Keeper of the Seals) were not ashamed to take their +seats--rejected his appeal, and declared that there had been no abuse. + +From the sentence given by the Bishop of Paris, Du Bourg next appealed +to the Archbishop of Sens, his superior; and when the latter had +confirmed his suffragan's decision, Du Bourg again had recourse to +parliament. He pleaded that it was a violation of the very spirit of the +law that the same person, acting (as did Bertrand) as Archbishop of +Sens, should adjudicate upon a case which he had already acted upon in +the capacity of Keeper of the Seals and Chief Justice of France. + +[Sidenote: His officious advocate.] + +The counsel whom Chancellor Olivier, newly reinstated in his office by +Francis the Second, assigned to Du Bourg, at his earnest request, put +forth strenuous exertions to induce his client to recant. Failing in +this, he extorted a promise not to interrupt him in the defence he was +about to make. Thereupon the officious advocate, after pleading, it is +true, the injustice of the preceding trial, confessed his client's +grievous spiritual errors, and desired, in his name, reconciliation with +the church. The judges, glad to seize the opportunity of ridding +themselves of a disagreeable case, promptly remanded the prisoner, and +were about to depute two of their number to solicit the king's pardon in +his behalf. At this moment a communication arrived, signed by Du Bourg, +disavowing his counsel's admissions, persisting in his appeal and in the +confession of his faith, which he was now ready to seal with his blood, +and humbly begging the forgiveness of God for the cowardice of which he +accused himself. It is needless to say that his appeal was rejected. + +[Sidenote: Du Bourg's message to the Protestants of Paris.] + +Again Du Bourg appealed from the Archbishop of Sens to the Archbishop of +Lyons, "Primate of _all_ the Gauls," and from his unfavorable decision +to the parliament. Meanwhile he wrote to the Protestants of Paris, who +watched his course with the deepest interest, recognizing the important +influence which his firmness or his apostasy must exert on the interests +of truth, and begged them not to be scandalized by a course that might +appear to proceed from craven fear of death. If he thus had recourse to +the judgments of the Pope's tools, he said, it was not through undue +solicitude for life, nor because he in any wise approved their doctrine; +but that he might have the better opportunity to make known his faith in +as many places as possible, and prove that he had not precipitated his +own destruction, by failing to make use of all legitimate means of +acquittal. As for himself, he felt that he had been so strengthened by +God's grace, that the day of his death was an object of desire, which he +very joyfully awaited.[791] + +[Sidenote: Du Bourg in the Bastile.] + +At length the last appeal was rejected, and Du Bourg, under sentence of +death, was remanded to the Bastile, to await the pleasure of the king. +Many months had elapsed since his arrest, but his courage had risen with +the trials he was called to face. To prevent any attempt to rescue him +he had at one time been shut up in an iron cage, and the very passers-by +had been forbidden to tarry and look up at the grim walls of the prison. +But the captive was less solicitous to escape than his captors were to +detain him. He resolutely declined to avail himself of a bull obtained +for him from Rome by friends, through liberal payment of money, and +opening the way for an appeal from the Primate of France to the Pope +himself. The prison walls, it is said, resounded with the joyful psalms +and hymns which he sang, to the accompaniment of the lute.[792] + +[Sidenote: Intercession of the Elector Palatine.] + +[Sidenote: His pathetic speech.] + +A few days before Christmas the order was given for his execution. Two +events determined the Cardinal of Lorraine: the assassination of +President Minard, one of Du Bourg's judges, whose death was caused, +doubtless, by the hand of one of the many whom he had wronged, although +by some ascribed to the Protestants;[793] and the intercession of the +Elector Palatine,[794] who by a special embassy had expressed the +desire to make Du Bourg a professor of law in his university at +Heidelberg. Unwilling to expose himself to further importunities from +abroad which he was resolved to discourage, the prelate gave the signal +for the closing of the tragic scene. The sentence was announced to Du +Bourg in his cell by the deputed judges. It was that he should forthwith +be taken to the place of execution and suspended above the flames until +life should be extinct. But the courage of Du Bourg did not fail him. +When the counsellors had fulfilled their commission and were about to +retire, the fettered prisoner detained them, and uttered a speech of +exquisite pathos. It was the bewitching spirit of delusion, he said, the +messenger of hell, the capital enemy of truth, that had accused him +before them, because he had abandoned her. To that evil spirit had they +too readily listened and condemned him and others like him, the children +of the God of infinite mercy. It was in no sense disobedience to their +prince that they refused to offer sacrifice to Baal. Was it disloyalty +to be willing to give up to their sovereign everything, even to the last +garment they possessed; to pray for the prosperity and peace of his +realm, and that all superstition and idolatry might be banished from its +borders; to entreat the Almighty to fill him and those under him in +authority with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual +understanding, that they might walk worthy of the Lord unto all +pleasing? Was it not rather disobedience to dishonor and anger God by +impiety and blasphemy, and by transferring His glory to another? + +[Sidenote: He depicts the constancy of the victims.] + +The judges themselves were moved to tears as the prisoner pictured the +fearful tortures which were daily inflicted upon the innocent +Protestants at the bidding of that "red Phalaris," the Cardinal of +Lorraine.[795] "Sufferings do not intimidate them," he said, "insults do +not weaken them, satisfying their honor by death. So that the proverb +suits you well, gentlemen: the conqueror dies, and the vanquished +laments.... No, no, none shall be able to separate us from Christ, +whatever snares are laid for us, whatever ills our bodies may endure. We +know that we have long been like lambs led to the slaughter. Let them, +therefore, slay us, let them break us in pieces; for all that, the +Lord's dead will not cease to live, and we shall rise in a common +resurrection. I am a Christian, yes, I am a Christian. I will cry yet +louder, when I die, for the glory of my Lord Jesus Christ! And since it +is so, why do I tarry? Lay hands upon me, executioner, and lead me to +the gallows." Then resuming his address to his judges, he protested at +great length that he died at their hands only for his unwillingness to +recognize other justification, grace, merit, intercession, satisfaction, +or salvation than in Jesus Christ. "Put an end, put an end," he cried, +"to your burnings, and return to the Lord with amendment of life, that +your sins may be wiped away. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the +unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he +will have mercy upon him. Live, then, and meditate upon this, O +senators; and I go to die!"[796] + +[Sidenote: His death.] + +He was led under a strong guard to the Place de Greve. A vast concourse +of people had assembled to witness the death of the illustrious victim. +"My friends," he cried, as with assured countenance he prepared for the +execution, "I am here not as a thief or a robber, but for the Gospel." +The people listened with breathless interest to the harangue he made +them from the scaffold. Then, before he died, he exclaimed again and +again: "My God, forsake me not, that I may not forsake Thee!" The judges +did him the favor of permitting him to be strangled before he was +burned. Perhaps this was done that the story might be circulated that he +had at the last moment recanted; but his refusal to kiss the crucifix +which was offered him was a visible proof to the contrary.[797] Thus he +died, displaying, according to a friendly historian,[798] "the most +admirable constancy shown by any that have suffered for this cause." + +[Sidenote: His death a disastrous blow to the established church.] + +[Sidenote: Account of an eye-witness.] + +Du Bourg's martyrdom was the most terrible blow the established church +had ever received in France. Never had a more disastrous blunder been +committed by the Guises, than when they stirred Henry to imprison and +try, and Francis to execute, the most virtuous member of the Parisian +senate. Such strength of principle in the midst of affliction, such +fortitude upon the brink of death, had never been seen before. The +witnesses of the execution never forgot the scene. Thousands who had +never before wavered in their allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church, +resolved that day to investigate the truth of the faith which had given +him so signal a victory over death. "I remember," writes the most +envenomed enemy of the Protestants that ever undertook to write their +history, "when Anne Du Bourg, counsellor in the Parliament of Paris, was +burned, that all Paris was astonished at the constancy of the man. As we +returned to our colleges from the execution, we were melted in tears; +and we pleaded his cause, after his death, anathematizing those unjust +judges who had justly condemned him. His sermon at the gallows and upon +the funeral pile did more harm than a hundred ministers could have +done."[799] + +[Sidenote: He deplores the result.] + +But the martyrdom of Du Bourg was not a solitary case. The same +consequences flowed from the public execution of others, whose dying +words and actions shook to its very foundations the fabric of +superstition reared in many a spectator's heart. Florimond de Raemond, +himself an advocate of persecution in the abstract, noticed and deplored +the inevitable result. "Meanwhile funeral piles were kindled in all +directions. But as, on the one hand, the severity of justice and of the +laws restrained the people in their duty, so the incredible obstinacy of +those who were led to execution, and who suffered their lives to be +taken from them rather than their opinions, amazed many. For who can +abstain from wonder when simple women willingly undergo tortures in +order to give a proof of their faith, and, while led to death, call upon +Jesus Christ their Saviour, and sing psalms; when maidens hasten to the +most excruciating torments with greater alacrity than to their nuptials; +when men leap for joy at the terrible sight of the preparations for +execution, and, half-burned, from the funeral pile mock the authors of +their sufferings; when, with indomitable strength of courage and joyful +countenance, they endure the lacerating of their bodies by means of +heated pincers; when, in short, like an immovable rock, they receive and +break all the billows of the most bitter sufferings at the hands of the +executioner, and, like those who have eaten the Sardinian herb, die +laughing? The lamentable sight of such incredible constancy as this +created no little doubt in the minds not only of the simple, but of men +of authority. For they could not believe that cause to be bad for which +death was so willingly undergone. Others pitied the miserable, and +burned with indignation against their persecutors. Whenever they beheld +the blackened stakes with the chains attached--memorials of +executions--they could not restrain their tears. The desire consequently +seized many to read their books, and to become acquainted with the +foundations of the faith from which it seemed impossible to tear them by +the most refined tortures.... Why need I say more? The greater the +number of those who were consigned to the flames, the greater the number +of those who seemed to spring from their ashes."[800] + +[Sidenote: Fate of the remaining judges.] + +Of the five counsellors of parliament arrested by the late king's +orders, Du Bourg was the only martyr. By the others greater weakness was +shown, or the judges were less willing to fulfil the cardinal's bloody +injunctions.[801] La Porte was reprimanded for finding fault with the +rigorous sentences of the "grand' chambre," and liberated on declaring +those sentences good and praiseworthy. De Foix was condemned to make a +public declaration of his belief in the sole validity of the sacrament +as administered in the Romish Church, and to be suspended from his +office for a year; Du Faur to beg pardon of God, the king, and his +fellow-judges, for having maintained the propriety of holding a holy and +free universal council before extirpating the heretics, to pay a +considerable fine, and to suffer a five years' suspension. Fumee, more +fortunate than his associates, was acquitted in spite of the most +strenuous exertions of the Cardinal of Lorraine.[802] + +[Sidenote: Public indignation against the Guises.] + +[Sidenote: Must the faithful submit passively to usurpation?] + +The savage persecution of the Protestants tended powerfully to +strengthen the current of popular sentiment that was setting in against +the government of the Guises. The sight of so many cruel executions for +more than thirty years had not accustomed either the dissidents or the +more reflecting among those of the opposite creed to the barbarous work. +"Is it not time," they asked, "to put a stop to the ravages of the +flames and of the sword of the executioner, when such signal failure has +attended their application? Will the terror of the _estrapade_ quench +the burning courage of a sect which has spread over the whole of France, +if it could not stifle the fire when first kindled at Meaux and at +Paris? Has not the policy of extermination thus far persisted in only +accelerating the growth of the new doctrines? Shall the sword rage +forever, and must princes of the blood and the noblest and purest in +lower ranks of society incur a common fate? Must the persecuted submit +with as good grace to the arbitrary decrees of the usurpers who, through +their connection with a minor king, have made themselves supreme, as to +the legitimate authority of the monarch, advised by his council of +state? The Gospel, doubtless, enjoins upon all Christians the most +patient submission to legally constituted authority. Its success is to +be won by the display of faith and obedience. But concession may +degenerate into cowardice, and submission into craven subserviency. +Obedience to a tyrant is rebellion against the king whom he defrauds of +his authority, his revenues, and his reputation; and treason against +God, whose name is suffered to be blasphemed, and whose children are +unjustly distressed." + +[Sidenote: Oppression becomes intolerable.] + +[Sidenote: The convocation of the States General.] + +The religious grievances thus ran parallel with the political, and could +scarcely be distinguished in the great aggregate of the intolerable +oppression to which France was subjected. The legislation of which such +grave complaint was made, it must be admitted, was sometimes +sufficiently whimsical. The resources of the royal treasury, for +instance, being inadequate to meet the demands of creditors, it was +necessary to silence their importunity. An inhuman decree was +accordingly published, enjoining upon all petitioners who had come to +Fontainebleau, where the king was sojourning, to solicit the payment of +debts or pensions, to leave the court within twenty-four hours, on pain +of the halter! A gallows newly erected in front of the castle was a +significant warning as to the serious character of the threat.[803] In +order to provide against uprisings such as the violent course taken was +well calculated to occasion, the people must be disarmed. Accordingly, +an edict was published, within a fortnight after the accession of +Francis, strictly forbidding all persons from carrying pistols and other +firearms, and the prohibition was more than once repeated during this +brief reign.[804] While thus seeking to repress the display of the +popular displeasure in acts of violence and sedition, the Guises +resolved to prevent the overthrow of their usurped authority by +legitimate means. The convocation of the States General was the +safety-valve through which, in accordance with a wise provision, the +overheated passions of the people were wont to find vent. But the +assembling of the representatives of the three orders would be +equivalent to signing the death-warrant of the Guises; while to +Catharine, the queen mother, it would betoken an equally dreaded +termination of long-cherished hopes. Both Catharine and the Guises, +therefore, gave out that whoever talked of convening the States was a +mortal enemy of the king, and made himself liable to the pains of +treason.[805] Every precaution had been taken to make the boiler tight, +and to render impossible the escape of the scalding waters and the +steam; it only remained to be seen whether the structure was proof +against an explosion. + +[Sidenote: Calvin and Beza consulted.] + +[Sidenote: They dissuade armed resistance.] + +[Sidenote: Calvin foresees civil war.] + +[Sidenote: More favorable replies.] + +Such a catastrophe, indeed, seemed now to be imminent.[806] Among the +more restless, especially, there was a manifest preparation for some new +enterprise. The correspondence of the reformers reveals the fact that, +as early as in the commencement of September, a knotty question had +been propounded to the Genevese theologians:[807] "Is it lawful to make +an insurrection against those enemies not only of religion, but of the +very state, particularly when, according to law, the king himself +possesses no authority on which they can rest their usurpation?" This +was an interrogatory often put by those who would gladly have followed +the example of a Scaevola, and sacrificed their own lives to purchase +freedom for France. "Hitherto," notes Beza, "we have answered that the +storm must be overcome by prayer and by patience, and that He will not +desert us who lately showed by so wonderful an example (the death of +Henry) not only what He can, but what He will do for His church. Until +now this advice has been followed."[808] As the plan for a forcible +overthrow of the Guises began to develop under the increasing +oppression, and as malcontents from France came to the free city on Lake +Leman in greater numbers, Calvin expressed his convictions with more and +more distinctness, and endeavored to dissuade the refugees from +embarking in so hazardous an undertaking. Its advocates in vain urged +that they had received from a prince of the blood (entitled, by the +immemorial custom of the realm, to the first place in the council, in +the absence of his brother, the King of Navarre) the promise to present +their confession of faith to the young monarch of France, and that +thousands would espouse his defence if he were assailed. The reformer +saw more clearly than they the rising of the clouds of civil war +portending ruin to his native land. "Let but a single drop of blood be +shed," said Calvin, "and streams will flow that must inundate +France."[809] But his prudent advice was unheeded. Other theologians +and jurists of France and Germany had been questioned. They replied more +favorably, "It is lawful," they said, "to take up arms to repel the +violence of the Guises, under the authority of a prince of the blood, +and at the solicitation of the estates of France, or the soundest part +of them. Having seized the persons of the obnoxious ministers, it will +next be proper to assemble the States General, and put them on trial for +their flagrant offences."[810] + +[Sidenote: Godefroy de la Renaudie.] + +[Sidenote: His grounds for revenge.] + +An active and energetic man was needed to organize the movement and +control it until the proper moment should come for Conde--the "mute" +head, whose name was for the time to be kept secret--to declare himself. +Such a leader was found in Godefroy de Barry, Seigneur de la Renaudie, a +gentleman of ancient family in Perigord. The result justified the wisdom +of the choice. Besides the discontent animating him in common with the +better part of the kingdom, La Renaudie had private wrongs of his own to +avenge. Less than a year before the accession of Francis, his +brother-in-law, Gaspard de Heu, had been arrested as a pretended agent +for bringing about an alliance between the King of Navarre and the +Protestant princes of Germany.[811] In the gloomy castle of the Bois de +Vincennes a private trial had been held, in which none of the accustomed +forms of law were observed. De Heu had been barbarously tortured and +secretly despatched.[812] That it was a judicial murder was proved by +the extraordinary precautions taken to conceal the procedure from the +knowledge of the public, and by the selection of the most lonely place +about the castle for the grave into which his official assassins hastily +thrust the body.[813] La Renaudie held the Cardinal of Lorraine to be +the author of the cowardly deed.[814] + +[Sidenote: He assembles the malcontents at Nantes, Feb. 1, 1560.] + +[Sidenote: Well-devised plans.] + +La Renaudie displayed incredible diligence.[815] In a few days he had +travelled over a great part of France, visiting all the most prominent +opponents of the Guises, urging the reluctant, assuring the timid, +inciting all to a determined effort. On the first of February he +assembled in the city of Nantes a large number of noblemen and of +persons belonging to the "tiers etat," who claimed to be as complete a +representation of the estates of France as the circumstances of the +country would admit. It was a hazardous undertaking; but so prudently +did the deputies deport themselves, that, although the Parliament of +Brittany was then sitting at Nantes, they were not detected in the crowd +of pleaders before the court. After solemnly protesting that the +enterprise was directed neither against the majesty of the king and of +the princes of the blood, nor against the legitimate estate of the +kingdom, the assembly was intrusted with the secret of the name of the +prince by whose authority the arrest of the Guises was to be attempted. +The tenth of March[816] was fixed upon for the execution of the design. +At that date, it was supposed, Francis and his court would be sojourning +on the banks of the Loire.[817] Five hundred gentlemen were selected, +and placed under the command of ten captains. All were to obey the +directions of the "mute" chief, and his delegate, La Renaudie. Others of +the confederates were pledged to prevent the provincial towns from +sending assistance to the Guises. The force thus raised was to be +disbanded only when a legitimate government had been re-established, and +the usurpers brought to punishment.[818] + +[Sidenote: Confidence of the Guises.] + +The plan was well devised, and its execution was entrusted to capable +hands. The omens, indeed, were favorable. The Cardinal of Lorraine and +his brother, intoxicated by the uniform success hitherto attending their +ambitious projects, despised such vague rumors of opposition as reached +their ears. The party adverse to their tyranny, composed not only of +Protestants and others who sought the best interests of their country, +but recruited from the ranks of the restless and of those who had +private wrongs to redress, was sure, on the first tidings of its +uprising, to secure the active co-operation of many of the most powerful +nobles, and possibly might enlist the majority of the population. Rarely +has an important secret been so long and so successfully kept. It was +deemed little short of a miracle that, in a time of peace, and in a +country where the regal authority was so implicitly obeyed, a +deliberative assembly of no mean size had been convened from all the +provinces of France, and the Guises had obtained intimations of the +conspiracy of their enemies by letters from Germany, Spain, and Italy, +before any tidings of it reached the ears of their spies carefully +posted in every part of the kingdom. So close a reticence augured ill +for the permanence of the present usurpation.[819] + +[Sidenote: The plot betrayed.] + +But the timidity or treachery of a single person disconcerted all the +steps so cautiously taken. The curiosity of Des Avenelles, a lawyer at +Paris, in whose house La Renaudie lodged, was excited by the number of +the visitors whom his guest attracted. As his host was a Protestant, La +Renaudie believed that he risked nothing in making of him a confidant. +But the secret was too valuable, or too dangerous, to be kept, and Des +Avenelles secured his safety, as well as a liberal reward, by disclosing +it to two dependants of the Guises, by whom it was faithfully reported +to their masters.[820] The astounding information was at first received +with incredulity, but soon a second witness was obtained. It could no +longer be doubted that the blow of the approach of which letters from +abroad, and especially from Cardinal Granvelle, in Flanders,[821] had +warned them, was about to descend upon their heads. + +[Sidenote: The "Tumult of Amboise."] + +When fuller revelations of the extent of the plot were made, the court +in consternation shut itself up in the defences of Amboise. Catharine +de' Medici, recalling the warning of the Church of Paris, declared that +now she saw that the Protestants were men of their word.[822] + +[Sidenote: The Chatillons consulted.] + +[Sidenote: Coligny gives Catharine good advice.] + +Meanwhile, not only were vigorous measures adopted to guard against +attack, but the most powerful nobles, who might be suspected of +complicity, were sounded respecting their intentions. Coligny and his +brother, D'Andelot, who, in virtue of their offices as Admiral and +Colonel-General of the infantry, stood at the head of the army, received +affectionate invitations from Catharine to visit the court. Upon their +arrival they were taken apart, and were earnestly entreated by the queen +mother and Chancellor Olivier to assist them by their counsel, and not +to abandon the young king. To so urgent a request Coligny made a frank +reply. He explained the existing discontent and its causes, both +religious and political. Persecution, and the usurpation of those who +were esteemed foreigners by the French, lay at the root of the troubles. +He advised the relaxation of the rigorous treatment of the adherents of +the Reformation. _Extermination_ was out of the question. The numbers of +the Protestants had become too great to permit the entertaining of such +a thought. Moreover, the court might be assured that there were +those--and they were not few--who would no longer consent to endure the +cruelty to which, for forty years, they had been subjected, especially +now that it was exercised under the authority of a young king governed +by persons "more hated than the plague," and known to be inspired less +by religious zeal than by excessive ambition, and by an avarice that +could be satisfied only by obtaining the property of the richest houses +in France. An edict of toleration, couched in explicit terms and +honestly executed, was the only remedy to restore peace and quiet until +the convocation of a free and holy council.[823] + +[Sidenote: The edict of amnesty March, 1560.] + +[Sidenote: It is promptly registered.] + +The privy council, if not persuaded of the propriety of initiating a +policy of toleration, were at least convinced of the necessity of +yielding temporarily to the storm; and even the Guises deemed it +advisable to make concessions, which could easily be revoked on the +advent of more peaceful times. Accordingly, an edict of pretended +amnesty was hastily drawn up, and as expeditiously published. The king +was moved to take this step--so the edict made him say--by compassion +for the number of persons who, from motives of curiosity or simplicity, +had attended the conventicles of the preachers from Geneva--for the most +part mechanical folk and of no literary attainments--as well as by +reluctance to render the first year of his reign notable in after times +for the effusion of the blood of his poor subjects. By the provisions of +this important instrument the royal judges were forbidden to make +inquisition into, or inflict punishment for any _past_ crime concerning +the faith: and all delinquents were pardoned _on condition that they +should hereafter live as good Catholics and obedient sons of Mother Holy +Church_. But from the benefits of the amnesty were expressly excluded +all preachers and those who had conspired against the person of the king +or his ministers.[824] The edict--much to the surprise of those who knew +the sanguinary disposition of the judges--was promptly registered by +parliament; whether it was that the judges were reconciled to the step +by a secret article with which, it was said, they accompanied it, to +guide in the future interpretation of the law, or that the majority +regarded it as a piece of deceit.[825] + +[Sidenote: A year's progress.] + +[Sidenote: Beza's comment.] + +In spite of its insincerity, however, the edict, wrung from the +unwilling hands of the cardinal and the privy council, marks an +important epoch in the history of the Reformed Church in France. Barely +nine months had elapsed since five members of the Parisian Parliament +had been thrown into the Bastile for daring to advocate a mitigation of +the penalties pronounced against the Protestants, until the assembling +of the long-promised Oecumenical Council. Little more than two months +had passed since one of their number, and the most virtuous judge on the +bench, had been ignominiously executed. And now the King of France, with +the approval and almost at the instigation of the chief persecutor, +proclaimed an oblivion of all offences against religion, and the +liberation of all persons imprisoned for heresy. The reformers, who had +rarely succeeded by their most strenuous exertions in obtaining the +release of a few of their co-religionists, could scarcely restrain a +smile when they discovered what a potent auxiliary they had obtained +unawares--in the _fears_ of their antagonists. "Would that you could +read and understand the number of contradictory edicts they have written +in a single month!" wrote one who took a deep interest in French +affairs. "You would assuredly be amazed at their incredible fright, when +no one is pursuing them, except Him whom they least fear! What you could +not succeed in obtaining by any of your embassies in former years, they +have given of their own accord to those who sought it not--the +liberation of the entire number of prisoners on all sides. Most have +been released in spite of their open profession of their faith. The +injustice of the judges has, however, led to the retention of a few in +chains up to this moment."[826] + +[Sidenote: A powerful party had arisen.] + +Notwithstanding its incompleteness and insincerity, however, "the Edict +of Forgiveness," as it was termed, is a significant landmark in the +history of French Protestantism. It is the point where begins the +transition from the period of persecution to the period of civil war. By +this concession, reluctantly granted and faithlessly executed, the first +recognition was made of the existence of a large and powerful body of +dissidents from the Roman Catholic Church. No longer were there a few +scattered sectaries whose heretical views might be suppressed by their +individual extermination. But a compact and wide-spread and rapidly +growing party had assumed dimensions that defied any such paltry +measures. It had outgrown persecution. The time for its eradication by +open war or by secret massacre might yet come. Meanwhile, it was +important to avert present disaster by partial concessions. + +[Sidenote: Dismay of the court.] + +[Sidenote: New alarms.] + +The treachery of Des Avenelles had warned the Guises of their danger, +but had left them in dismay and doubt. They knew not whom to trust, nor +whence to expect the impending blow. Sir Nicholas Throkmorton's +correspondence is full of interesting details throwing light upon the +confusion and embarrassment of the Guises. "You shall understand," he +writes on the seventh of March, "that the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal +of Lorraine have discovered a conspiracy wrought against themselves and +their authority, which they have bruited (to make the matter more +odious) to be meant only against the king: whereupon they are in such +fear as themselves do wear privy coats, and are in the night guarded +with pistoliers and men in arms. They have apprehended eight or nine, +and have put some to the torture." "Being ready to seal up this letter," +he adds in a postscript, "I do understand that the fear of this +commotion is so great, as the sixth of this present, the Duke of Guise, +the Cardinal of Lorraine, the Grand Prior, and all the knights of the +Order which were here, watched all night long in the court, and the +gates of this town were all shut and kept." On the fifteenth of March he +writes: "These men here have their hands full, and are so busied to +provide for surety at home, that they cannot intend to answer +foreigners. This night a new hot alarm is offered, and our town doth +begin again to be guarded. It is a marvel to see how they be daunted, +that have not at other times been afraid of great armies of horsemen, +footmen, and the fury of shot of artillery: I never saw state more +amazed than this at some time, and by and by more reckless; they know +not whom to mistrust, nor to trust.... He hath all the trust this daye, +that to-morrow is least trusted. You can imagine your advantage." A few +days later he writes again: "And now it was thought that this was but a +popular commotion, without order, and not to be feared; when, unlooked +for, the 17th, in the morning, about four of the clock, there arrived a +company of 150 horsemen well appointed, who approached the court gates, +and shot off their pistolets at the church of the Bonhommes, whereupon +there was such an alarm and running up and down in the court, as if the +enemies being encamped about them had sought to make an entry into the +castle: and there was crying, _To horse, to horse_.... This continued an +hour and a half,"[827] etc. + +La Renaudie had actually established himself within six leagues of +Amboise on the second of March, and had made his arrangements for the +vigorous execution of his plans a fortnight later. The Guises were to be +seized by a party that counted upon gaining secret admission to the +castle, and opening the gates to comrades concealed in the neighborhood. +But another act of treachery on the part of a confederate enabled the +cardinal and his brother to frustrate a project so sagaciously laid and +offering fair promise of success. The parties of cavaliers, who had +succeeded, as by a miracle, in eluding the spies and agents of their +enemies, posted in every important city of France, and had reached the +very vicinity of the court without discovery, were caught in detail at +their rendezvous. Companies of fifteen or twenty men thus fell into the +hands of the troops hastily assembled by the urgent commands of the +king's ministers. + +[Sidenote: Treacherous capture of Castelnau.] + +[Sidenote: Death of La Renaudie.] + +A more powerful detachment of malcontents could not be so easily +stopped, and threw itself into the castle of Noizay. It seemed more +feasible to overcome them by stratagem than by open assault. The Duke of +Nemours, having been sent to reduce the place, allowed Baron de +Castelnau, commander of the insurgents, a personal interview. Here the +Huguenot defended his adherents against the imputation of having +revolted against their lawful monarch, and maintained that, on the +contrary, they had come to uphold his honor and free him from the +intrigues of the Guises. Seeing, however, the hopelessness of resisting +the superior force of his enemy, Castelnau consented to capitulate, +after exacting from the Duke of Nemours his princely word that he and +his followers should receive no injury, and be permitted to have free +access to the king, in order to lay before him their grievances. The +pledge thus given was redeemed in no chivalrous manner. No account was +made of the terms accepted. Castelnau and his companions-in-arms were at +once thrown into the dungeons of Amboise, and steps were taken for their +trial on a charge of treason.[828] Much larger numbers, arriving in the +vicinity of Amboise ignorant of what had happened, were surrounded by +cavalry and brought in tied to the horses' tails. Many a knight, better +accoutred than his fellows, was despatched in a more summary manner and +stripped of his armor, after which his body was carelessly thrown into a +ditch by the roadside.[829] La Renaudie was so fortunate as to escape +this fate and the yet more cruel doom that awaited him at Amboise, by +meeting a soldier's death, while courageously fighting against a party +of Guisards who fell in with him. He had just slain his antagonist--one +Pardaillan, his own relative--when (on the nineteenth of March) he was +himself instantly killed by the ball from an arquebuse fired by his +opponent's servant.[830] + +[Sidenote: Plenary powers given to the Duke of Guise.] + +While the alarm arising from the "tumult" was yet at its height, the +Guises took advantage of it to obtain yet larger powers, at the same +time securing their position against future assaults. The king, in his +terror, was readily induced to accept the warlike uncle of his wife as +the only person on whose military prowess and faithfulness he could +rely. He regarded the interest of the Guises and his own as identical; +for he had been told, and he firmly believed it, that the enmity of the +insurgents was directed no less against the crown than against its +unpopular ministers.[831] On the seventeenth of March he therefore gave +a commission to "Francis of Lorraine, Duke of Guise, peer, grand master, +and grand chamberlain," to be his lieutenant-general with absolute +powers, promising to approve of all his acts, and authorizing him to +impose the customary punishment upon the seditious, without form or +figure of process.[832] + +[Sidenote: Chancellor Olivier opposes.] + +[Sidenote: Forgiveness to the submissive.] + +There were those about the monarch who could not but look with concern +upon the unlimited authority thus accorded to an ambitious prince. +Chancellor Olivier was of this number. He at first refused to affix the +seal of state to a paper which falsely purported to have been made by +advice of the council. It was, however, at length decided that another +edict should be published contemporaneously, extending forgiveness to +all that had assembled in arms in the neighborhood of the city of +Amboise, under color of desiring to present to the king a confession of +their faith. To avail themselves of the benefits of this pardon, they +must, within "twice twenty-four hours," return to their homes, in +companies of two, or, at the most, three together. The disobedient were +to be hung without process of law, and the tocsin might be rung to +gather a force for the purpose of capturing them. The king, however, +invited all that desired to present him their requests to depute one of +their number to lay them before his council, promising, on the pledge of +his royal word, redress and security.[833] + +[Sidenote: Explained away by a new edict.] + +The acts of the court little agreed with these words of clemency. Many +of those who, in obedience to the edict, turned their steps homeward, +found that edict to be only a snare for their simplicity. Indeed, five +days only had elapsed when, on the twenty-second of March, a fresh +edict, explanatory of the former, excluded from the amnesty all that had +taken part in the conspiracy![834] + +[Sidenote: Carnival of blood.] + +[Sidenote: The young king visibly affected.] + +But it was at Amboise that the vengeance of the Guises found its widest +scope. Day and night the execution of the prisoners stayed not. Their +punishment was ingeniously diversified. Some were decapitated, others +hung; still others were drowned in the waters of the Loire.[835] The +streets of Amboise ran with blood, and the stench of the unburied +corpses threatened a pestilence. Ten or twelve dead bodies, in full +clothing and tied to a single pole, floated down from time to time +toward the sea, and carried tidings of the wholesale massacre to the +cities on the lower Loire. Neither trial nor publication of the charge +preceded the summary execution. Most frequently the victims were placed +in the hangman's hand immediately after the hour for dinner, that their +dying agonies might furnish an agreeable diversion to the ladies of the +court, who watched the gibbet from the royal drawing-rooms. Few, besides +the Duchess of Guise, daughter of Renee of Ferrara, manifested any +disgust at the repulsive spectacle. Some of the prisoners who +importunately insisted on seeing the king, and making before him a +profession of their faith, were summarily hanged from the castle +windows. One intrepid reformer had been so fortunate as to be admitted +to the queen mother's presence, and there, by his ready and cogent +reasoning, had well-nigh brought the Cardinal of Lorraine to admit that +his view of the Lord's Supper was correct. Catharine's attention having +been for a moment withdrawn, when she returned to the discussion the man +had disappeared. Actuated by curiosity or by a desire to spare his life, +she requested him to be sent for. It was too late; he had already been +despatched.[836] For the most part, the victims displayed great +constancy and courage. Many died with the words of the psalms of Marot +and Beza on their lips.[837] Castelnau, after having in his +interrogatory made patent to all the hypocrisy of the cardinal and the +cowardice of the chancellor, died maintaining that, before he was +pronounced guilty of treason, the Guises ought to be declared kings of +France. Villemongys, upon the scaffold, dipped his hands in the blood of +his companions, and, raising them toward heaven, exclaimed in a loud +voice: "Lord, this is the blood of Thy children, unjustly shed. Thou +wilt avenge it!"[838] The body of La Renaudie was first hung upon one of +the bridges of Amboise, with the superscription: "_La Renaudie, styling +himself Laforest, author of the conspiracy, chief and leader of the +rebels_." Afterward it was quartered, and his head, in company with the +heads of others, was exposed upon a pole on a public square.[839] The +sight of these continually recurring executions, succeeding a fearful +struggle in which so many of his subjects had taken part, is said to +have affected even the young king, who asked, with tears, what he had +done to his people to animate them thus against him. It is even reported +that, catching for an instant, through the mist with which his advisers +sought to keep his mind enshrouded, a glimpse of the true cause of the +discontent, he made a feeble suggestion, which was easily parried, that +the Guises should for a time retire from the court, in order that he +might find out whether the popular enmity was in reality directed +against him, or against his uncles.[840] Their fertile invention, +however, was not slow in concocting a story that turned his short-lived +pity into settled hatred of the "Huguenot heretics." + +[Sidenote: The elder D'Aubigne and his son.] + +On others, and especially upon those whose hearts throbbed with +patriotic devotion, a less transient impression was made. Some months +after, the young Agrippa d'Aubigne, then a mere child of ten years, was +traversing the city of Amboise with his father. The impaled heads of +the victims were still to be recognized. The barbarous sight moved the +elder D'Aubigne's soul to its very depths. "They have beheaded France, +hangmen that they are!" he cried out in the hearing of the hundreds that +were present at the fair. Then, spurring his horse, he scarcely escaped +the hands of the rabble who had caught his words. Afterward, when his +young son had rejoined him, he placed his hand on Agrippa's head, and +exclaimed, full of emotion: "My child, you must not spare your head +after mine, to avenge these chieftains full of honor, whose heads you +have just seen! If you spare yourself in this matter, you will have my +curse."[841] + +[Sidenote: Peril of the Prince of Conde.] + +[Sidenote: He is summoned by the king.] + +[Sidenote: Conde's defiance.] + +[Sidenote: Guise's offer.] + +The Prince of Conde had set out for the court about the time of the +discovery of the conspiracy. If the coldness of the courtiers whom he +met on the way did not convince him that he was suspected, the position +in which he soon found himself at Amboise left him no doubts. Surrounded +by spies, he was viewed more as a prisoner than as a guest. The Guises +even counselled Francis to stab him with his dagger while pretending to +sport with him. The crime was averted both by the caution of the prince +and by a reluctance on the part of the young king to imbrue his hands in +the blood of his kinsman--a sentiment which the Guises interpreted as +cowardice.[842] But, unable to resist the urgency of those who accused +Conde of being the true head of the conspiracy, and maintained that the +testimony of many of the prisoners rendered the fact indubitable, +Francis at length summoned the young Bourbon to his presence. He +informed him of the accusations, and assured him that, should they prove +true, he would make him feel the difficulty and the danger of attacking +a king of France. At Conde's request an assembly of all the princes, and +of the members of the Privy Council and of the Order of St. Michael, was +summoned, that he might return his answer to the charges laid against +him.[843] In the midst of the august gathering, Louis of Bourbon arose +and recited the conversation which he had had with the king. He knew, he +said, that he had enemies about him who sought his entire ruin and that +of his house. He had, therefore, solicited to be heard in this company, +and his answer was: that, excepting the person of the king, his +brothers, and the queens, his mother and wife--and he said it with all +respect to their presence--whoever had asserted to the king that Conde +was the chief of certain seditious individuals who were said to have +conspired against his person and estate, had "falsely and miserably +lied." To prove his innocence he offered to waive for the time the +privileges of his rank as prince of the blood, and in single combat +force his accuser at the point of the sword to confess himself a +poltroon and a calumniator. As Conde looked proudly around, no one +ventured to accept the gauntlet he had thrown down. On the contrary, the +Duke of Guise, his most bitter enemy, promptly stepped forward to offer +him his services as second in the single combat proposed! Hereupon Conde +begged the king to esteem him hereafter a faithful and honorable man, +and entreated his Majesty to lend no ear to the authors of such +calumnies, but to regard them as common enemies of the crown and of the +public peace.[844] + + * * * * * + + [Sidenote: An alleged admission of disloyal intentions by La + Renaudie.] + + It is well known that the Huguenots were accused by their enemies + of intending to remodel the government of France. According to + some, the king was to be retained, but shorn of his authority; + according to others, he was to be dispensed with altogether. Under + any circumstances, the Swiss confederation was to be imitated or + reproduced in France. That which gave the pretended scheme most of + its air of probability, in the eyes of the unreflecting, and + compensated for the entire absence of proof of its substantial + reality, was the familiarity of many of the Huguenots--both + religious and political--with Geneva, Basle, Berne, and other small + republican states. These were fountains of Protestant doctrine; + these had afforded many a refugee shelter from persecution in + France. It was notorious that the free institutions of these cities + were the object of admiration on the part of the Calvinists.[845] + + I believe that no contemporary writer has brought forward a + particle of evidence in support of this view, and impartial men + have rejected it as incredible. But a history of the Parliament of + Bordeaux, lately published,[846] contains an extract from the + records of that court, which, if trustworthy, would go far to + establish the reality of treasonable designs entertained by the + Huguenots. Under date of Sept. 4, 1561, the following entry + appears: + + "Ledit jour, M. Geraut Faure, official de Perigueux, a dit: qu'il y + a deux ans que le feu _Sieur de La Renaudie_ fust a la maison dudit + official, a Nontron, lui dire _que c'estoit grande folie qu'un tel + royaume fust gouverne par un roi seul_, et que si l'official + vouloit l'entendre, qu'il lui feroit un grand avantage; car _on + deliberoit de faire un canton a Perigueux, et un autre a Bordeaux_ + dont il esperoit avoir la superintendance. Et lors luy tenant de + tels propos, retira a part ledit official sans qu'autre + l'entendist. Ainsi signe: Faure." + + The late M. Boscheron des Portes, giving full credit to the + assertion of the "official" of Perigueux, believed that the party + of which La Renaudie was a prominent leader contemplated, in + 1559-1560, the formation of "a federative republic broken up into + cantons, the number and situation of which were already, it would + appear, determined upon by the authors of the project." And he + deplores the blind sectarian spirit which could induce Frenchmen to + acquiesce in a plan designed to destroy the unity and consequent + power of a realm whose consolidation every successive king since + the origin of the monarchy had unceasingly pursued. + + I imagine that few unbiassed minds will follow this usually + judicious historian in his singularly precipitate acceptance of the + "official's" statement. It is in patent contradiction with + well-known facts respecting the constitution of the Huguenot party. + The noblemen who gave this party their support had everything to + lose, and nothing to gain, by the change from a monarchical to a + republican form of government. Conde, the "chef muet," was a prince + of the blood, not so far removed from the throne as to regard it + altogether impossible that he or his children might yet succeed to + the crown. The main body of the party had had no reason to + entertain hostility to regal authority. The prevailing discontent + was not directed against the young king, but against the persons + surrounding him who had illegally usurped his name and the real + functions of royalty. If persecution for religion's sake had long + raged, the victims had never uttered a syllable smacking of + disloyalty, and continued to hope, not without some apparent + reason, that the truth might yet reach the heart of kings. + + But, independently of the gross inconsistency between the design + ascribed to La Renaudie and the known sentiments of the Huguenots + at this time, there are other marks of improbability connected with + the statement of Geraut Faure. It was not made at the time of the + pretended disclosure, or shortly after, when, if genuine, it would + have insured the informer favor and reward; but, after the lapse of + "two years," when Francis the Second had been dead nine months, and + when under a new king fresh political issues had arisen. In fact, + if the term of two years be construed strictly, it carries us back + to September, 1559, when Francis the Second had been barely three + months on the throne, and the plans of the Huguenots had, to all + appearance, by no means had time to assume the completeness implied + in Faure's statement. Not to speak of the great vagueness and the + utter absence of circumstantial details in the announcement of the + conspiracy and in the promised advantages, it should be remarked + that the confidant selected by La Renaudie was a very unlikely + person to be chosen. The "official," an ecclesiastical judge + deputed by the Bishop of Perigueux to take charge of spiritual + jurisdiction in his diocese, could scarcely be regarded by La + Renaudie as the safest depositary of so valuable a trust. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 729: Davila, p. 20.] + +[Footnote 730: "Lancea sanctorum tunc inopina salus." Epigram _apud_ Le +Laboureur, Additions aux mem. de Castelnau, i. 276.] + +[Footnote 731: + + Sic cruce detractum fixit tua lancea Christum, + Per latus illorum quos sua membra vocat. + At Deus omnipotens, Christi justissimus ultor, + Sanguine, dixit, erit lancea tincta tuo. _Ib._, _ubi supra_. +] + +[Footnote 732: "O que si ce bon roy eusse vescu," says Montluc, "ou si +ceste paix ne se fust faite, qu'il eust bien rembarre les Lutheriens en +Allemagne." Memoires, Petitot ed., ii. 483.] + +[Footnote 733: Davila, Civil Wars of France, p. 6. Hist. du tumulte +d'Amboise, Recueil des choses memorables, _in initio_; Mem. de Conde, i. +320.] + +[Footnote 734: Yet Catharine herself, in a letter written in 1563 to her +son Charles IX., just after he had declared himself to be of age, admits +the full truth of her opponents' assertion, that Francis II. was a +minor!--"que l'on cognoisse les desordres qui out este jusques icy _par +la minorite du Roy vostre frere_, qui empeschoit que l'on ne pouvoit +faire ce que l'on desiroit." Avis donnez par Catherine de Medicis a +Charles IX., pour la police de sa cour, etc., printed in Cimber et +Danjou, Archives curieuses, v. 245-254.] + +[Footnote 735: "Di natura benignissima, e cerca di gratificare ciascuno, +e massime gl' Italiani quanto piu gli e possibile, ed e tanto amato, non +solamente da tutta la corte, ma da tutto il regno che e cosa +incredibile." Rel. del clar^mo Giovanni Soranzo, 1558, Relaz. Ven., +ii. 429, 430.] + +[Footnote 736: "La Royne mere, ambitieuse et craintive." Mem. de +Tavannes, ii. 256.] + +[Footnote 737: Relaz. di Giovanni Michiel (1561), Tommaseo, i. 426.] + +[Footnote 738: La Planche, 204, 205: "The Duchesse of Valentinoys and +Duches of Buillon are commaunded, that neither they nor any of theirs +shall resort to the courte.... The yong Frenche Quene hath sent to the +Duches of Valentinoys, to make accompt of the French King's cabenet and +of all his jewels." Throkmorton to Queen, July 13, 1559, Forbes, State +Papers, i. 158, 159.] + +[Footnote 739: Regnier de la Planche, p. 203: "Lequel (Henry) ... avoit +entierement resolu, apres avoir acheve ces mariages, et renvoye les +estrangers, de les dechasser arriere de soy, comme une peste de son +royaume." So Hist. eccles., liv. iii. I can scarcely agree with De Thou +(ii., 681, liv. xxiii.) in supposing Catharine deceived in the character +of the Guises: "Comme elle ne connoissoit pas encore le caractere de ces +Princes, elle crut qu'ils se soumettroient en tout a ses volontes," etc. +This statement does injustice to the perspicacity of Catharine, who for +so many years had been quietly, but none the less carefully, studying +these courtiers and all others that figured on the stage of French +politics. La Planche, with his usual acumen, makes much of the advantage +which this circumstance conferred upon her (_ubi supra_): "La royne +mere, italienne, florentine, et de la race des Medicis, et qui plus est, +ayant depuis vingt-deux ans [rather, for twenty-five years] eu tout +loisir de considerer les humeurs et facons de toutes ces gens, regardoit +ce jeu, et sceut si bien empoigner l'occasion, qu'elle gaigna finalement +la partie."] + +[Footnote 740: For a full and not uninteresting account of the +obsequies, see the pamphlet already referred to: "Le Trespas et l'Ordre +des obseques," etc. Paris, 1559. Reprinted in Cimber et Danjou, iii. +307, etc.] + +[Footnote 741: Regnier de la Planche, Hist. de l'estat de France sous +Francois II., 206. "The French King," wrote Throkmorton to his royal +mistress, "alredy hathe geven him (the constable) to understande, that +the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Duke of Guise shal manage his hole +affairs." Throkmorton to the Queen, July 18, 1559, Forbes, State Papers, +i. 166.] + +[Footnote 742: "Ut re vera sit conestabilis." Beza to Bullinger, Sept. +12, 1559, _apud_ Baum, ii. App. 1. The _title_ of constable was for +life. Of the tenure of the office, the memoirs of Vieilleville make +Henry II. say: "Vous scavez que les estats de connestable, mareschaux et +chancelliers de France sont totalement _collez et cousus_ a la teste de +ceulx qui en sont honnorez, que l'on ne peut arracher l'un sans +l'autre." Mem., i. 207.] + +[Footnote 743: Huguenot and papist agreed in this, if they could agree +in nothing else. "Guisiani fratres," said Beza, "ita inter se regnum +sunt partiti ut regi nihil praeter inane nomen sit relictum." Beza, _ubi +supra_. Cardinal Santa Croce used almost the same expression: "Eo +devenerat ut regi solum nomen reliquisse, alia omnia sibi sumsisse +videretur." Commentarii, v. 1440.] + +[Footnote 744: The poor fellow's wit was recompensed with a public +flogging. The incident is told in the recently published Journal d'un +cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 37. It need scarcely be said that the +_Crescent_ referred to Diana of Poitiers.] + +[Footnote 745: "Nam cum ... regem de more salutatum venisset ... +Lotharingii suasu ne respicere hominem voluit." Santa Croce, Comment., +v. 1439.] + +[Footnote 746: La Planche, 206.] + +[Footnote 747: In a remark which he was accused of once making to Henry +II., "that he was surprised that the king had no child resembling him, +save his illegitimate, but acknowledged daughter, Diana, married to the +constable's son!" La Planche, 204, 207; De Thou, ii. 685.] + +[Footnote 748: Blaise de Montluc, a trusty agent, kept Guise well posted +respecting the King of Navarre's words and disposition. "Encores que M. +le Connestable luy ayt escript plusieurs lettres, neantmoins il m'a +toujours dict qu'il ne se fieroit jamais de luy, ayant bien cogneu que +ce semblant d'amitie qu'il luy portoit n'estoit que pour l'attirer de +son coste, affin de ruiner ses cousins," etc. Instruction donnee par le +seign. de Montluc a M. de la Tour, 22 juillet, 1559, Mem. de Conde, i. +307; Mem. de Guise, 450.] + +[Footnote 749: The wealth and power of the Montmorency family were +proverbial; their palaces were among the most magnificent in France. Of +one of them the English ambassadors wrote, four years earlier, a long +description for the benefit of Queen Mary, beginning: "We saw another +house which the said constable had but lately built, called Ecouen, +which was praised for the fairest house in France." The Journey of the +Queen's Ambassadors to Rome, Anno 1555 (Hardwick, State Papers, i. 63).] + +[Footnote 750: See the _Livre des marchands_, Paris, 1565, ascribed to +Louis Regnier de la Planche, the reputed author of the most authentic +history of this reign (Ed. Pantheon litt., 429, 453, _et passim_).] + +[Footnote 751: De la Planche, 207.] + +[Footnote 752: De la Planche, p. 208.] + +[Footnote 753: Ibid., p. 205, 206; De Thou, ii. 683, whose account, as +in so many other instances during this reign, is almost exclusively +based upon the invaluable history of Regnier de la Planche.] + +[Footnote 754: La Planche, p. 208; Tumulte d'Amboise, _ubi supra_; +Languet, Epist. secretae, ii. p. 2.] + +[Footnote 755: La Planche, p. 212; La Place, 26; De Thou, ii. 684.] + +[Footnote 756: "Rex Navarrorum animum in corpore virili gerit +muliebrem." J. C. Portanus, Oct. 30, 1559, Languet, Epist. secretae, ii. +4.] + +[Footnote 757: The Bishop of Mende was to become a member of the privy +council; D'Escars to be made a knight of the order of St. Michael, and +to command fifty men-at-arms. La Planche, 213.] + +[Footnote 758: The Guises did not fail, however, to take precautions +against a surprise. If Throkmorton was well informed, the duke had +"caused two thousand corselets to be laid up in the house of Burbone +(Bourbon), nere to the court, to serve in case of innovacion; if that +any such matter shuld happen upon the arrivall of the King of Navarre." +Desp. of Aug. 8, 1559, Forbes, State Papers, i. 194.] + +[Footnote 759: La Planche, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 760: Idem, 213, 214.] + +[Footnote 761: Throkmorton to the queen, Aug. 15, 1559, Forbes, i. 202.] + +[Footnote 762: "Qu'il n'est point petit compagnon en France."] + +[Footnote 763: Instruction of Montluc to La Tour, already cited, Mem. de +Guise, 450.] + +[Footnote 764: Antoine did, indeed, continue his protestations of his +firm intention "not to fail to do the best he could to advance God's +true religion and cause." He made secret appointments with the English +ambassador, at one time about eleven o'clock at night, near the abbey of +St. Denis, at another time in disguise in the cloisters of the +Augustinian friars, and had much to say about his satisfaction "that he +had so good a colleague" as Elizabeth "in so good a cause." But the +diplomatic correspondence does not show a single step which Navarre ever +ventured to take in behalf of that "good cause." See Throkmorton's +despatch of Aug. 25th, Forbes, State Papers, i. 213, 214.] + +[Footnote 765: "Navarrus ad quem jure ipso et more majorum hactenus +inviolata pertinebat regni administratio, quamvis a plerisque Ecclesiis +salutatus et rogatus ne tam praeclaram et divinitus oblatam occasionem +negligeret, quamvis summo et aperto ludibrio a Guisianis exceptus, tamen +omnibus annuit et suo exemplo confirmavit Christi dictum; Difficile est +divitem ingredi in regnum coelorum." Beza to Bullinger, Sept. 12, +1559, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 1, 2; La Place, 27; La Planche, 213-216; +De Thou, ii. 686, 687.] + +[Footnote 766: Held Sept. 18th. See a description in Forbes, State +Papers, i. 232. Navarre, as one of the six temporal peers, represented +the Duke of Burgundy; Guise represented the Duke of Normandy; Nevers, +the Duke of Guyenne, etc.] + +[Footnote 767: La Planche, 218; De Thou, ii. 688. That the promise of +assistance was only given in order to frighten Navarre was patent to all +who were cognizant of Philip's projected African campaign.] + +[Footnote 768: De Thou (ii. 722, 723) gives an account apparently +correct, save in one or two particulars, of these two missions. The +slavish letter of Antoine to D'Audoz or D'Odoux, as De Thou writes the +name of the second messenger, may be read in the Negociations relatives +au regne de Francois II. (drawn from the papers of the Bishop of +Limoges, French ambassador to Philip, and published by the French +government, under the editorial care of M. Paris, 1841), pp. 164-166. +Compare Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 91.] + +[Footnote 769: La Planche, 209.] + +[Footnote 770: Throkmorton to Cecil, July 13, 1559, Forbes, State +Papers, i. 161.] + +[Footnote 771: La Planche, 221; Beza to Bullinger, Sept. 12, 1559, Baum, +ii., App., 3.] + +[Footnote 772: La Planche, 221; Mem. de Castelnau (Eng. tr. of 1724, p. +23), bk. i. c. 5; Declarations of Sept. 4th and Nov. 14, 1559, in the +Memoires de Guise, 450, 451. These declarations were registered by +parliament, with the proviso that no house should be razed unless the +owners were privy to the crime or guilty of inexcusable negligence. +Memoires de Conde, i, 310.] + +[Footnote 773: La Planche, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 774: Arret du parlement, of September 6, 1559, in Memoires de +Conde, i. 308, 309.] + +[Footnote 775: In August there were nineteen Protestants in Parisian +dungeons, sentenced to be executed for heresy, some in one place, some +in another. A man and a woman were rescued, on the twenty-first of this +month, while on their way to execution at Meaux. Forbes, State Papers, +i. 211, 212.] + +[Footnote 776: La Planche, 221, 223; Hist. eccles., i. 144--147, where +the account is taken word for word from La Planche; De Thou, ii. 691, +692; Felibien, Hist. de Paris, ii. 1069; Mem. de Castelnau, liv. i., c. +4.] + +[Footnote 777: "La royne Catherine de Medicis, florentine, nation +desireuse de nouvellete ... haissoit, comme belle mere, la Royne sa +fille, qui l'esloignoit des affaires et portoit l'amitie du Roy son fils +a MM. de Guise, lesquels ne luy deportoient du gouvernement qu'en ce +qu'ils cognoissoient qu'elle ne pouvoit nuire, luy donnant credit en +apparence sans effect," Mem. de Tavannes, ii. 260.] + +[Footnote 778: La Planche, 211; Hist. eccles., i. 141, seq.; Beza to +Bullinger, Sept. 12, 1559; Baum, ii., App., 3.] + +[Footnote 779: + + "Vers l'Eternel, des oppresses le pere, + Je m'en iray, luy monstrant l'impropere + Que l'on me fait; et luy feray priere," etc. +] + +[Footnote 780: "Coppie de lettres envoyees a la Royne Mere par un sien +serviteur apres la mort du feu Roy Henri deuxieme." Cimber et Danjou, +Archives curieuses, iii. 349, etc. The substance of Villemadon's letter, +which is dated August 26th, 1559, is given by La Planche, 211, 212, and, +after him, by Hist. eccles., i. 141, 142.] + +[Footnote 781: La Planche, 219; Hist. eccles., i. 143; cf. Forbes, State +Papers, i. 226.] + +[Footnote 782: La Planche, 220; Hist. eccles., _ubi supra_. It is not at +all improbable that those who endeavored to influence Catharine showed +too little discretion in their zeal, and needlessly provoked her +displeasure by reference to the judgment of God upon her husband. So, at +least, thought the judicious Frenchman Languet, who added, with some +bitterness, that whoever urged upon them moderation was rewarded for his +pains by being called a traitor to the faith. Epist. secretae, ii. 41.] + +[Footnote 783: Or, Trouillard, according to Castelnau, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 784: La Planche, 223-225; Castelnau, liv. i., c. 4; De Thou, +ii. 691.] + +[Footnote 785: La Planche and De Thou, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 786: Epistolae secretae, ii. 30.] + +[Footnote 787: See _ante_, c. viii., p. 275. The authority of the +Memoires de Tavannes (ii. 258)--"Les chambres ardentes sont erigees pour +persecuter les Huguenots, et ce d'autant plus que les princes du sang et +les freres de Coligny favorisoient la religion nouvelle"--cannot weigh +against the positive statement of the preamble of Henry II.'s edict of +Paris, Nov. 19, 1549, _ante_, c. viii., p. 275. Yet Drion, Hist. chron. +de l'eglise prot. de France, i. 63, places the original institution +here.] + +[Footnote 788: Drion, i. 64; Hist. eccles., i. 151. On the other hand, +Protestant sympathizers sometimes interfered with the course of law in +the interest of their brethren in the faith. "Since our arrivall to this +towne," wrote Killigrew and Jones from Blois, Nov. 14, 1559, "there were +xvii persones taken for the worde's sake, and committed to the +sergeaunts to be conveyed to Orleauns, and other places therabouts, to +be prosecuted. Notwithstanding, it hathe so happened, as the prisoners +in the way betwene this towne and Orleans were rescued, and taken from +the sergeaunts who had charge of them, by sixty men on horsebacke, and +so were conveyed away." Forbes, State Papers, i. 261. At Rouen, Jan. 29, +1560, a bookbinder was snatched from between two friars, as he was being +led in a cart to be burned alive, a cloak thrown over him, and he +conveyed out of the hands of his enemies. Unfortunately, the gates +having been closed, he was recaptured the same night, and the cruel +sentence was executed the next day, with a guard of 300 men-at-arms, for +fear of the people. Memorandum of Feb. 8th, State Paper Office.] + +[Footnote 789: La Planche, 236, 337; De Thou, ii. 705, 706.] + +[Footnote 790: "Comme d'abus." La Place, 19; Crespin, Gal. chretienne, +ii. 304.] + +[Footnote 791: La Planche, 209, 210; La Place, 20; Hist. eccles., i. +138, 139; Crespin, Galerie chretienne, ii. 305-318; Forbes, State +Papers, i. 185. The Memoires de Conde, i. 217-304, reprint entire a +contemporary pamphlet entitled, "La vraye histoire, contenant l'inique +jugement et fausse procedure faite contre le fidele serviteur de Dieu +_Anne du Bourg_, conseillier pour le Roy, en la Cour du Parlement de +Paris," etc. (Paris) 1561. It contains in full the interrogatories and +replies, Du Bourg's confession, etc., and will amply repay a careful +reading. It concludes with a pregnant sentence: "Voila l'issue et fin de +l'histoire que j'avoye propose d'ecrire, _pour un commencement de +beaucoup de troubles, guerres et divisions: car d'injustice procede tout +mal_." Significant and prophetic words to be written and published the +year before the outbreak of the first civil war! The editor of 1743, p. +217, well observes that the execution of Du Bourg may be regarded as one +of the chief causes of the conspiracy of Amboise, which broke out soon +after, and, consequently, of the troubles agitating France for nearly +forty years.] + +[Footnote 792: La Planche, 227-235; Hist. eccles., i. 153-155.] + +[Footnote 793: There was no proof that Antoine Minard's murder was +wrought by a Protestant hand. An address of Du Bourg, in which he +reminded the unrighteous judge of the coming judgment of God, was, after +the event, perversely construed as a threat of assassination. A +Scotchman, Robert Stuart, a kinsman of the queen, was charged with +firing the fatal pistol-shot, but even under the torture revealed +nothing. Public opinion was divided, some attributing the catastrophe to +Minard's well-known immorality ("d'autant," says La Planche, "qu'il y +estoit du tout adonne, et qu'il ne craignoit de seduire toutes les dames +et damoiselles qui avoyent des proces devant luy," etc.), others to his +equally flagrant injustice, others still to the "Lutherans." La Planche, +233, 234.] + +[Footnote 794: Not, as La Planche, 235, and the Hist. eccles., i. 154, +state, Otho Henry, but his successor, Frederick III. Baum, Theodor Beza, +ii. 35, 36; Languet, Epistolae sec., ii. 36.] + +[Footnote 795: So the English agents, Killigrew and Jones, wrote from +Blois, Dec. 27, 1559: "Bourg was not executed, till about the xx of this +present: who before his deathe made suche an oration to the Lords of the +parliament, _as it moved as many of them as were there to shede +teares_," Forbes, State Papers, i. 290.] + +[Footnote 796: La Place, 22, 23; Crespin, Galerie chretienne, ii. +318-322.] + +[Footnote 797: La Place, 23; Crespin, Galerie chretienne, ii. 322, 323; +Hist. eccles., i. 155, 156; De Thou, ii. 700-703.] + +[Footnote 798: La Planche, 236. "Inter quos," writes Jean Crespin in the +colophon to the edition of his Actiones et Monimenta Martyrum of 1560, +"egregie cordatus Dei Martyr Annas a Burgo supremae Parisiensis Curiae +senator, xxiij. die mensis Decemb. anni M.D.LIX. admirabilem martyrii +coronam accepit." In the preface dated Feb. 26th--two months after Du +Bourg's death--he is styled "senator innocentissimus, integerrimus, +sanctissimus."] + +[Footnote 799: Florimond de Raemond, Historia de ortu, progressu, et +ruina haesreseon hujus saeculi (Col. 1613), lib. vii, c. vi., p. 411. We +have La Planche's testimony to the somewhat extraordinary statement that +the judges themselves declared Du Bourg happy in suffering in behalf of +so just a cause, and excused themselves for their own conduct by +alleging the pressure of the Guises (p. 228). "Stulte fecerunt +gubernatores Gallici, quod eum publice supplicio affecerunt," wrote +Languet, a few months later; "ejus enim supplicium _est una ex non +minimis causis horum tumultuum_." Epist. sec., ii, 47.] + +[Footnote 800: Florimond de Raemond, ii. 410, 411. Let not the humane +reader mistake. Policy, not pity, dictated toleration. The same +Florimond de Raemond, presiding as the oldest counsellor, read an _arret_ +of the Parliament of Bordeaux, not only ordering the disinterment of a +child buried in the cemetery of Ozillac in Saintonge, but that of all +the bodies of Huguenots that had been placed in any other cemetery +within ten years. Plaintes des eglises reformees de France, etc., 1597; +_apud_ Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., xi. (1862), 145.] + +[Footnote 801: Compare La Planche, 242.] + +[Footnote 802: The singular details of these trials, which strikingly +illustrate the horrible corruption of the French judiciary in the +sixteenth century, are given by La Planche, 242-245; Hist. eccles., i. +160-164; De Thou, ii. 703, 704; La Place, 24, who remarks upon the +singularly different judgments in the five cases, and attributes the +variety to the change in the state of the kingdom, and to the diversity +of the interrogatories addressed to the prisoners. The sentences against +Du Faur and De Foix were subsequently annulled and erased from the +records of the parliament, on the ground of irregularity.] + +[Footnote 803: De Thou, ii. 699; Agrippa d'Aubigne, Histoire universelle +(Maille, 1616), i. 89.] + +[Footnote 804: Recueil gen. des anc. lois franc. (July 23, 1359), xiv. +1; (Dec. 17th), xiv. 14; and (Aug. 5, 1560), xiv. 46.] + +[Footnote 805: La Planche, 218. Cf. Histoire du tumulte d'Amboise.] + +[Footnote 806: "In Gallia omnia sunt perturbatissima," wrote Languet +(Jan. 31, 1560), "et scribitur esse omnino impossibile, ut res diu eo +modo consistant." The Cardinal of Lorraine, he added, has dissipated the +single church of Paris, but during this very period there have been +established more than sixty churches in other parts of the kingdom; nor +are the Genevese able to supply so many ministers as they are asked to +furnish. Meantime many are defending themselves against the royal +officers. The Gascons lately drove off the commissioners sent by the +Parliament of Bordeaux to make inquisition for Lutherans. The same has +happened in the district of Narbonne, not far from Marseilles. Epistolae +sec., ii., pp. 32, 33.] + +[Footnote 807: Beza to Bullinger, Sept. 12, 1559 (Baum, ii., App., p. +3). Calvin, in his letters to Bullinger and Peter Martyr, both dated May +11, 1560, by the expression "eight months ago," points back to the same +period. Calvin's Letters (Bonnet), Eng. tr., iv. 104-106.] + +[Footnote 808: Beza, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 809: Calvin's Letters, iv. 107. So the ministers of Geneva +declare before the council: "que pour les troubles arrives en France, +ils n'en sont nullement coupables; qu'il ne doit pas etre inconnu au +Conseil qu'ils ont detourne, autant qu'ils ont pu, d'aller a Amboise, +ceux qu'ils ont sceu avoir quelque dessein d'y aller." Registers, Jan. +28, 1561, _apud_ Gaberel, Histoire de l'egl. de Geneve, i., pieces +justif., 203.] + +[Footnote 810: La Planche, 237.] + +[Footnote 811: De Heu was a man of great influence. He had been +_echevin_ at Metz, and the chief mover in introducing Protestantism into +that city. In 1543 he invited Farel to come thither. Persecution drove +him to Switzerland. He returned from exile upon the fall of Metz into +the hands of the French, in 1552. When he found that the change had only +aggravated the condition of the Protestants, he became prominent in the +effort to enlist the sympathy and support of the German princes in +behalf of the French reformation. Bulletin de l'hist. du prot. fr., xxv. +(1876), 164.] + +[Footnote 812: The whole affair remained involved in impenetrable +obscurity until the recent fortunate discovery of the "Proces verbal" +(or original minute) "de l'execution a mort de Caspar de Heu, S^r. de +Buy" among the MSS. of the Bibliotheque Nationale, 22562, 1re partie, +pp. 110-113. It is now printed in the Appendix to "Le Tigre," 103-108, +and Bulletin de l'hist. du prot. fr., xxv. (1876), 164-168. The very +date (which proves to be Sept. 1, 1558) was previously unknown.] + +[Footnote 813: "Ce pendant," says the royal lieutenant, in the +interesting document just described, "aurions fait faire une fosse _dans +les fosses du donjon dudit chasteau, soubz les arches du pont de la +poterne_, comme nous semblant _lieu le plus cache et secret_ d'alentour +dudit chasteau, d'autant que _l'on ne va souvent ny aysement esdits +fossez, et que les herbes y sont communement grandes_," etc. Le Tigre, +108.] + +[Footnote 814: The author of that terrible invective, "Le Tigre," +reminds the cardinal of this crime in one of the finest outbursts of +indignant reproach: "N'oys-tu pas crier le sang de celuy que tu fis +estrangler dans une chambre du boys de Vincennes? S'il estoit coupable, +que [pourquoi] n'a il este puny publiquement? Ou sont les tesmoingts qui +l'ont charge? Pourquoy as-tu voulu en sa mort rompre et froisser toutes +les loix de France, si tu pencoys que par les loix, il peut estre +condemne?" Also in the _versified_ "Tigre," lines 315-326. It is only +just to La Renaudie to add that, according to La Planche, those who knew +him best acquitted him of the charge of being much influenced by these +and other personal considerations. Hist. de l'estat de France, 238, +316-318.] + +[Footnote 815: "Homme, comme l'on dit, de grand esprit, et de diligence +presque incroyable." Hist. du tumulte d'Amboise, in Recueil des choses +memorables (1565), and Memoires de Conde, i. 324.] + +[Footnote 816: According to De Thou, ii. 762, March 15th. So Davila, 22, +and La Place, 33. Calvin (Letter to Sturm, March 23, 1560, Bonnet, iv. +91) says "before March 15." Castelnau, i. 6, says March 10th.] + +[Footnote 817: The uniform statement of the contemporary authorities +from whom our accounts of the "Tumult" are derived, is to the effect +that the blow was to be struck at Blois, but that, on discovering their +peril, the Guises hastily removed the court, for greater safety, to the +castle of Amboise. And yet the correspondence of the English +commissioners discloses the fact that the time of the removal had been +decided upon on the 28th of January, several days before the Nantes +assembly. See Ranke, Am. ed., 176. "The Frenche King, as it is said, the +5th of February removeth hens towardes Amboise; and will be fifteen +dayes in going thither." Despatch of Killigrew and Jones, from Blois, +January 28, 1559/60, Forbes, State Papers, i. 315. In fact, the general +outline of the royal progress was indicated by the Spanish ambassador, +Perrenot Chantonnay, to Philip II., so far back as December 2, 1559: "La +cour, lui avait-il ecrit, a le projet _de passer le cureme_ a Amboise, +de se rendre en Guyenne au printemps, en passant par Poitiers, Bordeaux, +Bayonne, d'aller ensuite a Toulouse, de demeurer l'hiver suivant en +Provence et en Languedoc, et _d'agir vigoureusement contre les +heretiques_." Mignet, Journal des Savants, 1857, 419, from Simancas MSS. +The Spanish ambassador saw so much that appalled him in the rapid +progress of the Reformation in every part of France, that he feared +alike for the North and the South, when the king was not present to +check its growth.] + +[Footnote 818: La Planche, 238, 239; Hist. eccles., i. 158, 159; De +Thou, ii. 754-762 (where La Renaudie's harangue is given at length); +Castelnau, liv. i., c. 8; Davila, 22; La Place, 33. Hist. du tumulte +d'Amboise, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 819: De Thou, ii. 762, 763.] + +[Footnote 820: Castelnau, 1. i., c. 8; La Planche, 245, 246; Hist. +eccl., i. 164; La Place, 33; De Thou, ii. 763. The Histoire du tumulte +d'Amboise, _apud_ Recueil des choses memorables (1565), i. 5, and Mem. +de Conde, i. 329, describes Des Avenelles as "prest de se donner a +louage au premier offrant;" adding "estant ambitieux et necessiteux tout +ensemble, il pensa avoir trouve le moyen pour se rendre riche et +memorable a jamais." For a favorable view of Des Avenelles's motives, +see De Thou, ii. 775. The 12th of February was the date when these +tidings reached the Guises, as appears from the speech of Morage or +Morague, sent in March to deliver to parliament for registry the edict +of amnesty for past religious offences. Mem. de Conde, i. 337. The king, +who had started on his hunting tour from Blois on the 5th of February, +was, when the news came, between Marchenoir and Montoire (places north +and northwest of Blois). The first intimations must, however, have been +very vague and general, since, on the 19th of February, the Cardinal of +Lorraine wrote to Coignet, French ambassador in Switzerland, directing +him to set one or two persons to watch La Renaudie ("a la queue de la +Regnaudie pour l'observer de loin, n'en perdre connaissance ni jour, ni +nuit"), and seize him the moment he entered the French +territories--evidently supposing him to be still in Switzerland and far +from Amboise. Letter of Card. Lorraine from Montoire, Feb. 19, 1560, +Imp. Lib. Paris, Mignet, Journal des Savants, 1857, 420, 421. It was, +doubtless, the receipt of more definite warnings that led the Guises to +hasten the termination of the king's pleasure excursion. On the 22d of +February, Francis arrived at Amboise, "which was two dayes sooner then +was loked for." Throkmorton to the queen, Feb. 27, 1560, Forbes, State +Papers, i. 334.] + +[Footnote 821: Castelnau, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 822: La Planche and Hist. eccles., _ubi supra_. I need not +call attention to the gross absurdity into which Jean de Tavannes falls +(Mem. ii. 260, 261), when he makes Catharine, through policy and hatred +of Mary of Scots and of the Guises, whom the Scottish queen supported, +favor the malcontents! Can the younger Tavannes have been misled by the +hypocritical representations with which she once and again attempted +ineffectually to deceive the reformers when they appealed to her to put +an end to the persecutions?] + +[Footnote 823: See the synopsis of Coligny's speech in La Planche, 247, +248. Tavannes ascribes Coligny's impunity throughout this reign to +Catharine's interposition, revealing the plans of his enemies, etc. +(Memoires, ii. 264). It was much more probably owing to his powerful +family alliances, and particularly to the fear of throwing the weight of +the enormous influence of his uncle, Constable Montmorency, into the +opposite scale. Yet it must be confessed that Catharine displayed for +the admiral, on more than one occasion, that respect which integrity +always exacts from vice, and which is most likely to be manifested in +the hour of danger. Early in this reign the court faction had endeavored +to sow discord between the two principal men of the Protestant party, by +intimating to Coligny that Conde was seeking to obtain the governorship +of Picardy, which the former held. The calumny, however, failed of its +object.] + +[Footnote 824: Recueil des anc. lois franc, xiv. 22-24; La Planche, 248; +La Place, 37; Hist. eccles., i. 166, 167; De Thou, ii. 764; Forbes, i. +877. A Latin version, but out of its chronological position in Languet, +Epist. sec., ii. p. 15. The date of the publication of this important +document at Paris is indicated in a letter of Hubert Languet: "Certum +est _undecima Martii_ Lutetiae propositum esse edictum, in quo Rex +condonat suis subditis quidquid hactenus peccatum est in religione." +Epist. sec., ii. 44.] + +[Footnote 825: "Car aucuns conseillers disoyent que c'estoit un +attrape-minault." La Planche, 248.] + +[Footnote 826: Beza to Bullinger, June 26, 1560; in Baum, ii., App. 13.] + +[Footnote 827: Throkmorton's Correspondence in Forbes, State Papers, i. +353, 354, 374-378.] + +[Footnote 828: Hist. du tumulte d'Amboise, _ubi supra_; La Planche, 251, +252; La Place, 34, 35; De Thou, ii. 767, 768; Mem. de Castelnau, liv. +i., c. 8; Throkmorton to the queen, March 21, 1560, Forbes, State +Papers, i. 376, 377. Vieilleville, if we may credit Carloix, foresaw the +impossibility of keeping his honor in this mission, and refused to take +it. Mem. de Vielleville, ii. 420, etc.] + +[Footnote 829: La Planche, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 830: La Planche, 254; La Place, 35; De Thou, ii. 769; Davila, +25. Sir Nich. Throkmorton, March 21, 1560, Forbes, State Papers, i. 380. +M. Mignet has shown (Journal des Savants, 1857, 477, note) that the +death of La Renaudie cannot have taken place before the evening of the +19th, or the morning of the 20th.] + +[Footnote 831: Even in their letter to their sister, the Queen Dowager +of Scotland (April 9, 1560), the Cardinal of Lorraine and the Duke of +Guise had the assurance to speak of the affair of Amboise as "a +conspiracy made to kill the king, in which we were not forgotten." +Forbes, State Papers, i. 400.] + +[Footnote 832: Cf. the commission in the Recueil des choses memorables +(1565), 19-24; La Planche, 252, 253; De Thou, ii. 768; Davila, 24.; +Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. ii., c. 15.] + +[Footnote 833: Recueil des anc. lois fr., xiv., 24-26; La Planche, 253, +254; Languet, ii. 48, 49; De Thou, ii. 769. It need scarcely be added +that the aim of the insurgents is misrepresented to be, "under veil of +religion, to ravage all the rich cities and houses of the kingdom."] + +[Footnote 834: La Planche, 257, 262.] + +[Footnote 835: "The 17th of this present there were twenty-two of these +rebellis drowned in sacks, and the 18th of the same at night twenty-five +more. Among all these which be taken, there be eighteen of the bravest +captains of France." Throkmorton to the queen, March 21st, Forbes, i. +378.] + +[Footnote 836: La Planche, 257, 263.] + +[Footnote 837: Throkmorton, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 838: La Planche, 263, 265; La Place, 34, 35; Hist. du tumulte +d'Amboise, _apud_ Mem. de Conde, i. 327; D'Aubigne, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 839: Ibid., 254-258; La Place, 35; Hist. du tumulte, _ubi +supra_; Throkmorton, _ubi supra_, i. 380.] + +[Footnote 840: La Planche, 258.] + +[Footnote 841: Memoires de Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne (Ed. Pantheon +lit.), 472.] + +[Footnote 842: La Planche, 267.] + +[Footnote 843: I have followed in the text the account of La Planche. La +Place, 36, represents Conde as voluntarily making his appearance and +declaration before the king and the princes and knights that were +present, on hearing that the ambassadors of several foreign princes had +named him in their despatches as the author of the enterprise.] + +[Footnote 844: La Planche, 268, 269; La Place, 36; Hist. eccles., i. +171; De Thou, ii. 773, 774; Mem. de Castelnau, liv. i., c. 11. The +Cardinal of Lorraine, however, was deeply mortified and vexed. "El +cardenal estava presente teniendo los ojos en tierra, sin hablar +palabra, mostrando solamente descontentemiento de lo que passava." MSS. +Simancas, _apud_ Mignet, Journal des Savants, 1857, 479.] + +[Footnote 845: The accusation referred to occurs, for instance, in a +private diary, part of which has recently come to light, begun by one +Friar Symeon Vinot, Sept. 10, 1563. He notes: "L'an 1561 "--an error for +1560--"commenca a, s'elever en France la secte des Hugguenotz, ou (a +mieulx dire) Eygnossen, pour ce qu'il [ils] vouloient fayre les villes +franches, et s'allier ensemble, comme les villes des Schwysses, qu'on +dict en allemand Egnossen, cest a dire Aliez," etc. Bulletin de l'hist. +du prot. fr., xxv. (1876) 380.] + +[Footnote 846: Histoire du parlement de Bordeaux, depuis sa creation +jusqu'a sa suppression (1541-1790), oeuvre posthume de C. B. F. +Boscheron des Portes, president honoraire de la cour d'appel de +Bordeaux, etc. (Bordeaux, 1877), i. 130.] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE ASSEMBLY OF NOTABLES AT FONTAINEBLEAU, AND THE CLOSE OF THE REIGN OF +FRANCIS THE SECOND. + + +[Sidenote: Rise of the name "Huguenots."] + +[Sidenote: Various explanations given.] + +The tempest which had threatened to overwhelm the Guises at Amboise had +been successfully withstood; but quiet had not returned to the minds of +those whose vices were its principal cause. The air was still thick with +noxious vapors, and none could tell how soon or in what quarter the +elements of a new and more terrible convulsion would gather.[847] The +recent commotion had disclosed the existence of a body of malcontents, +in part religious, in part also political, scattered over the whole +kingdom and of unascertained numbers. To its adherents the name of +_Huguenots_ was now for the first time given.[848] What the origin of +this celebrated appellation was, it is now perhaps impossible to +discover. Although a number of plausible derivations have been given, it +is not unlikely that all are equally far removed from the truth, and +that the word arose from some trivial circumstance that has completely +passed into oblivion. It has been traced back to the name of the +_Eidgenossen_ or _confederates_, under which the party of freedom +figured in Geneva when the authority of the bishop and duke was +overthrown;[849] or to the _Roy Huguet_, or _Huguon_, a hobgoblin +supposed to haunt the vicinity of Tours, to whom the superstitious +attributed the nocturnal assemblies of the Protestants;[850] or to the +gate _du roy Huguon_ of the same city, near which those gatherings were +wont to be made.[851] Some of their enemies maintained the former +existence of a diminutive coin known as a _huguenot_, and asserted that +the appellation, as applied to the reformed, arose from their "not being +worth a _huguenot_" or farthing.[852] And some of their friends, with +equal confidence and no less improbability, declared that it was +invented because the adherents of the house of Guise secretly put +forward claims upon the crown of France in behalf of that house as +descended from _Charlemagne_, whereas the Protestants loyally upheld the +rights of the Valois sprung from _Hugh_ Capet.[853] In the diversity of +contradictory statements, we may perhaps be excused if we suspend our +judgment of their respective merits, and prefer to look upon this +partisan name as one with whose original import not a score of persons +in France besides its fortuitous inventor may have been acquainted, and +which may have had nothing to recommend it to those who so readily +adopted it, save novelty and the recognized need of some more convenient +name than "Lutherans," "Christaudins," or the awkward circumlocution, +"those of the religion." Be this as it may, not a week had passed after +the conspiracy of Amboise before the word was in everybody's mouth. Few +knew or cared whence it arose.[854] + +[Sidenote: Its sudden rise.] + +A powerful party, whatever name it might bear, had sprung up, as it +were, in a night. There was sober truth conveyed in the jesting letter +of some fugitives to the Cardinal of Lorraine. Twenty or thirty +Huguenots succeeded in breaking the bars of their prison at Blois, and, +letting themselves down by cords, escaped. Some others at Tours, a few +days later, were equally fortunate. Scarcely had the latter regained +their liberty when they wrote a letter to the prelate who was supposed +to take so deep an interest in their concerns, informing him that, +having heard of the escape of his prisoners at Blois, they had been so +grieved, that, for the love they bore him, they had immediately started +out in search. And they begged him not to distress himself on account of +their absence; for they assured him that _they would all soon return to +see him, and would bring with them not only these, but all the rest of +those that had conspired to take his life_.[855] + +[Sidenote: How to be accounted for.] + +No feature of the rise of the Reformation in France is more remarkable +than the sudden impulse which it received during the last year or two of +Henry the Second's life, and especially within the brief limits of the +reign of his eldest son. The seed had been sown assiduously for nearly +forty years; but the fruit of so much labor had been comparatively +slight and unsatisfactory. Much of the return proved to be of a literary +and philosophical, rather than of a religious character, and tended to +intellectual development instead of the purification of religions belief +and practice. Much of the seed was choked by relentless persecution. +Bishops and preachers, the gay poet, and the time-serving courtier, fell +away with alarming facility, when the blight of the royal displeasure +fell upon those who professed a desire to abolish the superstitious +observances of the established church. + +[Sidenote: A sudden harvest.] + +But now, within a few brief months, the harvest seemed, as by a miracle, +to be approaching simultaneously over the whole surface of the extended +field. The grains of truth long since lodged in an arid soil, and +apparently destitute of all vitality, had suddenly developed all the +energy of life. France to the reformers, whose longing eyes were at +length permitted to see this day, was "white unto the harvest," and only +the reapers were needed to put forth the sickle and gather the wheat +into the garner. There was not a corner of the kingdom where the number +of incipient Protestant churches was not considerable. Provence alone +contained sixty, whose delegates this year met in a synod at the +blood-stained village of Merindol. In large tracts of country the +Huguenots had become so numerous that they were no longer able or +disposed to conceal their religious sentiments, nor content to celebrate +their rites in private or nocturnal assemblies. This was particularly +the case in Normandy, in Languedoc, and on the banks of the Rhone. + +[Sidenote: The progress of letters] + +[Sidenote: and of intelligence.] + +It may be worth while to pause here, and inquire into some of the causes +of this rapid spread of the doctrines of the Reformation after the long +period of comparative stagnation preceding. One of these was undoubtedly +the astonishing progress of letters in France during the last forty +years. From being neglected and rough, the French language, during the +first half of the sixteenth century, became the most polite of the +tongues spoken in Western Europe--thanks to a series of eminent prose +writers and poets who graced the royal court. The generation reaching +manhood in the latter years of the reign of Henry the Second were far +better educated than the contemporaries of Francis the First. The public +mind, through the elevating tendencies of schools fostered by royal +bounty, was to a considerable degree emancipated from the thraldom of +superstition. It repudiated the silly romanese, passing for the lives of +the saints, with which the public had formerly been satisfied. It +scrutinized minutely every pretended miracle of the papal churches and +convents, and exposed the trickery by which a corrupt clergy sought to +maintain itself in popular esteem. Thus the growing intelligence and +widening information of the people prepared them to appreciate the +merits of the great doctrinal controversy now occupying the attention of +enlightened minds. Interest in the discussion of the most important +themes that can occupy the human contemplation was both stimulated and +gratified by a constant influx of religious works from the teeming +presses of Strasbourg, Basle, Lausanne, Neufchatel, and especially +Geneva. And the verdict of the great majority of readers and thinkers +was favorable to the Swiss and German controversialists. + +[Sidenote: Calvin's Institutes.] + +[Sidenote: Marot and Beza's Psalms.] + +Next to the Bible, translated originally by Olivetanus, and in its +successive editions rendered more conformable to the Hebrew and Greek +texts, the "Christian Institutes" exerted the most powerful influence. +The close logic of Calvin's treatises, speaking in a style clear, +concise and nervous, and touching a chord of sympathy in each French +reader, made its deep impress upon the intellect and heart, while +captivating the ear. Calvin's commentaries on the sacred volume rendered +its pages luminous and familiar. Other works exerted an influence +scarcely inferior. The "Actions and Monuments" of the martyrs, by Jean +Crespin, printer and scholar, not only perpetuated the memory of the +witnesses for the truth, but stimulated others to copy their fidelity. +Marot and Beza's metrical versions of the Psalms, wafted into +popularity, even among those who at first little sympathized with the +piety of the words, by the novelty and beauty of the music to which they +were sung, were powerful auxiliaries to the arguments of the theologian. +They entered the house of the peasant and invested its homely scenes +with a calm derived from the contemplation of the bliss of a heaven +where the fleeting distinctions of the present shall melt away. They +nerved the humble artisan to patience and to the cheerful endurance of +obloquy and reproach. They attracted to the gathering of persecuted +reformers in the by-street, in the retired barn, or on the open heath or +mountain side, the youth who preferred their melody and intelligible +words to the jargon of a service conducted in a tongue understood only +by the learned. In the royal court, or rising in loud chorus from a +thousand voices on the crowded _Pre-aux-Clercs_, they were winged +messengers of the truth, where no other messengers could have found +utterance with impunity. + +[Sidenote: Morals and martyrdom.] + +The blameless purity of life of the men and women whom, for religion's +sake, the officers of the law put to death with every species of +indignity and with inhuman cruelty, when contrasted with the flagrant +corruption of the clergy and the shameless dissoluteness of the court, +openly fostered for their own base ends by cardinals themselves accused +of every species of immorality and suspected of atheism, deeply affected +the minds of the reflecting. One Anne Du Bourg put to death by a Charles +of Lorraine made more converts in a day than all the executioners could +burn in a year. + +[Sidenote: Character of the ministers from Geneva.] + +But, if the rapid spread of Protestant doctrines at this precise date is +due to any one cause more than to another, that cause may probably be +found in the character and numbers of the religious teachers. Converts +from the Papal Church, principally priests and monks, were the first +apostles of the Reformation. Few of them had received systematic +training of any kind, none had a thorough acquaintance with biblical +learning. Many embraced the truth only in part; some professed it from +improper motives. The Lenten preachers whose leaning towards +"Lutheranism" was sufficiently marked to attract the hatred of the +Sorbonne, were generally orators, more solicitous of popularity than +jealous for the truth--fickle and inconstant men whose apostasy +inflicted deep wounds upon the cause with which they had been +identified, and more than neutralized all the good done by their +previous exertions. But now a brotherhood of theologians took their +place, not less zealous for the faith than disciplined in intellect. +Geneva[856] was the nursery from which a vigorous stock was transplanted +to French soil. The theological school in which Calvin and Beza taught, +moulded the destinies of France. The youths who came from the shores of +Lake Leman were no neophytes, nor had they to unlearn the casuistry of +the schools or to throw off a monastic indolence which habit had made a +second nature. They embraced a vocation to which nothing but a stern +sense of duty, or the more powerful attraction of Divine love, could +prompt. They entered an arena where poverty, fatigue, and almost +inevitable death stared them in the face. But they entered it +intelligently and resolutely, with the training of mind and of soul +which an athlete might receive from such instructors, and their +prayerful, trustful and unselfish endeavor met an ample +recompense.[857] + +[Sidenote: The Huguenots of Valence] + +[Sidenote: seize the church of the Franciscans.] + +The course of events in many cities of Southern France is illustrated by +the occurrences at Valence, which the most authentic and trustworthy +historian of this reign has described at length. This episcopal city, +situated on the Rhone, about midway between Lyons and Avignon, had for +some time contained a small community of Huguenots. When, in order to +avoid persecution, their minister, who had become known to their +enemies, was replaced by another, a period of unexampled growth began. +The private houses in which the Protestants met were too small to +contain the worshippers. They now adjourned to the large schools, but at +first held their services by night. Soon their courage grew with the +advent of a second minister and with large accessions to their ranks. +The younger and more impetuous part of the Protestants, disregarding the +prudent counsels of their pastors and elders, ventured upon the bold +step of seizing upon the Church of the Franciscans, and caused the +Gospel to be openly preached from its pulpit. The people assembled, +summoned by the ringing of the bell; and it was not long before the +reformed doctrines were relished and embraced by great crowds. A goodly +number of armed gentlemen simultaneously took possession of the +adjoining cloisters, and protected the Protestant rites. The +co-religionists of Montelimart and Romans, considerable towns not far +distant, emboldened by the example of Valence, resorted to public +preaching in the churches or within their precincts.[858] + +[Sidenote: A public assembly of citizens.] + +[Sidenote: An impressive scene.] + +[Sidenote: The public morals.] + +On receiving the intelligence of the sudden outbreak of Protestant zeal +in his diocese, the Bishop of Valence--himself at one time possibly +half-inclined to become a convert--despatched thither the Seneschal of +Valentinois with the royal Edict of Forgiveness published at Amboise for +all who had taken arms and conspired against the king. The citizens were +summoned to a public assembly, in which the magistrates, the consuls, +the clergy, and the chief Huguenots were conspicuous. After reading and +explaining the terms of the royal clemency, the seneschal turned to the +Protestants, who stood by themselves, and demanded whether they intended +to avail themselves of its protection. Mirabel, their chief spokesman, +replied that it was the custom of the reformed churches to offer prayer +to God before treating of so important affairs as this, and proffered a +request that they be allowed to invoke His presence and blessing. +Permission was granted. A citizen of Valence, who was also a deacon of +the Reformed Church, thereupon came forward, and uttered a fervent +prayer for the prosperity of the king and his realm, and for the +progress of the Gospel. The Protestant gentlemen reverently uncovered +their heads and knelt upon the ground, and their Roman Catholic +neighbors imitated their example. But it was noticed that the clergy +stood unmoved and refused to join in the act of worship. The prayer +being ended, a Huguenot orator delivered the answer of his brethren. It +was, that they rejoiced and rendered thanks for the benignity of their +young prince; but that they could not avail themselves of the pardon +offered. They had never conspired against their king. On the contrary, +they professed a religion that enjoined the most dutiful obedience. As +for bearing arms, it had only been resorted to by the Huguenots in order +that they might protect themselves against the unauthorized insults and +violence of private persons. The citizen was followed by a _procureur_, +who, for eight years, had kept the criminal records of Valence. He bore +public testimony to a wonderful change that had come over the city +since the introduction of the preaching of the Gospel. The acts of +violence which formerly rendered the streets so dangerous by night that +few dared to venture out of their houses, even to visit their neighbors, +had almost disappeared. The fearful story of crime which used to +confront him every morning had been succeeded by a chronicle of quiet +and peace. It would seem that with a change of doctrine had also come a +transformation of life. The speaker challenged the other side to gainsay +his statements; and when not a voice was heard in contradiction, he +administered to the Papists a scathing rebuke for the calumnies which +some of them had forged against the Protestants behind their backs. With +this triumphant refutation of the charges of disorder, the assembly +broke up.[859] + +[Sidenote: The Huguenots of Dauphiny to be exterminated.] + +The province of Dauphiny, within whose limits Valence, Romans and +Montelimart were comprehended, was a government entrusted to the Duke of +Guise. Moved with indignation at finding it become the hotbed of +Protestantism, he determined to crush the Huguenots before impunity had +given them still greater boldness. The governors of adjacent provinces +were ordered to assist in the pious undertaking. King Francis, in a +paroxysm of rage, wrote to Tavannes, acting governor of Burgundy, to +take all the men-at-arms under his command and march to the assistance +of Clermart, Lieutenant-Governor of Dauphiny, in cutting to pieces those +who had taken up arms under color of religion. They were, he heard, +three or four thousand men, and had instituted public preaching "after +the Geneva fashion," with all other insolent acts conceivable. He begged +him to punish them as they deserved, showing no pity or compassion, +since they had refused to take advantage of the forgiveness of past +offences which had been sent them. He was to _extirpate_ the evil.[860] + +These and other equally brutal instructions were obeyed with alacrity; +but their execution was effected rather by treachery than by open +force. The Huguenots of Valence were first induced by promises of +security to lay aside their arms, then imprisoned and despoiled by a +party consisting of the very dregs of the population of Lyons and +Vienne. Two of the ministers were put to death[861] in company with +three of the principal men, one being the _procureur_ who had given such +noble testimony to the morals of the Protestants. More would have been +executed had not the Bishop of Valence been induced to intercede for his +episcopal city, and obtain amnesty for its citizens. Romans and +Montelimart fared little better than Valence.[862] + +[Sidenote: Concourse at Nismes.] + +At Nismes, in Languedoc--destined periodically, for the next three +centuries, to be the scene of civil dissension arising from religious +intolerance--as early as in Holy Week, three Protestant ministers had +been preaching in private houses and administering baptism. On Easter +Monday a large concourse from the city and the surrounding villages +publicly passed out into the suburbs--armed, if we may believe the +cowardly Vicomte de Joyeuse, with corselets, arquebuses, and pikes--and +celebrated the Lord's Supper "after the manner of Geneva." Neither the +presidial judges nor the consuls exhibited much disposition to second +the efforts of the provincial government in suppressing these +manifestations.[863] + +[Sidenote: Mouvans in arms in Provence.] + +[Sidenote: His message to Guise.] + +In Provence the commotion assumed a more military aspect, in immediate +connection with the conspiracy of Amboise. Mouvans, an able leader, +after failing in an attempt to gain admission to Aix, long maintained +himself in the open country. Keeping up a wonderful degree of discipline +in his army, he allowed his soldiers, indeed, to destroy the images in +the churches and to melt down the rich reliquaries of gold and silver, +but scrupulously required them to place the precious metal in the hands +of the local authorities. At length, forced to capitulate to the Comte +de Tende, the royal governor, he obtained the promise of security of +person and liberty of worship. New acts of treachery rendered his +position unsafe, and he retired to Geneva. It was thence that he +returned to the Duke of Guise, who professed to be eager to secure for +himself the services of so able a commander, a noble answer: "So long as +I know you to be an enemy of my religion and of the public peace, and to +be occupying the place of right belonging to the princes of the blood, +you may be assured you have an enemy in Mouvans, a poor gentleman, but +able to bring against you fifty thousand good servants of the King of +France, who are ready to endanger life and property in redressing the +wrongs you have inflicted on the faithful subjects of his Majesty."[864] + +[Sidenote: A popular awakening.] + +It was impossible to ignore the fact: France had awakened from the sleep +of ages. The doctrines of the Reformation were being embraced by the +masses. It was impossible to repress the impulse to confess with the +mouth[865] what was believed in the heart. At Rouen, the earnest request +of the authorities, seconded by the prudent advice of the ministers, +might prevail upon the Protestant community still to be content with an +unostentatious and almost private worship, upon promise of connivance on +the part of the Parliament of Normandy. But Caen, St. Lo, and Dieppe +witnessed great public assemblies,[866] and Central and Southern France +copied the example of Normandy. The time for secret gatherings and a +timid worship had gone by. They were no longer in question. "When cities +and almost entire provinces had embraced the faith of the reformers," a +recent historian has well remarked,[867] "secret assemblies became an +impossibility. A whole people cannot shut themselves up in forests and +in caverns to invoke their God. From whom would they hide? From +themselves? The very idea is absurd." + +[Sidenote: Pamphlets against the usurpers.] + +[Sidenote: The queen mother consults La Planche.] + +The political ferment was not less active than the religious. The +pamphlets and the representations made by the emissaries of the Guises +to foreign powers, in which the movement at Amboise was branded as a +conspiracy directed against the king and the royal authority, called +forth a host of replies vindicating the _political_ Huguenots, and +setting their project in its true light, as an effort to overthrow the +intolerable usurpation of the Guises. The tyrants were no match for the +patriots in the use of the pen; but it fared ill with the author or +printer of these libels, when the strenuous efforts made to discover +them proved successful.[868] The politic Catharine de' Medici, fearing a +new and more dreadful outburst of the popular discontent, renewed her +hollow advances to the Protestant churches,[869] held a long +consultation with Louis Regnier de la Planche (the eminent historian, +whose profoundly philosophical and exact chronicle of this short reign +leaves us only disappointed that he confined his masterly investigations +to so limited a field) respecting the grounds of the existing +dissatisfaction,[870] and despatched Coligny to Normandy for the purpose +of finding a cure for the evil. + +[Sidenote: Edict of Romorantin, May, 1560.] + +[Sidenote: No abatement of rigor.] + +The Guises, on the other hand, resolved to meet the difficulties of +their situation with boldness. The opposition, so far as it was +religious, must be repressed by legislation strictly enforced. +Accordingly, in the month of May, 1560, an edict was published known as +the _Edict of Romorantin_, from the place where the court was +sojourning, but remarkable for nothing save the misapprehensions that +have been entertained respecting its origin and object.[871] It +restored exclusive jurisdiction in matters of simple heresy to the +clergy, excluding the civil courts from all participation, save to +execute the sentence of the ecclesiastical judge. But it neither +lightened nor aggravated the penalties affixed by previous laws. _Death_ +was still to be the fate of the convicted heretic, to whom it mattered +little whether he were tried by a secular or by a spiritual tribunal, +except that the forms of law were more likely to be observed by the +former than by the latter. A section directed against the "assemblies" +in which, under color of religion, arms were carried and the public +peace threatened, declared those who took part in them to be rebels +liable to the penalties of treason.[872] + +[Sidenote: Death of Chancellor Olivier.] + +A remarkable figure now comes upon the stage of French affairs in the +person of Chancellor Michel de l'Hospital. Chancellor Olivier, who had +merited universal respect while losing office in consequence of his +steadfast resistance to injustice under the previous reign, had +forfeited the esteem of the good by his complaisance when restored to +office by the Guises at the beginning of the present reign. Overcome +with remorse for the cruelties in which he had acquiesced since his +reinstatement, he fell sick shortly after the tumult of Amboise. When +visited during his last illness by the Cardinal of Lorraine, he coldly +turned his back upon him and muttered, "Ah! Cardinal, you have caused us +all to be damned."[873] He died not long afterward, and was buried +without regret, despised by the patriotic party on account of his +unfaithfulness to early convictions, and hated by the Guises for his +tardy condemnation of their measures. + +[Sidenote: Chancellor Michel de l'Hospital.] + +Of L'Hospital, because raised to the vacant charge by the Lorraine +influence, little good was originally expected.[874] But the lapse of a +few years revealed the incorruptible integrity of his character and the +sagacity of his plans.[875] Elevated to the highest judicial post at a +critical juncture, he accepted a dignity for which he had little +ambition, only that he might the better serve his country. What he could +not remedy he resolved to make as endurable as possible. It was not +within the power of a single virtuous statesman to allay the storm and +quiet the surging waters; but by good-will, perseverance, and nerve, he +might steer the ship of state through many a narrow channel and by many +a hidden rock. An ardent lover and earnest advocate of toleration, he +yet considered it politic to consent to urge the Parliament of Paris, in +the king's name, to register the Edict of Romorantin, in accordance with +which the system of persecution was for a while to be continued. One of +the original conspirators of Amboise, according to the explicit +statement of a writer who saw his signature affixed to the secret papers +of the confederates,[876] he made no opposition to the article that +pronounced the penalties of treason upon those who assembled in arms to +celebrate the rites of religious worship. Yet he dissembled not from +timidity, treachery, or ambition, but solely that by unremitting labor +he might heal the unhappy dissensions of his country. "_Patience, +patience, tout ira bien_," were the words he always had in his mouth for +encouragement and consolation.[877] + +[Sidenote: Perplexity of the ruling family.] + +As the summer advanced the perplexities of the Guises increased. Every +day there were new alarms. The English ambassador, not able to conceal +his satisfaction at the perplexity of his queen's covert enemies, wrote +to Cecil: "If I should discourse particularly unto you what these men +have done since my last letters ... you would think me as fond in +observing their doings as they mad in variable executing. But you may +see what force _fear_ hath that occasioned such variety.... They be in +such security, as no man knoweth overnight where the king will lodge. +Tomorrow from all parts they have such news as doth greatly perplex +them. Every day new advertisements of new stirs, as of late again in +Dauphiny, in Anjou, in Provence; and to make up their mouths, the king +being in the skirts of Normandy, at Rouen, upon Corpus Christi Day, +there was somewhat to do about the solemn procession, so as there was +many slain in both parts. But at length the churchmen had the worse, and +for an advantage, the order is by the king commanded, that the priests +for their outrage shall be grievously punished. What judge you when the +Cardinal of Lorraine is constrained to command to punish the clergy, and +such as do find fault with others' insolence, contemning the reverent +usage to the holy procession!"[878] + +[Sidenote: Montbrun in the Comtat Venaissin.] + +[Sidenote: Universal commotion.] + +New commotions had indeed arisen in the south-east, where Montbrun, a +nephew of Cardinal Tournon, the inquisitor-general, had entered the +small domain of the Pope, the Comtat Venaissin, as a Huguenot +leader.[879] Conde had dexterously escaped the snares laid for him, and +had taken refuge with his brother, Navarre.[880] Their spies reported to +the Guises a state of universal commotion; and deputies from all parts +of France rehearsed in the ears of the Bourbon princes the story of the +usurpations of the Guises and the Protestant grievances, and urged them, +by every consideration of honor and safety, to undertake to redress +them.[881] The Guises had for some time been pressing the King of Spain +and the Pope to forward the convening of a universal council, without +which all would go to ruin.[882] In view of the great apathy displayed +both by Philip and by Pius--perhaps, also, with the secret hope of +enticing Navarre and Conde to come within their reach[883]--they +consented to the plan which Catharine de' Medici, at the suggestion of +L'Hospital and Coligny, now advocated, of summoning a council of +notables to devise measures for allaying the existing excitement.[884] + +[Sidenote: Assembly of notables at Fontainebleau, August 21, 1560.] + +On the twenty-first of August this celebrated assembly was convened by +royal letters in the stately palace at Fontainebleau.[885] Antoine of +Navarre and the Prince of Conde declined, on specious pretexts, the +king's invitation. Constable Montmorency accepted it, but came with a +formidable escort of eight hundred attendants. His three nephews, the +Chatillons, followed his example, and shared his protection. At the +appointed hour a brilliant company was gathered in the spacious +apartments of the queen mother. On either side of the king's throne sat +Mary of Scots, and Catharine de' Medici, and the young princes--Charles +Maximilian, Duke of Orleans, Edward Alexander, and Hercules.[886] Four +cardinals, in their purple--Bourbon, Lorraine, Guise, and Chatillon--sat +below. Next to these were placed the Duke of Guise, as +lieutenant-general of the kingdom; the Duke of Montmorency, as +constable; L'Hospital, as chancellor; Marshals St. Andre and Brissac; +Admiral Coligny; Marillac, Archbishop of Vienne; Morvilliers, Bishop of +Orleans; Montluc, Bishop of Valence; and the other members of the privy +council. In front of these, the members of the Order of St. Michael, and +the rest of the notables, occupied lower benches.[887] + +[Sidenote: Chancellor L'Hospital's speech.] + +The session opened with brief speeches delivered by Francis and his +mother, setting forth the object of this extraordinary convocation, but +referring their auditors to the chancellor and to the king's uncles for +further explanations. Chancellor L'Hospital was less concise. He +entertained the assembly with a lengthy comparison of the political +malady to a bodily disease,[888] pronouncing the cure to be easy, if +only the cause could be detected. He closed by assigning a somewhat +singular reason for summoning but two of the three orders of the state. +The presence of the _people_, he said, was in no wise necessary, +_inasmuch as the king's sole object was to relieve the third estate_. +Because, forsooth, the poor people--bowed down to the earth with taxes +and burdens, which the _noblesse_ would not touch with one of their +fingers--was the party chiefly interested in the results of the present +deliberations, it was quite unessential that its complaints or requests +should be heard! The Duke of Guise and his brother, the cardinal, next +laid before the assembly an account of their administration of the army +and finances; and the first day's session ended with the pleasant +announcement that the royal revenues annually fell short of the regular +expenses by the sum--very considerable for those days--of two and +one-half millions of livres. + +[Sidenote: Coligny speaks and presents two petitions.] + +When next the notables met, two days later, the king formally proposed a +free discussion of the subject in hand. The youngest member of the privy +council was about to speak, when Gaspard de Coligny arose, and, +advancing to the throne, twice bowed humbly to the king. By the royal +orders, he said, he had lately visited Normandy and investigated the +origin of the recent commotions. He had satisfied himself that they were +owing to no ill-will felt toward the crown; but only to the extreme and +illegal violence with which the inhabitants had been treated for +religion's sake. He had, therefore, believed it to be his duty to listen +to the requests of the persecuted, who offered to prove that their +doctrines were conformable to the Holy Scriptures and to the traditions +of the primitive church, and to take charge of the two petitions which +they had drawn up and addressed to his Majesty and the queen mother. +They were without signatures; for these could not be affixed without the +royal permission previously granted the reformed to assemble together. +But, with that permission, he could obtain the names of fifty thousand +persons in Normandy alone. In answer to Coligny's prayer that the king +would take his action in good part, Francis assured him that his past +fidelity was a sufficient pledge of his present zeal; and commanded +L'Aubespine, secretary of state, to read the papers which the admiral +had just placed in his hands. + +[Sidenote: The petitions are read.] + +[Sidenote: They ask for liberty of worship.] + +The petitions,[889] addressed, one to the king, the other to the queen +mother, purported to come from "the faithful Christians scattered in +various parts of the kingdom." They set forth the severity of the +persecutions the Huguenots had undergone, and were yet undergoing, for +attempting to live according to the purity of God's word, and their +supreme desire to have their doctrine subjected to examination, that it +might be seen to be neither seditious nor heretical. The suppliants +begged for an intermission of the cruel measures which had stained all +France with blood. They professed an unswerving allegiance, as in duty +bound, to the king whom God had called to the throne. And of that king +they prayed that the occasion of so many calumnies, invented against +them by reason of the secret and nocturnal meetings to which they had +been driven by the prohibition of open assemblies, might be removed; and +that, with the permission to meet publicly for the celebration of divine +rites, houses for worship might also be granted to them.[890] + +It was a perilous step for the admiral to take. By his advocacy of +toleration he incurred liability to the extreme penalties that had been +inflicted upon others for utterances much less courageous. But the very +boldness of the movement secured his safety where more timid counsels +might have brought him ruin. Besides, it was not safe to attack so +gallant a warrior, and the nephew of the powerful constable. Yet the +audible murmurs of the opposite party announced their ill-will. + +[Sidenote: Speech of Montluc, Bishop of Valence.] + +[Sidenote: The remedy prescribed.] + +The fearlessness of the admiral, however, kindled to a brighter flame +the courage of others. Strange as it may appear, toleration and reform +found their warmest and most uncompromising advocates on the episcopal +bench.[891] Montluc, Bishop of Valence, drew a startling contrast +between the means that had been taken to propagate the new doctrines, +and those by which the attempt had been made to eradicate them. For +thirty years, three or four hundred ministers of irreproachable morals, +indomitable courage, and notable diligence in the study of the Holy +Scriptures, had been attracting disciples by the sweet name of Jesus +continually upon their lips, and had easily gained over a people that +were as sheep without a shepherd. Meanwhile, popes had been engrossed in +war and in sowing discord between princes; the ministers of justice had +made use of the severe enactments of the kings against heresy to enrich +themselves and their friends; and bishops, instead of showing solicitude +for their flocks, had sought only to preserve their revenues. Forty +bishops might have been seen at one time congregated at Paris and +indulging in scandalous excesses, while the fire was kindling in their +dioceses.[892] The inferior clergy, who bought their curacies at Rome, +added ignorance to avarice.[893] The ecclesiastical office became odious +and contemptible when prelates conferred benefices on their barbers, +cooks, and footmen. What must be done to avert the just anger of God? +Let the king, in the first place, see that God's name be no longer +blasphemed as heretofore. Let God's Word be published and expounded. Let +there be daily sermons in the palace, to stop the mouths of those who +assert that, near the king, God is never spoken of. Let the singing of +psalms take the place of the foolish songs sung by the maids of the +queens; for to prohibit the singing of psalms, which the Fathers extol, +would be to give the seditious a good pretext for saying that the war +was waged not against men, but against God, inasmuch as the publication +and the hearing of His praises were not tolerated. A second remedy was +to be found in a universal council, or, if the sovereign pontiff +continued to refuse so just a demand, in a national council, to which +the most learned of the new sect should be offered safe access. As to +punishments, while the seditious, who took up arms under color of +religion, ought to be repressed, experience had taught how unavailing +was the persecution of those who embraced their views from conscientious +motives, and history showed that three hundred and eighteen bishops at +the Council of Nice, one hundred and fifty at Constantinople, and six +hundred and thirty at Chalcedon, refused to employ other weapons, +against the worst of convicted heretics, than the word of God. Montluc +closed his eloquent discourse by opposing the proposition to grant the +right of public assembly, because of the dangers to which it might lead; +but advocated a wise discrimination in the punishment of offenders, +according to their respective numbers and apparent motives.[894] + +[Sidenote: Address of Archbishop Marillac.] + +The Archbishop of Vienne, the virtuous Marillac, an elegant and +effective orator, made a still more cogent speech. He regarded the +General Council as the best remedy for present dissensions; but it was +in vain to expect one, since, between the Pope, the emperor, the kings, +and the Lutherans, the right time, place, and method of holding it could +never be agreed upon by all; and France was like a man desperately ill, +whose fever admitted of no delay that a physician might be called in +from a distance. Hence, the usual resort to a national council, in spite +of the Pope's discontent, was imperative. _France could not afford to +die in order to please his Holiness._[895] Meanwhile, the prelates must +be obliged to reside in their dioceses; nor must the Italians, those +leeches that absorbed one-third of all the benefices and an infinite +number of pensions, be exempted from the operation of the general +rule.[896] Would paid troops be permitted thus to absent themselves from +their posts in the hour of danger? Simony must be abolished at once, as +a token of sincerity in the desire to reform the church. Otherwise +Christ would come down and drive his unworthy servants from His church, +as He once drove the money-changers from the temple. Especially must +churchmen repent with fasting, and take up the word of God, which is a +_sword_, "whereas, at present," said the speaker, "_we have only the +scabbard--in mitres and croziers, in rochets and tiaras_." Everything +that tended to disturb the public tranquillity, whether from seditious +leaders, or from equally seditious zealots, must be repressed. + +[Sidenote: The States General must be called.] + +Nor was the advice given by Marillac for securing the continued +obedience of the people less sound. He regarded the assembling of the +States General as indispensable, in view of the great debts and burdens +of the people. He warned the king's counsellors lest the people, +accustomed to have its complaints of grievances unattended to, should +begin to lose the hope of relief, and lest the proverbial promptness and +gentleness which the French nation had always shown in meeting the +king's necessities should be so badly met and so frequently offended as +at last to turn into rage and despair.[897] + +[Sidenote: Speech of Admiral Coligny.] + +Such was "the learned, wise, and Christian harangue," as the chronicler +well styles it, of "an old man eloquent," whom, like another Isocrates, +"the dishonest victory" of his country's real enemies was destined to +"kill with report." The profound impression it made was deepened by the +speech of Admiral Coligny, whose turn it was, on the next day (the +twenty-fourth of August), to announce his sentiments, he declared +himself ready to pledge life and all he held most dear, that the hatred +of the people was in no wise directed against the king, but against his +ministers, whom he loudly blamed for surrounding their master with a +guard, as though he needed this protection against his loyal subjects. +Supporting the proposition of the Archbishop of Vienne for assembling +the States General, the admiral advocated, in addition, the immediate +dismissal of the guard, in order to remove all jealousy between king and +people, and the discontinuance of persecution, until such time as a +council--general or national--might be assembled. Meanwhile, he advised +that the requests of the reformed, whose petitions he had presented, be +granted; that the Protestants be allowed to assemble for the purpose of +praying to God, hearing the preaching of His word, and celebrating the +holy sacraments. If houses of worship were given them in every place, +and the judges were instructed to see to the maintenance of the peace, +he felt confident that the kingdom would at once become quiet and the +subjects be satisfied.[898] + +[Sidenote: Rejoinder of the Duke of Guise.] + +The Guises spoke on the same day. The duke made a short, but passionate +rejoinder to Coligny, and gave little or no attention to the question +proposed for deliberation. He bitterly retorted to the proposal for the +dismissal of the body-guard, by saying that it had been placed around +the king only since the discovery of the treasonable plot of Amboise, +and he indignantly maintained that a conspiracy against ministers was +only a cover for designs against their master. As for the announcement +of the admiral that he could bring fifty thousand names to his +petitions, which he construed as a personal threat, he angrily replied +that if that or a greater number of the Huguenot sect should present +themselves, the king would oppose them with a million men of his +own.[899] The question of religion he left to be discussed by others of +more learning; but well was he assured that not all the councils of the +world would detach him from the ancient faith. The assembling of the +States he referred to the king's discretion.[900] + +[Sidenote: The Cardinal of Lorraine is more politic.] + +The cardinal was more politic, and suppressed the manifestation of that +deadly hatred which, from this time forward, the brothers cherished +against Coligny. He declared, however, that, although the petitioners +laid claim to such loyalty, their true character was apparent from the +affair at Amboise, as well as from the daily issue of libellous +pamphlets and placards, of which he had not less than twenty-two on his +table directed against himself, which he carefully preserved as his best +eulogium and claim to immortality. He advocated the severe repression of +the seditious; yet, with a stretch of hypocrisy and mendacity uncommon +even with a Guise, he expressed himself as for his own part very sorry +that such "grievous executions" had been inflicted upon those who went +"without arms and from fear of being damned to hear preaching, or who +sang psalms, neglected the mass, or engaged in other observances of +theirs," and as being in favor of no longer inflicting such useless +punishments! Nay, he would that his life or death might be of some +service in bringing back the wanderers to the path of truth. He opposed +a council as unnecessary--it could not do otherwise than decide as its +predecessors--but consented to a convocation of the clergy for the +reformation of manners. The States General he thought might well be +gathered to see with what prudence the administration of public affairs +had been carried on.[901] + +[Sidenote: Results of the Assembly of Fontainebleau.] + +[Sidenote: The States General to be convened.] + +With the Cardinal of Lorraine the discussion ended. All the knights of +the order of St. Michael acquiesced in his opinions, but indulged in no +farther remarks. On the twenty-sixth of August the decision was +announced. The States General were to convene on the tenth of December, +at Meaux, or such other city as the king might hereafter prefer. A month +later (on the twentieth of January) the prelates were to come together +wherever the king might be, thence to proceed to the national, or to the +general council, if such should be held. Meanwhile, in each bailiwick +and "senechaussee," the three orders were to be separately assembled, in +order to prepare minutes of their grievances, and elect delegates to the +States General; and all legal proceedings and all punishment for the +matter of religion were to be suspended save in the case of those who +assembled in arms and were seditious.[902] + +Such was the history of this famous assembly, in which, for the first +time, the Huguenots found a voice; where views were calmly expressed +respecting toleration and the necessity of a council, which a year +before had been punished with death; where the chief persecutor of the +reformed doctrines, carried away by the current, was induced to avow +liberal principles.[903] This was progress enough for a single year. The +enterprise of Amboise was not all in vain. + +[Sidenote: New alarms.] + +[Sidenote: Antoine and Conde summoned to court.] + +The Assembly of Fontainebleau had not dispersed when the court was +thrown into fresh alarm. An agent of the King of Navarre, named La +Sague, was discovered almost by accident, who, after delivering letters +from his master to various friends in the neighborhood of Paris, was +about to return southward with their friendly responses. He had +imprudently given a treacherous acquaintance to understand that a +formidable uprising was contemplated; and letters found upon his person +seemed to bear out the assertion. The most cruel tortures were resorted +to in order to elicit accusations against the Bourbons from suspected +persons.[904] Among others, Francois de Vendome, Vidame of Chartres, one +of the correspondents, was (on the twenty-seventh of August) thrown into +the Bastile.[905] Three days later a messenger was despatched by the +king to Antoine of Navarre, requesting him at once to repair to the +capital, and to bring with him his brother Conde, against whom the +charge had for six months been rife, that he was the head of secret +enterprises, set on foot to disturb the peace of the realm.[906] At the +same time an urgent request was sent to Philip the Second for +assistance.[907] + +[Sidenote: Philip adverse to a national council.] + +[Sidenote: Projects to crush all heresy and its abettors.] + +Nor was his Catholic Majesty reluctant to grant help--at least on paper. +But he accompanied his promises with advice. In particular, he sent Don +Antonio de Toledo to dissuade the French government from holding a +national council in Paris for the reformation of religion, as he +understood it was proposed to do during the coming winter. This, he +represented, would be prejudicial to their joint interests; "for, should +the French alter anything, the King of Spain would be constrained to +admit the like in all his countries." To which it was replied in +Francis's name, that "he would first assemble his three estates, and +there propone the matter to see what would be advised for the manner of +a calling a general council, not minding _without urgent necessity_ to +assemble a council national." As to the Spanish help, conditioned on the +prudence of the French government, the Argus-eyed Throkmorton, who by +his paid agents could penetrate into the boudoirs of his +fellow-diplomatists and read their most cherished secrets,[908] wrote to +Queen Elizabeth that a gentleman had reported to him that he had seen +"at the Pope's nuncio's hands a letter from the nuncio in Spain, wherein +the aids were promised, and that the King of Spain had written to the +French king that he would not only help him to suppress all heresy, +trouble, and rebellion in France, but also join him to cause all such +others as will not submit to the See Apostolic to come to order." In +fact, Throkmorton was enabled to say just how many men were to come from +Flanders, and how many from Spain, and how many were to enter by way of +Narbonne, and how many by way of Navarre. Quick work was to be made of +schism, heresy, and rebellion in France. "This done, and the parties for +religion clean overthrown," added the ambassador, "these princes have +already accorded to convert their power towards England and Geneva, +which they take to be the occasioners and causers of all their +troubles."[909] + +[Sidenote: Navarre's irresolution embarrasses Montbrun.] + +The King of Navarre had, even before the receipt of the royal summons, +discovered the mistake he had committed in not listening to the counsel, +and copying the example of the constable, who had come to Fontainebleau +well attended by retainers. Unhappily, the irresolution into which he +now fell led to the loss of a capital opportunity. The levies ordered by +Francis in Dauphiny, for the purpose of assisting the papal legate in +expelling Montbrun from the "Comtat," enabled the Sieur de Maligny to +collect a large Huguenot force without attracting notice. It had been +arranged that these troops should be first employed in seizing the +important city of Lyons for the King of Navarre. A part of the Huguenot +soldiers had, indeed, already been secretly introduced into the +city,[910] when letters were received from the irresolute Antoine +indefinitely postponing the undertaking. After having for several days +deliberated respecting his best course of conduct in these unforeseen +circumstances, Maligny decided to withdraw as quietly as he had come; +but a porter, who had caught a glimpse of the arms collected in one of +the places of rendezvous, informed the commandant of the city. In the +street engagement which ensued the Huguenots were successful, and for +several hours held possession of the city from the Rhone to the Saone. +Finding it impossible, however, to collect the whole force to carry out +his original design, Maligny retired under cover of the night, and was +so fortunate as to suffer little loss.[911] + +[Sidenote: The _people_ not discouraged.] + +[Sidenote: "The fashion of Geneva."] + +[Sidenote: Books from Geneva destroyed.] + +Maligny's failure disconcerted Montbrun and Mouvans, with whom he had +intended to co-operate, but had little effect in repressing the courage +of the Huguenot _people_. Of this the royal despatches are the best +evidence. Francis wrote to Marshal de Termes that since the Assembly of +Fontainebleau there had been public and armed gatherings _in an infinite +number of places_, where previously there had been only secret meetings. +In Perigord, Agenois, and Limousin, _an infinite number_ of scandalous +acts were daily committed by the seditious, who in most places _lived +after the fashion of Geneva_. Such _canaille_ must be "wiped out."[912] +A month later those pestilent "books from Geneva" turn up again. Count +de Villars, acting for Constable Montmorency in his province of +Languedoc, had burned two mule-loads of very handsomely bound volumes, +much to the regret of many of the Catholic troopers, who grudged the +devouring flames a sacrifice worth more than a thousand crowns.[913] But +he quickly followed up the chronicle of this valiant action with a +complaint of his impotence to reduce the sectaries to submission. The +Huguenots of Nismes had taken courage, and guarded their gates. So, or +even worse, was it of Montpellier[914] and Pezenas. Other cities were +about to follow their example. + +[Sidenote: Fifteen cities in one province receive ministers.] + +[Sidenote: The children learn religion in the Geneva catechism.] + +These were but the beginnings of evil. Three days passed, and the +Lieutenant-Governor of Languedoc sent a special messenger to the king, +to inform him of the rapid progress of the contagion. Fifteen of the +most considerable cities of the province had openly received +ministers.[915] Ten thousand foot and five hundred horse would be needed +to reduce them, and, when taken, they must be held by garrisons, and +punished by loss of their municipal privileges.[916] A fortnight more +elapsed. Three or four thousand inhabitants of Nismes had retired in +arms to the neighboring Cevennes.[917] When they descended into the +plain, a larger number, who had submitted on the approach of the +soldiery, would unite with them and form a considerable army. "Heresy, +alas, gains ground daily," despondingly writes Villars; "_the children +learn religion only in the catechism brought from Geneva; all know it by +heart_." The cause of the evil he seemed to find in the +circumstance--undoubtedly favorable to the Huguenots--that, of +twenty-two bishops whose dioceses lay in Languedoc, all but five or six +were non-residents.[918] + +To all which lamentations the answer came back after the accustomed +fashion: "Slay, hang without respect to the forms of law; send lesser +culprits, if preferable, to the galleys."[919] + +In Normandy, too, it began to be impossible for the Huguenots to conceal +themselves. At Rouen, in spite of the severe penalties threatened, seven +thousand persons gathered in the new market-place, on the twenty-sixth +of August, "singing psalms, and with their preacher in the midst on a +chair preaching to them," while five hundred men with arquebuses stood +around the crowd "to guard them from the Papists." A few days before, at +the opening of the great fair of Jumieges, a friar, according to custom, +undertook to deliver a sermon; but the people, not liking his doctrine, +"pulled him out of the pulpit and placed another in his place."[920] + +[Sidenote: Elections for the States General.] + +Nor was the courage of the Huguenots less clearly manifested a little +later in the elections preparatory to the holding of the States General. +In spite of strict injunctions issued by the Cardinal of Lorraine to the +officers in each bailiwick and senechaussee, to prevent the debate of +grievances from touching upon the authority of the Guises or that of the +Church, and especially to defeat the election of any but undoubted +friends of the Roman Church, his friends were successful in neither +attempt. The voice of the oppressed people made itself heard in +thunder-tones at Blois, at Angers,[921] and elsewhere. Even in +Paris--the stronghold of the Roman faith--the reformed ventured, in face +of a vast numerical majority against them, to urge in the Hotel-de-Ville +the insertion of their remonstrances in the "cahiers" of the city. Of +thirteen provinces, ten addressed such complaints to the States +General.[922] + +[Sidenote: Clerical demands at Poitiers.] + +But the clerical order did not forget its old demands, even where the +Tiers Etat leaned to toleration. The provincial estates of Poitou, +meeting in the Dominican convent of Poitiers, presented a contrast of +this kind. The delegates of the people, after listening to the eloquent +appeal of an intrepid Huguenot pastor, determined to petition the States +General for the free exercise of the reformed religion. The +representatives of the church made its complaints regarding the +"ravishing wolves, false preachers, and their adherents, who are to-day +in so great numbers that there are not so many true sheep knowing the +voice of their shepherds." The "mild and holy admonitions" of the church +having been thrown away upon these reprobates, the clergy proposed to +open a register of all that should neglect to receive the sacrament at +Easter, and to attend the church services with regularity. And it made +the modest demand that all persons honored with an entry in this book +should, as heretics, be deprived of all right to make contracts, that +their wills be declared hull and void, and that all their property--in +particular all houses in which preaching had been held--be confiscated. +Of course, the aid of the secular arm was invoked, in view of "the great +number and power of the said heretics."[923] + +[Sidenote: Theodore Beza invited to Nerac.] + +[Sidenote: Jeanne d'Albret.] + +On the twentieth of July, at the urgent request of the King and Queen of +Navarre, the "Venerable Company of the Pastors of Geneva" had sent the +eloquent Theodore Beza to Gascony "to instruct" the royal family in the +word of God.[924] In the dress of a nobleman he had traversed France and +reached Nerac in safety. Here he at once exercised a powerful influence +upon the king. The fickle mind of Antoine was susceptible of no deep +impressions; but it was very easily affected for the time. His queen, +Jeanne d'Albret, was his very opposite in mental and moral constitution. +Whereas the very first blast threw him into a fervor of enthusiastic +devotion to the purer faith, the heart of the queen--a woman not made to +be led, but to lead--yielded slowly to the melting influences of the +Gospel. But it never lost its glow. Jeanne came very reluctantly to the +determination to cast in her lot with the Reformation. She hesitated to +risk the loss of her possessions, and regretted to abandon the +attractions of the world. When, however, the decision was once made, the +question was never reopened for fresh deliberation.[925] + +[Sidenote: Antoine's short-lived zeal.] + +[Sidenote: New pressure upon Navarre and Conde.] + +[Sidenote: Navarre's concessions.] + +At this time, Antoine, we are told, renounced the mass, and was supposed +to think, as he certainly spoke, of nothing but the means of advancing +the cause in which he had embarked. Beza preached before him in one of +the churches, and all signs pointed to the rapid establishment of the +Reformation on a firm basis. The eloquent orator added his persuasion to +the entreaties of the representatives of the Protestant churches of +France and the exhortations of Constable Montmorency. All had urged +Antoine to make his appearance at Fontainebleau with a powerful escort. +We have seen the ill-success with which the joint effort was attended. +The spies whom the Guises kept in pay around the King of Navarre, in the +persons of his most intimate advisers, deterred him from a movement +which they portrayed as fraught with peril. A few days after the +conclusion of the assembly came the king's summons. To this Antoine at +first replied that, if the accusers of his brother, of whose innocence +he was fully persuaded, would declare themselves, and if he were assured +that impartial justice would be shown, he would come to the court in +company with few attendants. Conde wrote, at the same time, and +expressed perfect confidence in his ability to disprove all the +allegations against him, provided a safe access to the court was +afforded him. On this point the suspicions of the Bourbon princes were +soon set at rest by new letters from the king and his mother, assuring +them that they would find not only security, but an opportunity to +refute charges which Francis and Catharine professed themselves +unwilling to credit.[926] To these reassuring words were joined the +solicitations of their own brother, the shallow Cardinal of +Bourbon,[927] and of the Cardinal of Armagnac. The princes, already +discouraged by tidings of the failure of the projects of Montbrun, +Mouvans and Maligny in the east, lent too ready an ear to these +suggestions. The first open manifestation of weakness was when the King +and Queen of Navarre, with their son, young Prince Henry of Bearn, +consented to hear mass in the presence of many of their courtiers. But +the extent of Antoine's concessions was, for a time, kept concealed from +his followers. At the very moment when Beza was diligently visiting the +well affected nobles, and urging them to lend prompt assistance, the +Guises were exulting, with joy mingled with fear, over the promise given +by Antoine to the Count of Crussol, that he would come, with an +insignificant escort to Orleans, whither Francis had advanced. The +tidings appeared too good to be true.[928] For, although the French king +had received assurances of assistance from Philip--who was reported by +the French envoy at Toledo to be favorable to the exercise of any +severity against the Bourbon princes,[929] so great was his personal +enmity toward them--yet the same ambassador had not failed to inform +Charles that the troops ostensibly prepared for a French campaign were +really intended for Italy and to make good the Spanish monarch's losses +in Africa. On the other hand, unless Philip could send six hundred +thousand or seven hundred thousand crowns to Flanders to pay arrearages +and debts, he could not move a soldier across the lines from that +quarter.[930] + +[Sidenote: The Huguenot gentry offer him aid.] + +[Sidenote: He dismisses his escort.] + +The strictest orders had been given to the commandants of important +points, such as Bordeaux and Poitiers, through which Antoine might +intend passing, to guard them against him, in case of his showing any +inclination to come otherwise than peaceably.[931] These precautions, +however, proved unnecessary. Antoine intended to abide by his +engagement. When by slow stages he had at length reached Limoges, he +found a number of friendly noblemen awaiting him. In a few days more +seven or eight hundred gentlemen had come in, well equipped and armed. +They begged him at once to declare for the liberation of France, +according to his previous promises. The nobility, they said, were only +waiting for the word of command. Meanwhile Gascony, Poitou, and the +coasts offered six or seven thousand foot soldiers, already enrolled +under captains, and prepared to defend him against present attack. +Provence and Languedoc would march to his assistance with three or four +thousand horse and foot. Normandy would raise as many more. He would at +once become so formidable that, without a blow, he could assume the +guardianship of the king. Bourges and Orleans would fall into his hands, +and the States General be held free of constraint. The very forces of +the enemy would desert the sinking cause of the hated Guises. As for the +necessary funds, with the best filled purses in France at his command, +he could scarcely feel any lack. The suggestions of the Huguenot lords, +backed by the entreaties of Beza, were, however, overborne by the +secret insinuations of his treacherous counsellors. At Verteuil--a few +leagues beyond--Navarre clearly announced his intentions, and dismissed +his numerous friends with hearty thanks for their kind attentions. He +would ask the king's pardon for those who had accompanied him thus far +in arms. "Pardon!" replied one of the gentlemen, "think only of very +humbly asking it for yourself, who are going to give yourself up as a +prisoner with the halter around your neck. So far as I can see, you have +more need of it than we have, who have determined not to sell our lives +at so cheap a rate, but to die fighting rather than submit to the mercy +of those detested enemies of the king. And since we are miserably +forsaken by our leaders, we hope that God will raise up others to free +us from the oppression of these tyrants."[932] This retort proving +futile, as did also the warning of the Princess of Conde, who wrote and +sent a messenger to her husband to escape from the toils of his enemies +while it was still possible, the Huguenot gentry retired in disgust; and +Beza seized the first opportunity (on the seventeenth of October) to +steal away from the King of Navarre, and undertake his perilous return +to Geneva, which he succeeded in reaching after a series of hair-breadth +escapes.[933] + +[Sidenote: Infatuation of the Bourbons.] + +The King of Navarre had disregarded the counsels of Calvin and other +prudent advisers, who believed that, if he presented himself with a +powerful escort at the gates of Orleans, the Guises would yield without +a blow.[934] Antoine felt confident that his enemies would never venture +to lay hands on a prince of the royal blood. His blind infatuation +seemed to infect Conde also. Their presumption was somewhat shaken when +the royal governor of Poitiers forbade their entrance into that city. +But the depth of the ruin into which they had plunged was more clearly +revealed to their eyes as they began to approach Orleans. Friendly +voices whispered the existence of a plan for their destruction; friendly +hands offered to effect their escape to Angers, and thence into +Normandy.[935] But the die was cast. Hostile troops enveloped them, and +they resolved to continue their journey. + +[Sidenote: They reach Orleans.] + +[Sidenote: Conde arrested.] + +Navarre had figured upon the journey much as a provost-marshal leading +his brother to prison.[936] Now the imaginary resemblance was turned +into a sad reality. On Thursday, the thirty-first of October, the +Bourbons reached Orleans.[937] Their reception soon convinced them that +they had placed their heads in the jaws of the lion. None of the +courtiers save the cardinal, their brother, and La Roche-sur-Yon, their +cousin, deigned to do them honor. That very day, after a few angry +accusations from Francis, and a courageous vindication of his conduct by +the chivalrous prince, Conde was arrested in the king's presence and by +his order.[938] The King of Navarre also was, indeed, little better than +a prisoner, so closely did he find himself watched.[939] In vain did +Navarre remonstrate and plead the royal promise of security, offering +himself to become a surety for his brother; the king denied redress. +Then it was that Conde turned to the Cardinal of Bourbon, one of the few +that had come to do him honor and said: "Sir, by your assurances you +have delivered up your own brother to death."[940] Others shared in +Conde's misfortune. Madame de Roye, his mother-in-law and a sister of +Admiral Coligny, was brought a prisoner to St. Germain, and a careful +search was made among her papers and elsewhere for the purpose of +obtaining proofs of Conde's guilt.[941] + +[Sidenote: Return of Renee of Ferrara.] + +It was at this inauspicious moment that a distinguished princess reached +Orleans, after an absence of thirty-two years from her native land, and +was received with marked honors by the king and all the court, who went +out to meet her and escort her to the city.[942] This was the celebrated +Renee, younger daughter of Louis the Twelfth, and widow of Ercole, Duke +of Ferrara, now returning, after the death of her husband, to spend her +declining years at her retreat of Montargis on the Loing. The scene +which she beheld awakened in her breast regret and indignation which she +was not slow in expressing. To the Duke of Guise, who had married her +daughter, Anne d'Este, she administered a severe rebuke. "Had I been +present," she said, "I would have prevented this ill-advised step. It is +no trifling matter to treat a prince of the blood in such a manner. The +wound is one that will long bleed; for no man has ever yet attacked the +blood of France but he has had reason to regret it."[943] + +[Sidenote: Conde's courage.] + +[Sidenote: His wife repulsed.] + +The courage of the imprisoned prince rose with his misfortunes. The +house in which he was incarcerated was flanked by a tower whose +embrasures commanded the approach, the windows were newly barred, and +the door was half-walled up to preclude the possibility of escape.[944] +But Prince Louis stoutly maintained that it was not _he_ that was a +captive, since, though his body was confined, his spirit was free and +his conscience clean and guiltless; but rather _they_ were prisoners, +who, with the freedom of their body, felt their conscience to be +enslaved and harassed by a ceaseless recollection of their crimes.[945] +His wife, the virtuous Eleonore de Roye, fruitlessly applied for +admission in order to minister to his wants. She was rudely repulsed by +the king, at whose feet she had thrown herself in a flood of tears, with +the bitter remark that her husband was his mortal enemy, who had +conspired not only to obtain his crown, but his life also, and that he +could do no less than avenge himself upon him.[946] It was only by +special effort that the few who dared avow themselves friends of the +disgraced Bourbons, succeeded in obtaining for Conde legal counsel, and +that these were allowed to hold brief interviews with the prince in the +presence of two officers of the crown.[947] No others were admitted, +save a pretended friend, to sound his disposition toward the Guises. +Comprehending the motive of his visit, Conde begged him to inform those +who had sent him, "that he had received so many outrages at their hands +that there remained no path of reconciliation, save at the point of the +sword; and that, although he seemed to be at their mercy, he still had +confidence that God would avenge the injury done by them to a prince who +had come at the command and relying on the word of his king, but had +been shamefully imprisoned at their suggestion, in order to make in him +a beginning of the destruction of the royal blood."[948] + +[Sidenote: Conde tried by a commission.] + +[Sidenote: He is found guilty and sentenced to be beheaded.] + +A commission, consisting of Chancellor L'Hospital, President De Thou, +Counsellors Faye and Viole, and a few others, was appointed, on the +thirteenth of November, to conduct the trial. Conde refused to plead +before them, taking refuge in his privilege, as a prince, to be tried +only before the king and by his peers.[949] His appeals, however, were +rejected by the privy council, and he was commanded, in the king's name, +to answer, under pain of being held a traitor. In view of the known +desire and intention of the king and his chief advisers, the trial was +likely to be expeditious and not over-scrupulous.[950] The most innocent +expressions of disapproval of the violent executions at Amboise were +perverted into open approval of a plot against the king. The prosecution +sought to establish the heresy of the prince, in order to furnish some +ground for finding him guilty of treason against Divine as well as royal +authority. Nor was this difficult. A priest, in full officiating +vestments, was introduced, as by royal command, to say mass in Conde's +presence. But the young Bourbon drove him out with rough words, +declaring "that he had come to his Majesty with no intention of holding +any communion with the impieties and defilements of the Roman +Antichrist, but solely to relieve himself of the false accusations that +had been made against him."[951] Before so partial a court the trial +could have but one issue. Conde was found guilty, and condemned to be +beheaded on a scaffold erected before the king's temporary residence, at +the opening of the States General.[952] The sentence was signed not +only by the judges to whom the investigation had been entrusted, but by +members of the privy council, by the members of the Order of St. +Michael, and by a large number of less important dignitaries, without +even a formal examination into the merits of the case--so anxious were +the Guises to involve as many influential persons as possible in the +same responsibility with themselves. Of the privy councillors, Du +Mortier and Chancellor de l'Hospital alone refused to append their +signatures without a longer term for reflection, and endeavored to ward +off the blow by procrastination.[953] + +[Sidenote: Danger of the King of Navarre.] + +Navarre was himself in almost equal danger. An attempt to poison him was +frustrated by its timely revelation; a plot to assassinate him on +leaving the king's residence, by the strength of his body-guard. A still +more atrocious scheme was concocted. Francis was to stab his cousin of +Navarre with his dagger, leaving his attendants to despatch him with +their swords. Such murderous projects can rarely be kept secret. Even +Catharine de' Medici is said to have attempted to dissuade Antoine from +going to the palace by warning him of the danger he would incur. At the +door of the king's chamber a friendly hand interposed, and a friendly +voice asked: "Sire, whither are you going to your ruin?" But the prince, +with a resolution which it had been well had he manifested at an earlier +period, paused only a moment to say to his faithful Renty: "I am going +to the spot where a conspiracy has been entered into to take my life.... +If it please God, He will save me; but, if I die, I entreat you, by the +fidelity I have ever known in you, ... to carry the shirt I wear, all +covered with blood, to my wife and son, and to conjure my wife, by the +great love she has always borne me, and by her duty (since my son is +not yet old enough to avenge my death), to send it, torn by the dagger, +and bloody, to the foreign princes of Christendom, that they may avenge +my death, so cruel and treacherous."[954] These gloomy forebodings were +not destined to be realized. Francis's anger evaporated in words, or was +restrained by his mother's secret injunctions,[955] and Antoine of +Navarre was suffered to go away unharmed. The duke and cardinal, who +witnessed the scene from the recess of a window, are said to have +muttered half audibly as they left the room, "That is the most cowardly +heart that ever was!"[956] + +[Sidenote: A plot for the utter destruction of the Huguenots.] + +The assassination of the King of Navarre was, however, but a part of a +larger plot for the utter destruction of the Huguenots and of +Protestantism in France, the details of which are but imperfectly +known.[957] It is alleged that preliminary lists of those infected by +heresy had been obtained from all parts of France, and that a more exact +knowledge was to be obtained by compelling all classes--from the +nobility and members of the Order of St. Michael down to the simple +citizen--to subscribe to the articles of faith drawn up eighteen years +before by the Sorbonne.[958] At the close of the sessions of the States +General, the full forces at the command of the court were to be set on +foot, and four armies, under the Duke of Aumale and Marshals St. Andre, +Brissac, and Termes, were to serve as the instruments of destruction. +Termes was to effect a junction with a Spanish force entering France +through Bearn; and the Governor of Bayonne was instructed to surrender +that important city into the hands of Philip. The expenses of the +crusade were to be defrayed by the clergy, who, from cardinal down to +chaplain, were to retain of their income only the amount necessary for +their bare subsistence.[959] The recent publication of the Pope's bull, +renewing the Council of Trent, meanwhile served as a good excuse for +forbidding the discussion of religious questions by the States General, +then about to meet, by the king's direction, at Orleans instead of +Meaux.[960] + +[Sidenote: Illness of the king.] + +The moment for the execution of this widespread plan of destruction was +approaching, when its devisers were startled by the sudden discovery +that the health of their nephew, the king, was fast failing. Francis's +constitution, always frail, and now still further undermined, was giving +way in connection with a gathering in the ear, which resisted the +efforts of the most skilful physicians.[961] "This King," wrote the +English ambassador, on the twenty-first of November, giving to his +fellow-envoy at Madrid the first intimation of Francis's illness, +"thought to have removed hence for a fortnight, but the day before his +intended journey he felt himself somewhat evil disposed of his body, +with a pain in his head and one of his ears, which hath stayed his +removing from hence."[962] But the rapid progress of the disease soon +made it clear that the trip to Chenonceau, "the queen's house," whence +the king "was not to return hither until the Estates are assembled," +would never be taken by Francis. The sceptre must pass into other hands +even more feeble than his. + +[Sidenote: The queen mother rejects the advances of the Guises,] + +[Sidenote: and makes terms with Navarre.] + +The Guises in consternation proposed to Catharine to hasten the death of +Navarre and Conde,[963] and perhaps to put into immediate execution +their ulterior projects. But Catharine de' Medici little relished an +increased dependence[964] upon a family she had good reason to distrust. +Instead of accepting the advances of the Guises, she hastened to make +terms with the King of Navarre. In an interview with that weak prince, a +compact was made which proved the source of untold evils. He had been +forewarned by ladies in Catharine's interest, as he valued his life, to +oppose none of her demands; but the wily Florentine scarcely expected so +easy a triumph as she obtained. To the amazement of friend and foe, +Antoine de Bourbon ceded his right to the regency, without a struggle, +to the queen mother, a foreigner and not of royal blood. For himself he +merely retained the first place under her, as lieutenant-general of the +kingdom. He even consented to be reconciled to his cousins of Guise, +and, after publicly embracing them, promised to forget all past grounds +of quarrel.[965] + +[Sidenote: Death of Francis II., Dec. 5, 1560.] + +The vows which Francis made "to God and to all the saints of paradise, +male and female, and particularly to Notre-Dame-de-Clery, that, if they +should grant him restoration of health, he would never cease until he +had wholly purged the kingdom of those wicked heretics,"[966] proved +unavailing. On the fifth of December, 1560, he died in the eighteenth +year of his age and the seventeenth month of his reign. "God, who +pierced the eye of the father, had now stricken the ear of the +son."[967] + + * * * * * + + [Sidenote: "Epitre au Tigre de la Prance."] + + The most annoying of the anonymous pamphlets against the Guises was + a letter bearing the significant direction: _Au Tigre de la + France_. Under this bloodthirsty designation every one knew that + the Cardinal of Lorraine alone could be meant, and the style of + the production showed that a master-hand in literature had been + concerned in the composition. The Guises were furious, but it was + impossible to discover the author or publisher of the libel. Both + succeeded admirably in preserving their incognito. Yet, as victims + were wanted to appease the anger of the ruling family, two unhappy + men expiated by their death a crime of which they were confessedly + innocent. The incident, which comes down to us attested not only by + the best of contemporary historians, but by the records of the + courts, recently brought to light, may serve to illustrate the + prevalent corruption of the judges and the occasional whimsical + application of the so-called justice wherein they were given to + indulging. Diligent search on the part of the friends of the Guises + led to the detection of only a single copy of the "Tigre," and this + was found in the house of one Martin Lhomme, or Lhommet, a printer + by trade, and miserably poor. There was no evidence at all that he + had had any part in printing or publishing it. None the less did + the judges of parliament, and particularly M. Du Lyon, to whom the + case was specially confided, prosecute the trial with relentless + ardor. On the 15th of July, the unfortunate Lhomme, after having + been subjected to torture to extract information respecting his + supposed accomplices, was publicly hung on a gibbet on the Place + Maubert, in Paris. The well-informed Regnier de La Planche (p. 313) + is our authority for the statement that Du Lyon having, at a + supper, a few days later, been called to account for the iniquity + of his decision, made no attempt to defend it, but exclaimed: "Que + voulez-vous? We had to satisfy Monsieur le Cardinal with something, + since we had failed to catch the author; for otherwise he would + never have given us any peace (il ne nous eust jamais donne + relasche)." Still more unreasonable was the infliction of the + death-penalty upon Robert Dehors, a merchant of Rouen, who had + chanced to ride into Paris just as Lhomme was being led to + execution. Booted as he still was, he became a witness of the + brutality with which the crowd followed the poor printer, and + seemed disposed to snatch him from the executioner's hands in order + to tear him in pieces. Indignant at this violation of decency, + Dehors had the imprudence to remonstrate with those about him, + dissuading them from imbruing their hands in the blood of a + wretched man, when their desire was so soon to be accomplished by + the minister of the law. The Rouen merchant little understood the + ferocity of the Parisian populace. The mob instantly turned their + fury upon him, and but for the intervention of the royal archers he + would have met on the spot the fate from which he had sought to + rescue another to whose person and offence he was an utter + stranger. As it was, he escaped instant death only to become a + victim to the perverse ingenuity of the same judges, and be hung on + the same Place Maubert, "for the sedition and popular commotion + caused by him, at the time of the execution of Martin Lhomme, by + means of scandalous expressions and blasphemies uttered and + pronounced by the said Dehors against the honor of God and of the + glorious Virgin Mary, wherewith the said prisoner induced the + people to sedition and public scandals." (See Registres du + parlement, July 13, 15, and 19, 1560, reprinted by Read in "Le + Tigre.") + + It is not, perhaps, very much to be wondered at that a pamphlet so + dangerous to have in one's possession should have so thoroughly + disappeared that a few years since not a copy was known to be in + existence. It doubtless fared with the "Tigre" much as it did with + another outspoken libel--"Taxe des parties casuelles de la boutique + du Pape"--published a few years later, of which Lestoile (Read, p. + 21) tells us that he was for a long time unsuccessful in the search + for a copy, to replace that which, to use his own words, "I burned + at the St. Bartholomew, _fearing that it might burn me_!" + + By a happy accident, M. Louis Paris, in 1834, discovered a solitary + copy that had apparently been saved from destruction by being + buried in some provincial library. The discovery, however, was of + little avail to the literary world, as the pamphlet was eagerly + bought by the famous collector Brunet, only to find a place in his + jealously guarded cases, where, after a fashion only too common in + these days, a few privileged persons were permitted to inspect it + under glass, but not a soul was allowed to copy it. Fortunately, + after M. Brunet's death, the city of Paris succeeded in purchasing + the _seven printed leaves_, of which the precious book was + composed, for 1,400 francs! Even then the singular fortunes of the + book did not end. Placed in the Hotel-de-Ville, this insignificant + pamphlet, almost alone of all the untold wealth of antiquarian lore + in the library, escaped the flames kindled by the insane Commune. + M. Charles Read, the librarian, had taken it to his own house for + the purpose of copying it and giving it to the world. This design + has now been happily executed, in an exquisite edition (Paris, + 1875), containing not only the text, illustrated by copious notes, + but a photographic fac-simile. M. Read has also appended a poem + entitled "Le Tigre, Satire sur les Gestes Memorables des Guisards + (1561), "for the recovery of which we are indebted to M. Charles + Nodier. Although some have imagined this to be the original "Tigre" + which cost the lives of Lhomme and Dehors, it needs only a very + superficial comparison of the two to convince us that the poem is + only an elaboration, not indeed without merit, of the more nervous + prose epistle. The author of the latter was without doubt the + distinguished _Francois Hotman_. This point has now been + established beyond controversy. As early as in 1562 the Guises had + discovered this; for a treatise published that year in Paris + (Religionis et Regis adversus exitiosas Calvini, Bezae, et Ottomani + conjuratorum factiones defensio) uses the expressions: "Hic te, + Ottomane, excutere incipio. Scis enim ex cujus officina _Tigris_ + prodiit, liber certe tigride parente, id est homine barbaro, + impuro, impio, ingrato, malevolo, maledico dignissimus. Tu te + istius libelli auctorem ... audes venditare?" While an expression + in a letter written by John Sturm, Rector of the University of + Strasbourg, July, 1562, to Hotman himself (Tygris, immanis illa + bellua quam tu _hic_ contra Cardinalis existimationem divulgari + curasti), not only confirms the statement of the hostile Parisian + pamphleteer, but indicates Strasbourg as the place of publication + (Read, pp. 132-139). + + The "Epistre envoyee au Tigre de la France" betrays a writer well + versed in classical oratory. Some of the best of modern French + critics accord to it the first rank among works of the kind + belonging to the sixteenth century. They contrast its + sprightliness, its terse, telling phrases with the heavy, dragging + constructions that disfigure the prose of contemporary works. + Without copying in a servile fashion the Catilinarian speeches of + Cicero, the "Tigre" breathes their spirit and lacks none of their + force. Take, for example, the introductory sentences: "Tigre + enrage! Vipere venimeuse! Sepulcre d'abomination! Spectacle de + malheur! Jusques a quand sera-ce que tu abuseras de la jeunesse de + nostre Roy? Ne mettras-tu jamais fin a ton ambition demesuree, a + tes impostures, a tes larcins? Ne vois-tu pas que tout le monde les + scait, les entend, les cognoist? Qui penses-tu qui ignore ton + detestable desseing et qui ne lise en ton visage le malheur de tous + tes [nos] jours, la ruine de ce Royaume, et la mort de nostre Roy?" + Or read the lines in which the writer sums up a portion of the + Cardinal's villainy: "Quand je te diray que les fautes des finances + de France ne viennent que de tes larcins? Quand je te diray qu'un + mari est plus continent avec sa femme que tu n'es avec tes propres + parentes? Si je te dis encore que tu t'es empare du gouvernement de + la France, et as derobe cet honneur aux Princes du sang, pour + mettre la couronne de France en ta maison--que pourras-tu repondre? + Si tu le confesses, il te faut pendre et estrangler; si tu le nies, + je te convaincrai." + + A passage of unsurpassed bitterness paints the portrait of the + hypocritical churchman: "Tu fais mourir ceux qui conspirent contre + toy: et tu vis encore, qui as conspire contre la couronne de + France, contre les biens des veuves et des orphelins, contre le + sang des tristes et des innocens! Tu fais profession de prescher de + saintete, toy qui ne connois Dieu que de parole; qui ne tiens la + religion chretienne que comme un masque pour te deguiser; qui fais + ordinaire trafic, banque et marchandise d'evesches et de benefices: + qui ne vois rien de saint que tu ne souilles, rien de chaste que tu + ne violes, rien de bon que tu ne gates!... Tu dis que ceux qui + reprennent tes vices medisent du Roy, tu veux donc qu'on t'estime + Roy? Si Caesar fut occis pour avoir pretendu le sceptre injustement, + doit-on permettre que tu vives, toy qui le demandes injustement?" + + With which terribly severe denunciation the reader may compare the + statements of a pasquinade, unsurpassed for pungent wit by any + composition of the times, written apparently about a year later. + Addressing the cardinal, Pasquin expresses his perplexity + respecting the place where his Eminence will find an abode. The + _French_ dislike him so much, that they will have him neither as + master nor as servant; the _Italians_ know his tricks; the + _Spaniards_ cannot endure his rage; the _Germans_ abhor incest; the + _English_ and _Scotch_ hold him to be a traitor; the _Turk_ and the + _Sophy_ are Mohammedans, while the cardinal believes in _nothing_! + _Heaven_ is closed against the unbeliever, the devils would be + afraid to have him in _hell_, and in the ensuing council the + Protestants are going to do away with _purgatory_! "Et tu miser, + ubi peribis?" Copy in State Paper Office (1561). + + The peroration of "Le Tigre" is worthy of the great Roman orator + himself. The circumstance that, on account of the limited number of + copies of M. Read's edition, the "Tigre" must necessarily be + accessible to very few readers, will be sufficient excuse for here + inserting this extended passage, in which, for the sake of + clearness, I have followed M. Read's modernized spelling: + + "Mais pourquoi dis-je ceci? Afin que tu te corriges? Je connais ta + jeunesse si envieillie en son obstination, et tes moeurs si + depravees, que le recit de tes vices ne te scauroit emouvoir. Tu + n'es point de ceux-la que la honte de leur vilainie, ni le remords + de leurs damnables intentions puisse attirer a aucune resipiscence + et amendement. Mais si tu me veux croyre, tu t'en iras cacher en + quelque tanniere, ou bien en quelque desert, si lointain que l'on + n'oye ni vent ni nouvelles de toy! Et par ce moyen tu pourras + eviter la pointe de cent mille espees qui t'attendent tous les + jours! + + "Donc va-t'-en! Descharge-nous de ta tyrannie! Evite la main du + bourreau! Qu'attends-tu encore? Ne vois-tu pas la patience des + princes du sang royal qui te le permet? Attends-tu le commandement + de leur parolle, puisque leur silence t'a declare leur volonte? En + le souffrant, ils te le commandent; en se taisant, ils te + condamnent. Va donc, malheureux, et tu eviteras la punition digne + de tes merites!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 847: Reaching Paris early in May, 1560, Hubert Languet wrote +that suspicion was everywhere rife; men of any standing scarcely dared +to converse with each other; some great calamity seemed on the point of +breaking forth. The king's ministers evidently feared the great cities; +so the court proceeded from one provincial town to another. Disturbances +in Rouen and Dieppe had frightened the Guises away from Normandy, +whither they had intended leading their royal nephew. Letter from Paris, +May 15th, Epistolae secr., ii. 50.] + +[Footnote 848: "En ce temps (Mars, 1560) furent appelles Huguenots." +Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 36.] + +[Footnote 849: Soldan, Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, who, in an +appendix, has very fully discussed the whole matter (i. 608-625). There +is some force in the objection that has been urged against this view, +that, were it correct, Beza, himself a resident of Geneva, could not +have been ignorant of the derivation, and would not, in the Histoire +ecclesiastique, prepared under his supervision, if not by him, have +given his sanction to another explanation.] + +[Footnote 850: La Planche, 262; Hist. eccles., i. 169, 170; De Thou, ii. +(liv. xxiv.) 766. This is also Etienne Pasquier's view, who is positive +that he heard the Protestants called Huguenots by some friends of his +from Tours full _eight or nine years_ before the tumult of Amboise; that +is, about 1551 or 1552: "Car je vous puis dire que huict ou neuf ans +auparavant l'entreprise d'Amboise je les avois ainsi ouy appeller par +quelques miens amis Tourengeaux." Recherches de France, 770. This is +certainly pretty strong proof.] + +[Footnote 851: La Place, 34; Davila, i. 20; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 96. +See also Pasquier, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 852: Mem. de Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 7. A somewhat similar +reason had, in Poitou, caused them, for a time, to be called _Fribours_, +the designation casually given to a _counterfeit_ coin of debased metal. +Pasquier, 770.] + +[Footnote 853: Advertissement au Peuple de France, _apud_ Recueil des +choses memorables (1565), 7. Also in the Complainte au Peuple Francois, +ibid., p. 10. Both of these papers were published immediately after the +Tumulte d'Amboise. The eminent Pierre Jurieu--"le Goliath des +Protestants"--tells us that, having at one time accepted the derivation +from "eidgenossen" as the most plausible, he subsequently returned to +that which connects the word Huguenot with Hugues or Hugh Capet. The +nickname confessedly arose, so far as France was concerned, first in +Touraine, and became general at the time of the tumult of Amboise, +nearly thirty years after the reformation of Geneva. "Qui est-ce qui +auroit transporte en Touraine ce nom trente ans apres sa naissance, de +Geneve ou il n'avoit jamais este cognu?" Histoire du calvinisme et celle +du papisme, etc. Rotterdam, 1683, i. 424, 425.] + +[Footnote 854: J. de Serres, i. 67; Pasquier, 771: "Mot qui en peu de +temps s'espandit par toute la France."] + +[Footnote 855: La Planche, 270. At Amboise, too, so soon as the court +had departed, the prisons were broken open, and the prisoners--both +those confined for religion and for insurrection--released. The gallows +in various parts of the place were torn down, and the ghastly +decorations of the castle, in the way of heads and mutilated members, +disappeared. Languet, letter of May 15th, Epist. secr., ii. 51.] + +[Footnote 856: M. Archinard, conservator of the archives of the +Venerable Company of Pastors of Geneva, has compiled from the records a +list of 121 pastors sent by the Church of Geneva to the Reformed +Churches of France within eleven years--1555 to 1566. Many others have, +doubtless, escaped notice. Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., +viii. (1859) 72-76. Cf. also Ib., ix. 294 seq., for an incomplete list +of Protestant pastors in France, probably in 1567, from an old MS. in +the Genevan library.] + +[Footnote 857: The high moral and intellectual qualifications of the +Protestant ministers were eulogized by the Bishop of Valence, Montluc, +in his speech before the king at Fontainebleau, to which I shall soon +have occasion to refer again. "The doctrine, sire," he said, "which +interests your subjects, was sown for thirty years; not in one, or two, +or three days. It was introduced by three or four hundred ministers, +diligent and practised in letters; men of great modesty, gravity, and +appearance of sanctity; professing to detest every vice, and, +particularly, avarice; fearless of losing their lives in confirmation of +their preaching; who always had Jesus Christ upon their lips--a name so +sweet that it gives an entrance into ears the most carefully closed, and +easily glides into the heart of the most hardened." "Harangue de +l'Evesque de Vallence," _apud_ Recueil des choses memorables (1565), i. +290; Mem. de Conde, i. 558; La Place, 55. The eloquent Bishop of Valence +must be regarded as a better authority than those persons who, according +to Castelnau, accused the Calvinist ministers of Geneva of "having more +zeal and ignorance than religion." Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iii., c. 3.] + +[Footnote 858: Calvin, in a letter sent by Francois de Saint Paul, a +minister whom he induced to accept the urgent call of the church of +Montelimart, dissuaded that church from this step which was already +contemplated. Better is it, said he, to increase the flock, and to +gather in the scattered sheep, meanwhile keeping quiet yourselves. "At +least, while you hold your assemblies peaceably from house to house, the +rage of the wicked will not so soon be enkindled against you, and you +will render to God what He requires, namely, the glorifying of His name +in a pure manner, and the keeping of yourselves unpolluted by all +superstitious observances, until it please Him to open a wider door." +Lettres francaises (Bonnet), ii. 335, 336. The author of the Histoire +eccles. des eglises ref., i. 138, expresses a belief that had such wise +counsels been followed, incomparably the greater part of the district +would have embraced the Reformation.] + +[Footnote 859: La Planche, 284-286.] + +[Footnote 860: Letter of Francis II. to Gaspard de Saulx, Seign. de +Tavannes, April 12, 1560, _apud_ Negotiations relatives au regne de +Francois II., etc. (Collection de documents inedits), 341-343.] + +[Footnote 861: With a label attached to their necks bearing this +inscription: "Voicy les chefs des rebelles."] + +[Footnote 862: La Planche, 286-289.] + +[Footnote 863: Letter of the Vte. de Joyeuse to the king, April 26, +1560, _apud_ Neg. sous Francois II., 361-363.] + +[Footnote 864: La Planche, 293.] + +[Footnote 865: Hence the festival of Corpus Christi witnessed in some +places serious riots, especially in Rouen, where a number of citizens of +the reformed faith refused to join in the otherwise universal practice +of spreading tapestry on the front of their houses when the host was +carried by. Houses were broken into, at the instigation of the priests, +and near a score of persons killed. Languet, Paris, June 16th, Epist. +sec., ii. 59, 60.] + +[Footnote 866: La Planche, 294; Hist. eccles., i. 194; Floquet, Hist. du +parl. de Normandie, ii. 284, 288, 294, 302-306, etc. At Dieppe the +Huguenots had gone so far as to erect, with the pecuniary assistance +afforded by Admiral Coligny, an elegant and spacious "_temple_," as the +Protestant place of worship was styled. Vieilleville, much to his +regret, felt compelled to demolish it (Aug., 1560), for it stood in the +very heart of the city. I quote a part of his secretary's appreciative +description: "C'estoit ung fort brave edifice, _ressemblant au theatre +de Rome qu'on appelle Collisee, ou aux arenes de Nysmes_. On fut _trois +jours_ a le verser par terre, et ne partismes de Dieppe que n'en +veissions la fin." Mem. de Vieilleville, ii. 448, etc.; Floquet, ii. +318-336.] + +[Footnote 867: De Felice, liv. i., c. 12 (Am. ed., p. 111).] + +[Footnote 868: See La Planche, 312, 313, and the "Histoire des cinq +rois" (Recueil des choses mem), 1598, p. 99, for the punishment of the +possessor of a copy of a virulent pamphlet against the cardinal, +entitled _Le Tigre_ (see the note at the end of this chapter); and +Negociations sous Francois II., 456, for a letter from court ordering +search to be made for the author and publisher of the "Complaincte des +fideles de France contre leurs adversaires les papistes." "En ung lundy +apres Pasques, 15^e du moys, fut affiche devant S. Hilaire un papier +estant imprime d'autre impression de Paris, et y avoit a l'intitulation: +Les Estats opprimez par la tyrannie de MM. de Guise au roy salut." +Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, 37. The piece referred to is inserted in +the Memoires de Conde, i. 405-410.] + +[Footnote 869: La Planche, 299-302. The remonstrance, signed +_Theophilus_, which they addressed her, insisted on the ill-success of +the persecutions to which for forty years they had been subjected; for +one killed, two hundred had joined their assemblies; for ten thousand +open adherents, the Reformation had one hundred thousand secret +upholders. The Edict of Forgiveness answered no good purpose: "_c'estoit +bien peu d'oster pour un instant la douleur d'une maladie, si quant et +quant la cause et la racine n'en estoit ostee_."] + +[Footnote 870: La Place, 41-45; La Planche, 316, 317; Mem. de Castelnau, +l. ii., c. 7; De Thou, ii., liv. xxv. 788-791. I confess, however, that +the careful perusal of La Planche's bold speech has nearly convinced me +that the ascription of the anonymous "Hist. de l'estat de Fr. sous +Francois II." to his pen is erroneous. I shall not insist upon the fact +that the description of La Planche as "homme politique plustost que +religieux" is inappropriate to the author of this history. But I can +scarcely conceive of La Planche correcting errors in his own speech, and +not only expressing an utter dissent from the account which he himself +gave the queen of the motives that led La Renaudie to engage in the +enterprise that had for its object the overthrow of the Guises, but even +accusing himself of falling into a grave mistake with regard to the +importance of the differences of creed between the Protestants and the +Roman Church: "s'abusant en ce qu'il meit en avant des differends de la +religion." La Planche had suggested a conference of +theologians--ostensibly to make a faithful translation of the Bible, in +reality to compare differences--and had expressed the opinion that there +would be found less discord than there appeared to be. The condemnation +of this view certainly does not mark a man of political rather than +religious tendencies! I fear that we must look elsewhere for the author +of this excellent history.] + +[Footnote 871: It has been ascribed to the virtuous and tolerant +Chancellor L'Hospital, who, it is said, drew it up in order to defeat +the project of the Guises to introduce the Spanish Inquisition. (La +Planche, 305; cf. also De Thou, ii. 781.) But the edict was published +_before_ the appointment of L'Hospital, and while Morvilliers, a +creature of the Guises, provisionally held the seals after Chancellor +Olivier's death; and the spiritual jurisdiction it established differed +little in principle from an inquisition. In fact, three of the French +prelates, the Cardinals of Lorraine, Bourbon, and Chatillon, had, as we +have seen, been constituted a board of inquisitors of the faith; and, +soon after the publication of the Edict of Romorantin, the Cardinal of +Tournon was set over them as inquisitor-general. The subject has been +well discussed by Soldan, Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, i. +338-342. The Duc d'Aumale, in his usually accurate Histoire des Princes +de Conde (i. 113), repeats the blunder of La Planche and De Thou.] + +[Footnote 872: Recueil des anc. lois fr., xiv. 31-33; La Planche, 305, +306; La Place, 46, 47. It is, of course, "an edict holily conceived and +promulgated," in the estimation of Florimond de Raemond, v. 113. The only +redeeming feature I can find in it is the article by which malicious +informers made themselves liable to all the penalties they had sought to +inflict on others.] + +[Footnote 873: La Place, 36 (who states that the burning of Du Bourg was +an occasion of deep remorse in Olivier's last hours); La Planche, 266; +J. de Serres, De statu rel. et reip., i., fol. 35; De Thou, ii. (liv. +xxiv.), 775; Hist. du tumulte d'Amboise, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 874: La Planche, 305.] + +[Footnote 875: If we may credit that professed panegyrist, Scaevola de +St. Marthe, L'Hospital was of an august appearance, of a dignified and +tranquil countenance, and, if his intellectual constitution had a +philosophic stamp, his features bore a not less remarkable resemblance +to the head of the Stagirite as delineated on ancient medals. Elogia +doctorum in Gallia virorum qui nostra patrumque memoria floruerunt +(Ienae, 1696), lib. ii., p. 95.] + +[Footnote 876: This remarkable statement is made by Agrippa d'Aubigne, +Memoires, 478 (Ed. Pantheon Lit.). He tells us that he had inherited +from his father, himself one of the conspirators, the original papers of +the enterprise of Amboise. The suggestion was made by a confidant, that +the possession of the proof of L'Hospital's complicity would certainly +secure him 10,000 crowns, either from the chancellor or from his +enemies; whereupon the youth threw all the papers into the fire lest he +might in an hour of weakness succumb to the temptation. In his Hist. +universelle, i. 95, D'Aubigne makes the same assertion with great +positiveness: "L'Hospital, homme de grand estime, luy succeda, quoyqu'il +eust este des conjurez pour le faict d'Amboise. Ce que je maintiens +contre tout ce qui en a este escrit, pource que l'original de +l'entreprise fut consigne entre les mains de mon pere, ou estoit son +seing tout du long entre celuy de Dandelot et d'un Spifame: chose que +j'ai faict voir a plusieurs personnes de marque."] + +[Footnote 877: La Planche, 305; La Place, 38; De Thou, ii. 776; Davila, +p. 29. I cannot refrain from inserting La Planche's worthy estimate of +his course and its results: "Car pour certain, encores que s'il eust +prins un court chemin pour s'opposer virilement au mal, il seroit plus a +louer, et Dieu, peut-estre, eust beny sa Constance, si est-ce qu'autant +qu'on en peut juger, _luy seul, par ses moderes deportemens a este +l'instrument duquel Dieu s'est servy pour retenir plusieurs flots +impetueux, ou fussent submerges tous les Francois_." _Ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 878: Throkmorton to Cecil, June 24, 1560, State Paper Office; +printed in Wright, Queen Elizabeth, i. 32, 33.] + +[Footnote 879: La Planche, 338-343.] + +[Footnote 880: Ibid., 315; De Thou, ii. 787, 788.] + +[Footnote 881: The long address delivered to the two brothers at Nerac, +and reproduced verbatim by La Planche (318-338), is a very complete +summary of the views of the Huguenots at this juncture.] + +[Footnote 882: Letter of Cardinal Lorraine to the Bishop of Limoges, +French ambassador to Philip the Second, July 28, 1560. The council "we +hold to be the sole and only remedy for our ills," is the minister's +language. Although the state of affairs was better than it had been, yet +"so many persons were imbued with these opinions, that it was not +possible to find out on whom reliance could be placed." Negociations +sous Francois II., 442-444.] + +[Footnote 883: Ibid., _ubi supra_; La Planche, 349; De Thou, ii. 782.] + +[Footnote 884: La Planche, _ubi supra_. An assembly of notables was, as +the term imports, a body consisting, not of representatives of the three +orders, regularly summoned under the forms observed in the holding of +the States General, but of the most prominent men of the kingdom, +arbitrarily selected and invited by the crown to act as its advisers on +some extraordinary emergency. "Telles assemblees," says Agrippa +d'Aubigne, "ont este appelees _petits estats_." Hist. univ., i. 96.] + +[Footnote 885: "This house is both beautiful and larger than any I had +before seen in France or England. I may resemble the state thereof to +the honour of Hampton Court, which as it passeth Fontainebleau with the +great hall and chambers, so is it inferior in outward beauty and +uniformity," etc. The Journey of the Queen's Ambassadors to Rome, Anno +1555, Hardwick, State Papers, i. 67.] + +[Footnote 886: Charles Maximilian, now a boy of ten, was the successor +of Francis, known as Charles the Ninth. Edward Alexander, Duke of +Alencon, had his name changed in 1565 to Henry, and became Duke of +Anjou. He was at this time not quite nine years of age. He was +subsequently king, under the title of Henry the Third. Hercules became +Francis of Alencon in 1565, and was the only one of the brothers that +never ascended the throne. He was now a little over six years old.] + +[Footnote 887: La Place, 53; La Planche, 350, 351; De Thou, ii. 706; +Mem. de Castelnau, 1. ii., c. 8; Davila, 29. Minor discrepancies between +these accounts need not be noted.] + +[Footnote 888: "As if," says Calvin to Bullinger, "finding himself at +his wits' end, he had called in a consultation of state doctors." +(Bonnet, iv. 135.)] + +[Footnote 889: "Deux requestes de la part des Fideles de France, qui +desirent viure selon la reformation de l'Euangile, donnees pour +presenter au Conseil tenu a Fontainebleau au mois d'Aoust, M.D.LX." +Recueil des choses memorables faites et passees pour le faict de la +Religion et estat de ce Royaume, depuis la mort du Roy Henry II. iusques +au commencement des troubles. _Sine loco_, 1565, vol. i. 614-619.] + +[Footnote 890: La Place, 54, 55, and La Planche, 351, are, as usual in +this reign, our best authorities in reference to Coligny's address and +the presentation of the petition; see also Hist. eccles., i. 173, 174; +De Thou, ii. 797; Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 8; Davila, bk. ii., p. 30. La +Place and Jean de Serres, De statu, etc., i. 96 (who are followed by De +Thou, etc.), seem to be more correct in assigning the address to the +_second_ session, than La Planche, the Hist. eccles., etc., who place it +at the very commencement of the _first_. Calvin, in a letter to +Bullinger, Oct. 1, 1560 (Bonnet, iv. 135) describes the scene in the +same manner as La Place. Vita Gasparis Colinii (1575), 27, etc.; Vie de +Coligny (Cologne, 1686), p. 213, etc. Mr. Browning (Hist. of the +Huguenots, i. 29) erroneously attributes the authorship of the last +mentioned work to Francis Hotman (who died in 1590); whereas the author +wrote after Maimbourg and Varillas, whose statements he controverts. +(Pref., p. ii., and p. 86.) Hotman, as noticed elsewhere, was the author +of the preceding and much more authentic book.] + +[Footnote 891: Not, however, precisely in the ranks of the clergy. +Marillac was a layman, whose success in negotiation had been rewarded +with the archiepiscopal see of Vienne. In his youth he had been +suspected of composing an apology for a "Lutheran" burned at the stake +in Paris; and he died broken-hearted, seeing the ruin to which both +church and state were tending, two months after the Assembly of +Fontainebleau. La Place, 72, 73; La Planche, 360, 361. Neither was +Montluc of Valence a clergyman. Paris, Negotiations sous Francois II., +Notice, p. xxxvii.] + +[Footnote 892: It was not unfrequently recommended, as a species of +panacea for the evils in the church, that the bishops should all be sent +off to their dioceses. An edict to that effect had recently been +promulgated, and it was supposed that the parish curates would soon be +directed to follow their example. (Languet, ii. 68.) "What else will +result from this I know not," quietly adds the sensible diplomatist, +"but that they will betray their ignorance and baseness, and that the +contempt and hatred already entertained for them by the people will be +augmented." Elsewhere, in expressing the same view of the absurdity of +the order, he gives this unflattering description of the prelates: "cum +plerique sint plane indocti et praeterea luxu, libidinibus, et aliis +sceleribus perditissimi," etc. (Ibid., ii. 73.)] + +[Footnote 893: "Autant de deux escus que les banquiers avoyent envoyes a +Rome, autant de cures nous avoyent-ils renvoyes," adds Montluc. La +Place, 56.] + +[Footnote 894: The harangue of Montluc is contained word for word, +though with erroneous date, in the Recueil des choses memorables (1565), +pp. 286-305; also in La Place, 55-58; Mem. de Conde, 557-562. Summary in +De Thou, ii. 797-800; Jean de Serres, De statu rel. et reip. (1571), i. +99-106.] + +[Footnote 895: "Et qu'en tout evenement nous ne voulons perir pour luy +complaire." La Place, 60; La Planche, 354.] + +[Footnote 896: "Et sur ce, ne fault espargner les Italiens qui occupent +la troisiesme partie des benefices du royaume, ont pensions infinies, +succent nostre sang comme sangsues," etc. La Place and La Planche, _ubi +supra_.] + +[Footnote 897: La Place, 64; La Planche, 359. Both historians give the +speech _verbatim_. J. de Serres, i. 106-126; Letter of Calvin to +Bullinger, Oct. 1, 1560, _ubi supra_; Hist. eccles., i. 174-178. Would +that these words of wholesome advice and sound philosophy had not been +left unheeded by royalty and _noblesse_! The course of politic humanity +to which they pointed might have saved a monarch his head, the noblesse +countless lives and the loss of large possessions, and France a bloody +revolution.] + +[Footnote 898: La Planche, 361; La Place, 66; De Thou, ii. 802; Mem. de +Castelnau, liv. ii. c. 8; Hist. eccles., i. 178; Jean de Serres, i. +127.] + +[Footnote 899: La Planche, 361, 362; La Place, 67. The latter and J. de +Serres, i. 129, are certainly wrong in attributing this passionate +menace to the Cardinal of Lorraine. De Thou, ii. 802; Castelnau, 1. ii., +c. 8.] + +[Footnote 900: La Planche, etc., _ubi supra_. Calvin to Bullinger, Oct. +1, 1560 (Bonnet, iv. 136).] + +[Footnote 901: La Planche, 362, 363; La Place, 67; J. de Serres, De +statu rel. et reip., i. 128-131; De Thou, ii. 802, 803. After seeing the +head instigator of persecution, still gory with the blood of the recent +slaughter, assume with such effrontery the language of pity and +toleration, we may be prepared for his duplicity at the interview of +Saverne. The compiler of the Hist. eccles. (i, 179) explains the consent +of the Guises to the convocation of the estates by supposing them to +have hoped by this measure not merely to take away the excuse of their +opponents, but, by obtaining a majority, to secure the declaration of +Navarre and Conde as rebels, whether they came or declined to appear. +Calvin (letter to Bullinger, _ubi supra_, p. 137) gives the same view. +So does Barbaro: "Forse non tanto per volonta che s'avesse d'esseguirle +quanto per adomentare gli risvegliati, et guadagnar, come si fece." The +Pope and Philip violently opposed the plan "perche ne l'uno ne l'altro +sapeva il secreto." "By the plan of the council, ... they succeeded in +feeding with vain hopes (dar pasto) those who sought to make innovations +in the faith." Rel. des Amb. Ven., i. 524, etc.] + +[Footnote 902: La Planche, 363, 364; La Place, 68; De Thou, ii. 803 +(liv. xxv). Cf. the edict in full _apud_ Negociations sous Francois II., +486-490; also a letter of Francis in which he explains his course to +Philip II., ib. 490-497.] + +[Footnote 903: The cardinal had, however, made a somewhat similar +discourse, just about six months before, to Throkmorton, much to the +good knight's disgust. He had expressed a recognition of the faults +prevalent in the church, and pretended to be desirous of reforming it in +an orderly manner. "I am not so ignorant," he said, "nor so led with +errors that reigne, as the world judgeth." He declared himself in favor +of a general council, and spoke with satisfaction of an edict just +despatched to Scotland, "to surcease the punishment of men for +religion." "And of this purpose," adds the ambassador with pardonable +sarcasm, "he made suche an oration as it were long to write, _evon as +thoughe he had bene hired by the Protestants to defend their cause +earnestly_!" Despatch to the queen, Feb. 27, 1559/60, Forbes, State +Papers, i. 337, 338.] + +[Footnote 904: Sommaire recit de la calomnieuse accusation de M. le +prince de Conde, Memoires de Conde, ii. 373; Languet, ii. 66.] + +[Footnote 905: Throkmorton to Cecil, Sept. 3, 1560, State Paper Office; +La Place, 68, 69; La Planche, 345, 346; De Thou, ii. 804-806; Castelnau, +1. ii., c. 7.] + +[Footnote 906: La Planche, p. 375. Instructions to M. de Crussol, going +by order of the king to the King of Navarre, Aug. 30, 1560, _apud_ +Negoc. sous Francois II., pp. 482-486. The beginning of this paper, +directing Crussol to express regret that Navarre had not come to the +council of Fontainebleau, and to announce the result of its +recommendations, is sufficiently conciliatory. If, however, Navarre +should hesitate to obey the summons, the agent was bidden to frighten +him into compliance. On the first show of resistance, Francis would +collect his own troops, consisting of thirty thousand or forty thousand +foot, and seven hundred or eight hundred horse, expected levies of ten +thousand Swiss, and six thousand or seven thousand German lansquenets. +Philip had assured him of the assistance of all his forces, foot and +horse, both from the side of Netherlands and of Spain. The Dukes of +Lorraine, Savoy, and Ferrara would bring fourteen thousand to sixteen +thousand foot and one thousand five hundred horse. The king's +arrangements were complete, and he was resolved to make an example. The +arrest of La Sague was, however, not to be mentioned. Letter of Francis +to the King of Navarre, Aug. 30, in Recueil des choses mem. (1565), 75, +76, and Mem. de Conde, i. 573.] + +[Footnote 907: See the message in cipher appended to a despatch to the +French ambassador at Madrid, Aug. 31, 1560, _apud_ Neg. sous Francois +II., pp. 490-497. The discovery is said to have been made within five or +six days. Conde is implicated. Against Navarre there is as yet no proof. +The Queen of England, is suspected of complicity, despite the recent +treaty (of July 23d, by which Mary, Queen of Scots, renounced her claims +upon the crown of England). The affright of the Guises may be judged +from the circumstance that two copies of the despatch were +forwarded--one by Guyenne, the other by Languedoc--so that at least one +might reach its destination.] + +[Footnote 908: Thomas Shakerly, the Cardinal of Ferrara's organist, sent +him budgets of news not less regularly than the secretary of the Duke of +Savoy's ambassador at Venice supplied the English agent copies of all +the most important letters his master received. See the interesting +letter of John Shers to Cecil, Venice, Jan. 18, 1561, State Paper +Office.] + +[Footnote 909: Throkmorton to queen, Poissy, Oct. 10, 1560, State Paper +Office.] + +[Footnote 910: In a despatch to his ambassador at Madrid, Sept. 18, 1560 +(Negoc. sous Francois II., 523, etc.), Francis states that 1,000 or +1,200 armed soldiers had been posted in sixty-six houses, ready to sally +out by night, capture the city, and open the gates to 2,000 men waiting +outside. Of course, according to the king or his ministers, the object +was plunder, and the enterprise a fair specimen of Huguenot sanctity.] + +[Footnote 911: La Planche, 365-368; La Place, 69; Neg. sous Francois +II., _ubi supra_; Mem. de Castelnau, 1. ii., c. 9; Languet, ii. 70; De +Thou, ii. 806. Calvin, in a letter to Beza (Sept. 10, 1560), seems to +allude, though not by name, to Maligny, and to condemn his rashness; but +the passage is purposely too obscure to throw much light upon the +matter. Bonnet, iv. 126, etc.] + +[Footnote 912: Letter of the king, _apud_ Negoc. sous Francois II., 580, +581.] + +[Footnote 913: The curious reader may task his ingenuity in deciphering +the somewhat remarkable spelling in which the count quaintly relates the +occurrence in question: "Aytant o Pont-Sainct-Esperit, je trouvis entre +les mains de Rocart, capitayne de la, deux charges de mulles de _livres +de Genaive, fort bien reliez_: toutefoys cela ne les en carda que je ne +les fice toux bruler, comensent le prumier a les maytre o fu; de coe je +fu bien suivi de monsieur de Joyeuse, vous asseurent qu' _ill i en avoet +beocoup de la copagnie qu'il les playnoet fort_, les estiment plus de +mille aycus: pour sayte foys-la je ne les voullus croere." Letter of +Villars to the constable, Oct. 12, 1560, _apud_ Negoc. sous Francois +II., p. 655.] + +[Footnote 914: On Sunday, the 28th of July, a gathering composed almost +entirely of women was discovered. Nothing daunted, 1,200 persons met the +next night, with torches and open doors, in the large school-rooms, +where their pastor, Maupeau, preached an appropriate sermon from Rev. +vi. 9, on "the souls of them that were slain for the word of God." Soon +the same place was resorted to by day. Summoned before the magistrates, +judge, and consuls, the Huguenots declared their loyalty, but said that +they had no idea that the king wanted to dictate to the conscience, +which belongs to God. Presently the church of St. Michael was seized. +Then the Cardinal of Lorraine (Oct. 14th) wrote to the bishop, telling +him to call upon M. de Villars for aid in suppressing assemblies and the +preaching. Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 207-210.] + +[Footnote 915: They are Nismes, Montpellier, Montagnac, Annonay, +Castres, Marsillargues, Aigues Mortes, Pezenas, Gignac, Sommieres, St. +Jean de Gardonnenches, Anduze, Vauvers (Viviers?), Uzes, and Privas.] + +[Footnote 916: Sommaire des instructions donnees a Pignan envoye au roy +par Honorat de Savoye, Cte. de Villars, Oct. 15, 1560, _apud_ Negoc. +sous Francois II., 659-661.] + +[Footnote 917: On hearing of the seizure of Aigues Mortes by treachery. +Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 211.] + +[Footnote 918: Letters of De Villars to the Guises, Oct. 27 and 29, +1560. Neg. sous Francois II., 671.] + +[Footnote 919: Letter of the king to the Cte. de Villars, November 9, +1560. Ib., p. 673.] + +[Footnote 920: H. Barnsleye to Cecil, August 28, 1560, State Paper +Office.] + +[Footnote 921: I know of no more scathing exposure of the morals of the +clergy than that given by Francois Grimaudet, the representative of the +Tiers Etat of Anjou, and inserted _verbatim_ in La Planche, 389-396. It +was honored by being made the object of a special censure of the +Sorbonne!] + +[Footnote 922: La Planche, 387-397; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. +199.] + +[Footnote 923: Remonstrances, plaintes, et doleances de l'estat eccles., +MSS. Arch. du depart, de la Vienne, Hist. des Protestants et des eglises +ref. du Poitou, par A. Lievre (Poitiers, 1856), i. 84, 85.] + +[Footnote 924: Geneva MS., _apud_ Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 110.] + +[Footnote 925: See the interesting passage in the Hist. eccles. des egl. +ref., i. 204.] + +[Footnote 926: "As touching the occurrents of this Court, it may please +your Majesty to be advertised, that the King of Navarre being on his way +to this Court, hath had letters, as I am informed, written unto him, of +great good opinion conceived of him by this King, with all other kind of +courtesies, to cause him to repair thither." Despatch of Sir Nicholas +Throkmorton, Orleans, Nov. 17, 1560, Hardwick, State Papers, i. 138.] + +[Footnote 927: The portrait of this personage is painted in no +flattering colors by Calvin in two letters, to Sulcer, Oct. 1, 1560 +("whose mind is more lumpish than a log, unless when it is a little +quickened by wine"), and to Bullinger, of the same date ("one whom you +might easily mistake for a cask or a flagon, so little has he the shape +of a human being"). Bonnet, Eng. tr., iv. 131-135.] + +[Footnote 928: The despatches that passed between the court and the +French ambassador in Spain reveal the general alarm. Oct. 4th, Cardinal +Lorraine expects Navarre and Conde within the first half of the month, +"dont je suis fort ayse." Oct. 5th, Francis writes that, within two +days, he has heard that they intend carrying out their enterprise. Oct. +9th, the secretary of state complains of "fresh alarm daily." Negoc. +sous Francois II., 604-607, 610, 650. Others were, in the end, as much +astounded as the Guises at Navarre's pacific attitude. Throkmorton, +writing to the privy council that this king was looked for shortly at +Orleans, adds that all bruits of trouble by him were clean appeased, +_which caused great marvel_. Despatch to privy council, Paris, Oct. 24, +1560, State Paper Office.] + +[Footnote 929: Letter of Bishop of Limoges to the Cardinal of Lorraine, +Sept. 26, 1560, _apud_ Negotiations sous Francois II., 562: "Je vous +supplie de croire que le roy et mes seigneurs de son conseil [_i. e._, +Francis and the Guises] ne feront rien pour extirper un tel mal qui ne +soit icy [in Spain] bien pris et receu _a_ _l'endroict de qui que ce +soit_ [sc. Navarre and Conde]: tant ceux-cy craignent qu'il y ait +changement en notre religion et estat." Cf. also pp. 551, 552.] + +[Footnote 930: Negociations sous Francois II., 553, 554.] + +[Footnote 931: Instructions of the king to M. de La Burie, commanding in +Guyenne, Sept., 1560, _apud_ Negociations sous Francois II., 578-580; +also Ib., 644.] + +[Footnote 932: La Planche, 377.] + +[Footnote 933: La Planche, 375; Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 120-123, whose +account of this episode in the reformer's life is well written and +interesting. For the general facts above stated the best authority is, +as usual, La Planche, 373-377; see also La Place, 71; De Thou, ii. 807, +827; Hist. eccles., i. 205; Castelnau, l. ii., c. 9; Davila, 34, 35; +Calvin's Letters (Bonnet), iv., pp. 132, 137, 143, 147-151.] + +[Footnote 934: Calvin to Bullinger, Dec. 4th, and to Sulcer, Dec. 11, +1560 (Bonnet, iv. 149 and 151).] + +[Footnote 935: La Planche, 377; Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. ii., c. 19.] + +[Footnote 936: La Planche, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 937: Sommaire recit de la calomnieuse accusation de M. le +prince de Conde, in the Recueil des choses mem. (1565), 722-754, and +Memoires de Conde, ii. 373-395--a contemporaneous account by one who +speaks of himself as "ayant assiste a la conduicte de la plus grand part +de tout le negoce."] + +[Footnote 938: "Nevertheless, upon his coming, being accompanied with +his brethren, the Cardinal of Bourbon and Prince of Conde, after they +have [had] done their reverence to the king and queens, the Prince of +Conde was brought before the council, who committed him forthwith +prisoner to the guard of Messrs. de Bresy and Chauveney, two captains of +the guard, and their companies of two hundred archers." Despatch of Sir +Nicholas Throkmorton, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 939: "The King of Navarre goeth at liberty, but as it were a +prisoner." Despatch of Sir Nich. Throkmorton, _ubi supra_. "Tanquam +captivus." Same to Lord Robert Dudley, same date, State Paper Office.] + +[Footnote 940: La Place, 73; La Planche, 380, 381; Castelnau, 1. ii., c. +10.] + +[Footnote 941: La Place, 74: La Planche and Castelnau, _ubi supra_; +Sommaire recit, _ubi supra_. "Madame de Roy (Roye), the Admiral of +France his sister ... is taken and constituted prisoner." Despatch of +Sir Nich. Throkmorton, Orleans, November 17, 1560, Hardwick, State +Papers, i. 139.] + +[Footnote 942: "The Dutchess of Ferrara, mother to the Duke that now is, +according to that I wrote heretofore to your Majesty, is arrived at this +Court, the 7th of this present, and was received by the King of Navarre, +the French King's brethren, and all the great Princes of this Court." +_Ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 943: Brantome, Femmes illustres, Renee de France; La Planche, +381; La Place, 74; "que si elle y eust este, elle l'eust empesche, et +que ceste playe saigneroit long temps apres, d'autant que jamais homme +ne s'estoit attache au sang de France, qu'il ne s'en fust trouve mal." +De Thou, ii. 830.] + +[Footnote 944: "He remaineth close in a house, and no man permitted to +speak with him; and his process is in hand. And I hear he shall now be +committed to the castle of Loches, the strongest prison in all this +realm." Sir Nich. Throkmorton, November 17, 1560, _ubi supra_, i. 138.] + +[Footnote 945: La Place, 75, _ubi supra_; De Thou, ii. 832, 833 (liv. +26); Sommaire recit, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 946: La Planche, 402.] + +[Footnote 947: Ib., 401; La Place, 75; Sommaire recit, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 948: La Planche, 400; Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 10.] + +[Footnote 949: Sommaire recit, _ubi supra_. "For, being a prince of the +blood, he said, his process was to be adjudged either by the Princes of +the blood or by the twelve Peers; and therefore willed the Chancellor +and the rest to trouble him no further." Throkmorton, Nov. 28, 1560, +Hardwick, State Papers, i. 151. Castelnau (liv. ii., c. 11) has, by a +number of precedents, proved the validity of this claim.] + +[Footnote 950: Memoires de Conde, i. 619, containing the royal _arret_ +of Nov. 20th, rejecting Conde's demand; Sommaire recit. The (subsequent) +First President of parliament, Christopher de Thou, was, after +Chancellor L'Hospital, the leading member of the commission. His son, +the historian, may be pardoned for dismissing the unpleasant subject +with careful avoidance of details. La Planche makes no mention of the +chancellor in connection with the case, but records Conde's indignant +remonstrance against so devoted a servant of the Guises as the first +president acting as judge.] + +[Footnote 951: La Planche, 399.] + +[Footnote 952: La Planche, 401; Davila, 37, 38; Castelnau, l. ii., c. +12. The unanimous voice of contemporary authorities, and the accounts +given by subsequent historians, are discredited by De Thou alone (ii. +835, 836), who expresses the conviction, based upon his recollection of +his father's statement, that the sentence was drawn up, but never +signed. He also represents Christopher de Thou as suggesting to Conde +his appeal from the jurisdiction of the commission, and opposing the +violent designs of the Guises.] + +[Footnote 953: La Planche, 401; Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 12.] + +[Footnote 954: La Planche, 405, 406, has preserved this striking speech, +which I have somewhat condensed in the text. Agrippa d'Aubigne, Histoire +universelle, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 955: La Planche, it may be noticed, leans to this supposition. +Ibid., 405.] + +[Footnote 956: Ibid., 406; D'Aubigne, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 957: See Michele Suriano's account, Rel. des Amb. Ven., i. +528. The ambassador seems to have entertained no doubt of the complete +success that would have crowned the movement had Francis's life been +spared: "Il quale, se vivea un poco piu, non solamente averia ripresso, +_ma estinto dal tutto_ quell' incendio che ora consuma il regno." The +Spanish ambassador, Chantonnay, writing to his master, Nov., 1560, +confirms the statements of Protestant contemporaries respecting the plan +laid out for the destruction of the Bourbons, and then of the admiral +and his brother D'Andelot; but the wily brother of Cardinal Granvelle, +much as he would have rejoiced at the destruction of the heads of the +Huguenot faction, was alarmed at the wholesale proscription, and +expressed grave fears that so intemperate and violent a course would +provoke a serious rebellion, and perhaps give rise to a forcible +intervention in French affairs, on the part of Germany or England. "Pero +a mi paresce que seria mas acertado castigar poco a poco los culpados +que prender tantos de un golpe, porque assi se podrian meter en +desesperacion sus parientes, y causar alguna grande rebuelta y admitir +mas facilmente las platicas de fuera del reyno ... o de Alemania o de +Inglaterra." Papiers de Simancas, _apud_ Mignet, Journal des Savants, +1859, p. 39.] + +[Footnote 958: Mem. de Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 12; La Planche, 404; +Memoires de Mergey (Collection Michaud and Poujoulat), 567. The Count of +La Rochefoucauld, hearing through the Duchess of Uzes--a bosom confidant +of Catharine, but a woman who was not herself averse to the +Reformation--that Francis had remarked that the count "must prepare to +say his _Credo_ in Latin," had made all his arrangements to pass from +Champagne into Germany with his faithful squire De Mergey, both +disguised as plain merchants.] + +[Footnote 959: La Planche, 404; De Thou, ii. 835 (liv. xxvi.). The +latter does not place implicit confidence in these reports, while +conceding that subsequent events would induce a belief that they were +not destitute of a foundation. According to Throkmorton, also, writing +to Cecil, Sept. 3, 1560, the chief burden was to rest with the clergy, +who gave eight-tenths of the whole subsidy. State Paper Office.] + +[Footnote 960: Ibid., 403; De Thou, iii. 82.] + +[Footnote 961: Throkmorton's despatches from Orleans, several frequently +sent off on a single day, acquaint us with the rapid progress of the +king's disease, and the cold calculations based upon it. "The +constitution of his body," he writes in the third of his letters that +bear date Nov. 28th (Hardwick, State Papers, i. 156), "is such, as the +physicians do say he cannot be long-lived: and thereunto he hath by his +too timely and inordinate exercise now in his youth, added an evil +accident; so as there be that do not let to say, though he do recover +this sickness, he cannot live two years; _whereupon there is plenty of +discourses here of the French Queen's second marriage_; some talk of the +Prince of Spain, some of the Duke of Austrich, others of the Earl of +Arran." No wonder that cabinet ministers and others often grew weary of +the interminable debates respecting the marriages of queens regnant, and +that William Cecil, as early as July, 1561, wrote respecting Queen Bess: +"Well, God send our Mistress a husband, and by time a son, that we may +hope our posterity shall have a masculine succession. This matter is too +big for weak folks, and too deep for simple." Hardwick, State Papers, i. +174.] + +[Footnote 962: Throkmorton to Chamberlain, Nov. 21, 1560. British +Museum.] + +[Footnote 963: De Thou, ii. 833, etc. (liv. 26); D'Aubigne, liv. ii., c. +20, p. 103.] + +[Footnote 964: On the 17th of Nov. Throkmorton had written: "The house +of Guise practiseth by all the means they can, _to make the Queen Mother +Regent of France_ at this next assembly; _so as they are like to have +all the authority still in their hands, for she is wholly theirs_." +Hardwick, State Papers, i. 140. D'Aubigne (_ubi supra_), who attributes +to the sagacious counsel of Chancellor de l'Hospital the credit of +influencing Catharine to take this course.] + +[Footnote 965: I must refer the reader for the details of this +remarkable interview and its results, which, it must be noted, Catharine +insisted on Antoine's acknowledging over his signature, to the _Histoire +de l'Estat de France, tant de la republique que de la religion, sous le +regne de Francois II._, commonly attributed to Louis Regnier de la +Planche (pp. 415-418)--a work whose trustworthiness and accuracy are +above reproach, and respecting which my only regret is that its valuable +assistance deserts me at this point of the history.] + +[Footnote 966: Ibid., 413.] + +[Footnote 967: The words in the text are those of Calvin, in a letter to +Sturm, written Dec. 16, 1560, not many days after the receipt of the +astonishing intelligence. "Did you ever read or hear," he says, "of +anything more opportune than the death of the king? The evils had +reached an extremity for which there was no remedy, when suddenly God +shows himself from heaven! He who pierced the eye of the father has now +stricken the ear of the son." Bonnet, Calvin's Letters, Am. ed., iv. +152.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE REIGN OF CHARLES THE NINTH, TO THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE COLLOQUY OF +POISSY. + + +[Sidenote: The death of Francis saves the Huguenots.] + +[Sidenote: Transfer of power.] + +If the sudden catastrophe which brought to an end the bloody rule of +Henry was naturally interpreted as a marked interposition of Heaven in +behalf of the persecuted "Lutherans," it is not surprising that the +unexpected death of his eldest son, in the flower of his youth, and +after the briefest reign in the royal annals, seemed little short of a +miracle. Had Francis lived but a week longer, the ruin of the Huguenots +might perhaps have been consummated. Conde would have been executed at +the opening of the States General. Navarre and Montmorency, if no worse +doom befell them, would have been incarcerated at Loches and Bourges. +The Estates, deprived of the presence of these leaders, and overawed by +the formidable military preparations of the Guises,[968] would readily +have acquiesced in the most extreme measures. Liberty and reform would +have found a common grave.[969] But a few hours sufficed to disarrange +this programme. The political power was, at one stroke, transferred from +the hands of Francis and Charles of Lorraine to those of Catharine de' +Medici and the King of Navarre; and the Protestants of Paris recognized +in the event a direct answer to the petitions which they had offered to +Almighty God on the recent days of special humiliation and prayer.[970] + +[Sidenote: Alarm of the Guises.] + +[Sidenote: Funeral obsequies of Francis II.] + +The altered posture of affairs was equally patent to the princes of late +complete masters of the destinies of the country. In the first moments +of their excessive terror, they are said to have shut themselves up in +their palaces, and to have declined to leave this refuge until assured +that no immediate violence was contemplated.[971] Even after the +immediate danger had passed, however, they were too shrewd to pay to the +remains of their nephew the tokens of respect exacted of the constable +in behalf of Henry's corpse,[972] preferring to provide for their own +safety and future influence by being present at the meeting of the +States. The paltry convoy of Francis from Orleans to the royal vaults of +St. Denis presented so unfavorable a contrast to the pompous ceremonial +of his father's interment, that it was wittily said, "that the mortal +enemy of the Huguenots had not been able to escape being himself buried +like a Huguenot."[973] A bitter taunt aimed at the unfaithfulness and +ingratitude of the Guises fell under their own eyes. A slip of paper was +found pinned to the velvet funereal pall, on which were written--with +allusion to that famous chamberlain of Charles the Seventh, who, seeing +his master's body abandoned by the courtiers that had flocked to do +obeisance to his son and successor, himself buried it with great pomp +and at his own expense--the words: "Where is Messire Tanneguy du +Chastel? _But he was a Frenchman!_"[974] + +[Sidenote: Navarre's opportunity.] + +[Sidenote: His contemptible character.] + +[Sidenote: Adroitness and success of Catharine.] + +Never had prince of the blood a finer opportunity for maintaining the +right, while asserting his own just claims, than fell to the lot of +Antoine of Navarre. The sceptre had passed from the grasp of a youth of +uncertain majority to that of a boy who was incontestably a minor. +Charles, the second son of Henry the Second, who now succeeded his older +brother, was only ten years of age. It was beyond dispute that the +regency belonged to Antoine as the first prince of the blood. Every +sentiment of self-respect dictated that he should assume the high rank +to which his birth entitled him,[975] and that, while exercising the +power with which it was associated, in restraining or punishing the +common enemies both of the public liberties and of the family of the +Bourbons, he should protect the Huguenots, who looked up to him as their +natural defender. But the King of Navarre had, unfortunately, entered +into the humiliating compact with the queen mother, to which reference +was made in the last chapter. From this agreement he now showed no +disposition to withdraw. The utopian vision of a kingdom of Navarre, +once more restored to its former dimensions, still flitted before his +eyes, and he preferred the absolute sovereignty of this contracted +territory to the influential but dangerous regency which his friends +urged him to seize. Besides, he was sluggish, changeable, and altogether +untrustworthy. "He is an exceedingly weak person"--_suggetto +debolissimo_--said Suriano. "As to his judgment, I shall not stop to say +that he wears rings on his fingers and pendants in his ears like a +woman, although he has a gray beard and bears the burden of many years; +and that in great matters he listens to the counsels of flatterers and +vain men, of whom he has a thousand about him."[976] Liberal in +promises, and exhibiting occasional sparks of courage, the fire of +Antoine's resolution soon died out, and he earned the reputation of +being no more formidable than the most treacherous of advocates. +Sensual indulgence had sapped the very foundations of his +character.[977] It is true that his friends, forgetting the +disappointment engendered by his recent displays of timidity, reminded +him again of the engagements into which he had entered, to interfere in +defence of the oppressed, of his glorious opportunity, and of his +accountability before the Divine Tribunal.[978] But their appeals +accomplished little. Catharine was able to boast, in a letter to the +French Ambassador at Madrid, just a fortnight after the death of +Francis, that "she had great reason to be pleased" with Navarre's +conduct, for "he had placed himself altogether in her hands, and had +despoiled himself of all power and authority." "I dispose of him," she +said, "just as I please."[979] And to her daughter, Queen Isabella of +Spain, she wrote by the same courier: "He is so obedient; he has no +authority save that which I permit him to exercise."[980] The +apprehensions felt by Philip the Second regarding the exaltation of a +heretic, in the person of his hated neighbor of Navarre, to the first +place in the vicinage of the French throne, might well be quieted after +such reassuring intelligence. + +[Sidenote: Financial embarrassment.] + +[Sidenote: The religions situation.] + +[Sidenote: Catharine's neutrality.] + +Yet the position of Catharine, it must be admitted, was by no means an +easy one. The ablest statesman might have shrunk from coping with the +financial difficulties that beset her. The crown was almost hopelessly +involved. Henry the Second had in the course of a dozen years +accumulated, by prodigal gifts and by needless wars, a debt--enormous +for that age--of forty-two millions of francs, besides alienating the +crown lands and raising by taxation a larger sum of money than had been +collected in eighty years previous.[981] The Venetian Michele summed up +the perplexities of the political situation under two questions: How to +relieve the people, now thoroughly exhausted;[982] and, how to rescue +the crown from its poverty. But, in reality, the financial embarrassment +was the least of the difficulties of the position Catharine had assumed. +The kingdom was rent with dissensions. Two religions were +struggling--the one for exclusive supremacy, the other at least for +toleration and recognition. Catharine had no strong religious +convictions to actuate her in deciding which of the two she should +embrace. Two powerful political parties were contending for the +ascendency--that of the princes of the blood and of constitutional +usage, and that of an ambitious family newly introduced into the +kingdom, but a family which had succeeded in attaching to itself most, +if not all, of the favorites of preceding kings. Catharine's ambition, +in the absence of any convictions of right, regarded the success of +either as detrimental to her own authority. She had, therefore, resolved +to play off the one against the other, in the hope of being able, +through their mutual antagonism, to become the mistress of both. Under +the reign of Francis the Second she had gained some notion of the +humiliation to which the Guises, in their moment of fancied security, +would willingly have reduced her. Yet, after all, the illegal usurpation +of the Guises, who might, from their past experience, be more tolerant +of her ambitious designs, was less formidable to her than the claims of +the Bourbon princes, based as were these claims upon ancestral usage and +right, and equally fatal to her pretensions and to those of their +rivals. It was a situation of appalling difficulty for a woman sustained +in her course by no lofty consciousness of integrity and devotion to +duty--for a woman who was by nature timid, and by education inclined to +resort for guidance to judicial astrology or magic rather than to +religion.[983] + +[Sidenote: Opening of the States General, Dec. 13, 1560.] + +A brief delay in the opening of the sessions of the States General was +necessitated by the sudden change in the administration. At length, on +the thirteenth of December, the pompous ceremonial took place in the +city of Orleans. It was graced by the presence of the boy-king, Charles +the Ninth, and of his mother, his brother, the future Henry the Third, +and his sister Margaret. The King of Navarre, the aged Renee of Ferrara, +and other members of the royal house, also figured here with all that +was most distinguished among the nobility of the realm. + +[Sidenote: Address of Chancellor De l'Hospital.] + +[Sidenote: Co-existence of two religions impossible.] + +To the chancellor was, as usual, entrusted the honorable and +responsible duty of laying before the representatives of the three +orders the reasons of their present convocation. This office he +discharged in a long and learned harangue. If the hearers were treated +without stint to that profusion of ancient learning, upon which the +orators of the age seem to have rested a great part of their claim to +patient attention, they also listened to much that was of more immediate +concern to them, respecting the origin of the States General, and the +occasions for which they had from time to time been summoned by former +kings. L'Hospital announced that the special object of the present +meeting was to devise the means of allaying the seditions which had +arisen in consequence of religious differences. "These," said +L'Hospital, "are the causes of the most serious dissensions. It is folly +to hope for peace, rest, and friendship between persons of opposite +creeds. A Frenchman and an Englishman holding a common faith will +entertain stronger affection for each other than two citizens of the +same city who disagree about their theological tenets."[984] So powerful +was still the prejudice of the age with one who was among the first to +catch a glimpse of the true principles of religious toleration! That two +discordant religions should permanently co-exist in a state, he agreed +with most of his contemporaries in regarding as utterly impossible. For +how could the adherents of the papacy and the disciples of the new faith +conceal their differences under the cloak of a common charity and mutual +forbearance?[985] + +[Sidenote: Names of factions must be abolished.] + +Yet the dawn of more enlightened principles could be detected in a +subsequent part of the chancellor's speech. After prescribing a +universal council--that panacea which all the state doctors of the day +offered for the cure of the ills of the body politic--he advocated the +employment, meantime, of persuasion instead of force, of gentleness +rather than rigor, of charity and good works, as more effective than the +most trenchant of material weapons. And, while he recommended his +hearers to pray for the conversion of the erring, he exclaimed: "Let us +remove those diabolical words, names of parties, factions, and +seditions--'Lutherans,' 'Huguenots,' and 'Papists'--and let us retain +only the name of 'Christians.'"[986] In concluding his address, he did +not forget to dwell upon the lamentable condition of the royal finances, +thrown into almost inextricable confusion by twelve or thirteen years of +continuous war and the expenses attending three magnificent weddings. He +begged the estates, while they exposed their grievances, not to fail to +provide the king with means for meeting his obligations.[987] + +[Sidenote: Effrontery of Cardinal Lorraine.] + +[Sidenote: De Rochefort orator for the noblesse.] + +[Sidenote: L'Ange for the tiers etat.] + +It now devolved upon the deputies to prepare a statement of their +grievances, and for this purpose the "noblesse" retired to the +Dominican, the clergy to the Franciscan, and the "tiers" to the +Carmelite convents.[988] The Cardinal of Lorraine had had the effrontery +to solicit, through his creatures, the honor of representing the three +orders collectively; but the proposition had been rejected with +undissembled derision. Loud voices were heard from among the deputies of +the people, crying, "We do not choose to select _him_ to speak for us of +whom we intend to offer our complaints!"[989] Three orators were deputed +to speak for the three orders.[990] The Sieur de Rochefort, in behalf of +the nobles, declared their approval of the government of Catharine, but +insisted at some length upon the necessity of conciliating their good +will by a studious regard for their privileges. He likened the king to +the sun and the "noblesse" to the moon. Any conflict between the two +would produce an eclipse that would darken the entire earth. He +denounced the chicanery of the ecclesiastical courts and the +non-residence of the priests;[991] and he closed by presenting a +petition, which was read aloud by one of the secretaries of state, +demanding the grant of churches for the use of those nobles who +preferred the purer worship.[992] The Bordalese lawyer, Jean L'Ange, in +the name of the people, dwelt chiefly on the three capital vices of the +clergy--ignorance, avarice, and luxury,[993] and portrayed very +effectively the general disorders, the intolerable tyranny of the +Guises, the exhausted state of the public treasury, and the means of +restoring the Church to purity of faith and regularity of discipline. + +[Sidenote: Arrogant speech of Quintin for the clergy.] + +[Sidenote: Presumption in favor of the Catholic Church.] + +But it was the clerical delegate, Jean Quintin, that attracted most +attention. Standing between the other two orators, he delivered a speech +of great length and insufferable arrogance. He admitted that the clergy +might need reformation; but the Church with its hierarchy must not be +touched--that was the body of Christ. Charles must defend the Church +against heresy--against that Gospel falsely and maliciously so called, +which consisted in profaning churches, in breaking the sacred images, in +the marriage of priests and nuns. He must not suffer the Reformation to +affect the articles of faith, the sacraments, traditions, ordinances, or +ceremonial. Should any one venture to resuscitate heresies long dead and +buried, he begged the king to declare him a champion of heresy and to +proceed against him. He insisted on the presumption in favor of the +Catholic Church, and demanded the unconditional submission of its +opponents. "They must believe us, without waiting for a council; not we +them." He was warm in his praise of the Emperors Theodosius II. and +Valentinian III., who confiscated the goods of heretics, banished them, +and deprived them of the right of conveying or receiving property by +will. He raised his voice particularly in behalf of Burgundy and of his +own diocese of Autun, whose inhabitants "were well-nigh drowned by the +much too frequent inundations of pestilent books from the infected +lagoons of Geneva."[994] + +[Sidenote: Temporal interests.] + +[Sidenote: Sad straits of the clergy.] + +[Sidenote: A word for the down-trodden people.] + +In the midst of this tirade against the inroads of Calvinism, the +prudent doctor of canon law did not, however, altogether lose sight of +the temporal concerns of the priesthood. He proffered an urgent request +for the restoration of canonical elections, laying the growth of heresy +altogether to the account of the abrogation of the Pragmatic Sanction by +the Concordat in 1517. The sanction being re-established, "the +detestable and damnable sects, the execrable and accursed heresies of +to-day" would incontinently flee from the church. If he painted the +portrait of the prelate elected by the suffrages of his diocese in +somewhat too nattering colors, he certainly gave a vivid picture of the +sad straits to which the clergy were reduced by the imposition of the +repeated tithes on their revenues, now become customary. Masses were +unsaid, churches had been stripped of their ornaments. Missals and +chalices even had, in some places, been sold at auction to meet the +exorbitant demands of royal officers. It was to be feared that, if +Christian kings continued to lay sacerdotal possessions under +contribution, the Queen of the South would rise up in judgment with this +generation, and would condemn it. Lest, however, this commination should +not prove terrible enough, the examples of Belshazzar and others were +judiciously subjoined. On the other hand, Charles was urged to acquire a +glory superior to that of Charlemagne, and to earn the surname of +_Clerophilus_, or _Maximus_, by freeing the clergy of its burdens. By a +very remarkable condescension, after this lofty flight of eloquence, the +clerical advocate deigned to utter a short sentence or two in the +interest of the "noblesse," and even of the poor, down-trodden +people--begging the king to lighten the burdens which that so good, so +obedient people had long borne patiently, and not to suffer this third +foot of the throne to be crushed or broken.[995] When the crown had +returned to this course of just action, the Church would pray very +devoutly in its behalf, the nobility fight valiantly, _the people obey +humbly_. It would be paradise begun on earth.[996] + +[Sidenote: The clergy alone makes no progress.] + +Thus spoke the chosen delegates of the three orders when summoned into +the royal presence for the first time after the lapse of seventy-seven +years. The nobility and clergy vied with each other in extolling their +own order; the people made little pretension, but had a large budget of +grievances demanding redress. Nearly forty years had the Reformation +been gaining ground surely and steadily. It had found, at last, +recognition more or less explicit in the noblesse and the "tiers etat." +But the clergy had made no progress, had learned nothing. The speech of +Quintin, their chosen representative, on this critical occasion, was +long and tiresome; but, instead of convincing, it only excited shame and +disgust.[997] + +Indeed, an allusion of his to the favorers of heresy daring to present +petitions in behalf of the Huguenots, who demanded places in which to +worship God, was taken by Admiral Coligny as a personal insult to +himself, for which Quintin was compelled to make a public apology.[998] + +[Sidenote: Coligny presents a Huguenot petition.] + +The incredible supineness of Antoine of Navarre prevented the States +from demanding with much decision that the regency should be entrusted +in the hands of him to whom it belonged of right. For how could +enthusiasm be manifested in a matter regarding which the person chiefly +interested showed such utter indifference? But the religious demands of +the Huguenots were made distinctly known. As expressed in a petition +presented in their name to the queen mother by the Admiral's hands, +these demands were comprehended under three heads: the convocation of a +free universal council, which should decide definitely respecting the +religious questions in dispute; the immediate liberation of all +prisoners whose only crime was of a religious character--even if +disguised under the false accusation of sedition; and liberty of +assembling for the purpose of listening to the preaching of God's word, +and for the administration of the sacraments, under such conditions as +the royal council might deem necessary for the prevention of +disorder.[999] So gracious was Catharine's answer, so brilliant were the +signs of promise, that there were those who hoped soon to behold in +France a king "very Christian" in fact no less than in name.[1000] + +[Sidenote: The estates prorogued.] + +[Sidenote: Meanwhile prosecutions for religion to cease.] + +It was, however, no easy matter to grant these reasonable requests. The +Roman Catholic party resisted, with all the energy of desperation, the +concession of any places for worship according to the reformed faith. +Catharine was loth to take the decided step of disregarding their +remonstrances. It seemed more convenient to avail herself of the +representations of the majority of the delegates of the "tiers etat," +who regarded it as necessary to apply for new powers from their +constituents, in consequence of the death of the monarch who had +summoned them. The estates were accordingly prorogued to meet again at +Pontoise on the first of May.[1001] The matter of the "temples" was +adjourned until that time. Meanwhile, in order to conciliate the +Huguenots, orders were issued that all prosecutions for religious +offences should surcease, and that the prisoners should at once be +liberated, with the injunction to live in a Catholic fashion for the +future.[1002] This concession, poor as it was, met with opposition on +the part of the Parisian parliament, and was only registered--after more +than a month's refusal--because of the king's express desire.[1003] But +it was far from satisfying the Protestants; for, in answer to their very +first demand, they were referred to the Council of Trent, which the +pontiff had recently ordered to reassemble at the coming Easter. Such a +convocation--neither convened in a place of safe access, nor consisting +of the proper persons to represent Christendom, nor under free +conditions[1004]--could not be recognized by the Huguenots of France as +a competent tribunal to act in the final adjudication of their cause. +They must refuse to appear either at Trent or at the assembly of French +prelates, to be held as a preliminary to their proceeding to the +universal council, in accordance with the resolutions of the notables at +Fontainebleau.[1005] + +[Sidenote: Return of the fugitives.] + +Yet, as contrasted with the earlier legislation, the provisional +dispositions of the royal letter were highly encouraging. They permitted +a large number of persons incarcerated for religion's sake to issue from +prison. The exiles, it was said, returned tenfold as numerous as they +left the country. Great was the indignation of their adversaries when +all these, with numbers recruited from the ranks of the reformers in +England, Flanders, Switzerland, and even from Lucca, Florence and +Venice, began to preach with the utmost boldness. They might be accused +of gross ignorance, and of uttering a thousand stupid remarks, but one +thing could not be denied--every preacher had a crowd to hear him.[1006] + +[Sidenote: Charles writes to stop ministers from Geneva.] + +[Sidenote: Reply of the Genevese.] + +No such toleration, however, as that now proclaimed was necessary to +induce the ministers of the reformed doctrines, who had qualified +themselves for their apostolic labors under the teaching of Calvin and +Beza, to enter France. The gibbet and the fearful "estrapade" had not +deterred them. The prelates, therefore, induced the queen mother to +attempt by other means to stem the flood of preachers that poured in +from Geneva. On the twenty-third of January, seven or eight days before +the adjournment of the States General, a letter was despatched in the +name of Charles IX. to the syndics and councils of the city of Geneva. +Its tone was earnest and decided. It had appeared--so the king was made +to say--from a very careful examination into the sources of the existing +divisions, that they were caused by the seditious teachings of preachers +mostly sent by the Genevese authorities, or by their principal +ministers, as well as by an infinite number of defamatory pamphlets, +which these preachers had disseminated far and wide throughout the +kingdom. To them were directly traceable the recent commotions. He +therefore called on the magistracy to recall these sowers of discord, +and threatened in no doubtful terms to take vengeance on the city should +the same course be continued after the receipt of the present +warning.[1007] Never was accusation more unjust, never was unjust +accusation answered more promptly and with truer dignity. On the very +day of the receipt of the king's letter (the twenty-eighth of January) +the magistrates deliberated with the ministers, and despatched, by the +messenger who had brought it, a respectful reply written by Calvin +himself. So far, they said, from countenancing any attempts to disturb +the quiet of the French monarchy, it would be found that they had passed +stringent regulations to prevent the departure of any that might intend +to create seditious uprisings. They had themselves sent no preachers +into France, nor had their ministers done more than fulfil a clear +dictate of piety, in recommending, from time to time, such as they found +competent, to labor, wherever they might find it practicable, for the +spread of the Gospel, "seeing that it is the sovereign duty of all kings +and princes to do homage to Him who has given them rule." As for +themselves, they had condemned a resort to arms, and had never +counselled the seizure of churches, or other unauthorized acts.[1008] + +[Sidenote: Conde cleared and reconciled to Guise.] + +At no time since the death of the late king had the reversal of the +sentence against Conde been doubtful. The time had now arrived for his +complete restoration to favor. The first step was taken in the privy +council, where, on the thirteenth of March, the chancellor declared that +he knew of no informations made against him. Whereupon the prince was +proclaimed, by the unanimous voice of the council, sufficiently cleared +of all the charges raised by his enemies. The Bourbon, who had refused, +until his honor should be fully satisfied, to enjoy the liberty which he +might easily have obtained, had been invited by Charles to the court, +which was sojourning at Fontainebleau, and now resumed his seat in the +council.[1009] Just three months later (on Friday, the thirteenth of +June) the Parliament of Paris, after a prolonged examination, in which +all the forms of law were observed with punctilious exactness, gave its +solemn attestation of the innocence of Louis of Conde, of Madame de +Roye, his mother-in-law, and of the others who had so narrowly escaped +being plunged with him in a common destruction.[1010] Such declarations +might be supposed to savor indifferently well of hypocrisy. They were, +however, outdone in the final scene of this pompous farce, enacted about +two months later in one of the halls of the castle of St. Germain. On +the twenty-fourth of August a stately assembly gathered in the king's +presence. Catharine, the princes of the blood, five cardinals, and a +goodly number of dukes and counts, were present; for Louis of +Bourbon-Vendome, Prince of Conde, and Francis of Guise were to be +publicly reconciled to each other. Charles first announced the object +for which he had summoned this assemblage, and called upon the Duke of +Guise to express his sentiments. "Sir," said the latter, addressing +Conde, "I neither have, nor would I desire to have, advanced anything +against your honor; nor have I been the author or the instigator of your +imprisonment!" To which Conde replied: "Sir, I hold to be bad and +miserable him or those who have been its causes." Nothing abashed, Guise +made the rejoinder: "I believe that it is so; that concerns me in no +respect." After this gratifying exhibition of convenient memory, if not +of Christian forgiveness, the prince and duke, at the king's request, +embraced each other; and the auditory, highly edified, broke up.[1011] +It was fitting that this hollow reconciliation should take place on the +very day upon which, eleven years later, a more treacherous compact was +to bear fruit fatal to thousands. + +[Sidenote: Humiliation of Navarre.] + +[Sidenote: The boldness of the Particular Estates of Paris,] + +[Sidenote: secures Antoine more consideration.] + +It has been necessary to anticipate the events of subsequent months, in +order to give the sequel of the singular procedure. We must now return +to the spring of this eventful year. It was not long after the +adjournment of the States General before the King of Navarre began to +perceive some results of his humiliating agreement with Catharine de' +Medici. The Guises were received by her with greater demonstrations of +favor than were the princes of the blood. The keys of the castle were +even intrusted to the custody of Francis, on the pretext that he was +entitled to this privilege as grand master of the palace. In vain did +Antoine remonstrate against this insulting preference, and threaten to +leave the court if his rival remained. Catharine found means to detain +Constable Montmorency, who had intended to leave court in company with +Navarre, and the latter was compelled to suppress his disgust. But the +deliberations of the Particular Estates of Paris, held soon after, had +more weight in securing for Navarre a portion of the consideration to +which he was entitled. Disregarding the prohibition to touch upon +political matters, they boldly discussed the necessity of an account of +the vast sums of money that had passed through the hands of the Guises, +and of the restitution of the inordinate gifts which the cardinal and +his brother, Diana of Poitiers, the Marshal of St. Andre, and even the +constable, had obtained from the weakness of preceding monarchs. This +boldness disturbed Catharine. She employed the constable to mediate for +her with Antoine; and soon a new compact was framed, securing to the +latter more explicit recognition as lieutenant-general, and a more +positive influence in the affairs of state.[1012] + +[Sidenote: His assurances to the Ambassador of Denmark.] + +That influence he occasionally seemed anxious to exert in behalf of the +reformed faith. He assured Gluck, the Danish ambassador, that, before +the expiration of the year, he would cause the Gospel to be preached +throughout the entire kingdom. And he displayed some magnanimity when he +answered Gluck, who had expressed anxiety that Lutheranism should be +substituted for Calvinism in France, that "inasmuch as the two +Protestant communions agreed in thirty-eight of the forty articles in +which both differed from the Pope, all Protestants ought to make common +cause against the oppression of the Roman See; it would afterward be an +easy task to arrange their minor differences, and restore the Church to +its pristine purity and splendor."[1013] + +[Sidenote: Intrigue of Artus Desire.] + +[Sidenote: Curiosity to hear Huguenot preaching and singing.] + +So wonderful an awakening as that which was now witnessed in almost +every part of France could not long continue without arousing violent +resistance. The very signs that seemed to indicate the speedy triumph of +the Reformation were, indeed, the occasion of the institution of an +organized opposition of the most formidable character. Hints of the +propriety of calling in foreign assistance had even before this time +been audibly whispered. The theologians of the Sorbonne, alarmed at the +apparent favor displayed for the reformed teachers by the court, had +despatched one Artus Desire with a letter to Philip the Second, in +which they supplicated his intervention in behalf of the Catholic +religion, now threatened with ruin. Happily the enterprise was nipped in +the bud, and, on the arrest of Artus at Orleans, on his way to Spain, +the nefarious conspiracy was fully divulged. The priestly agent, after +craven prayers for his life, was immured for a time in a cloister.[1014] +Well might the Romish party fear. The curiosity to hear the preaching of +the Word of God by men of piety and learning, the desire to hear those +grand psalms of Marot solemnly chanted by the chorus of thousands of +human voices, had infected every class of society. The records of the +chapters of cathedrals, during this period of universal spiritual +agitation, are little else, we are told, than a list of cases of +ecclesiastical discipline instituted against chaplains, canons, and even +higher dignitaries, for having attended the Huguenot services. At Rouen, +the chief singer of Notre Dame acknowledged before the united chapter +that he had often been present at the "assemblies"--nay, more--"that he +had never heard anything there which was not good."[1015] + +[Sidenote: Constable Montmorency's disgust.] + +In the court at Fontainebleau the contagion daily spread. Beza, it is +true, gave expression to the warning that "not to be a Papist and to be +a Christian were different things."[1016] But of external marks of an +altered condition of things there was no lack. Little account was taken +of the arrival of Lent. Meat was openly sold and eaten.[1017] Huguenot +preachers conducted their services publicly in the apartments of the +Prince of Conde and of Admiral Coligny, first outside of the castle, and +then within its precincts. Catharine herself, partaking of the general +zeal, declared her intention to hear the Bishop of Valence preach before +the young king and the court, in the saloon of the castle. Such was the +news that irritated and alarmed the aged, but still vigorous Anne of +Montmorency. By birth, by tradition, by long association, the constable +was a devoted Roman Catholic. If any motive were wanting to determine +him to cling to the ancient regime, it was afforded by the proposition +made in the late Particular Estates of Paris that the favorites of the +last two monarchs should be required to disgorge the enormous gifts that +had helped to impoverish the nation. This project, for which he held the +Huguenots responsible, was repugnant alike to his pride and to his +exorbitant avarice. His prejudices were, moreover, skilfully fanned into +a flame by interested companions. His wife, Madeleine de Savoie--partly +from conviction, partly through jealousy of his children by a former +marriage--her brother, the Count of Villars,[1018] and the Marshal of +St. Andre--a crafty, insidious adviser--plied him with plausible +arguments. Diana, the Duchess of Valentinois, solicited him by daily +messages. How could the first Christian baron abandon the ancient faith? +How could the favorite of Henry the Second consent to let his rich +acquisitions escape him?[1019] + +[Sidenote: Marshal Montmorency remonstrates.] + +On one occasion the constable was himself induced to attend the service +in the castle at which Bishop Montluc preached; but he came out highly +displeased at the doctrines he had heard,[1020] and more convinced than +ever that there was a secret compact between Catharine de' Medici and +the King of Navarre to change the religion of the country. The next day +a number of high nobles, in part ancient enemies--Montmorency, Guise, +Montpensier, St. Andre--met in the obscure chapel of the "basse-court," +where a Dominican monk held forth to the common retainers of the royal +court. The constable's eldest son, the upright but sluggish Marshal de +Montmorency, himself having a secret leaning for the reformed doctrines, +was alarmed by this threatening demonstration, and immediately sought, +in a private interview with his father, to deter him from entering the +arena as the ally of his former antagonists and the opponent of his own +nephews, Coligny and D'Andelot. Better, he urged, to be umpire than +participant in so ungrateful a contest. The Chatillons, of whom Anne had +said that, if they were as good Christians in deed as they were in +profession, they would exercise forgiveness toward the Guises, +themselves came to see their offended uncle, and protested that they +wished the cardinal and his brothers no evil, but desired merely to +remove their ability to do them further damage. Neither his son nor his +nephews made any impression on the obstinate disposition of the +constable. He had caught at the bait by which skilful anglers allured +him. He fancied himself the chosen champion of the church of his +fathers, now assaulted by redoubtable enemies. What a glorious prospect +lay before him if he succeeded! What a halo would surround his name, if +the splendor of the military achievements of his youth should be thrown +into the shade by the superior glory of having, in his old age, rescued +the most Christian nation of the world from the inroads of heresy! To +every argument he could only be brought to repeat the trite sophism, +"that a change of religion could not be effected without a revolution in +the state," and that, though he had no fear of being compelled to +restore the gifts he had received from the late monarchs, he would not +suffer their actions to be questioned or their honor impeached.[1021] + +[Sidenote: The Triumvirate formed.] + +[Sidenote: A spurious statement.] + +On Easter day (the sixth of April), the finishing stroke was given to +the new compact between the leaders of the anti-reformed party. Anne de +Montmorency and Francois de Guise partook side by side of the sacrament +in the chapel of Fontainebleau, and that evening Guise, Joinville, and +St. Andre were invited guests at the table of the constable.[1022] To +the union now distinctly formed, its opponents, in allusion to the +number of the foremost members and to their proscriptive designs, soon +applied the name of "Triumvirate"--the designation by which it has ever +since been known. What the details of these designs were is not +altogether certain. If the document that has come down to us, purporting +to be an authoritative statement emanating from the original parties to +the scheme, could be depended on as genuine, it would disclose to us an +atrocious plot, not only against the Huguenots of France, but for the +extirpation of Protestantism throughout the world. The sanguinary +project was to be executed under the superintendence of his Catholic +Majesty of Spain. The King of Navarre, the support of heresy in France, +was first to be seduced by promises or terrified by threats. Should +neither course prove successful, Philip was to raise an army in the most +secret manner before winter. Should Antoine yield at once, he was to be +expelled from the kingdom, with his wife and children. Should he attempt +resistance, the Duke of Guise would declare himself the head of the +Catholics, and, between him and Philip, the heretical King of Navarre +would speedily be crushed. Then were all that had ever professed the +reformed faith to be slain. Not one was to be spared. The entire race +of the Bourbons was to be exterminated, lest an avenger or a +resuscitator of Protestantism should arise from its descendants. The +emperor and the Catholic princes of Germany would prevent the +Protestants beyond the Rhine from sending succor to their French +brethren. The Roman Catholic cantons of Switzerland, with the assistance +of the Pope, would engage the Protestant cantons. To the Duke of Savoy, +supported by Philip and the Italian dukes, was intrusted the welcome +task of destroying utterly the nest of heresy--Geneva. Here should the +executioner revel in the blood of his victims. Not an inhabitant was to +escape. All, without respect to age or sex, were to be slain with the +sword or drowned in the lake, as an evidence that divine retribution had +compensated for the delay by the severity of the punishment, causing the +children to bear, as an example memorable to all time, the penalty of +the wickedness of their fathers. The fruits of the French confiscations +would be applied as a loan to the expenses of the crusade in Germany, +where the united forces of France, the emperor, and the Catholic princes +would subjugate the followers of Luther, as they had already +exterminated the disciples of Calvin. + +Such are the reported details of a plan almost too gross for belief. It +is true that the existence of similar schemes--less extensive, perhaps, +but equally sanguinary, and, in the light of history, not much less +absurd--formed by the adherents of the papacy during the sixteenth +century, is too well attested to admit of doubt. But the historical +difficulties surrounding this document have never yet been +satisfactorily explained, and the student of the Huguenot annals must +still content himself with regarding it as a summary of reports current +within the first two years of the reign of Charles the Ninth, respecting +the secret designs of the Triumvirs, rather than as an authorized +statement of their intentions.[1023] + +[Sidenote: Massacres in holy week.] + +While the intrigues of the Duchess of Valentinois and other bigots had +been successful at court, the enemies of the Huguenots had not been +idle in other parts of France. Fearful of the effect which the apparent +union between Catharine and the King of Navarre might produce in +accelerating the advance of the reformed doctrines, they resolved to +stir up the zeal of the populace--that portion of the people that +retained the strongest devotion for the traditional faith--in the +country as well as in the capital.[1024] Holy week furnished +opportunities that were eagerly embraced. Fanatical priests and monks +wrought up the excitable mob to a frenzy.[1025] When their passions had +reached a fervent heat, it was easy to bring on seditious explosions, +the blame of which could be attached to the other party. "Few cities in +the realm," says Abbe Bruslart in his journal, "escaped at this time +riots and tumultuous scenes occasioned by the new religion."[1026] +Amiens, Pontoise, and Paris itself were among the scenes of these +disorders. Twenty cities witnessed the slaughter of Protestants by the +infuriated rabble.[1027] + +[Sidenote: The affair at Beauvais.] + +The disturbance that attracted more attention than any other took place +in the episcopal city of Beauvais--about forty miles north of Paris--on +Easter Monday, the very next day after Montmorency, Guise, and St. Andre +had been confirming their inauspicious compact at the sacred feast in +honor of a risen Redeemer. The Bishop of Beauvais was the celebrated +Cardinal Odet de Chatillon, long suspected of being at heart a convert +to the reformed doctrines. More bold than he had formerly been, he now +openly fostered their spread in his diocese.[1028] But even the personal +popularity of the brother of Coligny and D'Andelot could not, in the +present instance, secure immunity for the preachers who proclaimed the +Gospel under his auspices. Incited by the priesthood, the people +overleaped all the bounds within which they had hitherto contained +themselves. The occasion was a rumor spread abroad that the Cardinal, +instead of attending the public celebration of the mass in his cathedral +church, had, with his domestics, participated in a private communion in +his own palace, and that every communicant had, at the hands of the Abbe +Bouteiller, received both elements, "after the fashion of Geneva." +Hereupon the mob, gathering in great force, assailed a private house in +which there lived a priest accused of teaching the children the +doctrines of religion from the reformed catechisms. The unhappy Adrien +Fourre--such was the schoolmaster's name--was killed; and the rabble, +rendered more savage through their first taste of blood, dragged his +corpse to the public square, where it was burned by the hands of the +city hangman. Odet himself incurred no little risk of meeting a similar +fate. But the strength of the episcopal palace, and the sight of their +bishop clothed in his cardinal's costume, appeased the mob for the time; +and before the morrow came, a goodly number of the neighboring nobles +had rallied for his defence.[1029] + +[Sidenote: Assault on the house of Longjumeau.] + +If such riotous attacks followed the preaching of the ecclesiastics in +the provinces, the demonstrations of hostility to the exercises of the +Protestants could not be of a milder type in the midst of the turbulent +populace of Paris, and within a stone's throw of the College de la +Sorbonne. Toward the end of April information was received that the +city residence of the Sieur de Longjumeau, situated on the _Pre aux +Clercs_, was becoming a haunt of the Huguenots. It was not long before +the rabble, with ranks recruited from the neighboring colleges, +instituted an assault. But they met with a resistance upon which they +had not counted. Forewarned of his danger, Longjumeau had gathered +beneath his roof a number of friendly nobles, and laid in a good supply +of arms. The undisciplined crowd fled before the well-directed fire of +the defenders, and left several men dead and a larger number wounded on +the field. Not satisfied with this victory by force of arms, Longjumeau +resorted to parliament. But the court displayed its usual partiality for +the Roman Catholic faith. While it abstained from justifying the +assailants, and forbade the students from assembling in the +neighborhood, it reiterated the adage that "there is nothing more +incompatible than the co-existence of two different religions in the +same state,"[1030] censured the nobleman's conduct, and ordered him +forthwith to retire to his castle at Longjumeau.[1031] + +[Sidenote: New and tolerant order.] + +The only salvation of France lay in putting an end to such alarming +exhibitions of discord, from the frequent recurrence of which it was to +be feared that the country stood upon the verge of civil war. For this +reason, Catharine de' Medici yielded to the persuasions of Chancellor +L'Hospital, and, on the nineteenth of April, caused a royal letter to be +addressed to all the judges, in which the practice of self-control and +tolerance was enjoined. Insulting expressions based on differences of +religion were strictly forbidden. The very use of the hateful epithets +of "Papist" and "Huguenot" was proscribed. Far from offering a reward +for denunciation, the king proclaimed it criminal to violate the +sanctity of the home for the alleged purpose of ferreting out unlawful +assemblages. He again ordered the release of all imprisoned for +religion's sake, and extended an invitation to exiles to return to their +homes, if they would live in a Catholic manner, granting them +permission, if they were otherwise disposed, to sell their property and +leave the kingdom.[1032] + +[Sidenote: Opposition of the Parliament of Paris.] + +It would have been not a little surprising if so tolerant an edict, even +though it did little more than repeat the provisions of the last royal +letters on the same subject (of the twenty-eighth of January), had been +accepted without opposition by the Romish party.[1033] Still more +strange if parliamentary jealousy had not taken umbrage at the neglect +of immemorial usage, when the letter was sent to the lower courts before +having received the honor of a formal registry at the hands of the +Parisian judges. It is difficult to say which offence was most resented. +Toleration, parliament remonstrated, was a tacit approval of a diversity +of religion--a thing unheard of from Clovis's reign down to the present +day. Kings and emperors--nay, even popes--had fallen into error and +been proclaimed heretical or schismatic, but never had such calamity +befallen a king of France. It were better for Charles to make open +profession of his intention to live and die in his religion, and to +enforce conformity on the part of his subjects, than to open the door +wide to sedition by tolerating dissent. Better to renew the prohibition +of heretical conventicles, and to reiterate the ancient penalties. +Particularly ill-advised was it that Charles should be made to pronounce +seditious those who applied the names "Papist" and "Huguenot" to their +opponents, for it seemed to establish side by side two rival sects, +although the name of the one was so novel as never to have found a place +in any former missives of the crown.[1034] + +[Sidenote: Popular cry for Protestant pastors.] + +The refusal of the Parisian parliament to verify the edict in the +customary manner prevented its universal observance; but, +notwithstanding this untoward circumstance, it proved exceedingly +favorable to the development of the Huguenot movement.[1035] Scarcely a +month after its publication, Calvin, in a letter to which we have more +than once had occasion to refer, expressed his astonishment at the ardor +with which the French Protestants were pressing forward to still greater +achievements. The cry from all parts of Charles the Ninth's dominions +was for ministers of the Gospel.[1036] "The eagerness with which +pastors are sought for on all hands from us is not less than that with +which sacerdotal offices are wont to be solicited among the papists. +Those who are in quest of them besiege my doors, as if I must be +entreated after the fashion of the court; and vie with each other, as if +the possession of Christ's kingdom were a quiet one. And, on our part, +we desire to fulfil their earnest prayers to the extent of our ability; +but we are thoroughly exhausted; nay, we have for some time been +compelled to drag from the book-stores every workman that could be found +possessed even of a slight tincture of literature and religious +knowledge."[1037] + +The letters that reached Calvin and his colleagues by every messenger +from Southern France--many of which have recently come to light in the +libraries of Paris and Geneva--present a vivid picture of the condition +of whole districts and provinces. From Milhau comes the intelligence +that the mass has for some time been banished from the place, but that a +single pastor is by no means sufficient; he must have a colleague, that +one minister may take exclusive care of the neighboring country, "where +there is an infinite number of churches," while the other remains in the +city. Everywhere there is an abundance of hot-headed persons who, by +their breaking of crosses and images, and even plundering of churches, +give the adversary an opportunity for calumniating. "May the Lord, of +His goodness, be pleased to purge His church of them!"[1038] + +[Sidenote: Moderation of the Huguenot ministers.] + +In these most difficult circumstances--while, on the one hand, the +demand for ministers was largely in excess of the supply, and, on the +other, the folly of certain inconsiderate enthusiasts seemed likely to +draw upon the great body of Protestants the unwarranted charge of +disorder and insubordination to law--the Huguenot ministers fearlessly +took a position that strikingly exhibits their excellent judgment, as +well as their high moral principle. They declined to countenance a +policy which offered, to say the least, bright temporary advantages. +They refused to trust the vessel freighted with their best hopes for the +future of France, to be carried into port on the treacherous waves of +popular excitement. They preferred to abate somewhat of the proper +demands which they might have exacted with success, that they might +deprive their enemies of the slightest ground for maligning their +loyalty to their native land and its legitimate king. When the +Protestants of Montauban--a town then beginning to assume a religious +character which it has never since lost--learned that they had been +falsely accused of having revolted from the king, and of having elected +a governor of their own, established a polity similar to that of the +Swiss cantons, and coined money as an independent state, they not only +refuted the charges to the satisfaction of the royal lieutenant sent to +investigate the truth,[1039] but they discontinued the _public_ +celebration of the Lord's Supper, in order to avoid even the appearance +of unwillingness to obey the king's commands. At the same time they +wrote to Geneva an earnest request that, notwithstanding the need of +teachers in France, no persons that had been monks or chaplains should +be admitted to the ministry unless after long and careful scrutiny. They +did more harm, they disquieted the churches more, they said, than the +most violent persecutions that had befallen the Protestants. For they +refused to submit to discipline, made light of the decisions of their +brethren, and, while seeking only their own pleasure, drew odium upon +the ministers who endeavored to uphold good order among the +people.[1040] + +[Sidenote: Inconsistent laws and practice.] + +[Sidenote: Judicial perplexity.] + +The position of the Huguenots was certainly anomalous, and presented the +strangest inconsistencies. The royal letters enjoined that no inquiries +should be made with the view of disturbing any one for religion's sake; +the Parliament of Paris refused to register these letters and obey the +provisions; the still more fanatical counsellors of the Parliament of +Toulouse rather increased than diminished their severities, and daily +consigned fresh victims to the flames.[1041] It was natural that the +clergy should take advantage of these circumstances to renew their +remonstrances against the continuance of the existing toleration. The +Cardinal of Lorraine seized the opportunity afforded him by the solemn +ceremonial of Charles's anointing at Rheims (on the thirteenth of June, +1561) to present to the queen mother the collective complaints of the +prelates, because, so far from witnessing the rigid enforcement of the +royal edicts, they beheld the heretical conventicles held with more and +more publicity from day to day, and the judges excusing themselves from +the performance of their duty by alleging the number of conflicting +laws, in the midst of which their course was by no means easy. He +therefore recommended the convocation of the parliament with the princes +and members of the council, that, by their advice, some permanent and +proper settlement of this vexed question might be reached.[1042] +Catharine, who, in the publication of the letters-patent of April, had +followed the advice of Chancellor L'Hospital, and seemed to lean to the +side of toleration, now yielded to the cardinal's persuasions--whether +from a belief that the mixed assembly which he proposed to convene would +pursue the path of conciliation already pointed out by the government, +or from a fear of alienating a powerful party in the state. + +[Sidenote: The "Mercuriale" of 1561.] + +On the twenty-third of June, Charles, accompanied by his mother, by the +King of Navarre, and the other princes of the blood, and by the council +of state, came to the chamber of parliament, and the chancellor +announced to the assembled members the object of this extraordinary +visit. It was to obtain advice not respecting religion itself--_that_ +was reserved for the deliberation of the national council, and its +merits could not be discussed here--but respecting the best method of +appeasing the commotions daily on the increase, caused by a diversity of +religious tenets. He therefore begged all present to express in brief +terms their opinions on this important topic. It is not surprising that +the answers given should have been of the most varied import. Ever since +the time of Henry the Second, the Parliament of Paris had contained a +considerable number of friends, more or less open, of Protestantism, and +among the princes and noblemen who came to join in the deliberation, the +number of its warm advocates was proportionately still greater. At the +same time, the Roman Catholic party was largely represented in the ranks +of the members of the parliament proper, as recent events had indicated; +while, among the high nobility and the dignitaries of the church, the +weight of the constable and the Duke of Guise, the cardinals of Bourbon, +Tournon, Lorraine, and Guise, and the Bishop of Paris, counterbalanced +the influence of the King of Navarre, the Prince of Conde, the +Chatillons, and the chancellor. Five or six different opinions were +announced by the successive speakers;[1043] but they could all be +reduced to three. The more tolerant advocated the suspension of all +punishments until the determination of the questions in dispute by a +council. A second class, on the contrary, maintained the propriety and +expediency of enforcing the laws which made death the penalty of +heretical belief. The rest--and they mustered in the end a majority of +_three_[1044] over the advocates of toleration, while they were much +more numerous than the champions of bloody persecution--advised the king +to give to the ecclesiastical courts exclusive cognizance of heresy, +according to the provisions of the Edict of Romorantin, and to forbid +the holding of public or private conventicles, whether with or without +arms, in which sermons should be preached or the sacraments administered +otherwise than according to the customs of the Romish Church.[1045] Such +was the result of the deliberations of the Mercuriale of June and July, +1561,[1046] in the course of which opinions had been freely expressed +far more radical than those of Anne Du Bourg in the Mercuriale of 1559. + +[Sidenote: The "Edict of July."] + +[Sidenote: Disappointment at its severity.] + +The edict for which the direction had been thus marked out was published +on the eleventh of July, 1561.[1047] It has become celebrated in history +as the "Edict of July." After reiterating the injunctions of previous +royal letters, and forbidding all insults and breaches of the peace, on +pain of the halter, Charles was made to prohibit "all enrollings, +signatures, or other things tending to sedition." Preachers in the +churches were strictly commanded to abstain from uttering words +calculated to excite the popular passions or prejudice. The most +important portion of the law, however, was that which punished, by +confiscation of body and goods, all who attended, whether with or +without arms, conventicles in which preaching was held or the holy +sacraments administered. Of simple heresy the cognizance was still +restricted, as by the edict of Romorantin in the previous year, to the +church courts; but no higher penalty could be imposed on the guilty, +when handed over to the secular arm, than banishment from the kingdom. +The punishment of all offences in which public disorder or sedition was +mingled with heresy, remained in the hands of the presidial +judges.[1048] These were the leading features of this severe ordinance. +It is true that the edict was expressly stated to be only +provisional--to last no longer than until the Universal or National +Council, whichever might be held--that pardon was offered to those who +would live in a Catholic manner for the future, that calumny was +threatened with exemplary punishment. Yet it was clear that the law was +framed in the interest of the Roman Catholics, and in their interest +alone. The Duke of Guise openly exulted. He exclaimed in the hearing of +many, "that his sword would never rest in its scabbard when the +execution of this decision was in question."[1049] The disappointment of +the Protestants was not less extreme. At court, Admiral Coligny did not +hesitate to declare that its provisions could never be executed.[1050] +The farther they were removed from St. Germain, the more loudly the +Huguenots murmured, the greater was their indisposition to submit to the +harsh conditions imposed upon them. In Guyenne and Gascony, and in +Languedoc, where whole towns were to be found containing scarcely one +avowed partisan of the papacy, the discontent was open and threatening. +How long did the bigots of Paris intend to keep their eyes closed and +refuse to recognize the altered aspect of affairs? Until what future day +was the simplest of rights--the right of the social and public worship +of God--to be proscribed? Must the inhabitants of entire districts +continue, month after month, and year after year, to stand in the eye of +the law as culprits, with the halter around their necks, and beg mercy +of a despised priesthood and a dissolute court, for the crime of +assembling in the open field, in the school-houses, or even in the +parish churches, where their fathers had worshipped before them, to +listen to the preaching of God's word? + +[Sidenote: Iconoclasm at Montauban.] + +With the rising excitement the power of the ministers to control the +ardor of their flocks steadily declined. How could the people be +moderate, or even prudent, when their rights were so thoroughly ignored? +The events of Montauban during August and the succeeding months, may +serve to illustrate the growing impatience of the laity. Until now, as +we have seen, the earnest warnings of their pastors had generally been +successful in restraining the Huguenots from touching the symbols of a +hated system so temptingly exhibited before their eyes. But, a few weeks +after the unofficial intelligence of the enactment of the edict of July +had reached the city, the work of destruction commenced. On the night of +the fourteenth of August the Church of St. Jacques received the first +bands of iconoclasts. The pictures and images were torn down or hurled +from their niches and destroyed; but the chalices, the silver crosses, +and other precious articles, were left untouched. The object was neither +robbery nor plunder. A week later, the same fate befel the paintings in +the church of the Augustinians. After another and a shorter interval, +the chapels of St. Antoine, St. Michel, St. Roch, St. Barthelemi, and +Notre Dame de Baquet, witnessed similar scenes of destruction. It was at +this juncture that the edict of July was brought to Montauban and +publicly proclaimed. Nothing could have been more inopportune. The +raging fever of the popular pulse had been mistaken for a transient +excitement, and the specific now administered, far from quenching the +patient's burning thirst, only stimulated it to a more irrepressible +craving. That very evening (Tuesday, the twenty-sixth of August), the +people, irritated beyond endurance, gathered around the Dominican +church. The monks, forewarned of their danger, had taken the precaution +to fortify themselves. They now rang the tocsin, but no one came to +their rescue, and the stronghold was speedily taken. The assailants, +however, cherished no enmity toward God's image in human flesh and +bones. So, after effectually destroying all man's efforts to represent +the Divine likeness in stone or on canvas, the Huguenots proceeded to +the Carmelite Church. Here rich trophies awaited them--a "Saint Suaire" +and relics, which, on close inspection, were found to be the bones of +horses instead of belonging to the saintly personages whose names they +had borne. The reader will scarcely feel surprise to learn that the +monks--with the single exception of the Franciscans--now judged that the +time for them to leave the city had arrived. + +Instructed by the somewhat suggestive example of the fate that had +befallen their brethren, the black and white friars, and, doubtless +considering discretion the better part of valor, the priests of the +collegiate church of St. Stephen abandoned their preparations for +defence, and, stipulating only for their own safety, gave up their +paintings to be consigned to the flames. A bonfire was kindled on one of +the public squares; and while the sacred pictures and images thrown upon +it were being slowly consumed, bands of children looked on and chanted +in chorus the metrical paraphrase of the ten commandments. The city +being thus cleared of its public objects of superstitious +devotion,[1051] the people next turned their attention to those of a +more private character. As the crowds moved along the streets they +earnestly appealed to the inmates of the houses to follow the noble +example the churches had set them. We are informed by a contemporary +record that the iconoclasts carefully abstained from trespassing, and +confined themselves to an exhibition of those passages of Sacred Writ in +which an idolatrous worship was prohibited. But, if the brief +argumentation for which the rapidity of the transaction allowed time was +not in all cases sufficient to produce entire conviction, it may be +presumed that any remaining scruples were removed by the contagion of +the popular enthusiasm. Montauban was purged of image-worship as in a +day, and without the injury of man, woman, or child.[1052] + +[Sidenote: The Edict cannot be executed.] + +[Sidenote: Impatience with "public idols."] + +Coligny was right. The Edict of July could not be carried into execution +in those parts of France where, as in Montauban, the mass of the +population had openly adopted Protestantism. If the resistance +encountered was often accompanied by an earnestness that disdained to be +trammelled by the customary forms of civil law, it was almost always +exercised in accordance with the dictates of natural justice. If the +people, emancipated from the service of images, believed themselves to +possess an indisputable right to dash in pieces or burn the curiously +wrought saints sculptured in marble or portrayed by the painter's +pencil, this fact is less wonderful than that they scrupulously spared +the lives of the priests and monks to whose pecuniary advantage their +former worship had principally redounded. The plain Huguenot, like the +plain Christian in the primitive age, was fully persuaded that he had an +owner's title in the public idol, which not only justified him in +destroying it when he had discovered its vanity, but rendered it his +imperative duty to execute the natural impulse. As for the obligation of +nine-tenths of the population to use the idol tenderly, because of any +rightful claim of the remaining tithe, this was a consideration that +scarcely occurred to them. + +[Sidenote: Calvin endeavors to repress it.] + +Nor were they very solicitous respecting the dangers that might arise +from over-precipitancy. Not so with Calvin, from whose closely logical +intellect the influence of a thorough training in the principles of +French law had not been obliterated. Never was disapprobation more +clearly expressed than in the reformer's letter to the church of +Sauve--a small town in the Cevennes mountains, a score of miles from +Nismes--where a Huguenot minister, in his inconsiderate zeal, had taken +an active part in the "mad exploit" of burning images and overturning a +cross. This conduct Calvin regarded as the more reprehensible in one +"whose duty it was to moderate others and hold them in check." He denied +that "God ever enjoined on any persons to destroy idols, save on every +man in his own house, or in public on those placed in authority," and he +demanded that this "fire-brand" should exhibit his title to be lord of +the territory in which he had undertaken to exercise so distinct a +function of royalty. "In thus speaking," he added, "we are not become +the advocates of the idols. Would to God that idolatry might be +exterminated, even at the cost of our lives! But since obedience is +better than all sacrifice, we must look to what is lawful for us to do, +and must keep within our bounds." "Have pity, very dear brethren," he +wrote in conclusion, "on the poor churches, and do not wittingly expose +them to butchery. Disavow this act, and openly declare to the people +whom he has misled, that you have separated yourselves from him who was +its chief author, and that, for his rebellion, you have cut him off from +your communion."[1053] Calvin's advice was that of the whole body of +Protestant divines in France and its neighborhood. Even an idolatrous +worship must not be overturned by violent means. + +[Sidenote: Re-assembling of the States at Pontoise.] + +[Sidenote: Able harangue of the "Vierg" of Autun.] + +The States General, after having been first summoned to meet at Melun on +the first of May, and then prorogued, when it was found that some of the +particular States had introduced the consideration of the public affairs +of the kingdom, instead of devising means for the payment of the royal +debt,[1054] finally met at Pontoise on the first of August. It does not +come within the scope of this history to dwell at great length upon the +proceedings of this important political assembly. The States were bold +and decided in tone. It was only after finding that those who had a +clear right to the regency were unwilling to assert it, that they +consented, in deference to the request of Du Mortier, Admiral Coligny, +and Antoine himself, to ratify the contract between Catharine de' Medici +and the King of Navarre.[1055] Nearly four weeks were spent in the +discussion of the subjects that were to be incorporated in the +"_cahiers_," or bills of remonstrance to be presented to the king. It +was at the solemn reception of the three orders in the great hall of the +neighboring castle of St. Germain-en-Laye,[1056] on the twenty-seventh +of August, that the "tiers etat" expressed with greatest distinctness +its sentiments respecting the present condition of the realm. Jacques +Bretagne, _vierg_[1057] of the city of Autun, a townsman of the clerical +orator of the first of January, whose arrogance had inspired such +universal disgust, was their spokesman. After reflecting with +considerable severity upon the deficiency of the clergy in sound +learning and spirituality--qualities for which they ought to be +pre-eminently distinguished--he took an impressive survey of the +excessive burdens of the people--burdens by which it had been reduced to +such deep poverty as to be altogether unable to do anything to relieve +the crown until it had obtained time to recruit its exhausted +resources.[1058] He declared it to be utterly inconceivable how such +enormous debts had been incurred, while the purses of the "third estate" +had been drained by unheard-of subsidies. As he had before exhibited the +obligations of the clergy by biblical example, so the orator next +proved, by reference to the Holy Scriptures, that it was the duty of +Charles to cause his subjects to be instructed by the preaching of God's +word, as the surest foundation of his regal authority. Then, approaching +the vexed question of toleration, he declared that never had monarch +more reason to study the Word of Life than the youthful King of France +amid the growing divisions and discords of his realm. The different +opinions held by Charles's subjects, he said, arose only from their +great solicitude for the salvation of their souls. Both parties were +sincere in their profession of faith. Let persecution, therefore, cease. +Let a free national council be convened, under the presidency of the +king in person, and let sure access be given to it. In fine, let places +be conceded to the advocates of the new doctrines for the worship of +Almighty God in the open day, and in the presence of royal officers; for +the voluntary service of the heart, which cannot be constrained, is +alone acceptable to heaven. From such toleration, not sedition, but +public tranquillity, must necessarily result. And lest the ordinary +allegation of the necessary truth of the Papal Church, on account of its +antiquity, should be employed to corroborate the existing system of +persecution, the deputy of the people reminded the king and court that +the same argument might be rendered effective in hardening Jews and +Turks in their ancient unbelief. "We need not busy ourselves in +examining the length of time, with a view to determining thereby the +truth or falsity of any religion. _Time is God's creature_, subject to +Himself, in such a manner that ten thousand years are not a minute in +reference to the power of our God!"[1059] + +[Sidenote: Written demands of the tiers etat.] + +If the harangue of the orator of the third estate was alarming to the +clergy, its written demands were little calculated to reassure them. For +of several propositions made for the payment of the public debts from +the ecclesiastical property, none were very satisfactory to the priests. +According to one, all benefices were to be laid under contribution. The +holders of the lowest in valuation were to give up one-fourth of their +revenues; the holders of more valuable benefices a larger proportion; +while the high dignitaries of the church were to be limited to a yearly +stipend of six thousand livres for bishops, eight thousand for +archbishops, and twelve thousand for cardinals. But the most obnoxious +scheme was one proposing an innovation of a very radical character. The +aggregate revenues of the temporalities of the Gallican Church were +estimated at four million livres; the temporalities themselves were +worth one hundred and twenty millions. It was gravely proposed to +dispose of all this property by sale. Forty-eight millions might be +reserved, which, if invested at the usual rate of one-twelfth, or eight +and a-third per cent., would secure to the clergy the revenue they now +enjoyed. Forty-two millions would be required to pay off the debts of +the crown. The remaining thirty millions might be deposited with the +chief cities of the kingdom, to be loaned out to foster the development +of commerce; while the moderate interest thus obtained would suffice to +fortify the frontiers and support the soldiery.[1060] + +[Sidenote: Representative government demanded.] + +The constitutional changes proposed by the formal _cahier_ of the third +estate were of an equally radical character. They looked to nothing +short of a representative government, protected by suitable guarantees, +and a complete religious liberty. On the one hand, the monarch was to +be guided in the administration by a council of noblemen and learned and +loyal subjects. Except in the case of princes of the blood, no two near +relatives, as father and son, or two brothers, should sit at the same +time in the council; while ecclesiastics of every grade were to be +utterly excluded, both because they had taken an oath of fealty to the +Pope, and because their very profession demanded a residence in their +respective dioceses. On the other hand, the States General were to be +convened at least once in two years, and no offensive war was to be +undertaken, no new impost or tax to be raised, without consulting them. +Happy would it have been for France, had its people obtained, by some +such reasonable concessions as these, the inestimable advantage of +regular representation in the government! At the price of a certain +amount of political discussion, a bloody revolution might, perhaps, have +been avoided. + +In the matter of religion, the third estate recommended, first of all, +the absolute cessation of persecution and the repeal of all intolerant +legislation, even of the edict of July past; grounding the +recommendation partly on the failure of all the rigorous laws hitherto +enacted to accomplish their design, partly on the greater propriety and +suitableness of milder measures. And they judiciously added, with a +charitable discernment so rare in that age as to be almost startling: +"The diversity of opinions entertained by the king's subjects _proceeds +from nothing else than the strong zeal and solicitude they have for the +salvation of their souls_."[1061] Strange that so sensible an +observation should be immediately followed by a disclaimer of any +intention to ask for pardon for seditious persons, libertines, +anabaptists, and atheists, the enemies of God and of the public peace! + +[Sidenote: An impartial national council.] + +It was natural that, in accordance with these views, the third estate +should call for the convocation of a national council to settle +religious questions, to be presided over by the king himself, in which +no one having an interest in retarding a reformation should sit, and +where the word of God should be the sole guide in the decision of +doubtful points. Meanwhile, the third estate proposed, that in every +city a church or other place should be assigned for the worship of those +who were now forced to hold their meetings by night because of their +inability to join with a good conscience in the ceremonies of the +"Romish Church"--for so the document somewhat curtly designated the +establishment.[1062] + +[Sidenote: The French prelates at Poissy.] + +While the States General were occupied at Pontoise in considering the +means of relieving the king's pecuniary embarrassments, Catharine had +assembled at Poissy all the bishops of France to take into consideration +the religious reformation which the times imperatively demanded. The +Pope as yet delayed the long-promised oecumenical council, and there +was little hope of obtaining its actual convocation on fair and +practical terms unless, indeed, he should be frightened into it by the +superior terrors of a French national council, which might throw France +into the arms of the Reformation. Tired of the duplicity of the pontiff, +alarmed by the rapid progress of religious dissensions at home, not +unwilling, perhaps, to make an attempt at reconciliation, which, if +successful, would confirm her own authority and remove the anxieties to +which she was daily exposed--now from the side of the Guises, and again +from that of the Huguenots--the queen mother had yielded to the +suggestion frequently made to her, and had consented to a discussion +between the French prelates and the most learned Protestant +ministers.[1063] + +[Sidenote: Invitation to all Frenchmen,] + +[Sidenote: and particularly to Beza.] + +[Sidenote: The couriers of Rome stripped.] + +Accordingly, on the twenty-fifth of July an invitation had everywhere +been extended by proclamation at the sound of the trumpet, to all +Frenchmen who had any correction of religious affairs at heart, to +appear with perfect safety and be heard before the approaching assembly +at Poissy.[1064] Even before this public announcement, however, steps +had been taken to secure the presence of the most distinguished orator +among the reformed, and, next to Calvin, their most celebrated +theologian. On the fourteenth of July, the Parisian pastors, and, on the +succeeding days, the Prince of Conde, the Admiral, and the King of +Navarre, had written to Theodore Beza, begging him to come and thus take +advantage of the opportunity offered by the favorable disposition of the +royal court.[1065] Similar invitations were sent to Pietro Vermigli--the +celebrated reformer of Zurich, better known by the name of Peter +Martyr--a native of Florence, now just sixty-one years of age, whose +eloquence, it was hoped, might exercise a deep influence upon his +countrywoman, the queen mother.[1066] So earnest, indeed, was the court +in its desire to bring about the conference, that Catharine, well aware +that, should tidings of the project reach the ears of the Pope, he would +leave no stone unturned to frustrate her design, gave secret orders that +all the couriers that left France for Rome about this time should be +stripped of their despatches on the Italian borders! This daring step +was actually executed by means of the governors of cities in Piedmont, +who were devoted to her interests.[1067] + +[Sidenote: French sincerity doubted.] + +In spite of this flattering invitation, however, there was much in the +condition of French affairs, especially in view of the edict of July +just published, that made the two Swiss reformers and their colleagues +hesitate before undertaking a mission which might possibly prove +productive of less benefit than injury to the cause they had at heart. +Well might they suspect the sincerity of a court from which so unfair an +ordinance as that of July had but just emanated. What good results could +flow from an interview for which the blood-stained persecutor of their +brethren, Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, professed his eagerness, +promising himself and his friends an easy victory over the Huguenot +orators?[1068] + +[Sidenote: Urgency of Parisian Huguenots.] + +The Protestants of Paris viewed the matter in a different light. So soon +as they heard that Beza had concluded not to accede to their request, +they wrote again, on the tenth of August. In this letter they begged +him, although it was already so late that they had little hope of his +being able to reach Poissy in time to take part in the opening of the +colloquy, at least to change his mind, and to set out as soon, and +travel as expeditiously as possible, in order to succor those who had, +in his absence, entered upon the contest. Already, seeing little +eagerness on the part of the Protestants, their adversaries had begun to +boast of victory. The common cry at Paris, even, was that the +Protestants would not dare to maintain their errors "before so good a +company." If the prelates should be allowed to adjourn without advantage +being taken of the opportunity accorded the reformers of defending their +faith, the nobles would be too much disgusted to interfere in their +behalf a second time; and the queen had distinctly said that, in that +case, she would never be able to believe that they had any right on +their side. "As to the edict," they added, "which has induced you to +adopt this resolution, although it is very bad, yet it can place you in +no danger; for by it there is nothing condemned excepting the +'assemblies;' and as to simple heresy, as they call it, it can at most +be punished only by banishment from the kingdom, without other loss. +Moreover, we know with certainty that this edict was made for the sole +purpose of contenting King Philip and the Pope, and drawing some money +from the ecclesiastics. These ends are bad, but it seems to us that +there is nothing in all this that ought to prevent our appearing for the +maintenance of the truth of God, since it has pleased Him to give us the +opportunity of coming forward and being heard, as we have so long +desired."[1069] Two days later Antoine of Navarre added his +solicitations in an earnest letter to the "Magnificent Seigniors, the +Syndics and Council of the Seigniory of Geneva."[1070] + +[Sidenote: Beza comes to St. Germain.] + +That it was no personal fear which had occasioned Beza's delay was soon +proved. Antoine had written on the twelfth of August; on the sixteenth, +without waiting for a safe-conduct, the reformer was already on his way +to St. Germain, acting upon the principle laid down by Calvin: "If it be +not yet God's pleasure to open a _door_, it is our duty to creep in at +the _windows_, or to penetrate through the smallest _crevices_, rather +than allow the opportunity of effecting a happy arrangement to escape +us."[1071] So expeditious, in fact, was Beza, that on the twenty-second +of August he was in Paris.[1072] The next day he reached the royal court +at St. Germain. + +[Sidenote: Beza's previous history.] + +The theologian whose advent had been so anxiously awaited was a French +exile for religion's sake. Born, on the twenty-fourth of June, 1519, of +noble parents, in the small but famous Burgundian city of Vezelay, none +of the reformers sacrificed more flattering prospects than did Theodore +Beza when he cast in his lot with the persecuted Protestants. At Bourges +he had been a pupil of Wolmar, until that eminent teacher was recalled +to Germany. At Orleans he had been admitted a licentiate in law when +scarcely twenty years old. At Paris he gave to the world a volume of +Latin poetry of no mean merit, which secured the author great applause. +The "Juvenilia" were neither more nor less pagan in tone than the rest +of the amatory literature of the age framed on the model of the +classics. That they were immoral seems never to have been suspected +until Beza became a Protestant, and it was desirable to find means to +sully his reputation. The discovery of the hidden depths of iniquity in +the reformer's youthful productions it was reserved for the same +prurient imaginations to make that afterward fancied that they had +detected obscene allusions in the most innocent lines of the Huguenot +psalter. At the age of forty-two years, Beza, after having successively +discharged with great ability the functions of professor of Greek in the +Academie of Lausanne, and of professor of theology in that of Geneva, +was, next to Calvin, the most distinguished Protestant teacher of French +origin. He was a man of commanding presence, of extensive erudition, of +quick and ready wit, of elegant manners and bearing. No better selection +could have been made by the Huguenots of a champion to represent them at +the court of Charles the Ninth.[1073] + +[Sidenote: Wrangling of the prelates.] + +Meantime the prelates had been in session more than three weeks. But +little good had thus far come of their deliberations. In vain, had the +king delivered before them a speech in which he incited them "to provide +such good means that the people might be induced to live in concord, and +in obedience to the Catholic Church." In vain had he assured them that +he would not give them permission to separate until they had made a +satisfactory settlement of the religious affairs of the kingdom.[1074] +The prelates much preferred to fritter away their time in the discussion +of petty details of ecclesiastical order and discipline--in regulating +the number of priests, settling the dignity of cathedral churches, +prescribing the duties of bishops, and other matters of equal +importance--"fancying that, in answering such questions, they were +applying an efficacious remedy to the ills that desolated the church in +these times of troubles and divisions."[1075] In the words of a minister +of state, writing to a French ambassador on the very day of Beza's +arrival at court, they intended to treat of the reformation of manners +alone, "without coming to the point of doctrine, which they had as lief +touch as handle fire."[1076] + +[Sidenote: Cardinal Chatillon's communion.] + +The doubtful allegiance of some of their own number to the Romish Church +was a source of peculiar vexation. As the prelates were about to join in +the celebration of the Lord's Supper, Cardinal Chatillon and two other +bishops insisted upon communicating under both forms; and when their +demand was refused, they went to another church and celebrated the +divine ordinance with many of the nobility, all partaking both of the +bread and of the wine, thus earning for themselves the nickname of +Protestants.[1077] + +[Sidenote: Determination of Catharine and L'Hospital.] + +What with the disinclination of the bishops to enter into the +consideration of the real difficulties that beset the kingdom, and the +open hostility of the Pope and of Philip the Second[1078] to any +assembly that bore the least resemblance to a national council, +Catharine and her principal adviser, the chancellor, had an arduous and +well-nigh hopeless task. They strove to quiet the King of Spain and the +Pope by the assurance that the prelates had only been assembled in +order to prepare them to go in a body to attend the universal council +soon to be convened. "Those who are dangerously ill," wrote Catharine in +her defence, "may be excused for applying all herbs to their ache, in +order to alleviate it when it becomes insupportable. Meanwhile they send +for the good physician--whom I take to be a good council--to cure so +furious and dangerous a disease." Only those who feel the suffering, she +intimated, can talk understandingly with respect to its treatment.[1079] + +[Sidenote: A remarkable letter to the Pope.] + +[Sidenote: Effect produced at Rome.] + +Catharine was not, however, satisfied with this general apology; she +even undertook to express to the pontifical court her idea of some of +the reforms which were dictated by the times.[1080] On the fourth of +August--nearly three weeks before Beza's arrival--she wrote a letter to +Pius the Fourth of so radical a character that its authenticity has been +called into question, although without sufficient reason. After +acquainting the Pope with the extraordinary increase in the number of +those who had forsaken the Roman Church, and with the impossibility of +restoring unity by means of coercion, she declared it a special mark of +divine favor that there were among the dissidents neither Anabaptists +nor Libertines, for all held the creed as explained by the early +councils of the Church. It was, consequently, the conviction of many +pious persons that, by the concession of some points of practice, the +present divisions might be healed. But more frequent and peaceful +conferences must be held, the ministers of religion must preach concord +and charity to their flocks, and the scruples of those who still +remained in the pale of the Church must be removed by the abolition of +all unnecessary and objectionable practices. Images, forbidden by God +and disapproved of by the Fathers, ought at once to be banished from +public worship, baptism to be stripped of its exorcisms, communion in +both forms to be restored, the vernacular tongue to be employed in the +services of the church, private masses to be discountenanced. Such were +the abuses which it seemed proper to correct, while leaving the papal +authority undiminished, and the doctrines of the Church unaffected by +innovations.[1081] To such a length was a woman--herself devoid of +strong convictions, and possessing otherwise little sympathy with the +belief or the practice of the reformers--carried by the force of the +current by which she was surrounded. But, whether the letter was +dictated by L'Hospital, or inspired by Bishop Montluc--at this time +suspected of being more than half a Huguenot at heart--the fact that a +production openly condemning the Roman Catholic traditional usages on +more than one point should have emanated from the pen of Catharine de' +Medici, is certainly somewhat remarkable. At Rome the letter produced a +deep impression. If the Pope did not at once give utterance to his +serious apprehensions, he was at least confirmed in his resolution to +redeem his pledge in respect to a universal council, and he must have +congratulated himself on having already despatched an able negotiator to +the French court, in the person of the Cardinal of Ferrara, a legate +whose intrigues will occupy us again presently.[1082] + +[Sidenote: Beza's flattering reception.] + +Despite Pope and prelates, Beza met with the most flattering reception. +He was welcomed upon his arrival by the principal statesmen of the +kingdom. L'Hospital showed his eagerness to obtain the credit of having +introduced him. Coligny, the King of Navarre, and the Prince of Conde +betrayed their joy at his coming. The Cardinals of Bourbon and Chatillon +shook hands with him. Indeed, the contrast between Bourbon's present +cordiality and his coldness a year before at Nerac, provoked Beza to +make the playful remark that "he had not undergone any change since the +cardinal had refused to speak to him through fear of being +excommunicated."[1083] Afterward, attended by a numerous escort,[1084] +the reformer was conducted to the quarters of the Prince of Conde, where +the princess and Madame de Coligny showed themselves "marvellously well +disposed." On the morrow, which was Sunday, Beza preached in the +prince's apartments before a large and honorable audience. Conde +himself, however, was absent, engaged in making that unfortunate St. +Bartholomew's Day reconciliation with the Duke of Guise, of which +mention has already been made.[1085] Certainly neither Beza nor the +other reformers could complain of the greeting extended to them. "They +received a more cordial welcome than would have awaited the Pope of +Rome, had he come to the French court," remarks a contemporary curate +with a spice of bitterness.[1086] + +[Sidenote: Beza meets Cardinal Lorraine.] + +[Sidenote: The cardinal professes to be satisfied.] + +[Sidenote: A witty woman's caution.] + +That very evening Beza and Lorraine crossed swords for the first time in +the apartments of Navarre.[1087] The former, coming by invitation, was +much surprised to find there before him not only Antoine and his +brothers, but Catharine de' Medici and Cardinal Lorraine, neither of +whom had he previously met. Without losing his self-possession, however, +he briefly adverted to the occasion of his coming, and the queen mother +in return graciously expressed the joy she would experience should his +advent conduce to the peace and quietness of the realm. Hereupon the +cardinal took part in the conversation, and said that he hoped Beza +might be as zealous in allaying the troubles of France as he had been +successful in fomenting discord--a remark which Beza did not let pass +unchallenged, for he declared that he neither had distracted nor +intended to distract his native land. From inquiries respecting Beza's +great master, Calvin, his age and health, the discourse turned to +certain obnoxious expressions which Lorraine attributed to Beza himself; +but the latter entirely disclaimed being their author, much to the +confusion of the cardinal, who had expected to create a strong prejudice +against his opponent in the minds of the by-standers. The greater part +of the evening, however, was consumed in a discussion respecting the +real presence. Beza, while denying that the sacramental bread and wine +were transmuted into the body and blood of Christ, was willing to admit, +according to Calvin's views and his own, "that the bread is +sacramentally Christ's body--that is, that although that body is now in +heaven alone, while we have the signs with us on earth, yet the very +body of Christ is as truly given to us and received by faith, and that +to our eternal life, on account of God's promise, as the sign is in a +natural manner placed in our hands."[1088] The statement was certainly +far enough removed from the theory of the Romish Church to have +consigned its author to the flames, had the theologians of the Sorbonne +been his judges. But it satisfied the cardinal,[1089] who confessed that +he was little at home in a discussion foreign to his ordinary studies--a +fact quite sufficiently apparent from his confused statements[1090]--and +did not attempt to conceal the little account which he made of the dogma +of transubstantiation.[1091] "See then, madam," said Beza, "what are +those sacramentarians, who have been so long persecuted and overwhelmed +with all kinds of calumnies." "Do you hear, cardinal?" said the queen to +Lorraine. "He says that the sacramentarians hold no other opinion than +that to which you have assented."[1092] With this satisfactory +conclusion the discussion, which had lasted a couple of hours,[1093] was +concluded. The queen mother left greatly pleased with the substantial +agreement which the two champions of opposite creeds had attained in +their first interview, and flattering herself that greater results might +attend the public conferences. The cardinal, too, professed high esteem +for Beza, and said to him, as he was going away: "I adjure you to +confer with me; you will not find me so black as I am painted."[1094] +Beza might have been pardoned, had he permitted the cardinal's +professions somewhat to shake his convictions of the man's true +character. He was, however, placed on his guard by the pointed words of +a witty woman. Madame de Crussol, who had listened to the entire +conversation, as she shook the cardinal's hand at the close of the +evening, significantly said, in a voice loud enough to be heard by all: +"Good man for to-night; but to-morrow--what?"[1095] The covert +prediction was soon fulfilled. The very next day the cardinal was +industriously circulating the story that Beza had been vanquished in +their first encounter.[1096] + +[Sidenote: A Huguenot petition.] + +[Sidenote: Vexatious delay.] + +[Sidenote: The petition informally granted.] + +The Protestant ministers, assembled at St. Germain about ten days before +Beza's arrival,[1097] had, with wise forethought, presented to the king +a petition embracing four points of prime importance.[1098] They guarded +against an unfair treatment of the cause they had come to maintain, by +demanding that their opponents, the prelates, should not be permitted to +constitute themselves their judges, that the king and his council should +preside in the conferences, and that the controversy should be decided +by reference to the Word of God. Moreover, lest the incidents of the +discussion should be perverted, and each party should so much the more +confidently arrogate to itself the credit of victory as the claim was +more difficult of refutation, they insisted on the propriety of +appointing, by common consent of the two parties, clerks whose duty it +would be to take down in writing an accurate account of the entire +proceedings. To so reasonable a petition the court felt compelled to +return a gracious reply. The requests could not, however, be definitely +granted, the ministers were told, without first consulting the prelates, +and gaining, if possible, their consent.[1099] This was no easy matter. +Many of the doctors of Poissy, and even some members of the council, +maintained that with condemned heretics, such as the Huguenots had long +been, it was wrong to hold any sort of discussion.[1100] Day after day +passed, but the attainment of the object for which the ministers had +come seemed no nearer than when they left their distant homes. They were +not yet permitted to appear before the king and vindicate the confession +of faith which they had, several months before, declared themselves +prepared to maintain.[1101] Meantime it was notorious that their enemies +were ceaselessly plotting to arrange every detail of the conference--if, +indeed, it must be held--in a manner so unfavorable to the reformers, +that they might rather appear to be culprits brought up for trial and +sentence, before a court composed of Romish prelates, than as the +advocates of a purer faith.[1102] At length, weary of the protracted +delay, the Protestant ministers presented themselves before Catharine +de' Medici, on the eighth of September, and demanded the impartial +hearing to which they were entitled; and they plainly announced their +intention to depart at once, unless they should receive satisfactory +assurances that they would be shielded from the malice of their +enemies.[1103] It was well for the Protestants that they exhibited such +decision. Catharine, who always deferred a definite decision on +important matters until the last moment--a habit not unfrequently +leading to the hurried adoption of the means least calculated to effect +her selfish ends--was constrained to yield a portion of their demands. +In the presence of the Protestants an informal decree was passed, with +the consent of Navarre, Conde, Coligny, and the chancellor[1104]--those +members of the council who happened to be in the audience chamber--that +the bishops should not be made judges; that to one of the secretaries of +state should be assigned the duty of writing out the minutes of the +conference, but that the Protestants should retain the right of +appending such notes as they might deem proper. The king would be +present at the discussions, together with the princes of the blood. But +Catharine peremptorily declined to grant a formal decree according these +points. This, she said, would only be to furnish the opposite party with +a plausible pretext for refusing to enter into the colloquy.[1105] +Meanwhile she urged them to maintain a modest demeanor, and to seek only +the glory of God, which she professed to believe that they had greatly +at heart.[1106] + +[Sidenote: Last efforts of the Sorbonne to prevent the colloquy.] + +The Romish party, however, was unwilling to approach the distasteful +conference without a final attempt to dissuade the queen from so +perilous an undertaking. As the Protestants left Catharine's apartments, +a deputation of doctors of the Sorbonne entered the door. They came to +beg her not to grant a hearing to heretics already so often condemned. +If this request could not be accorded, they suggested that at least the +tender ears of the king should be spared exposure to a dangerous +infection. But Catharine was too far committed to listen to their +petition. She was resolved that the colloquy should be held, and held in +the king's presence.[1107] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 968: Evidently the Guises had acquiesced with so much alacrity +in the convocation of the States General only because of their +confidence in their power to intimidate any party that should undertake +to oppose them. Chantonnay, the Spanish ambassador, informed Philip of +this before Francis's death, and gave the Cardinal of Lorraine as his +authority for the statement: "Le ha dicho el cardenal de Lorrena que +para aquel tiempo avria aqui tanta gente de guerra y se daria tal orden +que a qualquiera que quiziesse hablar se le cerrasse la boca, y assi ne +se hiziesse mas dello que ellos quiziessen." Simancas MSS., _apud_ +Mignet, Journal des savants, 1859, p. 40.] + +[Footnote 969: Letter of Beza to Bullinger, Jan. 22, 1561, Baum, ii., +App., 18.] + +[Footnote 970: From Nov. 20th to Dec. 1st, De la Place, 77, 78.] + +[Footnote 971: La Planche, 418.] + +[Footnote 972: "Si possible estoit," wrote Calvin, "il seroit bon de +leur faire veiller le corps da trespasse, comme ils out faict jouer ce +rosle aux aultres." Letter to ministers of Paris, Lettres franchises, +ii. 347.] + +[Footnote 973: "Lutherano more sepultus Lutheranorum hostis." Letter of +Beza to Bullinger, _ubi supra_, p. 19. "Dont advint un brocard: que le +roy, ennemy mortel des huguenauds, n'avoit pen empescher d'estre enterre +a la huguenaute." La Planche, 421.] + +[Footnote 974: De la Place, 76.] + +[Footnote 975: "De consentir que une femme veuve, une estrangere et +Italienne domine, non-seulement il luy tourneroit a grand deshonneur, +mais a un tel prejudice de la couronne, qu'il en seroit blasme a +jamais." Calvin to the ministers of Paris, Lettres fr., ii. 346.] + +[Footnote 976: Commentarii del regno di Francia, probably written early +in 1562, in Tommaseo, Rel. des Amb. Ven., i. 552-554.] + +[Footnote 977: Calvin, who read his contemporaries thoroughly, wrote to +Bullinger (May 24, 1561): "Rex Navarrae non minus segnis aut flexibilis +quam hactenus liberalis est promissor; nulla fides, nulla constantia, +etsi enim videtur interdum non modo viriles igniculos jacere, sed +luculentam flammam spargere, mox evanescit. Hoc quando subinde accidit +non aliter est metuendus quam praevaricator forensis. Adde quod totus est +venereus," etc. Baum, vol. ii., App., 32.] + +[Footnote 978: Letter of Francis Hotman, Strasbourg, December 31, 1560, +to the King of Navarre, Bulletin, ix. (1860) 32.] + +[Footnote 979: "En quoy il fault que je vous dye que le roy de Navarre, +qui est le premier, et auquel les lois du royaume donnent beaucoup +d'avantage, s'est si doulcement et franchement porte a mon endroict, que +j'ay grande occasion de m'en contenter, s'estant du tout mis entre mes +mains et despouille du pouvoir et d'auctorite soubz mon bon plaisir.... +Je l'ay tellement gaigne, que je fais et dispose de luy tout ainsy qu'il +me plaist." Letter of Catharine to the Bishop of Limoges, December 19, +1560, _ap._ Negociations relat. au regne de Fr. II., p. 786, 787.] + +[Footnote 980: "Encore que je souy contraynte d'avoyr le roy de Navarre +aupres de moy, d'aultent que le louys de set royaume le portet ynsin, +quant le roy ayst en bas ayage, que les prinse du sanc souyt aupres de +la mere; si ne fault-y qu'il entre en neule doulte, car y m'e si +aubeysant et n'a neul comendement que seluy que je luy permes." The fact +that this letter was written by Catharine's own hand well accounts for +the spelling. Negociations, etc., 791.] + +[Footnote 981: Memoires de Castelnau, liv. iii., c. 2. In July, 1561, +the salaries of the officers of the Parliament of Paris were in arrears +for nearly a year and a half. Memoires de Conde (Edit. Michaud et +Poujoulat), 579.] + +[Footnote 982: "Che certo non puo piu." Relaz. di Giovanne Michele, +_ap._ Tommaseo, Relations des Amb. Ven., i. 408.] + +[Footnote 983: And yet--such are the inconsistencies of human +character--this queen, whose nature was a singular compound of timidity, +hypocrisy, licentiousness, malice, superstition, and atheism, would seem +at times to have felt the need of the assistance of a higher power. If +Catharine was not dissembling even in her most confidential letters to +her daughter, it was in some such frame of mind that she recommended +Isabella to pray to God for protection against the misfortunes that had +befallen her mother. The letter is so interesting that I must lay the +most characteristic passage under the reader's eye. The date is +unfortunately lost. It was written soon after Charles's accession: "Pour +se, ma fille, m'amye, recommende-vous bien a Dyeu, car vous m'aves veue +ausi contente come vous, ne pensent jeames avoyr aultre tryboulatyon que +de n'estre ases aymaye a mon gre du roy vostre pere, qui m'onoret pluls +que je ne merites, mes je l'ayme tant que je aves tousjour peur, come +vous saves fayrement ases: et Dyeu me l'a haulte, et ne se contente de +sela, m'a haulte vostre frere que je ayme come vous saves, et m'a laysee +aveque troys enfans petys, et en heun reaume (un royaume) tout dyvyse, +n'y ayent heum seul a qui je me puise du tout fyer, qui n'aye quelque +pasion partycoulyere." God alone, she goes on to say, can maintain her +happiness, etc. Negociations, etc., 781, 782.] + +[Footnote 984: "C'est folie d'esperer paix, repos et amitie entre les +personnes qui sont de diverses religions.... Deux Francois et Anglois +qui sont d'une mesme religion, ont plus d'affection et d'amitie entre +eux que deux citoyens d'une mesme ville, subjects a un mesme seigneur, +qui seroyent de diverses religions." La Place, p. 85; Histoire eccles., +i. 264.] + +[Footnote 985: Yet the Huguenots, more enlightened than the chancellor, +while not renouncing the notion that the civil magistrate is bound to +maintain the true religion, justly censured L'Hospital's statements as +refuted by the experience of the greater part of the world. "Disaient +davantage, qu'a la verite, puisqu'il n'y a qu'une vraye religion a +laquelle tous, petite et grands, doivent viser, le magistrat doit sur +toutes choses pourvoir a ce qu'elle seule soit avouee et gardee aux pays +de sa sujettion; mais ils niaient que de la il fallut conclure qu'amitie +aucune ni paix ne put etre entre sujets de diverses religions, se +pouvant verifier le contraire tant par raisons peremptoires, que par +experience du temps passe et present en la plupart du monde." Histoire +eccles., i. 268.] + +[Footnote 986: "Ostons ces mots diaboliques, noms de parts, factions et +seditions; _lutheriens_, _huguenauds_, _papistes_; ne changeons le nom +de _chrestien_." La Place, p. 87.] + +[Footnote 987: The chancellor's address is given _in extenso_ in Pierre +de la Place, Commentaires de l'estat de la religion et republique pp. +80-88; and in the Histoire eccles. des egl. ref., i. 257-268. De Thou, +iii. (liv. xxvii.) 3-7. "Habuit longam orationem Cancellarius," says +Beza, "in qua initio quidem pulchre multa de antiquo regni statu +disseruit, sed mox _aulicum suum ingenium_ prodidit." Letter to +Bullinger, Jan. 22, 1561, Baum, Theod. Beza, ii. App., 19. Prof. Baum +has shown (vol. ii., p. 159, note) that this last assertion is fully +borne out by portions of the speech, even when viewed quite +independently of the impatience naturally felt by a Huguenot when an +enlightened statesman undertook to sail a middle course where justice +was so evidently on one side. I refer, for instance, to that +extraordinary passage in which L'Hospital speaks of the treatment to +which the Protestants had hitherto been subjected as _so gentle_, "qu'il +semble plus correction paternelle que punition. Il n'y a eu ni portes +forcees, ny murailles de villes abbattues, ni maisons bruslees, ny +privileges ostes aux villes, commes les princes voisins ont faict de +nostre temps en pareils troubles et seditions." La Place, _ubi supra_, +p. 87. See other points specified in Histoire eccles., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 988: La Place, 88.] + +[Footnote 989: Ib., 79; Hist. eccles., i. 269, 270; Beza to Bullinger, +Jan. 22, 1561, _ubi supra_: "quam ipsius audaciam cum nobilitas et plebs +magno cum fremitu repulisset, indignatus ille ne suae quidem Ecclesiae +patrocinium suscipere voluit."] + +[Footnote 990: This was on the 1st day of Jan., 1561: "Habuerunt hi +singuli suas orationes publice, sedente rege et delecto ipsius concilio, +Calendis Januarii." Letter of Beza, _ubi supra_, p. 20.] + +[Footnote 991: All previous legislation appears to have proved +fruitless. "Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be +gathered together." It was all in vain to endeavor to confine the gay +and aspiring ecclesiastics to the provinces, so long as promotion was +only to be found at Paris and worldly pleasures in the large cities. An +edict of 1557, enjoining residence, Haton tells us, had little effect. +It was obeyed only by the poorest and most obscure of the curates, and +by them only for a short time. The great were not able to observe it, if +they would. How could they? They could not have told on which benefice +to reside, for they held many. "Ung homme seul tenoit un archevesche, un +evesche et trois abbayes tout ensemble; ung aultre deux ou trois cures, +avec aultant de prieurez, le tout par permission et dispense du pape.... +_Et pour ce ne scavoient auquel desditz benefices ilz debvoient +resider._" Mem. de Claude Haton, i. 91.] + +[Footnote 992: La Place, Commentaries, 89-93; De Thou, iii. (liv. +xxvii.) 8-10, Hist. eccles., i. 277-279.] + +[Footnote 993: La Place, Commentaires, 89; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.) +8-10; Hist. eccles., i. 277, 279. None of these authors give more than a +very imperfect sketch of L'Ange's harangue. Beza, in the letter more +than once referred to above, says: "Nobilitatem ferunt valde fortiter et +libere locutam, sed plebs imprimis graviter et copiose disseruit de +rerum omnium perturbatione, de intolerabili quorundam potentia, etc.... +adeo ut omnes audientes valde permoverit." Baum, Theod. Beza, ii., App., +20, 21.] + +[Footnote 994: "Quasi noyes de telles trop frequentes inondations des +infectees lagunes de Geneve." The mention of the heretical capital +requires an apology on the part of our pious orator, and he adds in +Latin, after the fashion of other parts of his mongrel address: +"Desplicet aures vestras et os meum foedasse vocabulo tam probroso, +sed ex ecclesiarum praescripto cogor." La Place, 101.] + +[Footnote 995: "Encores, Sire, vous supplierons-nous tres-humblement +pour ce tant bon et tant obeissant peuple francois, duquel Dieu (vostre +pere et le leur aussi) vous a faict seigneur et roy; prenez en pitie, +sire, et soublevez un peu les charges que des long temps ils portent +patiemment. Pour Dieu, sire, ne permettez que ce tiers pied de vostre +throne soit aucunement foule, meurtry ny brise." La Place, 108.] + +[Footnote 996: Quintin's speech is given in full by La Place, 93-109; +Hist. eccles., i. 270-274; De Thou, iii., liv. xxvii., 11, etc. Letter +of Beza to Bullinger, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 997: "Son discours, qu'il lut presque tout entier, fut long et +ennuyeux.... rempli de lonanges fades, et de flatteries outrees, fit +rougir, et ennuya les assistans." De Thou, iii. 11, 12. Quintin's +address drew forth from the Protestants a written reply, directed to the +queen, exposing his "ignorance, calumnies, and malicious omissions." It +is inserted in Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 275-277.] + +[Footnote 998: La Place, 109, 112; De Thou, iii. 12, 14; Hist. eccl., i. +280.] + +[Footnote 999: Beza, Letter to Bullinger, Geneva, Jan. 22, 1561; Baum, +Th. Beza, ii., App., 21, 22; Calvin to Ministers of Paris, Lettres +franc., ii. 348.] + +[Footnote 1000: "Hanc supplicationem, scribitur ad nos, Regina ex +Amyraldi manu acceptam promisisse se Concilio exhibituram, et magna +omnium spes est nobis omnia haec concessum iri, modo privatis locis et +sine tumultu pauci simul conveniant.... Ita brevi futurum spero ut +Gallia tandem Regem et nomine et re christianissimum habeat." Beza, _ubi +supra_.] + +[Footnote 1001: Catharine's fears that the States would enter upon the +discussion of matters affecting her regency undoubtedly had much to do +with this action (Hist. eccles. des eglises ref., i. 280: "qu'on +craignoit vouloir passer plus outre en d'autres affaires qu'on ne +vouloit remuer"). Ostensibly in order to avoid confusion and expense, +each of the thirteen principal provinces was to depute only two +delegates to Pontoise.] + +[Footnote 1002: Letter of Charles IX., Jan. 28, 1561, Memoires de Conde, +ii. 268.] + +[Footnote 1003: March 1st, "puysque la volunte du Roy est," Mem. de +Conde, ii. 273. When the secretary of state, Bourdin, brought to +parliament the mandates of Charles and Catharine from Fontainebleau, of +Feb. 13th and 14th, ordering its registry, he stated that Charles had +granted this document "at the urgent prayer of the three estates, and in +order to obviate and provide against troubles and divisions, while +waiting for the decision of the General Council granted by the Pope." On +the 22d of February a new missive of the king was received in +parliament, enjoining the publication of the letter of January 28th, +with the modification that any of the liberated prisoners that would not +consent to live in a Catholic fashion must leave the kingdom under pain +of the halter. Mem. de Conde, ii. 271, 272.] + +[Footnote 1004: Calvin, Memoire aux eglises ref. de France, Dec., 1560, +Lettres franc. (Bonnet), ii. 350.] + +[Footnote 1005: Letter of Calvin to brethren of Paris, Feb. 26, 1561, +_ap._ Baum, ii., App., 26; Bonnet, Lettres fr. de Calvin, ii. 378, etc.] + +[Footnote 1006: "E benche la piu parte fossero ignoranti, e predicasse +mille pazzie, pero ogn'uno aveva il suo seguito." Michel Suriano, +Commentarii del regno di Francia, Relations des Amb. Ven. (Tommaseo), i. +532. M. Tommaseo supposes this relation to belong to 1561, and mentions +the somewhat remarkable opinion of others that it was somewhere between +1564 and 1568. The document itself gives the most decided indications +that it was written in the early part of 1562, before the outbreak of +the first civil war--indeed, before the return of the Guises to court. +After stating that Charles IX. when he ascended the throne was _ten_ +years old (page 542), the author says that he is now _eleven and a +half_. The proximate date would, therefore, seem to be January or +February, 1562. Throkmorton wrote to the queen, Paris, Nov. 14, 1561, +that "the Venetians had sent Marc Antonio Barbaro to reside there, in +the place of Sig. Michaeli Soriano." State Paper Office MSS.] + +[Footnote 1007: Gaberel, Histoire de l'eglise de Geneve, i., pieces +just., p. 201-203, from the Archives of Geneva; Soulier, Histoire des +edits de pacification (Paris, 1682), 22-25.] + +[Footnote 1008: Gaberel, Hist. de l'eglise de Geneve, i. (pieces +justif.), 203-206. He gives the deliberation of the council, as well as +the reply. Lettres franc. de Calvin, ii. 373-378. It needs scarcely to +be noticed that the "Sieur Soulier, pretre," while he parades the royal +letter as a convincing proof of the seditious character of the Huguenot +ministers, does not deign even to allude to the satisfactory reply. No +wonder; so apposite a refutation would have been sadly out of place in a +book written expressly to justify the successive steps of the violation +of the solemn compacts between the French crown and the Protestants--to +prepare the way, in fact, for the formal revocation of the edict of +Nantes (three years later) toward which the priests were fast hurrying +Louis XIV.] + +[Footnote 1009: La Place, Commentaires, 120; Sommaire recit de la +calomnieuse accusation de Monsieur le prince de Conde, avec l'arrest de +la cour contenant la declaration de son innocence, in the Mem. de Conde, +ii. 383; De Thou, iii. 38.] + +[Footnote 1010: The arret of parliament of June 13th is given in +Histoire eccles., i. 291-293; Sommaire recit de la calomnieuse +accusation de Monsieur le prince de Conde, iii. 391-394. See also La +Place, 128-130; De Thou, iii. 50, 51; Journal de Bruslart, Mem. de +Conde, i. 39, 40.] + +[Footnote 1011: Strange to say, the editor of the Memoires de Conde in +the Collection Michaud-Poujoulat expresses his disbelief of this +occurrence; but not only are the historians explicit, but an official +statement was drawn up and signed by the secretaries of state, under +Charles's orders. This notarial document is inserted in La Place, 139, +140, and in the Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 296, 297; De Thou, iii. 56, +gives the wrong date, Aug. 28th. Beza had from the lips of Conde, that +very afternoon, an account, which he transmitted the next day to Calvin. +Letter of Aug. 25th, _apud_ Baum, iii., App., 47.] + +[Footnote 1012: La Place, 121; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.) 40; Mem. de +Conde, ii. 24, 25.] + +[Footnote 1013: La Place, 121, 122; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.) 40, 41.] + +[Footnote 1014: Letter of Beza to Wolf, March 25, 1561, _ap._ Baum, ii., +App., 30, 31; The Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, under May, 1561 (p. 43), +has this entry: "Artus Desire fist amende honorable, tout nud, la torche +au poing, dedans le palais, en ung jeudy, 14^e du mois, et fut +condamne a rester dedans les Chartreux cinq ans au pain et a l'eau: il y +fut quatre moys; les ungs disent qu'il s'en fut, les aultres que les +Chartreux le firent sortir, craignant les huguenots. Depuis il ne se +cacha pas, et se promenoit a Paris."] + +[Footnote 1015: "Ou il n'a rien entendu qui ne fust bon." Reg. capit. +Eccles. Rothom., March 16, 1561, _apud_ Floquet, Hist. du parlement de +Normandie, ii. 374, 375.] + +[Footnote 1016: "Aliud est Christianum esse quatn Papistam non esse." +Letter to Wolf, March 25, 1561, _ap._ Baum, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1017: This very year parliament had issued an order, at the +commencement of Lent, directing the sick, "permission prealablement +obtenue," to purchase the meat they needed of the butcher of the +Hotel-Dieu, who alone was permitted to sell, and who was compelled to +submit weekly to the court a record, not only of the permissions granted +and the persons to whom he sold, but even of the _quantity_ which each +applicant obtained! Registers of Parliament, Feb. 27, 1561, _apud_ +Felibien, Histoire de Paris, iv., Preuves, 797.] + +[Footnote 1018: Honorat de Savoie, Comte de Villars, had a private +grudge to satisfy against the admiral, who had complained to the king of +the cruelties which he had perpetrated in Languedoc. La Place, 122.] + +[Footnote 1019: La Place, Commentaires, _ubi supra_; De Thou, iii. (liv. +xxvii.) 41-43; Hist. eccles., i. 287; Huguenot poetical libel in Le +Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i. 745.] + +[Footnote 1020: "Auquel (l'evesque de Valence) il dict qu'il se +contentoit de ceste fois, et qu'il n'y retournerois plus." La Place, +Commentaires, _ubi supra_; De Thou, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1021: La Place, Commentaires, 123, De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.) +45. How deep the disappointment felt by the Protestants at the +constable's course must have been, can be gathered from the sanguine +picture of the prospects of the French Reformation drawn by Languet a +couple of months earlier. Arguing from the comparative mildness of +Montmorency in the persecutions under Henry II., from the fact that he +had allowed no one of his five sons to enter the ecclesiastical state, +which offered rare opportunities of advancement, and from the influence +which his sons and his three nephews--all favorably inclined to, if not +open adherents of the new doctrines--would exert over the old man, he +not unnaturally came to this conclusion: "I am, therefore, of opinion +that, if the Guises still retain any power, the constable will join +Navarre for the purpose of overwhelming them, and will make no +opposition to Navarre if he sets on foot a moderate reformation of +doctrine." Epist. secr., ii., p. 102.] + +[Footnote 1022: La Place and De Thou, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1023: This document first appears in the Memoires de Conde, +under the title "Sommaire des choses premierement accordees entre les +Ducs de Montmorency Connestable, et De Guyse Grand Maistre, Pairs de +France, et le Mareschal Sainct Andre, pour la Conspiration du +Triumvirat, et depuis mises en deliberation a l'entree du Sacre et +Sainct Concile de Trente, et arrestee entre les Parties, en leur prive +Conseil faict contre les Heretiques, et contre le Roy de Navarre, en +tant qu'il gouverne et conduit mal les affaires de Charles neufiesme Roy +de France, Mineur; lequel est Autheur de continuel accroissement de la +nouvelle Secte qui pullule en France." The principal provisions are +given by De Thou, iii. (liv. xxix.) 142, 143, under date of 1562, who +explicitly states his disbelief of its authenticity. Neither, indeed, +does the compiler of the Mem. de Conde vouch for it. Among other +objections that have been urged with force against the genuineness of +the document, are the following: The improbability that the Triumvirs +would mature a plan involving all the Catholic sovereigns of Europe +without previously obtaining their consent, of which there is no trace; +the inconsistency of the project with the well-known policy and +character of the German Emperor Ferdinand; the improbability that the +Council of Trent would indorse a plan aimed at the humiliation of +Navarre, who, when the council actually reassembled in January, 1562, +was completely won over to the Roman party. In favor of the document may +be urged: First, that M. Capefigue (Histoire de la reforme, de la ligue, +etc., ii. 243-245) asserts: "J'ai trouve cette piece, qu'on a crue +supposee, en original et signee dans les MSS. Colbert, bibl. du roi." +Prof. Soldan, who has devoted an appendix to the first volume of his +Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, to a discussion of this reported +agreement between the Triumvirs, was unsuccessful in finding any trace +of such a paper. Secondly, that the Memoires de Guise, the manuscript of +which, according to the statement of the editor, M. Aime Champollion, +fils (Notice sur Francois de Lorraine, due d'Aumale et de Guise, +prefixed to his Memoires, first published in the Collection +Michaud-Poujoulat, 1851, p. 5), is partly in the handwriting of the duke +himself, partly in that of his secretary, Millet, insert the "Sommaire" +precisely as it stands in the Memoires de Conde, without any denial of +its authenticity. This would appear, at first sight, to settle the +question beyond cavil. But it must be borne in mind that many of the +memoires of the sixteenth century are compiled on the plan of including +all contemporary papers of importance, whether written by friend or by +foe. Frequently the most contradictory narratives of the same event are +placed side by side, with little or no comment. This is precisely the +case with those of Guise, in which, for example, no less than _four_ +accounts--_three_ of them from Huguenot sources--are given of the +massacre of Vassy. Now we have the testimony of De Thou (_ubi supra_) +that this agreement, industriously circulated by the Prince of Conde and +the Huguenots, made a powerful impression not only in France, but in +Germany and all Northern Europe. So important a document, even if a +forgery, would naturally find a place in such a collection as the +Memoires of Guise. Altogether the matter is in a singularly interesting +position. Could the manuscript seen by M. Capefigue be found and +re-examined critically, the truth might, perhaps, be reached. M. Henri +Martin, in his excellent Histoire de France, x. 79, note, accepts the +document as genuine.] + +[Footnote 1024: The "plebe e populo minuto," the Venetian Michiel tell +us, "e quello che si vede certo con gran fervenzia e devozione +frequentar le chiese, e continuar li riti cattolici." Relations des Amb. +Ven. i., 412.] + +[Footnote 1025: "Aulcuns desditz ecclesiasticques," is Claude Haton's +ingenuous admission respecting his fellow priests of this period, +"estoient fort vicieux encores pour lors, et les plus vicieux estoient +ceux qui plus resistoient auxditz huguenotz, jusques a mettre la main +aux cousteaux et aux armes." Memoires, i. 129.] + +[Footnote 1026: Memoires de Conde, i. 27.] + +[Footnote 1027: "In viginti urbibus aut circiter trucidati fuerunt pii a +furiosa plebe." Letter of Calvin to Bullinger, May 24, 1561, _apud_ +Baum, ii., App., 33. At Mans, on Lady-Day (March 25th), so serious a +riot took place, that the bishop felt compelled to apologize in a letter +to Catharine (April 23d), in which he excuses his flock by alleging that +they were exasperated beyond endurance by the sight of a Huguenot +"assemblee" openly held by day in the "Faubourg St. Jehan," contrary to +the royal ordinances--some of the attendants, he asserts, coming out of +the meeting armed. His letter is to be found in the Mem. de Conde, ii. +339.] + +[Footnote 1028: And was openly denounced by his clergy from the pulpit, +in Passion Week, as an "apostate," a "traitor," a "new Judas," etc. +Bulletin, xxiii. 84.] + +[Footnote 1029: De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 51, 52; Histoire eccles., +i. 287; La Place, 124; Calvin to Bullinger, Baum, ii., App., 33; Journal +de Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, ii. 27. Interesting documents from the +municipal records of Beauvais, Bulletin, xxiii. (1874) 84, etc. Letter +of Chantonnay, Rheims, May 10, 1561 (Mem. de Conde, ii. 11), who adds: +"L'Admiral ha tant peu avec le credit qu'il ha ver Monsieur de Vendosme +[Navarre], que l'on a execute deux ou trois de ceulx du peuple; lequel +depuis s'est leve de nouveau, et a pendu le bourreau qui feit +l'execution."] + +[Footnote 1030: "Car, de toutes les choses, la plus incompatible en ung +estat, ce sont deux religions contraires."] + +[Footnote 1031: Journal de Bruslart, Memoires de Conde, i. 26, etc.; +Registers of Parliament, ibid., ii. 341, etc., and _apud_ Felibien, +Hist. de Paris, Preuves, iv. 798, Arret of April 28th and 29th. +According to the information that had reached Calvin, twelve had been +killed and forty wounded by Longjumeau and his friends (Calvin to +Bullinger, _ubi supra_). The parliamentary registers do not give the +precise number. The good curate of S. Barthelemi makes no allusion to +any attack, but sets down the loss of the Roman Catholics at three +killed and nine wounded. Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, 41. Hubert +Languet says seven were killed. Epist. secr., ii. 117.] + +[Footnote 1032: Letters patent of Fontainebleau, April 19, 1561, Mem. de +Conde, ii. 334, 335; La Place; and Hist. eccles., _ubi supra_; De Thou, +iii. (liv. xxviii.) 52.] + +[Footnote 1033: How the devoted adherents of the Roman church received +this edict and its predecessor appears from the Memoires of Claude +Haton. In the city of Provins, a short distance from Paris, one or two +preachers reluctantly consented to read it in the churches; but "maistre +Barrier," a Franciscan and curate of Sainte Croix, instead of the +required proclamation, made these remarks to the people at the +commencement of his sermon: "On m'a cejourd'-huy apporte ung memoire et +papier escript, qu'on m'a dict estre la coppie d'un edict du roy, pour +vous le publier; et _veult-on que je vous dye que les chatz et les ratz +doibvent vivre en paix les ungs avec les aultres_, sans se rien faire de +mal l'ung a l'autre, et que nous aultres Francoys, e'est assavoir les +heretiques et les catholicques, fassions ainsi, et que le roy le veult. +_Je ne suis crieur ni trompette de la ville pour faire telles +publications._ Dieu veuille par sa misericorde avoir pitie de son eglise +et du royaume de France, les deux ensemble sont prestz de tomber en +grande ruyne; Dieu veuille bailler bon conseil a nostre jeune roy et +inspirer ses gouverneurs a bien faire; ils entrent a leur gouvernement +par ung pauvre commencement, mais ce est en punition de noz pechez." +Memoires de Claude Haton, i. 123, 124.] + +[Footnote 1034: La Place, 124-126; Histoire eccles., i. 288, etc.; De +Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 52, 53. The remonstrance of parliament was, in +point of fact, little more than an echo of the strenuous protest of the +Spanish ambassador to the queen mother. See Chantonnay to Catharine de' +Medici, April 22, 1561, Memoires de Conde, ii. 6-10.] + +[Footnote 1035: According to Claude Haton, the edict was received with +ineffable delight, especially in those cities of the kingdom where there +were Huguenot judges. The Catholics were despised. The Huguenots became +bold: "En toutes compagnies, assemblees et lieux publicz, ilz huguenotz +avoient le hault parler." Despite the prohibition of the employment of +insulting terms, they called their adversaries "papaux, idolatres, +pauvres abusez." and "tisons du purgatoire du pape." Memoires, i. 122. +Doubtless a smaller measure of free speech than this would have sufficed +to stir up the bile of the curate of Meriot.] + +[Footnote 1036: Already, on the 6th of March, Claude Boissiere had +written to the Genevan reformer from Saintes: "God has so augmented His +church that we number to-day by the grace of God thirty-eight pastors in +this province" (Saintonge in Western France), "each of us having the +care of so many towns and parishes, that, had we fifty more, we should +scarcely be able to satisfy half the charges that present themselves." +Geneva MSS., _apud_ Bulletin, xiv. (1855) 320, and Crottet, Hist. des +egl. ref. de Pons, Gemozac, etc., 57.] + +[Footnote 1037: Letter to Bullinger, May 24, 1561, _apud_ Baum, ii., +App., 32, and Bonnet, Eng. tr., iv. 190.] + +[Footnote 1038: Letter of Gilbert de Vaux, April 5, 1561. MS. in Nat. +Lib. of Paris, _apud_ Bulletin, xiv. 321, 322.] + +[Footnote 1039: After having examined the churches, convents, etc., the +lieutenant, though a Roman Catholic, reported to the Toulouse parliament +"qu'il avoit trouve une telle obeissance en ceste ville que le roy +demande a tous ses subjects, de sorte qu'il n'y avoit eu jamais un coup +frappe, ne injure dicte aux papistes par ceux de l'Evangile."] + +[Footnote 1040: Letter of Du Vignault to M. d'Espeville (Calvin), May +26, 1561, in Geneva MSS., Bulletin, xiv. (1865) 322-324.] + +[Footnote 1041: "Ceux de Tholoze sont du tout enrages, car ils ne +cessent de brusler les paoures fideles de jour a aultre. Le trouppeau +est fort desole, et croy qu'est sans pasteur." Letter of La Chasse, +Montpellier, June 14, 1561, to M. d'Espeville, Geneva MSS., _ubi supra_, +p. 325.] + +[Footnote 1042: La Place, 127, 128; De Thou, iii., liv. xxviii. 53.] + +[Footnote 1043: Memoires de Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 3. The discussion was +long, and would have been tedious, had it not turned upon so important a +topic. There were 140 members of parliament, and according to its +regulations no one was allowed to concur simply in the views of another, +but each counsellor was compelled to express his own sentiments, which +were then committed to writing. As some of the high dignitaries of state +also gave their opinions, there were altogether more than 150 speakers, +and parliament met twice a day to listen to them. The Bishop of Paris, +after harshly advocating the rekindling of the extinct fires of the +estrapade, was compelled to hear in return some plain words from Admiral +Coligny, who boldly accused the bishops and priests of being the cause +of all the evils from which the Christian world was suffering, while at +the same time they instigated a cruel persecution of those who exposed +their crimes. The letters of Hubert Languet, who was in Paris at the +time, are exceedingly instructive. Epist. secr., ii. 122, 125, etc.] + +[Footnote 1044: Or _seven_, according to Languet, Epist. sec., ii. 130.] + +[Footnote 1045: Journal de Bruslart, Memoires de Conde, i. 40, etc.; +Despatches of Chantonnay, Mem. de Conde, ii. 12-15; La Place, 130; Hist. +eccles., i. 293, 294; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 54. Cf. Martin, Hist. +de France, x. 82, Baum, Theod. Beza, ii. 172, etc., and Soldan, +Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 428.] + +[Footnote 1046: It is styled a "_mercuriale_" in a contemporary letter +of Du Pasquier (Augustin Marlorat), Rouen, July 11, 1561, Bulletin, xiv. +(1865) 364: "On dit que la mercuriale est achevee, mais la conclusion +n'est pas encores publiee."] + +[Footnote 1047: H. Martin, Hist. de France, x. 83.] + +[Footnote 1048: The text of the Edict of July is given in Isambert, +Recueil gen. des anc. lois fr., xiv. 109-111; Histoire eccles., i. +294-296; Mem. de Conde, i. 42-45. Cf. La Place, 130, 131; De Thou, iii. +54, 55; Mem. de Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 3.] + +[Footnote 1049: "Que son epee ne tiendrait jamais au fourreau quand il +serait question da faire sortir effet a cet arrete." Martin, x. 83.] + +[Footnote 1050: Ibid., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1051: The cathedral alone persisted in holding out a day or +two longer, and then made an unwilling sacrifice of its pictures, +protesting at the same time that it only wanted peace and friendship.] + +[Footnote 1052: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 530-532.] + +[Footnote 1053: Letter to the church of Sauve, July, 1561, Bonnet, +Lettres franc., ii. 415-418. It is instructive to note that the +Provincial Synod of Sommieres took the decisive step of deposing the +pastor of Sauve; nor was he pardoned until he had been convinced of his +error, and had declared that he had done nothing except through +righteous zeal, and in order to preclude many scandals. Geneva MS., +_apud_ Bonnet, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1054: See the royal letters of prorogation of March 25th, Mem. +de Conde, ii. 281-284.] + +[Footnote 1055: La Place, Commentaires, 140; De Thou, iii. 57; Mem. de +Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 4.] + +[Footnote 1056: The famous chateau of St. Germain-en-Laye, a favorite +residence of the monarchs of the later Valois branch, is situated on the +river Seine, a few miles below Paris. Poissy, where the assembly of the +prelates convened, was selected on account of its proximity to the +court. It is also on the Seine, which, between Poissy and St. Germain, +makes a great bend toward the north; across the neck of the peninsula +the distance from place to place is only about three miles. Pontoise, +deriving its name from its bridge over the river Oise, a tributary of +the Seine, lies about eight miles north of St. Germain.] + +[Footnote 1057: The origin of the singular designation of this +officer--a designation quite unique--is discussed _con amore_ by +Chassanee, in that remarkable book, Catalogus Gloriae Mundi (edition of +1586), lib. xi., c. 5, fol. 239. Chassanee, who was himself of Autun, +traces the title and office of _vierg_ back to the Vergobretus of +ancient Gallic times. Caesar, Bell. Gallic, i. 16.] + +[Footnote 1058: The curious may find an instructive paragraph in his +speech, devoted to a list of onerous taxes bearing in great part, or +exclusively, on the people. La Place, 145.] + +[Footnote 1059: "Le temps est une creature de Dieu a luy subjecte, de +maniere que dix mille ans ne sont une minute en la puissance de nostre +Dieu." The long speech of M. Bretagne, certainly one of the noblest +pleas for freedom of religious worship to be found within the limits of +the sixteenth century, is inserted in full in the Recueil des choses +memorables (1565), 620-645, in La Place, liv. vi. 141-150, and in the +Hist. eccles. des eglises reformees, i. 298-305. Summary in De Thou, +iii. 57, 58.] + +[Footnote 1060: Projects somewhat similar had been made, early in the +year, in some of the provincial estates. In those of Languedoc, held at +Montpellier in March, 1561, Terlon, a "capitoul" of Toulouse, speaking +for the "tiers etat," advocated the sale of all the secular possessions +of the clergy, reserving only a residence for the incumbent, and +assigning him a pension equal to his present income, to be paid by the +cities of the kingdom. Chabot, a lawyer of Nismes, went further, and, +when the clamor of the people had secured the hearing at first denied +him, did not hesitate to say that the burdens of the province should be +placed upon the shoulders of the priests and monks--whom he stigmatized +as ignorant and corrupt--because of the evils they had inflicted upon +the people. He even wanted a petition to this effect, signed by thirty +syndicates favorable to the reformed religion, to be inserted in the +_cahier_ of Languedoc. Memoires d'Achille Gamon--advocate and consul of +Annonay--_apud_ Collection de Memoires, Michaud et Poujoulat, 611. Some +such wholesale confiscation seems even to have entered into the plans of +the cabinet. In May, 1561, royal letters were sent to the Bishop of +Paris, to the provost, and indeed, throughout France, demanding a return +of the true value of all episcopal and other revenues (Memoires de +Conde, i. 27). The object was plain enough. The clergy remonstrated +energetically, as may be imagined (Ib., i. 29-39). The Paris clergy had +especial recourse to the Cardinal of Lorraine, in a letter of June 3d. +Honest Abbe Bruslart, touched to the quick by the suggestion, notes in +his quaint journal: "Voila les incommoditez de la nouvelle religion," +etc. (Ib., i. 28).] + +[Footnote 1061: "La diversite d'opinion soubstenues par vos subjects ne +provient que d'ung grand zelle et affection qu'ils ont au salut de leurs +ames."] + +[Footnote 1062: La Place, 152; De Thou, iii. 58, 59; Hist. eccles., i. +306; Garnier, H. de France, xxix. 308, etc., who gives a very full +abstract; but Ranke, v. 93-97, publishes from the MS. the hitherto +inedited _cahier_.] + +[Footnote 1063: Catharine's own account is given in an important letter +to the Bishop of Rennes, written September 14, 1561--five days after the +colloquy commenced: "Ayant este requise, y a deja quelques mois, de la +pluspart de la noblesse et des gens du tiers estat de ce Royaume, de +faire ouir lea ministres, qui sont departis en plusieurs villes de cedit +Royaume, sur leur Confession de Foy; je fus conseillee par mon frere le +Roy de Navarre, les autres Princes du sang, et les Gens du Conseil du +Roy Monsieur mon fils, de ce faire; ayant avise apres avoir longuement +et meurement delibere la-dessus, que aux grands troubles ... il n'y +avoit meilleur moyen ny plus fructueux pour faire abandonner les dits +Ministres et retirer ceux qui leur adherent, que en faissant confondre +leur doctrine et montrant et decouvrant ce qu'il y a d'erreur et +d'heresie." Le Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i. 732, 733.] + +[Footnote 1064: Baum, Theod. Beza, ii. 175; Martin, Hist. de France, x. +84. The restriction of the invitation to Frenchmen is referred to by +Catharine in a letter of September 14 (Le Laboureur, Add., i. 733): +"Ayant ... accorde a ceux desdits Ministres _qui seroient nez en +France_, de comparoittre a Poissy."] + +[Footnote 1065: The letters of La Riviere, Conde, Chatillon, and Antoine +of Navarre, are printed in Baum, App., 34, 35. The question naturally +arises, Why did not Calvin himself, who had been specially invited by +the Protestant princes, receive permission from the magistrates of +Geneva to go to Poissy? The truth is, that the Protestants of Paris "did +not see the possibility of his being present without grave peril, in +view of the rage conceived against him by the enemies of the Gospel, and +the disturbances his name alone would excite in the country were he +known to be in it." "In fact," they say in a letter but recently brought +to light, "the Admiral by no means favors your undertaking the journey, +and we have learned with certainty that the queen would not relish +seeing you there, frankly saying that she cannot pledge herself for your +safety in these parts, as she can for that of the rest. Meanwhile, the +enemies of the Gospel, on the other hand, say that they would be glad to +hear all the rest [of the reformers], but that, as for you, they could +not bring themselves to listen to you or look at you. You see, sir, in +what esteem you are held by these venerable prelates. I suspect that you +will not be very much grieved by it, nor consider yourself dishonored by +being thus regarded by such gentry!" La Riviere, in the name of all the +ministers of Paris, to Calvin, July 31, 1561, Bulletin, xvi. (1867), +602-604.] + +[Footnote 1066: Letter of the Syndics and Council of Geneva to the Lords +of Zurich, July 21, 1561, and Charles IX.'s safe-conduct for Peter +Martyr, July 30, Baum, ii., App., 36, 37.] + +[Footnote 1067: Le Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i. 724; cf. letter of +Card. de la Bourdaisiere to the Bishop of Rennes, Rome, August 23, 1561, +ibid., and of Chantonnay to Tisnacq, September 6, Mem. de Conde, ii. +18.] + +[Footnote 1068: The papal nuncio, Prospero di Santa Croce, indeed, +represents the Cardinal of Lorraine as the originator of the perilous +scheme. When Lorraine and Tournon, whom the Pope had constituted his +legates, with the commission to put forth their most strenuous exertions +to uphold the Roman Church in France, found advice, exhortation, and +persuasion all in vain, Lorraine, in an evil hour, advised the holding +of a colloquy: "Lotharingius audaci potius quam prudenti consilio reginae +persuasit, ut Possiaci conventus haberetur episcoporum Galliae, in quo de +religione ac moribus tractaretur: simulque copia fieret Hugonottorum +principibus, Ministros illi vocant, si vellent, veniendi, neque iis +solum qui erant in Gallia, sed ex finitimis etiam provinciis vocarentur, +ut quae erant de religione controversa proponerentur; futurum sperans, ut +ne respondere quidem ad sua postulata auderent. Confidebat enim +Lotharingius et doctrinae et eloquentiae suae, et plurimum, ut debebat, +ipsius causae bonitati." Cardinal Tournon was opposed to this course: +"Non probabat hoc factum Turnonius, ut qui disputationem omnem cum +haereticis fugiendam noverat." P. Santacrucii de civilibus Galliae +dissensionibus commentarii, Martene et Durand, tom. v. 1462.] + +[Footnote 1069: Letter of La Riviere, in the name of all the ministers +of Paris, Aug. 10, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 37-39.] + +[Footnote 1070: The letter, now in the State archives of Geneva, is +signed "_Le Roy de Navarre bien vostre, Anthoyne_," Baum, _ubi supra_, +ii. 40. The character of this contemptible prince is best understood +when such lines are read in the light of the intrigues he was at this +very moment--as we shall have occasion to see--carrying on at Rome. When +it is borne in mind that the colloquy of Poissy _preceded_ the edict of +January by four months, and that Beza manifested no little _hesitation_ +in coming to France, it becomes somewhat difficult to comprehend Mr. +Froude's account (Hist. of England, vii. 390): "The Cardinal of Lorraine +demanded from the Parliament of Paris the revocation of the edicts (sic) +of January. Confident of his power, he even challenged the Protestants +to a public discussion before the court. Theodore Beza _snatched +eagerly_ at the gage; the Conference of Poissy _followed_," etc.] + +[Footnote 1071: Letter of Calvin to Martyr, Aug. 17, 1561, _apud_ Baum, +ii., App., 40; and Bonnet, Calvin's Letters, Eng. tr., iv. 209.] + +[Footnote 1072: Letter of Beza to Calvin, Aug. 22, 1561, written three +hours after his arrival, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 44.] + +[Footnote 1073: See the admirable biography of Beza, by Dr. H. Heppe, +being the sixth volume of the Leben und ausgewaehlte Schriften der Vaeter +und Begruender der reformirte Kirche; as well as the more extended work +of Prof. Baum, frequently referred to.] + +[Footnote 1074: "Les avertissant qu'il ne leur donneroit conge de se +departir jusques a ce qu'ils y eussent donne ordre." Letter of the Sieur +du Mortier, French amb. at Rome, to the Bp. of Rennes, Aug. 9, 1561, +_apud_ Le Laboureur, Additions to Castelnau, i. 730. This authority +would seem to be a positive proof that the speech which is attributed by +La Place and other historians of the period to the king at the opening +of the conference with the Protestants on the 9th of September, has, by +a very natural error, been transposed from this place. De Thou, La +Popeliniere, and others have made the more serious blunder of placing +the chancellor's speech, which belongs here, at the same conference, and +omitting the true address which La Place, etc., insert. Prof. Baum +(Theodor Beza, ii. 242, note) first detected the inconsistencies between +the two reported speeches of L'Hospital on the 9th of September, but +gave preference in the text to the wrong document. Prof. Soldan has +elucidated the whole matter with his usual skill (Geschichte des Prot. +in Frankreich, i. 440, note).] + +[Footnote 1075: De Thou, iii. 63; La Place, 155.] + +[Footnote 1076: "Sans venir au fait de la doctrine, ou ils ne veulent +toucher non plus qu'au feu." Letter of Secretary Bourdin to his +brother-in-law Bochetel, the Bishop of Rennes, French ambassador in +Germany, Aug. 23, 1561, _apud_ Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, i. +731. If we are to construe the language of the Histoire eccles. des egl. +ref. (i. 307) with verbal strictness, the theological discussions +occasionally waxed so hot that the prelates found themselves unable to +solve the knotty questions with which they were occupied, without +recourse to the convincing argument of the fist!] + +[Footnote 1077: Languet, letter of Aug. 6th, ii. 130.] + +[Footnote 1078: Letter of Chantonnay, Aug. 31 (Mem. de Conde, ii. 16).] + +[Footnote 1079: "Mais ceux qui sont extremement malades sont excusez +d'appliquer toutes herbes a la douleur pour l'appaiser, quand elle est +insupportable, attendant le bon medecin, que j'estime devoir estre un +bon Concile, pour une si furieuse et dangereuse maladie." Letter of +Catharine to the Bishop of Rennes, Aug. 23, 1561, _apud_ Le Laboureur, +Add. to Castelnau, i. 727.] + +[Footnote 1080: An incident, preserved for us by Languet, which happened +about this time, reveals somewhat of Catharine's temper and of the +doubts that pervaded the young king's mind. On Corpus Christi day, the +queen mother, in conversation with her son, recommended to him that, +while duly reverencing the sacrament, he should not entertain so gross a +belief as that the bread which was carried around in the procession was +the very body of Christ which hung from the cross. Charles replied that +he had received the same warning from others, but coupled with the +injunction that he should say nothing about it to any one. "Yet," +responded Catharine smiling, "you must take care not to forsake your +ancestral religion, lest your kingdom may be thrown into confusion, and +you yourself be driven into banishment." To which Charles aptly replied: +"The Queen of England has changed the religion of her kingdom, but no +one gives her any trouble." Epist. secr., ii. 127.] + +[Footnote 1081: De Thou (iii., liv. xxviii., pp. 60-63) gives the +substance, Gerdesius (Scrinium Antiq., v. 339, _seq._) the text of this +extraordinary letter. See also Jean de Serres, i. 212, etc.] + +[Footnote 1082: From Hurault's letter of July 12th, to the Bishop of +Rennes, we learn the date of the Cardinal of Ferrara's departure from +Rome--July 2d. He travelled so slowly, however, that it was not until +September 19th that he reached St. Germain.] + +[Footnote 1083: "Que je n'avoys recu change depuis qu'il n'avoit voulu +parler a moy de peur d'estre excommunie." Letter of Beza to Calvin, Aug. +25, 1561, Baum, ii. Appendix, 46. This long and important letter, giving +a graphic account of the first days of Beza at St. Germain, was signed, +for safety's sake, "T. de Chalonoy," and addressed to "Monsieur +d'Espeville, a Villedieu." The Duke d'Aumale has also published this +letter in his Histoire des Princes de Conde, i. 340-342. There are some +striking differences in the two; none more noteworthy than the omission +in Prof. Baum's copy of a sentence which very clearly marks the distrust +still felt by the reformers of the upright Chancellor L'Hospital. After +reference to L'Hospital's greeting, Beza originally wrote: "Force me fut +de le suyvre, mais ce fut avec un tel visage qu'il congnut assez que je +le congnoissois." From the later copy and from the Latin translation +inserted by Beza himself in the collection of Calvin's letters, these +words are omitted.] + +[Footnote 1084: "Avec une troupe cent foys plus grande que je n'eusse +desire." _Ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1085: Letter of Beza of Aug. 25th, _ubi supra_. Beza, to whom +Conde immediately afterward gave an account of the act of +reconciliation, was not altogether satisfied with it. I have spoken of +it as unfortunate, because it removed all the obstacles to the more +complete union of the constable and the Guises against the Huguenots. La +Place, 140; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 56.] + +[Footnote 1086: "Estant arrivez a la court, ilz y furent mieux +accueillis que n'eust este le pape de Rome, s'il y fust venu." Mem. de +Claude Haton, i. 155.] + +[Footnote 1087: Letter of Beza of Aug. 25th, Baum. ii., Appendix, 47-54; +La Place, 155-157; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 64; Hist. eccles. des +egl. ref. i. 309-312.] + +[Footnote 1088: "Nous confessons, dy-je, que panis est corpus +sacramentale, et pour definir que c'est a dire _sacramentaliter_, nous +disons qu'encores que le corps soit aujourd'huy au ciel et non ailleurs, +et les signes soyent en la terre avec nous, toutefoys aussi +veritablement nous est donne ce corps et recu par nous, moyennant la +foy," etc. Baum, ii. App., 52.] + +[Footnote 1089: "Je le croy ainsy, dit-il, Madame, et voila qui me +contente." Ibid., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1090: "Sed illud totum ita complectebatur, ut satis ostenderet +penitus se non tenere quid hoc rei esset. Agnoscebat enim se aliis +studiis tempus impendisse." Beza, _ubi supra_, p. 50. The Latin version +of Beza's letter of August 25th, made under the writer's own +supervision, for publication with a selection of Calvin's letters +(Geneva, 1576), contains a fuller account of the discussion than the +French original actually despatched. See Baum, _ubi supra_, 45-54.] + +[Footnote 1091: "Cardinalis testatus iterum non urgere se +transubstantiationem." Latin version, _ubi supra_. "Car, disoit il, pour +la transsubstantiation je ne suys poinct d'advis qu'il y ayt schisme en +l'eglise." French original, _ubi supra_, 50, 51.] + +[Footnote 1092: "Tum ego ad reginam conversus: 'Ecce inquam +sacramentarios illos tam diu vexatos, et omnibus calumniis oppressos.' +'Escoutez vous,' dit elle, 'Monsieur le cardinal? Il dit que les +sacrementaires n'out point aultre opinion que ceste-cy a laquelle vous +accordez.'" Letter of Beza, _ubi supra_, 52.] + +[Footnote 1093: Cf. letter of Beza, _ubi supra_, 47 and 52.] + +[Footnote 1094: "Vous trouverez que je ne suis pas si noir qu'on me +faict." Beza, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1095: "Bon homme pour ce soir, mays demain quoy?" Beza, _ubi +supra_.] + +[Footnote 1096: "Le lendemain le bruict courut, non seulement a la cour, +mais aussi a Possy, et jusques aux pays loingtains, que de Beze avoit +este vaincu et reduict par le cardinal de Lorraine au premier colloque +faict entr'eux." La Place, 157. So Beza himself heard the very morning +he wrote: "Or est-il que tout ce matin il n'a cesse de se venter qu'il +m'a convaincu et reduict a son opinion;" but he adds: "J'ay bons +tesmoins et bons garants, Dieu mercy, de tout le contraire." _Ubi +supra_. So also in his letter of Aug. 30th (Ib., 59): "Cardinalis +fortiter jactat me primo statim congressu a se superatum, sed a +gravissimis tesbibus refellitur." "Ce que le Connetable ayant dit a le +Reine a son disner, comme s'en rejouissant, elle lui dict tout +hautement, comme celle qui avoit assiste, qu'il estoit tres-mal +informe." Histoire eccles. des egl. ref., i. 312.] + +[Footnote 1097: "Duodecima hujus mensis profectos esse in aulam octo ex +fratribus nostris, quibus nunc accessit noster Galasius." Letter of +Beza, Aug. 22, 1561, Baum, 2 App., 44.] + +[Footnote 1098: Aug. 17th. Hist. eccles., i. 308, etc., where this +document is given; La Place, 154; Letter of Beza of Aug. 22d, _ubi +supra_, 45.] + +[Footnote 1099: La Place, 154. "Ce meme jour selon nostre requeste a +este accorde que nous serons ouys et que nos parties ne seront nos +juges, mais il y a encore de l'encloueure qui fait que n'avons encore eu +une reponse resolutive, laquelle on diet que nous aurons solemnement et +en cour pleniere." Beza, letter of Aug. 25th, Baum, ii., App., 47] + +[Footnote 1100: La Place, _ubi supra_. "Nous avons entendu a ce matin +qu'on avoyt mis en deliberation au conseil, si nous devions estre ouys +selon nostre requeste. Mais la royne a tranche tout court, qu'elle ne +vouloit point qu'on deliberat de cela, mais qu'elle vouloyt que nous +fussions ouys, qu'on regardast seulement aux conditions par nous +proposees. Les ecclesiastiques qui estoyent presens out dit qu'ils ne +vouloyent rien respondre de ceste affaire, qu'ils n'en eussent parle a +leurs compaygnons." Letter of Francois de Morel, Aug. 25, 1561, Baum, +ii., App., 55.] + +[Footnote 1101: On the 9th of June, 1561, Hist. eccles. des egl. ref, i. +308.] + +[Footnote 1102: Letter of Beza to Calvin, Sept. 12, 1561, Baum, ii., +App., 60.] + +[Footnote 1103: "Eo deventum est ut necesse fuerit nos parenti Reginae +testari statim discessuros nisi nobis adversus hostium audaciam +caveretur." Beza, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1104: Beza to Calvin, Sept. 12, 1561, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1105: Not unreasonably did the queen mother allege--and none +knew it better than she--that even written engagements derive their +chief value from the good faith of those that make them: "Que il estoit +malaise mesmes avec l'escripture d'empescher de decevoir celuy qui ha +intention de tromper." La Place, 157.] + +[Footnote 1106: "Sans rien chercher que la gloire de Dieu, de laquelle +elle estimoit qu'ils fussent studieux et amateurs." La Place, 157. +Compare the letter of Catharine to the Bp. of Rennes, Sept. 14, 1561, +_apud_ Le Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i, 733.] + +[Footnote 1107: Beza to Calvin, Sept. 12, 1561, _ubi supra_; La Place, +157; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 314.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY AND THE EDICT OF JANUARY. + + +[Sidenote: The Huguenot ministers and delegates.] + +On Tuesday, the ninth of September, 1561, the long-expected conference +was to be opened. That morning, at ten o'clock, a procession of +ministers and delegates of the Reformed churches left St. +Germain-en-Laye on horseback for the village of Poissy. The ministers, +twelve in number, were men of note: Theodore de Beze, or Beza, with whom +the reader is already well acquainted; Augustin Marlorat, a native of +Lorraine, formerly a monk, but now famous in the Protestant ranks, and +the leading pastor in Rouen, a man over fifty years of age; Francois de +Saint Paul, a learned theologian and the founder of the churches of +Montelimart, a delegate from Provence; Jean Raymond Merlin, professor of +Hebrew at Geneva, and chaplain of Admiral Coligny; Jean Malot, pastor at +Paris; Francois de Morel, who had presided in the First National Synod +of 1559, and had recently been given to the Duchess Renee of Ferrara, as +her private chaplain; Nicholas Folion, surnamed La Vallee, a former +doctor of the Sorbonne, now pastor at Orleans; Claude de la Boissiere, +of Saintes; Jean Bouquin, of Oleron; Jean Virel; Jean de la Tour, a +patriarch of nearly seventy years; and Nicholas des Gallars, who, after +having been a prominent preacher at Geneva and Paris, had for the past +two years ministered to the large congregation of French refugees in +London. It was a body of Huguenot theologians unsurpassed for ability by +any others within the kingdom.[1108] + +So high ran the excitement of the populace, stirred up by frequent +appeals to the worst passions in the human breast, and by highly-colored +accounts of the boldness with which the "new doctrines" had for weeks +been preached within the precincts of the court, that serious +apprehension was entertained lest Beza and his companions might be +assaulted by the way.[1109] The peaceable ministers of religion were, +therefore, accompanied by a strong escort of one hundred mounted archers +of the royal guard. After a ride of less than half an hour, they reached +the nuns' convent, in which the prelates had been holding their +sessions. + +[Sidenote: Assembly in the nuns' refectory.] + +[Sidenote: The prelates.] + +Meantime, an august and imposing assembly was gathered in the spacious +conventual refectory.[1110] On an elevated seat, upon the dais at its +farther extremity, was the king, on whose youthful shoulders rested the +crushing weight of the government of a kingdom rent by discordant +sentiments and selfish factions, and already upon the verge of an open +civil war. Near him sat his wily mother--that "merchant's daughter" +whose plebeian origin the first Christian baron of France had pointed +out with ill-disguised contempt, but whose plans and purposes had now +acquired such world-wide importance that grave diplomats and shrewd +churchmen esteemed the difficult riddle of her sphinx-like countenance +and character a worthy subject of prolonged study. Not far from their +royal brother, were two children: the elder, a boy of ten years, Edward +Alexander, a few years later to appear on the pages of history under +the altered name of Henry the Third, the last Valois King of France; the +younger, a girl of nine--that Margaret of Valois and Navarre, whose +nuptials have attained a celebrity as wide as the earth and as lasting +as the records of religious dissensions. Antoine and Louis of Bourbon, +brothers by blood but not in character; Jeanne d'Albret, heiress of +Navarre, more queenly at heart than many a sovereign with dominions far +exceeding the contracted territory of Bearn; the princes representing +more distant branches of the royal stock, and the members of the council +of state, completed the group. On two long benches, running along the +opposite sides of the hall, the prelates were arranged according to +their dignities. Tournon, Lorraine, and Chatillon, each in full +cardinal's robes, faced their brethren of the Papal Consistory, +Armagnac, Bourbon, and Guise, while a long row of archbishops and +bishops filled out the line on either side. Altogether, forty or fifty +prelates, with numerous attendant theologians and members of the +superior clergy, regular and secular, had been marshalled to oppose the +little band of reformers.[1111] + +It was an array of pomp and power, of ecclesiastical place and wealth +and ambition, of traditional and hereditary nobility, of all that an +ancient and powerful church could muster to meet the attack of fresh and +vigorous thought, the inroad of moral and religious reforms, the +irrepressible conflict of a faith based solely upon a written +revelation. The external promise of victory was all on the side of the +prelates. Yet, strange to say, the engagement that was about to take +place was none of their seeking. With the exception of the Cardinal of +Lorraine, they were well-nigh unanimous in reprobating a venture from +which they apprehended only disaster. Perhaps even Lorraine now repented +his presumption, and felt less assured of his dialectic skill since he +had tried the mettle of his Genevese antagonist. Rarely has battle been +forced upon an army after a greater number of fruitless attempts to +avoid it than those made by the French ecclesiastics, backed by the +alternate solicitations and menaces of Pius the Fourth, and Philip of +Spain. Such reluctance was ominous. + +On the other side, the feeling of the reformers was, indeed, confidence +in the excellence of the cause they represented, but confidence not +unmingled with anxiety. + +[Sidenote: Diffidence of Beza.] + +A letter written by Beza only a few days before affords us a glimpse of +the secret apprehensions of the Protestants. "If Martyr come in time," +he wrote Calvin, "that is, if he greatly hasten, his arrival will +refresh us exceedingly. We shall have to do with veteran sophists, and, +although we be confident that the simple truth of the Word will prove +victorious, yet it is not in the power of every man instantly to resolve +their artifices and allege the sayings of the Fathers. Moreover, it will +be necessary for us to make such answers that we shall not seem, to the +circle of princes and others that stand by, to be seeking to evade the +question. In short, when I contemplate these difficulties, I become +exceedingly anxious, and much do I deplore our fault in neglecting the +excellent instruments which God has given us, and thus in a manner +appearing to tempt His goodness. Meanwhile, however, we have resolved +not to retreat, and we trust in Him who has promised us a wisdom which +the world cannot resist.... Direct us, my father, like children by your +counsels in your absence from us, since you cannot be present with us. +For, simple children I daily see and feel that we are, from whose mouth +I hope that our wonderful Lord will perfect the praise of His +wisdom."[1112] + +[Sidenote: L'Hospital explains the objects in view.] + +The king opened the conference with a few words before the Protestants +were admitted,[1113] and then called upon the chancellor to explain more +fully the objects of the gathering. Hereupon Michel de L'Hospital, +seating himself, by Charles's direction, on a stool at the king's right +hand, set forth at considerable length the religious dissensions which +had fallen upon France, and the ineffectual measures to which the king +and his predecessors had from time to time resorted. Severity and +mildness had proved equally futile. Dangerous division had crept in. He +begged the assembled prelates to heal this disease of the body politic, +to appease the anger of God visibly resting upon the kingdom by every +means in their power; especially to reform any abuses contrary to God's +word and the ordinances of the apostles, which the sloth or ignorance of +the clergy might have introduced, and thus remove every excuse which +their enemies might possess for slandering them and disturbing the peace +of the country. As the chief cause of sedition was diversity of +religious opinion, Charles had acceded to the advice of two previous +assemblies, and had granted a safe-conduct to the ministers of the new +sect, hoping that an amicable conference with them would be productive +of great advantage. He, therefore, prayed the company to receive them as +a father receives his children, and to take pains to instruct them. +Then, at all events, it could not be said, as had so often been said in +the past, that the dissenters had been condemned without a hearing. +Minutes of the proceedings carefully made and disseminated through the +kingdom would prove that the doctrine they professed had been refuted, +not by violence or authority, but by cogent reasoning. Charles would +continue to be the protector of the Gallican Church.[1114] + +[Sidenote: The Huguenots are summoned.] + +[Sidenote: Beza's retort.] + +These preliminaries over, the Protestants were summoned. Conducted by +the captain of the royal guard, they entered and advanced toward the +king, until their farther progress was arrested by a railing which +separated the space allotted to the king and his courtiers, with the +assembled prelates, from the lower end of the hall filled by a crowd of +curious spectators.[1115] No place had been assigned the Protestants +where they might sit during the colloquy on an equality with their +opponents, the Romish ecclesiastics. They were subjected to the paltry +indignity of appearing in the guise of culprits brought to the bar to be +judged and condemned. In truth, the spirit of conciliation which +L'Hospital had been at so much pains to inculcate had found little +welcome in the breast of the prelates. "Here come the Genevese curs," +exclaimed a cardinal as the reformers made their appearance. +"Certainly," quietly retorted Beza, whose ear had caught the insulting +expression, turning to the quarter whence it came, "faithful dogs are +needed in the Lord's sheep-fold to bark at the rapacious wolves."[1116] + +[Sidenote: Beza's prayer and address.] + +When the twelve ministers had reached the bar, Theodore Beza, at their +request, addressed the king: "Sire, since the issue of all enterprises, +both great and small, depends upon the aid and favor of our God, and +chiefly when these enterprises concern the interests of His service and +matters which surpass the capacity of our understandings, we hope that +your Majesty will not find it amiss or strange if we begin by the +invocation of His name, supplicating Him after the following manner." + +As the orator pronounced these words, he reverently kneeled upon the +floor. His colleagues and the delegates of the churches followed his +example. A deep solemnity fell upon the assembly. According to one +account of the scene, even the Roman cardinals stood with uncovered +heads while the Huguenot minister prayed. Catharine de' Medici joined +with still greater devotion, while King Charles remained seated on his +throne.[1117] After a moment's pause, Beza, with hands stretched out to +heaven, according to the custom of the reformed churches of +France,[1118] commenced his prayer with the confession of sins which in +the Genevan liturgy of Calvin formed the introduction to the worship of +the Lord's day.[1119] + +"Lord God! Almighty and everlasting Father, we acknowledge and confess +before Thy holy majesty that we are miserable sinners, conceived and +born in guilt and corruption, prone to do evil, unfit for any good; who, +by reason of our depravity, transgress without end Thy holy +commandments. Wherefore we have drawn upon ourselves by Thy just +sentence, condemnation and death. Nevertheless, O Lord, with heartfelt +sorrow we repent and deplore our offences; and we condemn ourselves and +our evil ways, with a true repentance beseeching that Thy grace may +relieve our distress. Be pleased, therefore, to have compassion upon us, +O most gracious God! Father of all mercies; for the sake of thy son +Jesus Christ, our Lord and only Redeemer. And, in removing our guilt and +pollution, set us free and grant us the daily increase of Thy Holy +Spirit; to the end that, acknowledging from our inmost hearts our +unrighteousness, we may be touched with a sorrow that shall work true +repentance, and that this may mortify all our sins, and thereby bear the +fruit of holiness and righteousness that shall be well-pleasing to thee, +through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord and only Saviour. + +"And, inasmuch as it pleaseth Thee this day so far to exhibit Thy favor +to Thy poor and unprofitable servants, as to enable them with freedom, +and in the presence of the king whom Thou hast set over them, and of the +most noble and illustrious company on earth, to declare that which Thou +hast given them to know of Thy holy Truth, may it please Thee to +continue the course of Thy goodness and loving kindness, O God and +Father of lights, and so to illumine our understandings, guide our +affections, and form them to all teachableness, and so to order our +words, that in all simplicity and truth, after having conceived, +according to the measure which it shall please Thee to grant unto us, +the secrets Thou hast revealed to men for their salvation, we may be +able, both with heart and voice to propose that which may conduce to the +honor and glory of Thy holy name, and the prosperity and greatness of +our king and of all those who belong to him, with the rest and comfort +of all Christendom, and especially of this kingdom. O Almighty Lord and +Father, we ask Thee all these things in the name and for the sake of +Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Saviour, as He Himself hath taught us to seek +them, saying: 'Our Father, which art in heaven, etc.'"[1120] + +[Sidenote: His conciliatory remarks.] + +Having concluded his petitions, Beza arose from his knees, and addressed +the king. His speech was graceful and conciliatory.[1121] It was a great +privilege, he said, for a faithful and affectionate subject to be +permitted to see his prince, and thus to be more clearly impressed with +the fealty and submission which is his due. Still happier was he if +permitted to be seen by his prince, and, what was more important, to be +heard, and finally accepted and approved by him. To these great +advantages a part of Charles's very humble and obedient subjects, much +to their regret, had long been strangers. It were sufficient ground for +gratitude to God to the end of their days that now at length they were +granted an audience before the king and so noble and illustrious a +company. But, when the same day that admitted them into the royal +presence also invited, or rather kindly and gently constrained them +with common voice to confess the name of their God, and declare the +obedience they owed Him, their minds were so incompetent to conceive, +their tongues so inadequate to utter the promptings of their hearts, +that they preferred to confess their impotence by modest silence rather +than to disparage so great a benefit by the defect of their words. Yet +one of the points they had so long desired was still unfulfilled, and +that the most important, namely the acceptance of their service as +agreeable. Would to God that so happy a termination might by their +coming be put, not so much to their past sufferings--of which the memory +was well-nigh extinguished by this joyful day--as to the troubles that +had afflicted the kingdom in consequence of religious dissensions, and +to the attending ruin of so great a number of the king's poor subjects. + +[Sidenote: The Huguenots victims of calumny.] + +[Sidenote: Their creed.] + +[Sidenote: Points of agreement.] + +[Sidenote: His declaration as to the body of Christ.] + +What, then, had hitherto prevented the Huguenots from obtaining a boon +so long and ardently desired? It was the belief entertained by some that +they were, through ambition or restless love of innovation, the enemies +of all concord, and the impression in the minds of others that their +arrogance demanded impossible conditions of peace. The prejudice arising +from this and other sources to which he avoided an allusion, lest he +might seem to be reopening old wounds, was so strong, that the reformed +would have good reason to give way to despair, were they not sustained +by a good conscience, by their assurance of the gentleness and equity of +Charles and the illustrious princes of the blood, and by a charitable +presumption that the prelates with whom they had come to confer were +disposed to exert themselves with them in the common endeavor rather to +make the truth clear than to obscure it. Respecting the extent of the +differences between the prelatic and the reformed beliefs, those who +represented them as of insignificant importance, and those who made them +as great as between the creed of Christians and the creed of Jews or +Moslems, were equally mistaken. If in some of the principal articles of +the Christian faith there was full agreement, on others, alas! there was +an opposition between their tenets. The orator here enumerated in +considerable detail the articles of the ancient creeds in which the +Huguenot, not less than the Roman Catholic, professed his concurrence. +What then, some one would say, are not these the terms of our belief? In +what are we at variance? To which inquiry the true answer was, that the +two sides differed not only because they gave some of these articles +divergent interpretations, but because the Church had built upon this +foundation a structure that comported little with it, "as if the +Christian religion were an edifice which was never finished." To speak +with greater detail, the reformed maintained, in opposition to the +Romish theory, that there could be no satisfaction for sin save in +Christ, and that to suppose the blessed Saviour to pay but a part of the +price of man's salvation, would be to rob him of his perfect mercy, and +of his offices of prophet, priest, and king. They agreed with the +Romanists neither in their definition of justifying faith, nor in their +account of its origin and effects. The same might be said respecting +good works. And, again, as to the Holy Scriptures, they received the Old +and New Testaments as the word of God and the complete revelation of all +that is necessary for salvation, and consequently, as the touchstone for +testing the Fathers, the councils, and the traditions of the Church. Two +points remained for consideration: the sacraments and the government of +the Church. "We are agreed, in our opinion," said Beza, "regarding the +meaning of the word sacrament. The sacraments are visible signs by means +of which our union with our Lord Jesus Christ is not merely signified or +set forth, but is truly offered to us on the Lord's side, and therefore +confirmed, sealed, and, as it were, engraved by the Holy Spirit's +efficiency in those who by a true faith apprehend Him who is thus +signified and presented to them. We, consequently, agree that in the +sacraments there must necessarily supervene a heavenly, a supernatural +change. For we do not assert that the water of holy baptism is simply +water, but that it is a true sacrament of our regeneration, and of the +washing of our souls in the blood of Jesus Christ. So also we do not say +that the bread is simply bread, but the sacrament of the precious body +of our Lord Jesus Christ which was offered up for us. Yet we do not say +that this change takes place in the substance of the signs, but in the +use and end for which they are ordained." The reformer then touched +upon the doctrines of transubstantiation and consubstantiation; both of +which he rejected. "If then," he continued, "some one asks us, whether +we make Jesus Christ absent from His Holy Supper, we answer that we do +not. But, if we regard the local distance (as we must do, when His +corporeal presence and His humanity distinctly considered are in +question), we say that His body is as far removed from the bread and +wine as the highest heaven is from the earth; since, as to ourselves, we +are on the earth, and the sacraments also; while, as to Him, His flesh +is in heaven, so glorified that his glory, as says St. Augustine, has +not taken away from Him the nature, but only the infirmity of a true +body." + +[Sidenote: Outcry of the theologians of the Sorbonne.] + +The last words of the sentence were inaudible, except to those who were +close to the speaker. The words, "We say that His body is as far removed +from the bread and wine as the highest heaven is from the earth," had +fired the train to the magazine of concealed impatience and anger +underlying the studied external calmness of the prelatical body. An +explosion instantly ensued. The cry, "Blasphemavit! Blasphemavit Deum!" +resounded from every quarter.[1122] Beza's voice was drowned in the +noisy expressions of disapproval by which the theologians of the +Sorbonne sought to testify their own unimpeachable orthodoxy.[1123] It +seemed for the moment as if the ecclesiastics would continue their +repetition of the words and actions of the Jewish high-priest in the +ancient Sanhedrim, and break up the conference with the exclamation: +"What further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard his +blasphemy." Some of the prelates arose as if to leave, and Cardinal +Tournon went so far as to address himself to Charles and beg him either +to impose silence upon Beza, or to permit him and his brother +ecclesiastics to retire. But no notice was taken of his request.[1124] +On the contrary, the queen and the Cardinal of Lorraine felt constrained +to express their displeasure at this outburst of passion on the part of +the prelates, and their desire that the conference should proceed.[1125] + +[Sidenote: Beza's peroration.] + +When the storm had somewhat spent its violence, and comparative silence +had been restored, Beza, in no wise discomposed by the uproar, resumed +his interrupted discourse. He deemed it unnecessary to dwell upon the +matter of the administration of holy baptism, he said, for none could +confound the reformers with the Anabaptists, who found no more +determined enemies than they were. With respect to the other five +sacraments of the Romish Church, while the reformed refused to designate +them by that name, they believed that among themselves true confirmation +was established, penitence enjoined, marriage celebrated, ordination +conferred, and the visitation of the sick and dying practised, +conformably to God's Word. The last point--the government of the +Church--Beza despatched with a few words; for, appealing to the prelates +themselves to testify to the results of their recent deliberations, he +described the structure ecclesiastic as one in which everything was so +perverted, everything in such confusion and ruin, that scarce could the +best architects in the world, whether they considered the present order +or had regard to life and morals, recognize the remains, or detect the +traces of that ancient edifice so symmetrically laid out and reared by +the apostles. He closed by declaring the fervent desire of those whose +spokesman he was for the restoration of the Church to its pristine +purity, and by making on their behalf a warm profession of loyalty and +devotion to their earthly king. As he concluded, Beza and his associates +again kneeled in prayer. Then rising, he presented anew to Charles the +confession of faith of the reformed churches, begging him to receive it +as the basis of the present conference between their delegates and the +Romish prelates.[1126] + +[Sidenote: Cardinal Tournon tries to cut short the conference.] + +As soon as Beza had ended his speech, Cardinal Tournon, the oldest +member of the Papal consistory in France, and presiding officer in the +convocation of the prelates, rose, trembling with anger, and addressed +the king. It was only by express command of Charles, he said, that the +prelates had consented to hear "these new evangelists." They had +hesitated from conscientious scruples, fearing, with good reason, as the +event had proved, that they would utter words unworthy of entering the +ears of a very Christian king, and calculated to offend the good people +around him. It was for this reason that the ecclesiastical convocation +had instructed him, in such case, humbly to entreat his Majesty to give +no credit to the words of him who had spoken for "those of the new +religion," and to suspend his judgment until he had heard the answer +they intended to give. But for their respect for the king, he said, the +prelates, on hearing the abominable blasphemies pronounced in their +hearing, would have risen and broken off the colloquy. He prayed Charles +with the greatest humility to persevere in the faith of his fathers, and +invoked the Virgin Mary and the blessed saints of paradise that thus it +might be.[1127] + +[Sidenote: Catharine's decision.] + +How long the age-stricken cardinal, the active persecutor of an entire +generation of reformers, would have proceeded in his diatribe against +the "blasphemy" of the Genevese doctor, is doubtful. He was cut short in +the midst of it by the queen mother, who, in a decided tone, informed +him that the plan of the conference had been adopted only after mature +deliberation, with the advice of the council of state and by consent of +parliament. No change or innovation was contemplated, but the appeasing +of the troubles incident upon diversity of religious sentiment, and the +restoration to the right path of such as had erred. The matter in hand +was to demonstrate the truth by means of the simple Word of God, which +should be the sole rule. "We are here," she said, "for the purpose of +hearing you on both sides, and of considering the matter on its own +merits. Therefore, reply to the speech of Sieur de Beze which you have +just heard." "The speech was too long for us to undertake to answer it +on the spur of the moment," responded Tournon, in a more tractable tone; +but he promised that, if a copy of it were given to them in writing, a +suitable refutation would soon be forthcoming on the part of the +prelates.[1128] Thus the conference broke up for the day. + +[Sidenote: Advantages gained.] + +It could not be denied that Beza had spoken with great effect. For the +first time in forty years the Reformation had obtained a partial +hearing. The time-honored fashion of condemning its professors without +even the formality of a trial had for once been violated; and, to the +satisfaction of some and the dismay of many, it was found that the +arguments that could be alleged in its behalf were neither few nor +insignificant. The Huguenots had acquired a new position in the eyes of +the court; that was certain. They were not a few seditious persons, who +must be put down. They were not a handful of enthusiasts, whom it were +folly to attempt to reason with. The child had become a full-grown man, +whose prejudices--if prejudices they were--must be overcome by calm +argument, rather than removed by chastisement.[1129] If the studied +arrangement of the bar at the Colloquy of Poissy had been employed by +the petty malice of their opponents in order to give them the aspect of +convicted culprits, public opinion, unbiassed by such solemn trifling, +regarded the disputants as equals in the eye of the law, and attempted +to derive from the bearing of the champions some impression concerning +the justice of their respective positions. + +The change in the basis for the settlement of the controversy was not +less apparent. For an entire generation the advocates of Protestantism +had been pressing the claims of the Holy Scriptures as the ultimate +authority for the decision of all doubtful questions. The only reply was +a reference to the dogmas of the Church, and the demand of an +unconditional submission to them. Beza had only reiterated the offer, +made a thousand times by his fellow-reformers, to surrender at once his +religious position should it be rendered untenable by means of proofs +drawn from the Scriptures. Cardinal Tournon had again made the trite +rejoinder of the clergy; but sensible persons were tired of the +unsatisfactory repetition. Catharine had given expression to the +peremptory requisition of all enlightened France when she announced the +sole appeal as lying to the "simple Word of God." + +[Sidenote: Brilliant success of Beza.] + +From this exhibition of his brilliant oratorical powers, and from those +displays that shortly followed, Theodore Beza acquired the highest +reputation both with friend and foe. Even those who would have it that +"he deceived the people," that his acquirements were superficial, that +he lacked good judgment, and, on the whole, had "a very hideous soul," +could not help admitting that he was of a fine presence, ready wit, and +keen intellect, and that his excellent choice of language and ready +utterance entitled him to the credit of eloquence.[1130] On the other +hand, nothing could exceed the admiration and love excited by his ardent +espousal of their cause in the breasts of the Protestants in all parts +of the kingdom. His appearance at Poissy became their favorite episode +in recent history. His portrait was hung up in many a chamber. He was +almost adored by whole multitudes of Frenchmen,[1131] as one whom noble +birth, learning, and brilliant prospects had not deterred from following +the dictates of his conscientious convictions; whom security in a +foreign land had not rendered indifferent to the interests of the land +of his birth; whose persuasive eloquence had won new adherents to the +cause of the oppressed from among the rich and noble; who had maintained +the truth unabashed in the presence of the king and "of the most +illustrious company on earth." + +[Sidenote: His frankness justified.] + +Nor will the candid student of history, if he but consider the attitude +of the prelates at the colloquy of Poissy, be more inclined than were +the Protestants of his own day to censure Theodore Beza for any degree +of alleged injudiciousness exhibited in that celebrated sentence in his +speech which provoked the outburst of indignation on the part of Tournon +and his colleagues. What, forsooth, had their reverences come to the +colloquy expecting to hear from the lips of the reformed orators? If not +the most orthodox of sentiments--more orthodox than many sentiments +whose proclamation had been tolerated in their own private +convocation--was there not a moderate allowance of hypocrisy in their +pretended horror at the impiety of the heretic Beza? For certainly it +was scarcely to be anticipated by the most sanguine that he would +profess an unwavering belief in the transmutation of the substance of +the bread and wine into the very body and blood of Jesus Christ that +suffered on the cross; seeing that for a little more than a third of a +century those of whom he was the avowed representative had, it must be +admitted, pretty clearly testified to the contrary on a thousand +"estrapades" from the _Place de Greve_ to the remotest corner of France. +Surely this extreme sensitiveness, this refined orthodoxy, unable to +endure the simple enunciation of an opinion differing from their own on +the part of an avowed opponent, savored a little of affectation; the +more so as it came from prelates whose solicitude for their flocks had +been manifested more in the way of seeking to obtain as large a number +of folds as possible, than in the way of giving any special pastoral +supervision to one, and who found a more congenial residence at the +dissolute court where pleasures and preferment could best be obtained, +than in obscure dioceses where a rude peasantry were thirsting for +instruction in the first rudiments of a Christian education. The truth +was--and no one was so blind as not to see it--that the Romish prelates +had come determined to seize the first good opportunity to break up the +colloquy, because from the colloquy they had good reason to apprehend +serious injury to their interests. Nothing short of a complete betrayal +of his cause by Beza could have precluded this.[1132] Had he been never +so cautious, he could not have avoided giving some handle to those who +were watching him so closely. Not the nature of the sentiment he +expressed, but the danger lest the prelates might take advantage of it +to refuse peremptorily to proceed with the colloquy, was the true ground +of Catharine's displeasure.[1133] In order to remove this, so far as it +might be based upon any misapprehension of the import of his words, Beza +addressed to the queen, on the next day, a dignified but conciliatory +letter of explanation.[1134] + +[Sidenote: The prelates' notion of a conference.] + +A full week elapsed before the Cardinal of Lorraine was ready to make +his reply. Meantime the prelates had met, and had resolved that, instead +of embracing a discussion of the entire field of controversy between the +two churches, the conference should be restricted to _two_ points--the +nature of the church and the sacraments. It was even proposed that a +formula of faith should be drawn up and submitted to the Protestant +ministers. If they refused to subscribe to it, they were to be formally +excommunicated, and the conference abruptly broken off. Such was the +crude notion of a colloquy conceived by the prelates. No discussion at +all, if possible![1135] Otherwise only on those points where agreement +was most difficult, and it was easiest to excite the _odium theologicum_ +of the by-standers. On the other hand, when this came to the ears of the +Protestants, they felt constrained to draw up another solemn protest to +the king against the folly of making the prelates judges in a suit in +which they appeared also as one of the parties--a course so impolitic +that it would rob the colloquy of all the good effects that had been +expected to flow from it.[1136] + +[Sidenote: September 16th.] + +[Sidenote: Peter Martyr arrives.] + +[Sidenote: The Cardinal of Lorraine's reply.] + +[Sidenote: The Huguenots to wait for their faith to grow old.] + +The remonstrance was not without its effect. On the next day, the +sixteenth of September, the same assemblage was again gathered in the +conventual refectory of Poissy, to hear the reply of the Cardinal of +Lorraine. The reformers appeared as on the previous occasion; but their +ranks had received a notable accession in the venerable Peter Martyr, +just arrived from Zurich. The prelates had, it is true, objected to the +admission of a native of Italy; for the invitation, it was urged, had +been extended only to Frenchmen. But the queen, who had greeted her +distinguished countryman with flattering marks of attention, interfered +in his behalf, and, at the last moment, announced it to be her desire +that he should appear at the colloquy.[1137] The same trickery that had +brought Beza to the bar, in order to give him the appearance of a +criminal put upon trial, rather than that of the representative of a +religious party claiming to possess the unadulterated truth, assigned +Charles of Lorraine a pulpit among his brother prelates, where, with a +theologian more proficient in theological controversy at his elbow, he +could assume the air of a judge giving his final sentence respecting the +matters in dispute.[1138] His long exordium was devoted to a +consideration of the royal and the sacerdotal authority, each of which +he in turn extolled. Then passing to the particular occasion of the +convocation of so goodly a number of archbishops, bishops, and +theologians--to all of whom he professed himself inferior in +intelligence, knowledge, and eloquence--he expressed most sincere pity +for the persons who a week ago had, by the king's command, been +introduced into this assembly--persons long separated from the prelates +by a discordant profession of faith and by insubordination, but showing, +according to their own assertions, some desire to be instructed by +returning to this their native land and to the house of their fathers, +who stood ready to receive and embrace them as children so soon as they +should recognize the Church's authority. He would utter no reproaches, +but compassionate their infirmity. He would recall, not reject; unite, +not separate. The prelates had gladly heard the confession of faith the +Huguenots had made, and heartily wished that, as they agreed in the +words of that document, so they might also agree in the interpretation +of its articles. Dismissing the consideration of the remaining points, +as requiring more time than could be given on a single day, the cardinal +undertook to prove only two positions, viz.: that the Church is not an +invisible, but a visible organization, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is +really and bodily present in the Holy Supper. He then called upon the +reformed ministers, if, in their views respecting the eucharist, they +could accord neither with the Latin Church, nor with the Greek, nor with +the Lutherans of Germany, at least to seek that solitude for which they +seemed to long. "If you have so little desire to approach our faith and +our practice," he said, "go also farther from us, and disturb no longer +the flocks over which you have no legitimate charge, according to the +authority which we have of God; and, allowing your new opinions, if God +permit, to grow as old as our doctrine and traditions have grown, you +will restore peace to many troubled consciences and leave your native +land at rest." He urged Charles to cling steadfastly to the faith of his +ancestors, of whom none had gone astray, and who had transmitted to him +the proud title of "Very Christian" and of "First Son of the Church." He +exhorted the queen mother and his other noble hearers to emulate the +glorious examples set for their imitation by Clotilde, who brought +Clovis to the Christian religion, and by their own illustrious ancestry; +and he concluded by declaring the unalterable determination of the +ecclesiastics of the Gallican Church never to forsake the holy, true, +and Catholic doctrine which they preached, and to sustain which they +would not spare their blood nor their very lives.[1139] + +[Sidenote: Tournon's new demand.] + +[Sidenote: Beza asks a hearing.] + +Such was the substance of the speech of Charles of Lorraine, so long +heralded by his brother ecclesiastics and by the devout Roman Catholics +of the land as the sure refutation of all the heresies which the +reformers might advance. It was fitting that some signal proof of its +success should be given. Scarcely had Lorraine ceased when the whole +body of prelates arose and gathered around the throne. Tournon was again +their spokesman. He declared the full approval with which the Gallican +bishops regarded the address of the Cardinal of Lorraine. They were +ready, if need be, to sign it with their own blood, for it was in +accordance with the will of Christ and of his bride, our Mother Holy +Church. They begged Charles to give it full credit, and persevere in the +Catholic faith of his fathers. Let the Protestants sign what the +cardinal had said, as a preliminary to their receiving further +instruction. If they refused, let Charles purge his very Christian realm +of them, so that there might be only "_une foy_, _une loy_, _un +roy_."[1140] He was followed at once by Theodore Beza, who, on the +contrary, urged his Majesty to grant him the liberty of replying on the +very spot to the arguments of his opponent. But Catharine, after a brief +consultation with the members of the royal council seated near her, +denied the request, and adjourned the discussion until another +occasion.[1141] + +[Sidenote: Advancing shadows of civil war.] + +The opportunity thus promised, however, seemed distant and doubtful. The +determination of the prelates to have nothing to do with any project for +a fair and equal conference was undisguised, and rumors were frequent +and ominous that the queen would yield before their resolute attitude. +The decision of the reformers, under these circumstances, was soon +taken: it was, that, if these repeated delays were persisted in, they +would leave the court, protesting against the injustice which had been +manifested to them and to their cause.[1142] Yet their anxiety was +great. That dark cloud of portentous aspect could be descried by all +sharp-sighted observers. It was the approaching storm of civil war, +every moment rising higher above the horizon.[1143] Even now its advent +was heralded by the anarchy pervading entire provinces--a righteous +retribution for the sanguinary legislation and the yet more barbarous +executions ordered by the courts of law, to repress the free action of +the human intellect in the most noble sphere in which its energies could +be exercised--the region of religious thought. + +[Sidenote: Another conference reluctantly conceded, September 24th.] + +[Sidenote: Beza's reply to the Cardinal of Lorraine.] + +[Sidenote: Claude D'Espense.] + +[Sidenote: Claude de Sainctes.] + +Another tedious week passed by. Again, in view of the threats of an +abrupt termination of the colloquy, the Huguenot ministers petitioned +Charles to give them a patient hearing; reminding him of the distance +they had come--some of their number even from foreign lands, relying on +his royal word for a friendly interview with the prelates of his +kingdom--in order to exhibit the inveterate abuses which the Pope and +his agents had introduced into the Church. Other remonstrances of like +tenor followed.[1144] At last, with great reluctance,[1145] the +twenty-fourth of September was selected for a third conference. The +obstinate resistance of the Romish ecclesiastics gained them one point. +The public character of the colloquy was abandoned.[1146] The large +refectory was exchanged for the small chamber of the prioress. The king +was not present. Catharine presided, and Antoine and Jeanne d'Albret, +with the members of the royal council, replaced the more numerous +assemblage of the previous occasions. Instead of the crowd of prelates +whose various and striking dress formed a notable feature of the +colloquy, there appeared five or six cardinals, about as many bishops, +and fifteen or sixteen theologians of the Sorbonne, laden with thick +folios--the writings of the Fathers of the first five centuries, with +which the Cardinal of Lorraine still professed his ability to confute +the Reformed.[1147] Again the twelve Huguenot ministers were admitted; +but the lay deputies of the churches were excluded.[1148] The +discussion was long and desultory. Beza began by replying to the first +part of the cardinal's speech, and showed that there is an invisible as +well as a visible church, and that the marks of the true church are the +preaching of God's Word and the right administration of the sacraments. +Not a succession of ministry from the apostles, but a succession of +doctrine is essential.[1149] He was followed by a theologian of the +Sorbonne, Claude D'Espense, who, after making the gratuitous admission +that he wholly disapproved of the persecutions to which the Protestants +had been subjected,[1150] attempted to prove that the Protestant +ministers had no "calling" to their office, and that recourse must be +had to tradition to explain and supplement the Holy Scriptures. When +Beza was about to reply, the floor was seized by a coarse Dominican +friar, one Claude de Sainctes, who in a scurrilous speech went over much +of the same ground, and, waxing more and more vehement, did not hesitate +to assert that tradition stood on a firmer foundation than the Bible +itself, which could be perverted to countenance the most opposite +doctrines.[1151] An hour and a half of precious time was wasted by this +unseasonable interruption, which had disgusted friend as well as foe. +Then Beza, after remonstrating against the long and irregular character +of the discussion, proceeded, amid frequent interruptions, to set forth +the views of the reformers respecting the extraordinary vocation which +they had received. + +[Sidenote: Lorraine demands subscription to the Augsburg Confession.] + +[Sidenote: Beza's home thrust.] + +But this portion of the debate was soon closed by the Cardinal of +Lorraine, who, declaring that the doctrine respecting the Church had +been sufficiently considered, proposed the question of the sacraments, +asserting that the prelates refused to proceed with the conference until +this should be settled. He then demanded of the ministers _whether they +would subscribe to the Augsburg Confession, which was received by the +Protestants of Germany_. His object was manifest. He had long since +resolved on adopting this course, with the view of either setting the +French reformers at war with their brethren beyond the Rhine, or sowing +dissension in the ranks of the Huguenots themselves. Beza, however, was +not unprepared for the question. He replied by asking whether the +cardinal was himself ready to give the Augsburg Confession his +unqualified approval. The wily prelate parried this home thrust, and +still persisted in his inquiry. Under these circumstances, could the +reformers have relied upon the fairness of the conduct of the +conference, their course would have been clear. But, aware that their +distinct refusal to consider a formula which their opponents were not +themselves prepared to adopt would be seized upon as a welcome pretext +for abruptly breaking off the colloquy, Beza, after declaring that he +and his brethren were deputed by the French churches to maintain their +own confession, and that this document alone furnished the proper +subject for debate, asked that a copy of the articles which they were +required to sign might be furnished him for the deliberation of his +fellow-ministers. The request was granted; and, as the session ended, a +short extract was handed to him, which asserted the real presence of +Christ's body and blood in the sacrament, and its actual reception by +those who partook of the holy ordinance.[1152] + +[Sidenote: Alternatives presented to the Huguenots.] + +[Sidenote: September 26th.] + +[Sidenote: Beza claims fair play] + +Two days later the colloquy was renewed. The delay, which had at first +been a source of annoyance to the ministers, was now recognized by them +as a providential interference in their behalf. What they had only +surmised, they now learned with certainty from trustworthy friends. +Their _hesitation_ to sign the Augsburg Confession was to be used as a +convenient handle for breaking up the conference; their _refusal_, for +involving them in a quarrel with Protestant Germany; their _consent_, +for causing their expulsion from the churches they had betrayed, or +splitting those churches up into many parts.[1153] Theodore Beza opened +the discussion by reading the reply which he had carefully prepared by +common consent of all his brethren. Never had his oratorical skill been +exhibited to better advantage. He began by showing the evident +impropriety of introducing, as his opponents had done in the last +conference, a discussion of the validity of the divine vocation of the +Protestant ministers; for they had come here to confer, not to +_officiate_--much less to witness the institution of the semblance of a +penal prosecution against them. The objectionable character of such a +debate would be the more manifest, should he address any supposed bishop +with whom he was disputing and who had inquired: "By what authority do +you preach and administer the sacraments?" and retort by asking him in +turn: "Were you elected by the elders of the church of which you are +bishop? Did the people seek for you? Were inquiries first made +respecting your life, your morals, and your belief?" or, "Who ordained +you? How much did you pay him?" The answers to such questions would make +many a bishop blush. Beza next reminded the cardinal of his promise to +confute the Protestants by the testimony of the Fathers of the first +five centuries. For a discussion based upon them the ministers had come +prepared. But now he brought them a single article on the Lord's Supper, +and imperiously said: "Sign this, or we will proceed no farther!" Even +were the Huguenots prisoners brought before him for trial, they would +not be so treated. Their very office required the prelates to speak +differently, for the bishop must be "able by sound doctrine both to +exhort and to convince the gainsayers." + +[Sidenote: and an amicable conference.] + +Then turning to the queen mother, Beza reminded her that he and his +companions were there, not only for the purpose of submitting a +confession of their faith, but to serve God, Charles, and herself, by +laboring in all possible ways to appease the troubles that had arisen in +connection with religion. To dismiss them without giving them an +opportunity for an amicable conference would not be the means of +allaying the prevailing disturbances; and those who proposed to do so +knew it well. Were the handful of Protestants at Poissy the only persons +concerned, there might, in the world's eye, be little likelihood that +danger would result from treating them as their enemies desired. But it +might please her Majesty to consider that they were here in behalf of a +million persons in this realm, in Switzerland, Poland, Germany, England, +and Scotland, who watched the proceedings of the colloquy, and who would +be astonished to hear, as they would hear, that, instead of such a +conference as had been promised, the ministers had received the tenth +part of an article, and had been told: "Sign this; otherwise we will +proceed no farther." What would be gained if the Protestants did sign +it; for, did the prelates agree in the Augsburg Confession? If there was +a real desire to confer, let persons be appointed who were willing to +meet the Protestants, and let them examine together the Holy Scriptures +and the old Fathers of the Christian Church, with the books before them, +and let secretaries write out the results of the discussion in an +authentic form. Then it would be known that the ministers had not come +to sow troubles, but to promote accord.[1154] + +[Sidenote: Lorraine's anger.] + +The prelates were much excited when Beza concluded. His reference to +episcopal elections stung them to the quick. Lorraine angrily accused +him of insulting not only the _sacerdotal_, but the _royal_ authority, +since it was Francis the First that had taken away the election of the +priesthood from the people.[1155] Beza, replying, said that this very +act was an evidence of the radical disturbance of the ancient order, +when avarice, ambition, and unworthy rivalry between monks and canons +rendered such a change necessary. Pressed again to sign the article +submitted two days before, Beza persisted that it was unjust to endeavor +to compel the Protestants to subscribe to that to which the prelates +refused their own indorsement.[1156] + +[Sidenote: Peter Martyr and Lainez the Jesuit.] + +The discussion was next carried on between the doctors of the Sorbonne +and Beza and Martyr. The latter spoke in Italian,[1157] and won +universal applause; but he was rudely interrupted by the Cardinal of +Lorraine, who said that he did not want to hear a foreign language. A +little later, a Spaniard, Lainez, the second general of the rising order +of Jesus, who had just reached Paris in the train of the Cardinal Legate +of Ferrara, begged permission to speak. Leave was granted him, and he +indulged in an address much more remarkable for its coarse invective +than for its weight of argument.[1158] Not content with dissuading his +hearers from listening to the Protestant ministers as persons already +sufficiently convicted of error, he called them apes and foxes,[1159] +and advised that they be sent to Trent, where the Pope had convoked a +free council to which they might have free access. He condemned the +French for holding a separate council, and reprobated the discussion of +topics of such importance as those now under consideration in the +presence of women, and of men trained to war. After these gentle hints +respecting the qualifications of the queen and his noble auditors to act +as judges, he approached the all-absorbing question of the real +presence--a feeble part of his speech in which we may be excused from +following him. The remainder of the day was spent in warm debate, which +continued until the approach of night. Just as all were rising and about +to leave, however, the queen called to her Beza and the Cardinal of +Lorraine, and adjured them in God's name to strive for the establishment +of peace. A knot of friends gathered around each; the conference was +renewed amid much confusion and noise; but the darkness soon +necessitated an adjournment.[1160] + +[Sidenote: Close of the Colloquy of Poissy.] + +It was the last day of the Colloquy of Poissy. If anything more had +until now been needed to demonstrate the futility of all hopes based +upon an open discussion regulated solely by the caprice of the Cardinal +of Lorraine, it was certainly furnished by the experience of the last +session. Catharine, however, was loth to abandon the scheme from which +she had expected such important results to flow. With her usual +incapacity to understand the strength of religious convictions deeply +implanted in the soul, she still hoped to secure, from a private +interview of the more moderate Roman Catholics with a few of the leading +Protestants, a plan of agreement that might serve to unite both +communions. Some of her more conscientious advisers shared in the same +sanguine expectations. + +[Sidenote: A private conference.] + +[Sidenote: The Roman Catholic champions.] + +[Sidenote: The Abbe de Salignac.] + +Five Roman Catholic ecclesiastics were chosen to confer with as many +Protestant ministers. They were selected as well for learning and +ability as for reputed moderation of sentiment.[1161] The Bishops +Montluc of Valence, and Du Val of Seez in Normandy, the Abbe's de +Salignac and Bouteiller, and D'Espense, doctor in the Sorbonne, were +probably all believed to be half inclined to fall in with the +reformatory current. Of Montluc and D'Espense, mention has already more +than once been made. Bouteiller, it will be remembered, was the priest +who had officiated in the Cardinal of Chatillon's episcopal palace at +Beauvais, the last Easter preceding, when the communion was administered +under both kinds, "after the fashion of Geneva."[1162] Salignac was a +timid man, a fair sample of the "Nicodemites," who had proved the bane +of the Reformation in France. For thirty years he had held, and to some +extent--if we may credit his own words--professed the same doctrines as +Calvin, continually exhorting his hearers to turn from an empty, formal +worship, to Christ as the only Saviour. Confessedly he had not rejected +"_that false doctrine_"--for thus he did not hesitate, in his private +correspondence with a Protestant, to designate the Romish creed--so +openly as the reformers were wont to do; but he claimed to have won the +universal approval of the best men around him by his attacks upon +"Babylon," which he had approached sometimes "by mines," sometimes "in +open warfare," according to time and circumstances.[1163] Since no +violent opposition seems ever to have been made, no persecution ever to +have arisen against Salignac, and in view of the fact that the conflict +of the last thirty years had been sufficiently sanguinary and little +calculated to reassure timid combatants, it is highly probable that the +prudent abbe's subterranean operations greatly outnumbered his more +valiant exploits. Well might the reformers, who knew that victory was to +be obtained, not by burrowing under the ground, but by facing the perils +of the battle-field, exclaim: + + Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis + Tempus eget. + +[Sidenote: Conference at St. Germain.] + +[Sidenote: A discussion of words.] + +Theodore Beza, Peter Martyr, Angustin Marlorat, Jean de L'Espine, and +Nicholas des Gallars, were appointed to represent the Protestants, and +it was arranged that secretaries should be present at the conferences to +note the progress made toward unity. The ten theologians met in the +apartments of the King of Navarre, at St. Germain. Their conclusions +were to be submitted to the Protestant ministers and delegates present +at the court, and at the same time carried to Poissy for ratification by +the still assembled prelates. Both parties were in earnest in seeking +for common ground on which they might stand. Compelled by the +instructions the bishops had received, to commence with the knotty +question of the eucharist instead of adopting the more natural order of +the articles of the confession of faith, the Romish party inquired +whether, abandoning discussion for the time, both sides might not agree +on the formula which had been drawn up and approved by four of their +number on the twenty-fifth of September, or on some similarly moderate +statement. The question, so far as the formula they referred to was +concerned, was promptly answered by Peter Martyr. The Zurich reformer, +somewhat apprehensive, as he had lately shown, lest his colleagues +should, in their eagerness for accord, make something approaching a +sacrifice of doctrine, greatly to their surprise drew from his pocket a +paper which he proceeded to read: "I reply, for my part, that the body +of Christ is truly and substantially nowhere else than in heaven. I do +not, however, deny that Christ's true body and his true blood, which +were given on the cross for the salvation of men, are by faith and +spiritually received by the believing in the Holy Supper."[1164] A +friendly but laborious discussion, not of ideas nor of doctrines, but of +words, ensued. At length a statement was drawn up sufficiently +comprehensive, yet sufficiently general to admit of being approved in +good conscience by the entire number of theologians.[1165] But the +prelates of Poissy promptly rejecting the article, the next day it was +necessary to renew the deliberation. A second form of agreement was +drafted,[1166] which the Roman Catholic deputies felt confident would +meet with the approval of those who had sent them. + +[Sidenote: Premature delight of the queen mother.] + +[Sidenote: The article rejected by the prelates.] + +[Sidenote: Their demand.] + +Although the article itself was to be kept secret until submitted to the +prelates, the tidings that a harmonious result had been reached rapidly +flew through the court and was carried to Catharine herself. Beza and +Montluc were summoned into her presence. In the excess of her joy at the +prospect of the peaceful solution of a difficult problem, and of an +issue of the colloquy which would greatly conduce to her glory and the +firmer establishment of her rule, Catharine even cordially embraced the +reformer, and bade him go on in the good way he and his companions had +entered. Beza, not blind to the difficulties that still beset their +path, replied that their highest desires were for truth and peace, but +that a good beginning only had been made.[1167] The Cardinal of +Lorraine, after reading the article, expressed the belief that the +prelates of Poissy would be pleased,[1168] and for his own part seemed +to regard the Protestants as having surrendered the entire ground of +controversy to the Roman Catholics.[1169] But both queen and cardinal +were soon undeceived. The assembled prelates rejected the modified +article with scorn, treating with insult the deputies that brought it, +as having betrayed their cause and played into the hands of the +reformers.[1170] Under these circumstances a continuation of the +conference would have been absurd. The Roman Catholic deputies, +despairing of any good fruits from their efforts at conciliation, never +returned; and the last vestige of the colloquy, on which such brilliant +anticipations had been based, vanished into thin air.[1171] The prelates +themselves continued to sit for a few days. A committee of three bishops +and sundry doctors of the Sorbonne, to whom the article agreed upon by +the Roman Catholic and Huguenot delegates was submitted for examination, +pronounced it (on the sixth of October) to be incomplete, dangerous, and +heretical. Three days later the prelates published a formal condemnation +of it, offered a definition which they declared to be orthodox, and +called upon the king to require Beza and his companions either to sign +this new formula, or to consult the public peace by leaving France +altogether. A long series of canons, in which the question of church +discipline was touched lightly, and that of doctrine not at all--the +paltry result of more than two months of sufficiently animated,[1172] if +not very harmonious discussion--was at the same time given to the +world.[1173] + +[Sidenote: Catharine's financial success.] + +From a political point of view, the assembly of the prelates at Poissy +had not been unprofitable to the government. Alarmed by the radical +projects of the wholesale confiscation of ecclesiastical property which +had found no little favor with the other orders at Pontoise, equally +alarmed by the possibility of being compelled to enter into a full and +fair discussion with the champions of the Protestant doctrines, the +wealthy dignitaries of the Gallican Church brought themselves, not +without a severe struggle, to purchase exemption from these perils by a +pecuniary concession which delighted the perplexed financiers of France. +They pledged themselves to pay, by semi-annual instalments, the entire +sum needed for the redemption of the royal domain which had been +alienated to satisfy the public creditors.[1174] But in return they +demanded important equivalents. The first item was that the severe +"Edict of July" should be made perpetual and irrevocable. This request +Catharine and the council denied. To declare that odious law, which it +had never been possible to carry into execution in several provinces of +France, a part of the fundamental constitution, would be a gratuitous +insult to the Huguenots, and would precipitate the country instantly +into the abyss upon the verge of which it was already hanging. + +[Sidenote: Order for the restitution of the churches.] + +The other demands of the bishops it seemed more practicable to grant. +They required that Charles should by solemn edict order the +instantaneous restitution of the churches seized by the Huguenots. In +spite of the earnest protest of Beza,[1175] the government (on the +eighteenth of October) complied with the request.[1176] Within +twenty-four hours after the receipt of this edict, all persons who had +taken possession of churches were commanded, on penalty of death as +rebels and felons, to vacate them, restoring whatever valuables they had +removed, and replacing the images and crosses they had destroyed. At the +same time the prohibition of the use of insulting language and acts was +renewed, and both parties were bidden to place their arms in the hands +of the local magistrates.[1177] Thus, to use Beza's language, was Christ +betrayed, but at a much dearer price than that for which he was, +centuries ago, sold by Judas--for sixteen millions of francs instead of +the thirty pieces of silver.[1178] Having, by extorting the Edict of +Restitution, succeeded in paving the way for renewed commotions, soon to +culminate in open and widespread war, the prelates adjourned, with +mingled satisfaction and disgust, toward the end of October, 1561.[1179] + +[Sidenote: Arrival of five German delegates.] + +The conference of Poissy had scarcely been definitely abandoned when +five German Protestants appeared upon the scene. Three of these--Andreae, +Beuerlin, and Balthasar Bidembach--had been sent by the Duke of +Wuertemberg; the others--Bouquin and Dilher--by the Elector Palatine. +Early in the summer, the King of Navarre, anxious to strengthen himself +by enlisting in his favor the Protestant princes of Germany, had +expressed to them the desire, in which Catharine coincided, that some +theologians--learned and pious men, and inclined to peace--should be +sent from beyond the Rhine to take part in the adjustment of the +religious questions at the Colloquy of Poissy. The Protestant electors, +the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Duke of Wuertemberg, were unable, +however, to agree on the instructions to be given to the envoys. While +the duke, devotedly attached to the doctrines of Luther, was bent upon +strongly recommending the adoption of the Augsburg Confession, the other +princes could not acquiesce in his plan. The landgrave refused to throw +additional difficulties in the way of the reformed churches of France, +just emerging from a period of relentless persecution, and seeking for +the public recognition of the right to worship God, for which so many +martyrs had cheerfully laid down their lives. The Elector of Saxony +distrusted the sincerity of the intentions of the French court. As for +the Count Palatine, he himself had embraced the reformed theology, and +could not be expected to urge the Huguenots to give up their own +well-digested confession for one which they considered far inferior to +it in all respects.[1180] And so it happened that, in consequence of a +diversity of sentiment regarding both doctrine and policy, there was no +general deputation sent to France, and the delegates of the two princes +who complied with the invitation arrived at Paris after the +colloquy--too late to do any harm, if not soon enough to do much good. +They were courteously received by the court. The Wuertembergers, in +particular, were allowed frequent opportunities of explaining the merits +of the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Before their return into +Germany, they were distinctly informed by Navarre that, while he +recommended a closer union between the two branches of the Protestant +Church, his own views accorded with those of the adherents of the +Augsburg Confession; and that his only reason for delaying to subscribe +to it was a fear lest this step might interfere with the execution of +the union he desired to effect.[1181] + +[Sidenote: Why the colloquy proved a failure.] + +The Colloquy of Poissy had proved, so far as the objects contemplated by +its originators were concerned, a complete failure. Instead of drawing +the Roman Catholic and the reformed churches together, it had only +widened the breach separating them. Instead of exhibiting in a clearer +light the common ground on which a union might be practicable, it had +rendered patent to all the antagonism which could not be cloaked by +ambiguous phrases and incomplete statements of doctrine. It is certainly +worth while to inquire into some of the causes of a result so unexpected +to a great number of intelligent men, who had framed their anticipations +upon no superficial view of the subject. + +[Sidenote: Catharine's crude notion of a conference.] + +The crude notions of the court respecting the character which such a +conference ought to assume must be regarded as one of these causes. +Catharine, while extending the most gracious invitations to foreign +Protestants, was herself apparently undecided how to treat the Huguenots +when they should make their appearance. Even if we grant that her +explanations of the object of the projected colloquy, referred to on a +preceding page,[1182] received their coloring from the fact that she was +supplying her ambassador in Germany with plausible representations +wherewith to appease such irritated bigots as feared that the French +queen intended to propose a grave discussion of the religious question +upon its own merits, yet the entire course of the conference exhibits +her inability to comprehend the nature of a fair debate of the matters +in dispute. The Huguenot ministers and delegates were obliged to +petition that the prelates should not be permitted to act as their +judges, and afterward to remind her of the promise she had given them to +this effect. Even after the point had been nominally accorded, the most +important questions respecting the conference were decided in the +council, where _five_ cardinals and _three_ bishops had seats.[1183] +Under these circumstances it is not astonishing that Lorraine assumed a +tone of superiority which his relation to the debate by no means +warranted. + +[Sidenote: Character of the prelates.] + +Besides this, the character of the assembly of prelates itself precluded +the possibility of an adjustment. With the exception of six or seven, so +insignificant were these ecclesiastical dignitaries individually, that, +as a modern historian has well remarked, not one distinguished himself +sufficiently to be named by any of the writers who treat of the +conference. They were, generally, the younger sons of the most +distinguished families in France, and had entered the church not from +devotion, but in consequence of an immemorial custom which consigned to +the episcopal dignity or to a rich abbacy the youth whom an elder +brother debarred from entertaining the hope of succeeding to his +father's dignities and possessions. Few of them had ever seen their +dioceses save on some great festival; none possessed the literary or +theological training necessary to qualify them for coping with the +master-minds among the Protestants. Accordingly, each bishop had to come +to Poissy with one or more "theologians," doctors of the Sorbonne, to +whose better judgment and superior learning he was content to defer on +every disputed point. There was little probability that a body thus +constituted would consent to enter into a candid consideration of the +differences separating the Roman Catholic and Protestant worlds.[1184] + +[Sidenote: Influence of the papal legate.] + +[Sidenote: The despondent nuncio, Viterbo.] + +But the single event said by an eye-witness and actor in these scenes +to have conduced more than any other to destroy all hope of agreement, +was the arrival at court of the papal legate, Ippolito D'Este, Cardinal +of Ferrara.[1185] Pope Pius IV. had long been watching the affairs of +France with deep solicitude. If his legates, Tournon and Lorraine, had +failed to alarm him by their reports of the progress of the "new +doctrines," he could not but be troubled by the accounts which came from +his nuncio in France, Sebastiano Gualtieri, Bishop of Viterbo. +Gualtieri, an experienced diplomatist, learned, eloquent--and not +wanting in cunning,[1186] if we may believe his successor in office--had +proved himself unequal to the duties of his present position, by giving +way to extreme despondency. In the gay capital of France he led a +wretched life, in constant dread of future disaster, and ceaselessly +uttering lugubrious prognostications. To the Pope he announced that +religious matters in France were desperate; everything was rushing to +ruin with ever-increasing velocity. The queen mother was unsound in the +faith, although, from motives of policy, she dissembled her true +sentiments. She favored a preacher, one Bouteiller, who was equally +unsound; and she refused to dismiss him when admonished of her error. He +begged the pontiff to recall him, so that he might not witness the +funeral obsequies of the unhappy kingdom.[1187] + +[Sidenote: Anxiety of Pope Pius IV.] + +[Sidenote: The Nuncio Santa Croce.] + +[Sidenote: The Cardinal of Ferrara.] + +Pius, rendered more apprehensive by these continual tidings of evil, and +displeased with much that his legates had done,[1188] could no longer +delay to take decided action. Accordingly, he resolved to grant +Gualtieri's request, and to send as apostolic nuncio in his place Santa +Croce, Bishop of Pisa, who had formerly occupied this position at +Paris, but was now acting in a similar capacity in Portugal.[1189] But +so grave did the conjuncture appear in the eyes of the papal court, +that, at a solemn consistory held on the twenty-eighth of June, the +resolution was adopted to despatch a _third_ legate to St. Germain! The +pretext of this extraordinary mission was the desire to testify more +clearly than the selection of the two previously existing legates had +done, to the earnestness of the solicitude felt at Rome for the +interests of the Church in France.[1190] The true reason would appear to +have been to correct the mistakes which the existing legates were +supposed to have committed. For the delicate post of _legatus a latere_, +no better candidate could be found than the Cardinal of Ferrara. +Although a man of no high intellectual abilities, he had received a +thorough training in the Macchiavellian theory of politics,[1191] and, +during many years of diplomatic service, had enjoyed a fair opportunity +for schooling himself in its practical workings. The son of Lucretia +Borgia, the grandson of Pope Alexander the Sixth, could scarcely help +being an adept at intrigue. Next to this special qualification, his +highest recommendations were that he was the brother-in-law of Renee of +France, and so by marriage uncle of the Duke of Guise; and that he had +twelve good reasons for feeling deep concern for the steadfastness of +French orthodoxy, viz.: the three archbishoprics, the one bishopric, and +the eight rich abbeys which he held within the confines of Charles's +dominions, deriving therefrom an income which was popularly estimated at +from forty to sixty thousand crowns.[1192] + +[Sidenote: Master Renard turned monk.] + +The new legate accepted the appointment with alacrity. Not so the +nuncio. It was no small trial to leave the quiet court of Lisbon--where +his predecessors had been accustomed, during a short stay of a year or +two, to accumulate a handsome fortune[1193]--for the turmoil of the +French capital, threatened every day with the outbreak of civil war, +where nothing but censure and hatred could be reaped.[1194] But Santa +Croce did not hesitate long to renounce his golden prospects, and almost +at the same moment that the Cardinal of Ferrara started from the banks +of the Tiber, the Bishop of Pisa set forth from the gates of Lisbon. +Neither legate nor nuncio, however, was in much haste to reach his +destination. Ferrara could plead ill-health, Santa Croce the prostrating +heat of the season.[1195] It took each of the prelates two months and a +half to accomplish his journey--the legate reaching the French court on +the nineteenth of September, the nuncio toward the end of the same +month.[1196] The former travelled in great magnificence, with a +brilliant escort of four hundred horsemen or more, and accompanied by +several bishops and other persons of distinction, among whom was Lainez, +the Jesuit, whose acquaintance we have already made. Avoiding the larger +French cities where the Reformation had gained a foothold, and where, +consequently, marks of popular insult were apprehended,[1197] he +received a brilliant welcome at the court, the king's brother Henry, and +others, riding out to greet him at his approach. The _people_ were less +cordial. His assumed devotion could not deceive those who knew him to be +a devotee of pleasure.[1198] His appearance forcibly reminded them of +the old story of Master Fox turned hermit, and cries of "Au Renard! Au +Renard!" were so loudly uttered when he was seen in the streets preceded +by an attendant carrying a large silver cross, the badge of his office, +that he was soon fain to discard the obnoxious emblem.[1199] This was +not the only insult he was compelled to swallow. A portrait of his +grandfather, Pope Alexander the Sixth, was engraved and published, with +an account of his life and death, in which the moral character of +Lucretia Borgia was painted in the darkest colors.[1200] It was, +however, speedily suppressed by the civil authorities. + +[Sidenote: Opposition of people and chancellor.] + +The plenary powers which the papal commission conferred upon Ippolito +d'Este created an opposition even in higher circles. He had, it is true, +apprehending an unfavorable reception, taken the pains to invite the +French ambassador at Venice to confer with him while he was stopping in +Ferrara on his way to Paris, and had assured him that he went with the +sole intention of subserving the interests of France, and would use the +powers given him by the Pope no farther than Charles desired.[1201] This +and reiterated assurances of the same tenor, after his arrival, did not +remove the scruples of Michel de l'Hospital. The latter insisted that +the authority which the Pope pretended to confer upon his legate was in +direct contravention of the resolution of the recent States General, +that ecclesiastical benefices should henceforth be at the disposition, +not of the Pope, but of the prelates in their respective dioceses, and +that no papal dispensations should hereafter be received. He therefore +declined to give to the pontifical warrant the official ratification +without which it was of no validity in the kingdom; and he was supported +in his refusal by the majority of the royal council. He was, however, +overruled. It would be highly improper, the Cardinal of Ferrara +persuaded Catharine and her advisers to believe, that a prelate allied +to the royal house of France should be the first legate to be denied the +customary honors. And so L'Hospital, after receiving a direct order from +the king, and having had several altercations with the legate, +reluctantly affixed the great seal of France, taking care to relieve +himself of all responsibility by writing below it the words, _Me non +consentiente_. This addition for the present rendered the document +entirely useless, for parliament promptly refused to receive or register +that which had failed to meet with the chancellor's approbation.[1202] + +[Sidenote: The legate's successful intrigues.] + +[Sidenote: His excessive complaisance.] + +The first great aim of Ferrara was to prevent the assembly of prelates +at Poissy from assuming in any degree the character of a national +council by undertaking a genuine reformation of doctrine or practice, +and to induce the reference of all such questions as ought there to have +been discussed, to the Council of Trent.[1203] How well he succeeded was +shown by the event. By purposely delaying his arrival until the assembly +had convened, he avoided the defeat that he might have experienced had +he been on the spot and opposed its opening.[1204] He was sufficiently +early, however, to effect all that was really of moment. His manners +were conciliatory and paved the way for his intrigues. Catharine was the +more friendly both to him and to Santa Croce, because of the contrast +between their deportment and that of Gualtieri, whom she hated for his +sour disposition and boorish ways.[1205] Navarre and the princes +suspected of a leaning toward Protestantism were plied with other arts. +In fact, so well did the legate counterfeit liberality of sentiment, +that even the Pope and his brethren of the Roman consistory seem to have +become a little alarmed. For he went so far, on one occasion, as to +accompany the Huguenot nobles to hear the sermon of one of their +ministers, greatly to the displeasure of the Pope and of Philip the +Second, as well as of the Cardinal of Tournon and other bigots at the +French court who could not follow the tangled thread of his tortuous +policy.[1206] It was difficult for him to convince them that he had made +this extraordinary concession simply in order to induce Antoine and his +more intractable queen in their turn to attend the Roman Catholic +services. Navarre was naturally the person whom legate and nuncio were +most anxious to influence. For, respecting Catharine, they soon +satisfied themselves that, if she was not a very ardent Romanist, she +was nothing of a Protestant.[1207] The King of Navarre, however, was to +be gained only by skilful and concerted diplomacy. Easy to be duped as +he was, he had met with so many disappointments that he required +something more than vague assurances to induce him to throw away the +solid advantages derived from still being the reputed head of the +Huguenots. For about this time his agents at Madrid and at Rome had been +coldly received. Philip and his minister Alva excused themselves from +paying any attention to his claims upon Navarre or an equivalent, until +Antoine had shown more decided devotion to Catholicism than was afforded +by simply attending mass, and they had made it evident that armed +intervention in behalf of the French adherents of the old faith was +rather to be expected from the Spaniard, than any act of condescension +in favor of the titular king. From Rome he had scarcely obtained more +encouragement than from Madrid.[1208] Under these circumstances, it +seemed that little was needed to make his alienation from Romanism +complete. + +[Sidenote: Antoine of Navarre plied with suggestions.] + +While, therefore, the Spanish ambassador, Chantonnay, brother of +Cardinal Granvelle, by his severity and his continual threats of war not +only discouraged the Navarrese king, but rendered himself so hateful to +the court that his presence could scarcely be endured,[1209] the papal +emissaries, to whom the Venetian Barbaro lent efficient aid, allured him +by brilliant hopes of a sovereignty which Philip, induced by the Pope's +intercessions, would confer upon him. Convinced that the destruction of +all hope of recovering Navarre from the Spanish king would instantly +cause Antoine to throw himself without disguise into the arms of the +Calvinists, and would thus secure the speedy triumph of the Reformation +throughout all France,[1210] they even persuaded Chantonnay to abate +somewhat of his insolence, and to ascribe his master's delay in +satisfying Antoine's requests to Philip's belief that his suppliant was +confident of being able to frighten the Spaniards into +restitution.[1211] They represented to Antoine himself that his only +chance of success lay in devotion to the Catholic faith. Joining arms +with "those flagitious men" the Huguenots, he would arouse the hostility +of almost all Christendom. The Pope, the priests, even the greater part +of France, would be his enemies. In a conflict with them he could place +little reliance upon troops unaccustomed to war and drawn from every +quarter--none at all upon the English, who were ancient enemies, or upon +the Germans, who fought for pay. Better would it be for him to secure +but half his demands by peace, than to lose all by trying the fortunes +of war.[1212] + +How thoroughly the legate and nuncio, with the assistance of their +faithful allies, the Spanish ambassador and the Guises, Montmorency and +St. Andre, were successful in seducing the unstable King of Navarre from +his allegiance to the Protestant faith, this, and the disastrous results +of his defection, will be developed in a subsequent part of our history. + +[Sidenote: Contradictory counsels.] + +[Sidenote: The triumvirate retire in disgust.] + +The edict of the eighteenth of October, for the restitution of the +churches of which the Huguenots had taken possession, was by no means an +exponent of the true dispositions of the court. It was rather a measure +of political expediency, reluctantly adopted, to attain the double end +of securing the pecuniary grant of which the government stood in +pressing need, and of preventing Philip from executing the threats of +invasion which Alva had but too plainly made in his interview with the +French envoy extraordinary, Montberon d'Auzances, and the ambassador, +Sebastien de l'Aubespine[1213]--threats which nothing would have been +more likely to convert into stern realities than the concession of the +churches for which the Protestants clamored. It was a measure +determined upon by a royal council in which the influence of the party +inclined to Protestant and liberal principles was preponderant; in which +the advice of the moderate Chancellor L'Hospital was supreme; in which +the plans of the Guises, of Montmorency and St. Andre, were set aside, +to make room for those of Conde and Montluc, Bishop of Valence. It is +this fact that furnishes the clue to a circumstance which at first sight +seems an inexplicable paradox, namely, that almost the very day on which +the intolerant resolution, compelling the Huguenots to surrender the +churches, even in places where they constituted the vast majority of the +population, was adopted, the members of the triumvirate, formed for the +express purpose of upholding the papal church in France, left the court +in disgust. It was scarcely to be expected that these ambitious nobles, +accustomed to occupy the first rank, and to dispose of the national +concerns according to their own private pleasure, should submit with +good grace to the decisions of a council in which the Bourbons held the +sway, and a hated chancellor's opinions were followed whom they +themselves had raised to his elevated position. Much less was it natural +for them to remain when the measures which the administration proposed +were of enlarged toleration, instead of greater repression. Accordingly, +the Duke of Guise left Saint Germain for Joinville, one of his estates +on the borders of Lorraine, while his brother, the cardinal, repaired to +his archbishopric of Rheims. Here, while pretending to apply himself +with unheard-of diligence to his duties as a spiritual shepherd, and +preaching, as was reported, rather the Lutheran than the Romish view of +the eucharist, he was making bids as high as those of the duke, if of a +different kind, for the favor and support of the neighboring German +princes who adhered to the Confession of Augsburg. Catharine, not sorry +to be rid of their presence, and "best pleased when the world was +discordant," gave them a kind dismissal. The elements were less +propitious. An extraordinarily severe storm that swept over St. Germain +on the day of their departure gave rise to a report among the courtiers +that "the devil was carrying them off." It was little suspected, +quaintly remarks the narrator of this incident, how soon he was going +to bring them back![1214] Cardinal Tournon and Constable Montmorency +followed the example of the Guises, and went into retirement. + +[Sidenote: Hopes entertained of the young king.] + +[Sidenote: Charles's curiosity respecting the mass.] + +The prospect was at this moment as dark to the papal party as it was +full of encouragement for the Huguenots and their sympathizers. Nothing +but a resort to violence could avert the speedy downfall of the +authority of the Roman pontiff in France. A few months more of peace, +and everything might be lost.[1215] If the young king continued under +the influences now surrounding him, he might become a Huguenot openly, +as it was pretty well understood, by those who had the opportunity of +seeing him daily and noting his words and actions, that he was already +half inclined to be one now. The Queen of Navarre, the Prince of Conde, +and the leading Protestants at court perceived this and could not hide +their delight. One day about this time, Jeanne D'Albret drew the English +ambassador apart from the courtiers waiting upon her, and, having seated +him by her side, related a conversation she had within the past few days +held with Charles. It is thus reported by Throkmorton in a despatch to +Queen Elizabeth: "Good aunt," said the king, "I pray you tell me what +doth this mean, that the king, my uncle, your husband, doth every day go +to mass, and you come not there, nor my cousin, your son, the Prince of +Navarre? I answered (quoth the queen), Sire, the king, my husband doth +so because you go thither, to wait upon you and obey your order and +commandment. Nay, aunt (quoth he), I do neither command nor desire him +to do so. But if it be naught (as I do hear say it is), he might well +enough forbear to be at it, and offend me nothing at all; for if I might +as well as he, and did believe of it as he doth, I would not be at it +myself. The queen said, Why, sir, what do you believe of it? The king +answered, The queen, my mother, Monsieur de Cipierre, and my +schoolmaster doth tell me, that it is very good, and that I do there +daily see God; but (said the king) I do hear by others that neither God +is there nor the thing very good. And surely, aunt, to be plain with +you, _I would not be there myself_. And therefore you may boldly +continue and do as you do, and so may the king, my uncle, your husband, +use the matter according to his conscience for any displeasure he shall +do unto me. _And, surely, aunt_ (quoth he), _when I shall be at my own +rule I mean to quit the matter!_ But I pray you (said the king), keep +this matter to yourself, and use it so that it come not to my mother's +ears."[1216] + +It need not occasion surprise that the Queen of Navarre paused, in the +midst of her expressions of intense gratification, to give utterance to +the fear that Charles might be "too toward, too virtuous, and too good +to tarry amongst them," or recalled the many similar "acts and sayings +of the late King Edward of England, who did not live long."[1217] + +[Sidenote: Beza is begged to remain.] + +When the first intimation of the edict for the restoration of the +churches reached Beza, his impulse was to abandon forthwith a court +where his hopes had been so cruelly disappointed, and a want of proper +confidence had been displayed by his very friends among the royal +counsellors. But his indignant remonstrances were met by the assurance +that benevolent designs for the Reformation were concealed beneath the +apparent harshness of the law, which was a necessary concession to +certain circumstances. He was entreated to be of good courage and to +remain. Catharine joined her solicitations to those of Conde, Admiral +Coligny, and other chiefs of the Protestants. Beza reluctantly +consented, and while Martyr was suffered to depart with courteous +acknowledgments of his services, the Genevese was still more honorably +retained at court.[1218] The new measure from which brilliant results +were expected was the calling of an assembly of notables, including +representatives from each of the parliaments, the princes of the blood, +and members of the council, etc., which was to meet in December, and to +suggest some decree on the subject of the religious question, of a +provisional, if not of a permanent character.[1219] + +[Sidenote: Spanish plot to kidnap the Duke of Orleans.] + +[Sidenote: The Huguenot churches in France.] + +About the same time, upon a rumor that the Duke of Nemours, a faithful +ally of the Guises, had plotted to carry off the young Duke of Orleans, +the future Henry the Third, into Spain, with the view of affording his +brother-in-law Philip a specious pretext for interfering in Trench +affairs,[1220] Catharine de' Medici turned to the Protestants, and +inquired what forces of theirs she could rely upon in the threatened +contest with the Spanish, Papal, and German Roman Catholic troops. Her +question elicited the significant fact that there were two thousand one +hundred and fifty Huguenot churches in France, varying in size from a +mere handful of believers to a community of thousands of members, +embracing almost the entire population of a provincial city, and under +the guidance of several pastors. In the name of these churches a +petition was presented to the king, asking for places of worship, and +loyally tendering life and property in his defence.[1221] + +[Sidenote: Beza secures a favorable royal order.] + +To restrain the impatience of so numerous a body as the Protestants, +while waiting for the assembly of the notables which was to confer the +full measure of liberty they desired, was the task imposed upon Beza. He +was to serve as a _hostage_ for the obedience of the reformed +churches.[1222] But the sagacious theologian recognized the difficulty +of the position he was called to fill. He warned the government +accordingly against disappointing the hopes it aroused in the breasts of +his fellow Protestants, and he urged that if they must be temporarily +denied the use of the places of worship which they had occupied wherever +they constituted the bulk of the population, the present rigor must be +somewhat abated during the interval before their formal emancipation. +After much importunity a mandate was obtained, addressed to the royal +officers, in which they were instructed to interpret the previous edicts +with leniency, permitting different degrees of liberty, according to the +various circumstances in which they were placed. In Normandy and Gascony +the religious meetings might be open and unrestricted. In Paris they +must be held secretly in private houses, and not more than two hundred +persons could be gathered together.[1223] Everywhere, however, the +Protestants were to be protected, and this was a great step gained. For +those very officers, whose task it had not unfrequently been to drag the +Huguenots to prison, were now constituted the guardians of their lives +and property.[1224] + +[Sidenote: How to restrain Huguenot impetuosity.] + +[Sidenote: Foix.] + +[Sidenote: Chalons-sur-Marne.] + +Yet, how to restrain the impetuosity, how to check the demands of the +multitudes recently converted to the reformed faith, how to induce them +to give up the churches where whole generations of their ancestors had +worshipped before them, and in which they believed that they had the +clearest right of property, and hand them over to a mere handful of +ignorant or interested persons who would not listen to reason or +Scripture--this was the problem that seemed even beyond the power of +Beza's wit to solve. The young vine, in whose branches the full sap of +spring was rapidly circulating, must have room for healthy growth. From +all parts of France the constant cry was for the Word of God and for +liberty. Although the number of daily attendants on Calvin's lectures +was roughly estimated at a thousand,[1225] it was impossible for Geneva +to supply the drafts made upon her, when there were three hundred +parishes, apparently in a single province, which had thrown off the +mass, but had as yet been unsuccessful in their quest of pastors;[1226] +when the history of hundreds of towns and villages was the counterpart +of the history of Foix, where, in two months, an infant church of +thirty or forty members had grown to have five or six hundred, and the +Protestant population was almost in the majority in the town, although +as yet, notwithstanding incessant efforts to obtain a pastor, the only +public service consisted of the repetition by a layman of the prayers +contained in the liturgy of Calvin[1227]--when many a minister met with +success similar to that which attended Pierre Fornelet, who could point +to fifteen villages in the vicinity of Chalons-sur-Marne, begging for +Huguenot pastors, and all this the fruit of seven weeks of apostolic +labours; and could record the fact that poor men and women flocked to +the city from a distance of seven or eight leagues, when they simply +heard that the Gospel was preached there[1228]--when it was estimated by +competent witnesses that from four to six thousand ministers could be +profitably employed within the bounds of the kingdom.[1229] + +[Sidenote: Troyes.] + +[Sidenote: Paris.] + +In some places, by strenuous exertion, the ministers were successful in +persuading their flocks to refrain from overt acts tending to provoke +outbursts of hostility. At Troyes, in Champagne, a thousand persons +convened by day or by night, not summoned by the sound of bells, but +quietly notified by an "_advertisseur_" of the daily changing place of +meeting. Yet even there, on Sunday and on public holidays, the Huguenots +took pains to hold their "assemblee" in the open day, before the eyes of +their enemies.[1230] At Paris, the Protestants, compelled to go some +distance into the country for worship, on their return (Sunday, the +twelfth of October), found the gates closed against them, and were +attacked by a mob composed of the dregs of the populace. Many of their +number were killed or wounded. The assailants retreated when the +Huguenot gentry, with swords drawn, rallied for the defence of their +unarmed companions, whom they could not, however, guarantee from the +stones and other missiles hurled at them. For a few days the public +services were intermitted at the earnest request of the Prince of La +Roche-sur-Yon, in the interest of good order and to prevent +disturbance.[1231] But a month later the Huguenots assembled openly, and +in still greater numbers. On reaching the suburbs, the women were placed +in the centre, with the men who had come on foot around them, while +those who were mounted on horseback shielded the whole from attack. A +body of guards was posted by the prince in the immediate +neighborhood.[1232] + +[Sidenote: Montpellier.] + +[Sidenote: Churches visited and stripped.] + +In the south of France the people were less easily curbed, and the +indiscretion or treachery of their enemies often furnished provocation +for acts which the sober judgment of their pastors refused to sanction. +The chapter of the cathedral of Montpellier, with the view of overawing +the city, had, in October, introduced a garrison into the commanding +Fort St. Pierre. On a Sunday (the nineteenth of October) the Protestants +laid siege, and on the succeeding day the chapter entered into a +composition with the citizens, by which the canons retained the liberty +of celebrating their services, but bound themselves to lay down their +arms and dismiss the soldiers they had called in. When, however, a +soldier, as he was leaving, drew a pistol and killed one of the +Protestants, the fury of the latter could not be repressed. They cried +that treacherous designs were on foot, and madly killed many of the +canons and their sympathizers. Then, directing their indignation against +the churches, where the doctrine that no faith need be kept with +heretics had been inculcated, they overturned in a few hours the work of +four or five centuries. The next day, of sixty churches and chapels in +Montpellier or its neighborhood, not one was open. Not a priest, not a +monk, dared to show his face. Yet this same excitable populace, which +had been wrought up to frenzy by a soldier's treacherous act, submitted +without resistance when, on the twentieth of November, Joyeuse, in the +king's name, published the obnoxious edict for the restitution of all +churches within twenty-four hours. The cathedral was given up, and the +services according to the rites of the reformed church were held in the +spacious "Ecole mage," until, by a new arrangement with the canons, the +Protestants were once more put in possession of two of the old +ecclesiastical edifices. Yet the edict did not arrest the rapid progress +of the new faith. The mass was not reinstated, and the small Roman +Catholic minority remained at home on the feast-days. Even the lowest +class of the population--elsewhere, from ignorance and prejudice, the +stronghold of the papal religion--here seemed to share in the universal +tendency, and, unfortunately, as a local chronicler, to whom we are +indebted for these particulars, informs us, took no better way of +testifying its devotion than by "mutilating sepulchral monuments, +unearthing the dead, and committing a thousand acts of folly." Carrying +their hatred of everything that reminded them of the period of judicial +abuse to the length of detesting even the insignia of office, the people +compelled the ministers of the law to doff their traditional square cap +and assume a hat such as was worn by the rest of the population.[1233] +Thus the strength of the reformatory current could be gauged by the mud +and rubbish which it tore from the banks on either side--an addition to +its bulk that contributed nothing to its power, while marring its purity +and sullying its fair antecedents. A class of persons attached +themselves to the Huguenot community that could not be brought into +subjection to the discipline instituted with such difficulty at Geneva. +It would seem invidious to lay their excesses to the account of the +Huguenot leaders, whether religious or political, since those excesses +met with the severe reprobation of the latter.[1234] + +[Sidenote: The rein, and not the spur, needed.] + +[Sidenote: Marriages and baptisms at court, "after the fashion of +Geneva."] + +"Would that our friends might restrain themselves at least for two +months!" was the ejaculation of Beza, in view of the natural impatience +exhibited on all sides. "I fear our own party more than I do our +adversaries."[1235] The rein was needed, not the spur. When, instead of +two hundred persons, the Parisian assemblies of Huguenots often +consisted of six thousand, a fanatical populace, accustomed for a whole +generation to see the very suspicion of Lutheranism expiated in the +flames of the Place de Greve or of the Halles, could ill brook the sight +of such open gatherings for the reformed worship. How much greater the +popular indignation when it became known that Chancellor L'Hospital had +authorized _two_ places for public worship according to the rites of the +reformed churches, in the neighborhood of the Gate of St. Antoine and +the Gate of St. Marceau! Added to these palpable proofs of the court's +complicity with the heretics, was the no less scandalous fact that +marriages and baptisms, celebrated "after the fashion of Geneva," were +of frequent occurrence; that the nuptials of young De Rohan, cousin of +Antoine of Navarre, and Mademoiselle de Brabancon, niece of the Duchess +d'Etampes, had been performed on St. Michael's Day, and in the presence +of Conde and the Queen of Navarre, by Theodore Beza himself; and that in +a masquerade in the royal palace Charles the Ninth had worn a cap which +bore an unmistakable resemblance to a bishop's mitre![1236] + +[Sidenote: Tanquerel's seditious declaration.] + +While legate and nuncio labored to put an end to these hateful +manifestations by personal solicitation addressed to Catharine, to +Cardinal Chatillon, and others,[1237] the priests and monks were no less +active in stirring up the passions of the people to open resistance. In +the scholastic halls of the College de Harecourt, one Tanquerel, a +doctor of the Sorbonne, enunciated the dangerous maxim that "the Pope +can depose heretical kings and emperors." At this menacing declaration, +which, under a king in his minority and a regency divided in its +sentiments on religious questions, was much more than a theoretical +abstraction, the government took alarm. The Parliament of Paris +investigated the offence, and the doctrine of Tanquerel was severely +condemned. Tanquerel himself having fled from the city to avoid the +consequences of his rashness, the Dean of the Sorbonne was required, by +order of the supreme court, to utter in his name a solemn recantation in +the presence of the assembled theologians and of a committee of +parliament; and two theologians were deputed to St. Germain to beg the +king's forgiveness.[1238] + +[Sidenote: Jean de Hans.] + +The preachers were not behind the doctors in the use of seditious +language. They attacked the government and its entire policy; and one of +their number--Jean de Hans--while delivering Advent discourses in the +church of St. Barthelemi, in the very neighborhood of the palace, so +distinguished himself for the extravagance of his denunciations, that he +was arrested and carried off to the court at St. Germain. Yet such was +his well-known popularity with the Parisians, that it was found +necessary to effect his capture by a troop of forty armed men; and the +powerful intercession made in his behalf induced the government to +forget his disrespectful language respecting the princes, and to release +him after barely a week's imprisonment.[1239] + +[Sidenote: Philip threatens to interfere in French affairs.] + +[Sidenote: "A true defender of the faith."] + +[Sidenote: Courteville's mission to Flanders.] + +Unfortunately, Tanquerel's treasonable thesis and Hans's excited +declamation were not mere harmless speculations which might never be of +any practical importance to the state. The King of Spain had taken the +pains to inform the queen mother that he had fully made up his mind to +interfere in the affairs of France, and to enforce Catholic supremacy at +the point of the sword. She might accept or decline the offers of the +self-appointed champion of orthodoxy; _but, if she declined, he was +resolved none the less to afford his succor to any true friend of the +Church that chose to request it_. Timid and irresolute Catharine, who +desired to steer clear of the Scylla of Spanish intervention quite as +much as of the Charybdis of Huguenot supremacy, trembled for the +security of her unballasted bark. But the watchful old man who sat on +St. Peter's reputed seat was thrown into a paroxysm of delight. When the +Ambassador Vargas handed him a copy of the message his master had sent +to St. Germain, Pope Pius paused a moment, after he had read the +undisguised threat, then burst out with a flood of benedictions on the +head of the Spanish king. "There," he cried, "is a truly Catholic +prince, there a true defender of the faith! I expected no less of +him."[1240] And Philip intended to carry his menaces into effect. On the +twenty-fifth of October his secretary, Courteville, left Madrid, +ostensibly on a visit to his infirm father in Flanders, but in reality +intrusted with a very important commission, which, in an age when it was +no uncommon thing for a messenger to be waylaid and robbed of his +despatches, could scarcely be otherwise discharged. He was to make +diligent inquiries of Margaret of Parma, Regent of the Netherlands, as +to the actual condition of the provinces, and the material support they +could give the undertaking upon which Philip has set his heart. While +passing through Paris he was to confide his dangerous secret to the +Ambassador Chantonnay, and instruct him to support any of the Roman +Catholic nobles that might show a disposition to rise,[1241] or to +instigate them to action by the promise of Philip's support. Neither +Margaret nor Chantonnay, however, could fulfil the monarch's desires. +The former thought that Philip had thrown away the golden opportunity by +failing to interfere while the question of Catharine's and Navarre's +claims to the administration was in dispute, and when the number of +sectaries was much smaller than at present; and by the time Courteville +reached Poissy, where Chantonnay was stopping, the assembled nobles had +dispersed to their homes, and the Guises were practically farther from +Paris than from Brussels. So the execution of Philip's plan, both +agreed, must be deferred for some time.[1242] + +[Sidenote: The ill-starred Medici family.] + +[Sidenote: The Venetian envoy's lugubrious account of France.] + +It could not be denied that the situation was critical in the extreme. +Long-headed diplomatists of the conservative school shook their heads +ominously. They hinted that there might be only too much truth in the +current Catholic saying that the Medici family was destined to be fatal +to Christendom. Under Leo the Tenth Germany was lost to the papacy, +under Clement the Eighth England had apostatized, and now under Pius the +Fourth, a third Pope of the same ill-starred race, France was on the +brink of ruin. The king was a boy, without experience and without +authority, the council full of discord, the supreme power in the hands +of the queen, who, though sagacious, was yet only a woman, and both +timid and irresolute. The King of Navarre, while noble and gracious, was +a prince of little constancy and limited practice in government. The +people were in disorder and manifest division. Everywhere there were +seditious and insolent men, who, under the pretext of religion, had +disturbed the general peace, overturned customs and discipline, and put +in doubt the royal authority and the safety of all. Oh, that Philip the +Second had the courage of his father, or that Charles the Fifth had had +his son's glorious opportunity--_then would France be France no +longer_![1243] For just so certainly as the Spanish king was looked upon +with suspicion by the rulers, was he longed for by all that hated the +present state of things, and, most of all, by the prelates and the rest +of the Catholics, who knew not in what other quarter to look for +salvation.[1244] + +[Sidenote: Romish complaints of Huguenot boldness.] + +It was not possible that peace should long be maintained under such +circumstances. It could not be but that the Huguenots, conscious of +their growing numbers, confident of the near approach of the day when +their rights were to be formally recognized, and impatient of the +fetters with which their enemies still attempted to embarrass their +progress, would assert their rights from day to day with increasing +boldness. The priests and the rabble, on the other hand, regarded this +new courage with suspicion, and interpreted every action as springing +from insufferable insolence. They were on the watch to detect fresh +examples of Huguenot audacity. They complained of the numbers that +flocked to hear the reformed preachers, of the arms which some carried +for self-defence--a precaution not very astonishing in view of the +excited feelings of the Parisians and the frequent outbursts of their +fury, and still less extraordinary on the part of the "noblesse," who +were accustomed to wear a sword at all times. They went so far as to +assert that the Huguenot multitude usurped the entire pavement, and were +become so overbearing that they were ready to pick a quarrel with any +one that presumed "to look at them." A peaceable Catholic must needs, to +avoid abuse and hard blows, show more skill in getting out of their way +than he would in shunning a mad dog. The streets resounded with their +profane psalm-singing, and ill fared it with the unlucky wight that +ventured to remonstrate, or dared to find fault with their provoking use +of meat on the prohibited days. He was likely to have a broken head for +his pains, or be shut up in prison by judges who sympathized with the +"new doctrines."[1245] The court, however, more correctly ascribing the +disturbances that occurred on such occasions to the attacks made upon +the Protestants by their opponents, detached the "chevalier du guet" +and his archers to attend the meetings and to prevent the disturbance of +the worshippers on their way to and from the places assigned for the +Protestant services in the suburbs. + +[Sidenote: The "tumult of Saint Medard."] + +At length, on Saturday, the twenty-seventh of December, a serious +commotion took place. One of the two spots where Catharine, at the +chancellor's suggestion, had permitted the Huguenots of the capital to +meet for worship, was a spacious building on the southern side of the +Seine, outside the walls and not far from the gate of St. Marceau. It +bore the enigmatical designation of "Le Patriarche," derived--so +antiquarians alleged--from the circumstance that it had been built long +before by a patriarch of Alexandria expelled from his see by the +Moslems.[1246] Here a congregation of several thousand persons[1247] had +assembled in the afternoon. The introductory services over, the pastor, +Jean Malot, had been preaching for a quarter of an hour, when his sermon +was noisily interrupted. Separated from the "Patriarche" by a narrow +lane stood the parish church of Saint Medard. Under the pretext of +summoning the people to vespers, the priests had ordered all the bells +in the tower to be rung violently, and hoped by the din to put an end to +the heretical worship in the vicinity. Finding it impossible to make +himself heard, the minister endeavored to restrain his excited audience, +and after the singing of a psalm resumed his discourse. It was all in +vain: St. Medard's bells pealed out the tocsin, and the sound of the +discharge of fire-arms, and the crash of stones hurled from the belfry, +increased the confusion. Meanwhile two Protestants had quietly gone over +to the side door of the church, to request an abatement of the +interruption. Their civil request was answered with violence. One of the +men barely escaped with his life; the other, a deacon of the church, was +killed on the spot. Five or six royal archers, commanded by the provost, +Rouge-Oreille, next summoned the party within the church to desist, but +met with no better success. At length the people, now congregated around +the entrance, and subjected to a storm of missiles from the windows and +the tower, forced open the doors and entered the church. Here they +discovered the corpse of their murdered brother. The priests and +sacristans, though armed with swords and clubs, were soon driven to take +refuge in the belfry. In the struggle the ecclesiastics themselves +became iconoclasts, and, when their supply of less sacred implements ran +low, broke in pieces the images of saints, and rained the fragments upon +the Huguenot crowd. Finally a threat to set fire to the belfry put an +end at once to the ringing of the tocsin and to the holy shower. +Meantime the tumultous peals of St. Medard's bells had drawn to the spot +the "chevalier du guet," one Gabaston, who, on learning the +circumstances, promptly lent aid in quelling the disturbance, and +arrested a number of the leaders in the riotous proceedings. Yielding to +an injudicious impulse, the motley crowd of Huguenots and of persons who +had been attracted to the scene by the noise resolved to accompany the +prisoners to the "Petit Chatelet," and the march assumed the appearance +of a triumphal procession. Between Gabaston's troop of over two hundred +mounted and foot archers, and the detachment of Rouge-Oreille, walked a +band of unarmed Protestants, followed by the Roman Catholic prisoners, +many of them in their ecelesiastical dresses, and tied together two by +two. It was deemed little short of a miracle that the procession, even +with its escort of soldiery, should be suffered to enter the city and +pass through its densely crowded streets on a public holiday, without +being attacked by the intensely Roman Catholic populace.[1248] + +Such was the famous "tumult of Saint Medard"--the result of a plan +adopted expressly to stir up the inveterate hostility of the Parisians +against the adherents of the Reformation, and to serve as the pretext +for demanding the prohibition of the Protestant "assemblies."[1249] The +popular explosion that had been expected instantly to follow the +application of the match was deferred until the morrow, when a rabble +such as the capital alone could pour forth gutted the interior of the +"_Patriarche_" and would have set it on fire, had it not been repulsed +by a small body of Huguenot gentlemen.[1250] The plot had proved +abortive; but it was the innocent victims and the friends of good order, +not the conspirators, who paid the penalty of the broken law. While the +priest of Saint Medard and his accomplices were promptly discharged, +without even a reprimand, Gabaston and one "Nez-d'Argent," royal +officers who had interfered to restore order, were executed by command +of parliament.[1251] + +[Sidenote: Assembly of notables at St. Germain.] + +About a week after the occurrence of the seditious disturbance just +narrated, the assembly of notables was convened at St. Germain (January, +1562). To this body it was proposed to refer the religious condition of +the realm, with the view of reaching some more definite and satisfactory +settlement than the "Edict of July," whose provisions had become a dead +letter before the ink with which they were written was dry. + +[Sidenote: Chancellor L'Hospital's opening address.] + +[Sidenote: Diversity of sentiment.] + +[Sidenote: The nuncio's alarm and activity.] + +The chancellor, who, according to custom, set forth at considerable +length the circumstances constraining the king, by his mother's advice, +to summon the representatives of his trusty parliaments, with the +highest lords of the kingdom, to give him their counsel, dwelt upon the +signal failure of all the measures of repression hitherto adopted, and +upon the necessity of finding other remedies for the public ills. He +disclaimed any intention on the king's part to introduce a discussion +respecting the two religions in order to settle their respective merits. +It was not to establish the faith, but to regulate the state, that they +were assembled. Those who were in no sense Christians might yet be +citizens; and, in leaving the Church, a man did not cease to be a good +subject of the king. "We can live in peace," he added, "with those who +do not observe the same ceremonies and usages, and we can apply to +ourselves the current saying: A wife's faults ought either to be cured +or to be endured."[1252] When the opinions of the members of the +assembly were successively given, the apprehensions entertained by the +Romish party, from the very initiation of the plan of the conference, +were seen to be well grounded.[1253] The orthodoxy of the sentiments of +the majority was by no means above suspicion. The nuncio, Santa Croce, +chronicles with alarm the preponderance of those who openly advocated +the adoption of lenient measures. It was evident that the Edict of July, +with its bloody policy, could command the votes of only a small +minority. The pontifical ambassador trembled lest the Protestants +should, after all, obtain the largest concessions. He was, consequently, +as despondent as ever his predecessor had been.[1254] But, more prudent +than the Bishop of Viterbo, he took pains to conceal his fears from the +eyes of the courtiers, lest he should furnish the Huguenots with fresh +means of influencing the wavering government. Accordingly, instead of +giving up everything as lost, he spared neither time nor money, +besieging the doors of the grandees who were believed to be true friends +of the Holy See, and entreating them to dismiss all intention of leaving +the court, and thus abandoning the field to their enemies.[1255] He even +sought an interview with Catharine de' Medici, and, in company with the +Spanish ambassador, offered her the united forces of the Pope and of +Philip to repress any disturbances that might arise from the adoption of +a course unpalatable to the Huguenots; and he returned from the audience +persuaded that "these preachers would obtain no churches, and would gain +nothing from the conference."[1256] + +In this conclusion, however, the nuncio was but partially correct. It is +true that the small faction favoring an adherence to the old persecuting +policy succeeded, by uniting with the advocates of a limited +toleration, in defeating the project of the more liberal party;[1257] +but, as will be seen, it was by no means true that Protestantism gained +nothing by the results of the deliberations. + +[Sidenote: The Edict of January.] + +These results were embodied in the famous law which, from the +circumstance that it was signed on the seventeenth of January. 1562, is +known in history as the "_Edict of January_." It began by repealing the +provisional edict of the preceding July, because, in consequence of its +sweeping prohibition of all public and private assemblies, it had failed +of accomplishing the objects intended, as was clear from the more +aggravated seditions ensuing. It ordained that "those of the new +religion" should give up all the churches they had seized, and +prohibited them from building others, whether inside or outside of the +cities. But the cardinal prescription was that, while all assemblages +for the purpose of listening to preaching, either by day or by night, +were forbidden within the walled cities, the penalties should be +suspended "provisionally and until the determination of a general +council" in the case of unarmed gatherings for religious worship held by +day outside these limits. The Protestants, both on their way to their +services and on their return, were to be exempt from molestation on the +part of the royal magistrates, who were enjoined to punish all seditious +persons, whatever might be their religion. The ministers were commanded +to inquire carefully into the life and morals of those whom they +admitted to their communion, to permit royal officers to be present at +all their religious exercises, and to take a solemn oath before the +local magistrates to observe this ordinance, promising, at the same +time, to teach no doctrines at variance with the true word of God as +contained in the Nicene Creed and in the canonical books of the Old and +New Testaments. Inflammatory and insulting harangues were forbidden +alike to the Romish and the Protestant preachers. All seditious +combinations, the enrolment of troops, and the levy of money, were +prohibited; nor could even an ecclesiastical synod or consistory be held +without the previous consent of the royal officers and in their +presence.[1258] + +[Sidenote: The Huguenots no longer outlaws.] + +Such were the most important features of a law the promulgation of which +marks the termination of the first great period in the history of the +Huguenots of France--the period of persecution inflicted mainly +according to cruel legal ordinances and under the forms of judicial +procedure. From the moment of the publication of this charter--imperfect +and inadequate as it manifestly was--the Huguenots ceased to be outlaws, +and became, in the eye of the law, at least, a class entitled within +certain limits to the protection of the ministers of justice. Unhappily +for France, the solemn recognition of Protestant rights was scarcely +conceded by representatives of the entire nation before an attempt was +made by a desperate faction to annul and overturn it by intrigue and +violence. The next act in this remarkable drama is, therefore, the +inauguration of the period of _Civil War_, or of oppression exercised in +defiance of acknowledged rights and of the accepted principles of +equity--a lamentable period, in which every bloody contest originated in +the determination of the one party to circumscribe or destroy, and of +the other to maintain in its integrity the fundamental basis of +toleration laid down in the Edict of January. + + +END OF VOLUME I. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1108: La Place, 154; Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 230-234. To the +names mentioned in the text must be added the name of Jean de l'Espine, +who joined his brethren soon after their arrival at Poissy. He was a +Carmelite monk of high reputation for learning, who now, for the first +time, threw aside the cowl and subscribed to the reformed confession of +faith. For an interesting account of his conversion caused by conversing +with and witnessing the triumphant death of a Protestant, Jean Rabec, +executed April 24, 1556, see Ph. Vincent, Recherches sur les +commencements et premiers progres de la Ref. en la ville de la Rochelle, +1693, _apud_ Bulletin, ix. 30-32. The delegates of the churches were +more numerous than the ministers; there were twenty-two, according to +the Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 316; though the Abbe Bruslart (Mem. de +Conde, i. 51), swells the number to twenty-eight. The names of twelve, +representing twelve of the principal provinces, are given, with +variations, by two MSS. of the National Library of Paris (Dupuy Coll., +vols. 309 and 641), see F. Bourquelot, notes to Mem. de Claude Haton, i. +155.] + +[Footnote 1109: Beza to Calvin, Sept. 12, _apud_ Baum, ii., App. 61; La +Place, 158.] + +[Footnote 1110: Beza, _ubi supra_. An engraving of the period, +reproduced by Montfaucon, affords a pleasant view of the quaint scene.] + +[Footnote 1111: La Place, 157; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 314; De +Thou, iii. 65.] + +[Footnote 1112: Letter of Beza to Calvin, Aug. 30, 1561, _ap._ Baum, +ii., App., 59.] + +[Footnote 1113: The speeches of Charles and L'Hospital seem to have been +delivered before the introduction of Beza; cf. Hist. eccles. des eglises +ref., i. 316. Prof. Baum, following La Place, 157, and De Thou, iii. +65-67, represents them as having been delivered subsequently. Theodor +Beza, ii. 238.] + +[Footnote 1114: La Place, 158; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 314, 315. +I have alluded to the fact, first noticed by Prof. Soldan, that De Thou +and others have placed here a speech which was in reality delivered five +or six weeks earlier; while not only they, but also the accurate La +Place and the author of the Histoire eccles. des egl. ref., have done +the same by the king's speech, and a rejoinder of Tournon to +L'Hospital's address.] + +[Footnote 1115: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 316.] + +[Footnote 1116: This interesting incident Prof. Baum discovered in a +fragmentary MS. in the remarkable collection of the late Col. Tronchin. +Theodor Beza, ii. 238. The text is thus given in the Bulletin xiii. +(1864) 284: "M. de Besze, entrant dans la conference de Poissy avec un +ministre de Geneve, un cardinal dit: _Voici les chiens de Geneve!_ M. de +Besze, l'ayant entendu, repondit: _Il est bien necessaire que, dans la +bergerie du Seigneur, il y ait des chiens pour abboyer contre les +loups._"] + +[Footnote 1117: "Es sind auch die Cardinael, diewyl er geredt, mit +entdektem Houpt gestunden, und beede mal, diewyl sy gebaetet, hat sich +die alte Kuenigin niderglassen und mit gebaetet, der Kuenig aber ist bliben +still sitzen." Letter of Haller to Bullinger, Berne, Sept. 23, 1561, +_ap._ Baum, ii., App., 73.] + +[Footnote 1118: Baum, ii. 245.] + +[Footnote 1119: La Place, 159; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref. i. 316. The +current, but erroneous belief, that this confession was first composed +by Theodore Beza at the Colloquy of Poissy, has already been noticed. It +had been printed, as we have seen (_ante_, c. viii. p. 343), in the +Geneva Liturgy as early as in 1542; and earlier still in that of +Strasbourg. It was already the favorite of martyrs and confessors. Jean +Vernou, in 1515, recited it at the _estrapade_. "Verum antequam +mactaretur," says Jean Crespin, "preces ad Deum fudit, ita exorsus: +'Domine Deus et Pater omnipotens ego certe coram sacrosancta majestate +tua ex animo et syncere agnosco me peccatorem esse miserrimum,' et +caetera quae in precationum formula recitantur statim initio." The margin +reads: "Initium precum solennium Geneuae." Actiones et monimenta +martyrum, Genevae 1560, fol. 321.] + +[Footnote 1120: La Place, 159; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 316.] + +[Footnote 1121: "De Beze portant la parole pour tous les autres, +commenca et continua longuement sa remonstrance en assez doux termes, se +soumettant souventefois, si l'on montroit par la Sainte Escriture," etc. +Letter of Catharine de' Medici to the Bishop of Rennes, Sept. 14, 1561, +_apud_ Le Laboureur, Add. Castelnau, i. 733.] + +[Footnote 1122: "His solumodo verbis Cardinales atque Episcopi usque +adeo exasperati atque exacerbati sunt, ut in haec verba, orationem ipsius +interpellates, proruperint: _blasphemavit, blasphemavit Deum_! Sed eorum +adversis admurmurationibus D. Beza minime perturbatus, eodem vultu," +etc. Letter of Joh.. Guil. Stuckius to Conrad Hubert, Sept. 18, 1561, +Baum, ii., App., 66.] + +[Footnote 1123: "Da Beza eine schoene Oration gethon, darinn er kurtz +perstringiert alle strytigen Artikel, und als er letstlich kom uff den +Artikel von der Gegenwirtikeit Christi im Sacrament, und under anderm +gesagt das sige so veer von einander als der Himmel von der Erden, +habend die Sorbonischen angfangen _klopfen_, _ruetschen_, _brummlen_, das +nieman nuet mer moegen hoeren, dess die alte Koenigin uebel zufriden gsyn. +Dessgleichen auch der Cardinal von Lutringen und sy gheissen in Stille +losen, man werde sy doch hernach auch gutwilliklich verhoeren." Letter of +Haller to Bullinger, Sept. 25, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 73. "Cela fut +trouve si nouveau et estrange entre les prelats, que soubdain ils +commencerent tous a murmurer et faire un grand bruict; lequel toutesfois +estant aucunement appaise," etc. La Place, 167, 168. "Hic enim mussitare +Cardinales et Episcopi, et tantum non vestes scindere." Letter of Martyr +to the Senate of Zurich, Sept. 12, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 63.] + +[Footnote 1124: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 327.] + +[Footnote 1125: Letter of Haller, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1126: The admirable speech of Theodore Beza is given word for +word by La Place, 159-167, and somewhat modernized by the Hist. eccles. +des egl. ref., i. 316-327. Cf. De Thou, iii. 67, 68; Castelnau, 1. iii., +c. 4; Abbe Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 51; Letters of Stuck, Haller, and +Martyr, _ubi supra_. Summa eorum quae a die 22. Augusti usque ad 15. +Septembr. in aula regis Galliae acta sunt, _apud_ F. C. Schlosser, Leben +des Theodor de Beza und des Peter Martyr Vermili (Heidelberg, 1809), +Appendix, 355-359. Discours des Actes de Poissy, _ubi supra_, 652-657.] + +[Footnote 1127: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 327; La Place, 168; De +Thou, iii. 68; Letter of Haller, _ubi supra_; Actes de Poissy, Recueil +des choses mem., 657, 658.] + +[Footnote 1128: The response of the queen is concisely given by La +Place, the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., the Actes de Poissy, and De Thou +(_ubi supra_); but the graphic account upon which the text is based is +found in the letter of Haller to Bullinger, Sept. 25, 1561, which Prof. +Baum discovered at Zurich, and has published in the volume of documents +which figures as an appendix to the second volume of his extremely +valuable biography of Beza. It is superfluous for me to acknowledge +formally my obligations to this rich storehouse of original authorities, +since the frequent references that I have already made, and shall +doubtless have occasion for some time to make, to its separate +documents, will sufficiently attest the high estimate I place upon its +value. The correspondence of the reformers is always an important +commentary upon the contemporaneous history. In the present instance, +much of the most trustworthy information is derived from it. Prof. +Baum's own narrative is admirable (Book iv., c. 5).] + +[Footnote 1129: "Car d'y proceder a present par la force," writes +Catharine de' Medici at this very time, "il s'y voit un si eminent +peril, pour estre ce mal penetre si avant comme il est, que je n'en suis +en sorte du monde conseillee par ceux qui aiment le repos de cet Estat." +Letter of Sept. 14th, _apud_ Le Laboureur, i. 734.] + +[Footnote 1130: The testimony of Marc' Antonio Barbaro is the more +interesting from the reluctance he manifests to say any good of the +reformer, whom he blames for a great part of the progress of the +Huguenots in France. "E d'assai bello aspetto, _ma d'animo molto +brutto_, perciocche, oltra l'eresie sue, e sedizioso e pieno di vizii e +di scelerita, che non racconto per brevita. Ha vivo spirito, e ingegno +acuto, ma non e prudente, ne ha ponto di giudizio. Mostra d'esser +eloquente, perche parla assai con belle parole e prontamente," etc. Rel. +des Amb. Ven., i. 52.] + +[Footnote 1131: "Ha operato tanto con la sua lingua, che non solamente +ha persuaso infiniti, massimamente dei nobili e grandi, ma e quasi +adorato da molti nel regno, i quali tengono nelle camere la figura sua." +Ib., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1132: So Calvin's eye saw in an instant, and he applauded +Beza's boldness. "Your speech is now before us," he wrote to Beza, Sept. +24th, "in which God wonderfully directed your mind and your tongue. The +testimony which stirred up the bile of the holy fathers could not but be +given, unless you had been willing basely to tergiversate and to expose +yourself to their taunts." "I wonder that they were thrown into +agitation respecting this matter alone, since they were not less +severely hit in other places. It is a stupid assertion that the +conference was broken off in consequence of this ground of offence. For +those who now, by rabidly laying hold of one ground, after a certain +fashion subscribe to the rest of the doctrine, would have found out a +hundred other grounds. This also has, therefore, turned out happily." +Calvini Epistolae, Opera, ix. 157.] + +[Footnote 1133: To her ambassador in Germany, instructed to defend her +course in convening the conference, however, she purposely exaggerated +her indignation, and gave a different coloring to the facts of the case. +"Mais estant enfin (de Beze) tombe sur le fait de la Cene, il s'oublia +en une comparaison si absurde et tant offensive des oreilles de +l'assistance, que pen s'en fallut, que je ne luy imposasse silence, et +que je ne les renvoyasse tous, sans les laisser passer plus avant." She +accounts for the fact that she did not stop him, by noticing that he was +evidently near the end of his speech, and by the consideration that, "as +they are accustomed to take advantage of everything 'pour la +confirmation et persuasion de leur doctrine,' they would rather have +gained by such a command; and moreover, that those who had heard his +arguments would have gone away imbued with and persuaded of his +doctrine, without hearing the answer that might be made." Letter of +Cath. of Sept. 14th, _ubi supra_. Prof. Baum well remarks that "the last +words furnish the most irrefragable proof of the great and convincing +impression which the speech in general had made." Theod. Beza, ii. 263, +note.] + +[Footnote 1134: It is inserted in La Place, 168, 169, and Hist. eccles. +des egl. ref., i. 328-330; De Thou, iii. (liv. 28) 69. Letter of Cath., +_ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1135: "Would that he had been dumb, or that we had been deaf!" +the Cardinal of Lorraine is said to have exclaimed in the prelatic +consultation. La Place and Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., _ubi supra_; J. +de Serres, i. 273.] + +[Footnote 1136: La Place, 170; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 330, 331, +where the protest is reproduced.] + +[Footnote 1137: "Me excludere volebant adversarii, ne interessem, +tanquam hominem peregrinum. Regina tamen mater per Condaeum principem eo +ipso articulo, cum profisciscendum erat, evocavit et adesse voluit." +Letter of Martyr to the Senate of Zurich, Sept. 19, 1561, Baum, ii., +App., 67.] + +[Footnote 1138: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 332.] + +[Footnote 1139: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 332-348; La Place, +170-177; De Thou, iii. 70; J. de Serres, i. 273-280. The impression made +by the cardinal's speech upon his Romanist and Protestant hearers +differed widely. According to the Abbe Bruslart (Mem. de Conde, i. 52), +he spoke "en si bons et elegans termes, et d'une si bonne grace et +asseurance, que nos adversaires mesmes l'admiroient." Stuck makes him +speak "admodum inepte" (_ap._ Baum, ii., App., 66); while Beza writes: +"Nihil unquam audivi impudentius, nihil ineptius.... Caetera ejusmodi quae +certe mihi nauseam moverunt" (Ib., 63, 64). Peter Martyr judged more +leniently (Ib., 67, 68). It is, therefore, hardly likely that Beza said, +as Dr. Henry White alleges without referring to his authority (Massacre +of St. Bartholomew, 64); "Had I the Cardinal's eloquence I should hope +to convert half France."] + +[Footnote 1140: La Place, 178; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., _ubi supra_; +Jean de Serres, i. 280; De Thou, iii. 71.] + +[Footnote 1141: La Place, etc., _ubi supra_; J. de Serres, i. 281.] + +[Footnote 1142: "Nobis certum est," says Beza in a letter of Sept. 17th, +"vel mox congredi vel protestatione facta discedere, si pergant diem de +die ducere." Baum, ii., App., 64.] + +[Footnote 1143: "Quid novi sperare possim non video. Nempe vel ipsa +necessitas aliquid extorquebit, vel, quod Deus avertat, expectanda sunt +omnia belli civilis incommoda. Quotidie ex diversis regni partibus multa +ad nos tristia afferuntur in utramque partem, quoniam utrinque peccatur +plerisque locis." Letter of Beza, Sept. 17th, _ubi supra_. In a similar +strain Stuck writes on the next day: "In Gascony and Normandy scarcely +an image is any longer to be seen; masses have ceased to be said. +Undoubtedly, unless the liberty of preaching and hearing the Gospel with +impunity be granted, there is great reason to fear an intestine war." +Baum, ii., App., 67. Cf. Summa eorum, etc., _apud_ Schlosser, Leben des +Theodor de Beza, Anhang, 358, 359.] + +[Footnote 1144: La Place, Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., Jean de Serres, +etc., _ubi supra_, Castelnau, l. iii., c. 4.] + +[Footnote 1145: No wonder; the prelates had just solemnly decreed, as +Abbe Bruslart informs us (Mem. de Conde, i. 52): "Non erat congrediendum +cum his qui principia et fundamentum totius nostrae fidei et religionis +christianae negant." Not only so; but they had protested against the +heretics being heard, and had declared that _whoever conferred with them +would be excommunicated_! "Disants que ceux qui confereroient avec eux +seroient excommunies." The reader, if he cannot admire their +consistency, will certainly be struck with astonishment at the fortitude +of the prelates who, a few hours later, could bring themselves with so +little apparent trepidation under the highest censures of the Church. +Bruslart goes on to tell us that it was the Cardinal of Lorraine who +brought them into this dreadful condemnation, partly hoping to convert +the Huguenots, _partly to please Catharine de' Medici_!] + +[Footnote 1146: "Mais ce ne fut pas en si grande compagnie +qu'auparavant. Car Messieurs les preslats croignoyent que le monde ne +fut infecte de nos heresies, qu'ils appellent." Letter of Beza to the +Elector Palatine, Oct. 3, 1861, Baum, ii., App., p. 88.] + +[Footnote 1147: Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 311, 312.] + +[Footnote 1148: Ib., _ubi supra_, Hist. eccles., i. 349. Letter of N. +des Gallars to the Bishop of London, Sept. 29th, Baum, ii., App., 80.] + +[Footnote 1149: Beza's speech is given in full by La Place, 179-189; +Hist. eccl. des egl. ref., i. 350-362; and J. de Serres, i. 282-312. See +also De Thou, iii. 71, and N. des Gallars, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1150: "Et hoc quidem prorsus inepte, quia neque conquesti +eramus, neque quemquam poterat videri magis accusare, quam eum ipsum +[sc. Cardinal Loth.] cui accesserat advocatus." Letter of Beza, Sept. +27th, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 75. It was Beza's firm belief that +D'Espense had been hired by Lorraine to compose his speech of the 16th +of September, as well as to defend him on the present occasion. He +therefore not inappositely calls him, in this letter to Calvin, +"conductitius Balaam."] + +[Footnote 1151: La Place, 189, 190; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 364; +Jean de Serres, i. 315; Beza, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1152: La Place, 192; Jean de Serres, i. 321-323; Hist. eccles. +des egl. ref., i. 370; Beza to Calvin, Baum, ii., App., 77; N. des +Gallars to the Bishop of London, ibid., 81; De Thou, iii. 73.] + +[Footnote 1153: Letter of Beza to Calvin, Sept. 27th, _ubi supra_. +Besides permitting the communication of this information, the break in +the conferences (caused by the discovery, on Catharine's part, that the +majority of the prelates had resolved to submit a proposition respecting +the mass, drawn up in a strictly Romish sense--a refusal to sign which +they intended to take as the signal for declining to hold any further +intercourse with the Protestants) furnished an opportunity for Montluc, +Bishop of Valence--a prelate suspected of Protestant proclivities--and +Claude d'Espense, one of the most moderate of the theologians of the +Sorbonne, to meet privately, by request of Catharine de' Medici, with +Beza and Des Gallars. The result of their interview was the provisional +adoption of a declaration on the subject of the eucharist, which, though +undoubtedly Protestant in its natural import, was rejected by the rest +of the ministers as not sufficiently explicit. Hist. eccles. des egl. +ref., _ubi supra_. See a full account in Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. +342-344. They rightly judged that where there is essential discrepancy +of belief, little or nothing can be gained by cloaking it in ambiguous +expressions.] + +[Footnote 1154: Beza's address is inserted in La Place, 193-196; Hist. +eccles. des egl. ref., i. 371, etc. See also De Thou, iii. (liv. +xxviii.), 74; letters of Beza to Calvin, and N. des Gallars to the +Bishop of London, _ubi supra_; Jean de Serres, i. 327, etc.] + +[Footnote 1155: La Place, De Thou, letters of Beza, and des Gallars, +etc., _ubi supra_. "Comme si les feu rois Francois le grand, Henry le +debonnaire, Francois dernier decede, et Charles a present regnant (et +faisoit sonner ces mots autant qu'il pouvoit) avoient ete tyrans et +simoniacles." Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 375.] + +[Footnote 1156: La Place, Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., etc., _ubi +supra_. Letter of Beza to the Elector Palatine, Oct. 3d, Baum, ii., +App., 88, 89.] + +[Footnote 1157: Because he was not sufficiently familiar with French, +according to La Place, 197 (ne scachant parler francois); and in order +to make himself better understood by the queen "ut a regina intelligi +posset," than he would have been had he spoken in Latin. Letter of Beza, +Baum, ii., App., 79. "D'Espense," says La Place _ubi supra_, "lors donna +ceste louange audict Martyr, qu'il n'y avoit eu homme de ce temps qui si +amplement et avec telle erudition eust escript du faict du sacrement que +luy."] + +[Footnote 1158: Although Lainez spoke in Italian (see Baum, ii. 363), it +is needless to say that the Cardinal of Lorraine made no objection to +the use of a language which, it may be added, he understood perfectly. +The reader may see some reason in the summary of Lainez's speech given +in the text, for dissenting from the remark of MM. Oimber et Danjou, iv. +34, note: "Il [Lainez] fit entendre dans le colloque de Poissy, des +_paroles de paix et de conciliation_."] + +[Footnote 1159: "I said," writes Beza, in giving an account of his brief +reply to Lainez, "that I would concede all the Spaniard's assertions +when he proved them. As to his statement that we were foxes, and +serpents, and apes, _we no more believed it than we believed in +transubstantiation_." Letter to Calvin, Baum, ii., App., 79.] + +[Footnote 1160: La Place, 198; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 377-379; +Jean de Serres, i. 335-339; Letter of Beza to Calvin, Sept. 27th, Baum, +ii., App., 79.] + +[Footnote 1161: "Qui prae ceteris doctrina et ingenio, atque etiam +moderatione praestare existimantur." Letter of N. des Gallars, _ubi +supra_, 82. "Gens doctes et traictables." Letter of Beza to the Elector +Palatine, ibid., 90.] + +[Footnote 1162: _Ante_, p. 475.] + +[Footnote 1163: "Fateor equidem (nec causa est cur id negem) _falsam +istam doctrinam_, non tam fortasse aperte, quam ipsi facere soletis, +confutasse: Babylonem tamen cum cuniculis, tum aperto etiam marte, ut +res et tempus ferebat, ita semper oppugnavi, ut noster iste in eo genere +conatus optimo cuique semper probaretur." Letter of Salignac to Calvin, +Calvini Opera, ix. 163, 164. Calvin (probably, as Prof. Baum remarks, at +Beza's suggestion) wrote to Salignac, about a month after the +termination of the Colloquy of Poissy, a respectful but extremely frank +letter, in which he urged him to espouse with decision the cause he +secretly advocated. He reminded him that it was no mean honor to have +been among the first fruits of the revival of truth in France. He urged +him to put an end to his inordinate hesitation, by the consideration of +the number of those who were still vacillating, but who would forthwith +imitate his example if he forsook the enemy's camp for the fold of +Christ. Letter of Calvin to Salignac, Nov. 19, 1561, Calvini Opera, ix. +163; Calvin's Letters (Bonnet), iv. 239-241. Salignac's reply, from +which the extract given above is taken, is characteristic of the +man--less conscious of his weakness than Gerard Roussel, but equally +faint-hearted. See also Baum, ii. 387, 388.] + +[Footnote 1164: See Prof. Baum's graphic account, ii. 390-392. The next +day Martyr wrote out and presented a fuller statement of his belief, +which is inserted among the documents of Baum, ii., App., 84, 85.] + +[Footnote 1165: "En tant que la foy rend les choses promises presentes, +et que la foy prent veritablement le corps et le sang de nostre Seigneur +Jesus-Christ, par la vertu du Sainct-Esprit; en cest esgard nous +confessons la presence du corps et du sang d'iceluy en la saincte cene, +en laquelle il nous presente, donne et exhibe veritablement la substance +de son corps et sang, par l'operation de son Sainct-Esprit; y recevons +et mangeons spirituellement et par foy," etc. Mem. de Conde, i. 55; La +Place, 199; Jean de Serres, i. 340. Letter of Des Gallars, Baum, ii., +App., 83.] + +[Footnote 1166: "Nous confessons que Jesus-Christ en sa cene nous +presente, donne et exhibe veritablement la substance de son corps et de +son sang par l'operation du Sainct-Esprist; et que nous recevons et +mangeons spirituellement et par foy ce propre corps, qui est mort pour +nous, pour estre os de ses os, et chair de sa chair, a fin d'en estre +vivifie, et percevoir tout ce qui est requis a nostre salut. Et pour ce +que la foy appuyee sur la parolle de Dieu fait et rend presentes les +choses prises, et que par ceste foy nous prenons vrayement et de faict +le vray et naturel corps et sang de nostre Seigneur par la vertu du +Sainct-Esprit, en cest esgard nous confessons la presence du corps et +sang d'iceluy en sa saincte cene." La Place, 199; J. de Serres, i. 341. +Letter of des Gallars, _ubi supra_, 83, 84; Languet, Epist. secr., ii. +148; Mem. de Conde, i. 55.] + +[Footnote 1167: Letter of Beza, Oct. 3d and 4th, Baum, ii., App., 93; +Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 382.] + +[Footnote 1168: "Peutetre qu'il pensait dire vrai," shrewdly observes +the author of the Hist. des eglises reformees (i. 382), "_n'ayant jamais +le loisir telles gens de bien penser, s'ils croient ou non, ni a ce +qu'ils pensent croire_."] + +[Footnote 1169: Letter of N. des Gallars, _ubi supra_, 84: "Quum hanc +formam legisset Cardinalis, mire approbavit, ac laetatus est quasi ad +ejus castra transissemus."] + +[Footnote 1170: "Intelligimus etiam ipsos a suis objurgari quasi +sentiant nobiscum aut colludant." Letter of N. des Gallars, Oct. 6th, +_ubi supra_. See also letter of Beza, Oct. 3d, Baum, ii., App., 94.] + +[Footnote 1171: The most extended and accurate view of the Colloquy of +Poissy is afforded by Prof. Baum, who has consecrated to it two hundred +and fifty pages of the second volume of his masterly biography of Beza +(pp. 168-419). The correspondence of Beza and others that were present +at the colloquy, collected by Prof. Baum in the supplementary volume of +documents (published in 1852), and the detailed accounts of the Histoire +eccles. des egl. ref, of La Place (Commentaires de l'estat de la rel. et +republique, which here terminate), and of Jean de Serres, who, in this +part of his history, does little more than translate La Place, are the +most important sources of authentic information. Castelnau's account of +the colloquy (1. iii., c. 4) is remarkably incorrect. He makes the ten +delegates confer together for _three months_, without agreeing on a +single point, and finally separate on the 25th of November. Davila is +brief and unsatisfactory (pp. 50, 51).] + +[Footnote 1172: From what Martyr wrote to the magistrates of Zurich +(Oct. 17th) respecting the conduct of the bishops in connection with the +subscription to the canons, it would appear that the close of the +prelatic assembly did not disgrace the amenities of the debates at its +commencement (see _ante_, p. 499): "Accidit mira Dei providentia, ut +repente inter episcopos, qui erant Poysiaci, tam grave dissidium ortum +fuerit, ut fere ad manus venerint, imo, ut homines fide digni affirmant +res _ut pugnis et unguibus_ est acta." Baum, ii., App., 107. See also +the extract from Martyr's letter of the same date to Bullinger, cited by +Prof. Baum, ii. 401, note.] + +[Footnote 1173: Histoire eccles., i. 383-405. See Baum, ii. 399-401.] + +[Footnote 1174: The vote was, according to Beza's letter of Oct. 21st, +sixteen millions of francs with interest within six years (Baum, ii., +App. 109); according to the Journal of Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 53, +within twelve years. Prof. Soldan, Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, +i. 512, 513, gives the details of the famous "Contract of Poissy." It +must be admitted that both nobles and people were ready enough with +plans for paying off the national indebtedness _out of the property of +the Church_. These generous economists found that, according to the +ancient customs, one-third of the ecclesiastical revenues ought to be +employed for the support of the clergy, one-third to be given to the +poor, and the remaining third expended in keeping the sacred edifices in +repair. They proposed, therefore, to relieve the clergy of the latter +two-thirds of their possessions, and apply them to the extinction of the +royal debt, assuming that the nation would maintain the churches in +better condition, and feed the poor more effectively than had ever been +done hitherto! Languet, Letter of Aug. 17th, Epist. secr., ii. 136.] + +[Footnote 1175: Baum, ii. 408.] + +[Footnote 1176: Oct. 20th, according to Recueil des anc. lois franc., +xiv. 122.] + +[Footnote 1177: Text of the edict in Mem. de Conde, ii. 520-528 (De +Thou, iii. 99, following the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., erroneously +gives the date as Nov. 3d); Letter of Beza, Oct. 21st, Baum, ii., App., +109; Letter of Martyr, Oct. 17th, ibid., 107.] + +[Footnote 1178: Beza, _ubi supra_; Car. Joinvillaeus, Nov. 5th, Baum, +ii., App., 123.] + +[Footnote 1179: Oct. 19th, according to Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 59. +According to La Place, the assembly of the prelates did not break up +until the 30th of October, after a session of about three months: "Et le +trentiesme dudict mois ... fut ainsi finie ladicte assemblee, sans +apporter autre fruict, apres avoir este toutesfois assembles [les +prelats] par l'espace de trois mois ou environ." (Page 201.)] + +[Footnote 1180: "De fait," wrote Calvin of the Augsburg Confession, +"elle est _si maigrement bastie, si molle et si obscure_, qu'on ne s'y +sauroit arrester." Letter to Beza, Sept. 24, 1561. Bonnet, Lettres +franc., ii. 428; Baum, ii., App., 70.] + +[Footnote 1181: The account of the occasion of the mission of delegates +from Germany, given in the text, is based on Soldan, Gesch. des Prot, in +Frankreich, i. 531-537. He has, I think, sufficiently demonstrated the +inaccuracy of the ordinary story (accepted even by Prof. Baum, Theod. +Beza, ii. 370, 419, etc.), which attributes their advent chiefly, if not +wholly, to the desire of Lorraine. It is said that, after hearing Beza's +speech of the ninth of September, the cardinal sought to obtain, through +the instrumentality of the Marshal de Vieilleville, at Metz, and his +salaried spy Rascalon, at Heidelberg, some decided Lutherans, to be +employed in bringing the Protestants at Poissy into contempt, through +the wrangling of their theologians with those of Germany. See the Hist. +eccles. des egl. ref., etc. Yet it is not improbable, as La Place, +Commentaires, 200, seems to hint that Navarre's project was maliciously +countenanced by the Cardinal of Lorraine. But the circumstance that, of +the _five_ German theologians, not less than _two_ were opposed to the +Augsburg Confession, proves conclusively that they could not have been +despatched with the view of helping the cardinal out in his attempt. +Bossuet's admiration of the prelate's sagacity, in thus seeking to give +a brilliant demonstration of the variations of doctrine among +Protestants, certainly seems to be wasted.] + +[Footnote 1182: _Ante_, c. xi., p. 493.] + +[Footnote 1183: See the list of the twenty members of the council, in +Recueil des anc. lois franc., xiv. 55, 56.] + +[Footnote 1184: See Baum, ii. 215.] + +[Footnote 1185: "Affulserat aliqua spes concordiae, sed Legatus +Pontificius, i. e., Cardinalis Ferrariensis omnia perturbavit." Letter +of Martyr to the magistrates of Zurich, Oct. 17, 1561, Baum, ii., App., +108.] + +[Footnote 1186: "Quique ingenio, eloquentia, _artificio_ plurimum +valebat." Prosp. Santacrucii, Comment de civil. Galliae dissen., 1461.] + +[Footnote 1187: "Ne ipse exequiis, ut dicebat, illius regni interesset." +Ibid., _ubi supra_. Somewhat maliciously Santa Croce suggests that +Gualtieri was all the more reluctant to remain after he heard of the +creation of nineteen new cardinals, and learned that his own name was +not included in the list.] + +[Footnote 1188: "Angebatur interea Romae gravissimis curis Pius pontifex, +quod nec quae legati fecissent satis probaret, et in dies malum magis +serpere, omniaque remedia minus juvare audiebat." Ib., 1462.] + +[Footnote 1189: He was described to the Pope by his secretary, Prosper +himself tells us, as "virum exercitatum, magni animi, multarum +literarum, eloquentem, magnaeque apud Gallos auctoritatis," having +obtained great familiarity with French affairs when nuncio in Henry the +Second's lifetime. Ib., 1463.] + +[Footnote 1190: "Non tam ut numerus legatorum, quam ut plus auctoritatis +legatio haberet, si ab ipsius (ut dicunt) pontificis latere legatus +discederet ... quasi aliorum legatorum creatio, quod erant jam in +Gallia, neque Roma proficiscerentur, non satis diligenter curare +negotium diceretur." Ib., 1462.] + +[Footnote 1191: "Grande hombre de entretenimientos y de encantar." +Vargas calls him. Letter to Granvelle, Nov. 15, 1561, Papiers d'etat du +card. de Granvelle, vi. 416.] + +[Footnote 1192: "Diess waren zwoelf gewiss maechtige Gruende," etc. Baum, +ii. 302; La Place, 153; Marc' Ant. Barbaro, Rel. des Amb. Ven., ii. 86.] + +[Footnote 1193: "Multum inde auri reportaturus existimetur, si ibi annum +vel biennium communi omnium more transigat." Santacrucii, de civil. +Galliae diss. comment., 1464.] + +[Footnote 1194: That is, excepting the cardinal's hat, which his friends +informed him would be the reward of his services in France. Ibid., _ubi +supra_.] + +[Footnote 1195: Ibid., 1462, 1463, 1465.] + +[Footnote 1196: Ibid., 1465.] + +[Footnote 1197: "Lugduno hucusque omnes fere declinavit urbes in +itinere, ut quae jam habeant Ministros, et ideo irrisiones extimuerit." +Letter of Peter Martyr, Sept. 19th, Baum, ii., App., 68.] + +[Footnote 1198: "These artifices," wrote Languet from Paris at the time, +"impose upon no one; and especially from this man, who is very well +known here, who heretofore has surpassed even the highest princes in the +luxury and splendor of his mode of life, and of whose utter want of +knowledge of letters no one is ignorant." Letter of Sept. 20, 1561, +Epist. secr., ii. 140.] + +[Footnote 1199: La Place, 153.] + +[Footnote 1200: Ibid., _ubi supra_; Baum, ii. 305.] + +[Footnote 1201: Letter of the ambassador, Hurault de Bois-Taille, July +12, 1561, Le Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i. 729. Hurault, however, +suspected that some mischief, which time would reveal, lay concealed +under this outward show of complaisance.] + +[Footnote 1202: La Place, 153.] + +[Footnote 1203: Ibid., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1204: Compare Baum, ii. 302, 303.] + +[Footnote 1205: Santacrucii, de civil. Galliae diss. com., 1465: "Quod +mirum in modum oderat episcopi Viterbensis et mores agrestes, et naturam +subacerbam, semperque, ut diximus, male ominantem." Vargas, viewing the +same personage from another point, was far more complimentary. Papiers +d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, vi. 404, 405.] + +[Footnote 1206: Marc' Antonio Barbaro, Relations des Ambassadeurs +Venitiens, ii. 88; Letter of Santa Croce, Poissy, Nov. 15, 1561, Lettres +anecdotes ecrites au card. Borromee par Prosper de Sainte-Croix, nonce +du pape Pie IV. aupres de Catherine de Medicis, 1561-1565. (Aymon, Tous +les synodes nat. (1710), i. 15.) Vargas, Spanish ambassador at the papal +court, who feared that the legate might be induced to lend his influence +to Navarre's scheme for procuring a restitution of his wife's domains, +or an equivalent for them, besieged the pontiff with accounts of his +scandalous intimacy with French heretics of rank. "Repetile lo que otras +vezes le havia dicho, y con quanto escandolo y ofension de la religion +se tractava en Francia, estrechandose en amistad con Vandoma y almirante +Chatiglon, obispo de Valencia, y los demas principales hereges, con gran +desconsuelo y desfavor de los catholicos; y de como no era hombre apto +para una legacion semejante," etc. He accused him of already aiming at +the pontifical see, as if it were now vacant, and urged his immediate +recall. Letter of Vargas to Philip II. from Rome, Nov. 7, 1561; Papiers +d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, vi. 403, 404; see also pp. 405, 406.] + +[Footnote 1207: Examine the curious passage in Santacrucii, de civil. +Galliae diss. comment., 1470, 1471.] + +[Footnote 1208: See the correspondence of Vargas with Philip II. +(letters of Sept. 30, Oct. 3 and 7, 1561), Papiers d'etat du card. +Granvelle, vi. 342, 372, and 380; De Thou, iii. 78, 79; or the very full +account of Prof. Soldan, i. 515-521.] + +[Footnote 1209: Rel. di Marc' Antonio Barbaro, Rel. des Amb. Ven., ii. +88, 89. "E proceduto esso ambasciatore con la regina e Navarra con +parole quasi sempre aspre e severe, minacciando di guerra dal canto del +re suo, et dicendo in faccia alle lor maesta parole assai gagliarde e +pungenti, e levando al re di Navarra del tutto la speranza della +ricompensa, stando le cose in quei termini, et ponendoli inanzi +l'inimicizia di Filippo."] + +[Footnote 1210: "Etenim si de ilia (spe) ejiceretur dubium non erat, +quin se totum ad Calvinistas converteret, et qui cum pudore ac +simultatione illis favebat, perfricta fronte eorum sectam ita +promoveret, ut brevissimo tempore totum Galliae regnum occuparet." +Sanctacrucii, de civ. Gall. diss. comment., 1471.] + +[Footnote 1211: Ibid., 1473.] + +[Footnote 1212: Santacrucii, de civ. Galliae diss. com., 1472, 1473. That +the whole affair was planned in deceit and treachery, is patent not only +from Santa Croce's account both in his letters and in his systematic +treatise, but from the whole of the Vargas correspondence. Even when the +Pope--much to the ambassador's disgust--thought of complying with +Antoine's request to intercede with Philip for some indemnification for +the loss of the kingdom of Navarre, he took the pains to explain that +his urgency would not amount to importunity, much less to a command; his +aim was only to feed Antoine with false hopes while France was in so +precarious a situation: "esto seria por cumplir con Vandome y +entretenerle, por estar Francia en los terminos en que esta," etc. +Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, vi. 344.] + +[Footnote 1213: De Thou, iii. 78, 79.] + +[Footnote 1214: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 419 (the author of +which, however, erroneously gives the end of November as the date of +their departure); Jean de Serres, Commentarii de statu relig. et +reipubl., i. 345 (who makes the same mistake); De Thou, iii. 99. "Cur +autem aliquid adhuc spei habeam, illud etiam in causa est quod _nudius +tertius_ Guisiani omnes serio discesserunt, omnibus bonis invisi, ac +plerisque etiam malis. Abiit quoque Turnonius et Conestabilis.... +Probabile est aliquid simul moliri, sed tamen incerto eventu. De hoc +intra paucos dies certi erimus, utinam ne nostro malo." Letter of Beza +to Calvin, Oct. 21, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 110.] + +[Footnote 1215: That the Huguenots were about this time as sanguine as +their opponents were despondent, may be seen from the prediction of +Languet (letter of October 9th), that unless the opposite party +precipitated a war within two or three months, everything would be safe; +so great would be the accession of strength that the reformers would +actually be the strongest. At court everything tended in that direction, +and the queen mother herself was not likely to try to stem the current. +Martyr, it was reported, had several times brought tears to her eyes, +when conversing with her. "However," dryly observes the diplomatist, "I +am not over-credulous in these matters." Epist. secr., ii. 145.] + +[Footnote 1216: Throkmorton to Queen Elizabeth, Paris, November 26, +1561, State Paper Office.] + +[Footnote 1217: Others besides Jeanne were apprehensive. The Viscount de +Gruz, in his memorial to Queen Elizabeth (Sept. 24, 1561), stated that +the king's constitution was so bad that he was not likely to live long, +for he ate and slept very little. His brothers were equally infirm in +health. Monsieur D'Orleans had a very bad cough, and the physicians +feared that he had the disease of his late brother, Francis; while +Monsieur D'Anjou had been ill for more than a year, and was dying from +day to day. State Paper Office.] + +[Footnote 1218: Letters of Beza, Oct. 21st and Nov. 4th, _ubi supra_. +"Tantum abest ut impetrarim (abeundi facultatem) ut etiam regina ipsa me +accersitum expresse rogarit ut saltem ad tempus manerem."] + +[Footnote 1219: "Nam ex singulis parlamentis duo huc evocantur ad diem +decembris vicesimum," etc. Beza to Calvin, Oct. 30, Baum, ii., App., +117; Histoire eccles. des egl. ref., i. 418.] + +[Footnote 1220: "Je ny voulu faillir de vous advertir," writes the +Prince of Conde in an autograph postscript of a letter (of Oct. 10th) +thanking the magistrates of Zurich for Martyr's visit to France, "des +entreprinses des Seigneurs de Guyse et de Nemours, ennemys de la vraye +religion, qui, voyants que soub le regne du roy de France, le regne de +Jesus Christ sestoit tellement advance que facillement lon pouvoit +appercepvoir que la tyrannie de Lantechrist de Romme seroit en brief +totallement dechassee du dit pays, apres sestre bande du coste du Roy +d'Espaigne, pour maintenir la dicte tyrannie papale delibererent de +desrober et emmener en Espaigne, au Roy Phelippe, le second fils de +France monsieur d'Orleans, esperans que soub le nom du dit jeusne prince +frere du Roy ils auroient occasion de faire la guerre en France et +contre les Evangelistes, estimans que bientost le pape donneroit le +royaulme de France au premier occupant selon sa Tyrannique coustume," +etc. Baum, ii., App., 102, 103. Nemours, after his conspiracy was +discovered, fled from court. He wrote, however, disclaiming any ulterior +object in his invitations to the young Prince of Orleans, to whom he had +in jest proposed to go with him to Spain.] + +[Footnote 1221: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 419-421. Cf. Beza to +Calvin, Nov. 4th, Baum, ii., App., 120.] + +[Footnote 1222: Letter of Beza, Nov. 4th, _ubi supra_; "Regina nescio +quo modo libenter me videt, quod est apud multos testata, et re ipsa sum +expertus. Ideo cupiunt nostri proceres me his manere, quasi fidei et +obedientias nostrarum Ecclesiarum obsidem tantisper dum in futuro illo +conventu aliquid certi constituatur, et ipsi conventui me volunt +interesse."] + +[Footnote 1223: Beza's letters, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 117, 121, 122; +Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 418.] + +[Footnote 1224: "Graces a Dieu, les choses sont bien changees en peu +d'heure, estant maintenant faicts guardiens des assemblees ceux-la mesme +qui nous menoyent en prison." Postscript to Beza's letter of Nov. 4th, +Baum, ii., App., 122.] + +[Footnote 1225: "C'est merveille des auditeurs des lecons de Monsieur +Calvin; jestime quils sont journellement plus de mille." Letter of De +Beaulieu, Geneva, Oct. 3, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 92.] + +[Footnote 1226: Letter of De Beaulieu, _ubi supra_, 91.] + +[Footnote 1227: "Mais ne nous a este possible jamais recouvrer ung +ministre, quelque diligence que nous avons faicte, seulement par +quelqu'un de nous faisons faire des prieres ainsi que par vostre Eglise +sont dressees." Lettre de l'eglise de Foix a la Venerable Compagnie +(1561); Gaberel, i., Pieces justif., 165-167.] + +[Footnote 1228: Lettre de Fornelet a, l'eglise de Neufchatel, Oct. 6, +1561, Baum, ii., App., 95-100, Bulletin, xii. 361-366; Letter of +Fornelet to Calvin, of the same date, Bulletin, etc., xiv. 365.] + +[Footnote 1229: Letter of De Beaulieu, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1230: Letter of Jacques Sorel for the "classe" of Troyes, Oct. +13, 1561, Bulletin, xii. 352-355, Baum, ii., App., 103, 104.] + +[Footnote 1231: Otherwise, 15,000 or 20,000 Huguenots, of whom 2,000 or +3,000 were armed horsemen, would doubtless have come together, and +possibly seized some church edifices. The prince issued a very severe +order against future assailants. Letter of Languet, Oct. 17, 1561. +Epist. secr., ii. 149, 150. Ordonnance de M. le Prince de La +Roche-sur-Yon, lieutenant-general de sa Majeste en la ville de Paris, +publie le 16 Octobre 1561, Mem. de Conde, i. 57-59. Bruslart, as usual, +misrepresents the whole affair, i. 56. Languet was present with the +Protestants.] + +[Footnote 1232: Languet, ii. 155.] + +[Footnote 1233: Memoires de Philippi (Collection Michaud et Poujoulat), +624, 625: "Le populaire des fideles continuoit de mettre en pieces les +sepulchres, deterrer les morts, et faire mille follies.... Le peuple +porta sa haine jusqu'aux bennets quarres, et les gens de justice furent +obliges de prendre des chapeaux ou bonnets ronds."] + +[Footnote 1234: As a single instance out of many, I cite a passage from +a letter of Pierre Viret to Calvin (Nismes, Oct. 31, 1561), illustrative +of the relation of the Huguenot ministers to the acts of mistaken zeal +with which this period abounded: "Hic apud nos omnia sunt pacatissima, +Dei beneficio. Ego, quoad possum, studeo in officio continere non solum +nostros Nemausenses [inhabitants of Nismes], sed etiam vicinos omnes: +sed interea multis in locis et templa occupantur, et idola dejiciuntur +sine nostro consilio. Ego omnia Domino committo, qui pro sua bona +voluntate cuncta moderabitur." Baum, ii., App., 120.] + +[Footnote 1235: Letter from St. Germain, Nov. 4, 1561, Baum, ii., App., +121. "Denique nostros potius quam adversaries metuo."] + +[Footnote 1236: Mem. de Conde, i. 67, etc.; Letter of Santa Croce (Nov. +15, 1561), in Cimber et Danjou, vi. 5, 6, and Aymon, i. 5.] + +[Footnote 1237: Santa Croce, _ubi supra_. Of the Cardinal of Ferrara's +apprehensions and the grounds for them, Shakerley, the legate's own +organist, and a spy of the English ambassador, secretly wrote to +Throkmorton from the French court at St. Germain: "Here is new fire, +here is new green wood reeking; new smoke and much contrary wind blowing +against Mr. Holy Pope; for in all haste the King of Navarre with his +tribe will have another council, and the Cardinal [of Ferrara] stamps +and takes on like a madman, and goeth up and down here to the Queen, +there to the Cardinal of Tournon, with such unquieting of himself as all +the house marvels at it." Shakerley to Throkmorton, Dec. 16, 1561, State +Paper Office. Printed in Froude, vii. 391. When a "holy friar" was +preaching before the court, his sermon "being without salt," the hearers +laughed, the king played with his dog, Catharine went to sleep, and +Ferrara "plucked down his cap." Same to same, Dec. 14, 1561, "two +o'clock after midnight." This industrious correspondent, who employed +the small hours of the night in transmitting to the English ambassador +his master's secrets, confessed to Throkmorton that he had no belief in +the depth of Ferrara's assumed concern, having "so marked the living of +priests" that he believed that "whensoever they are sure to have the +same livings that they have without being troubled, they care not an the +Pope were hanged, with all his indulgences," Letter of Dec. 16, 1561. +State Paper Office.] + +[Footnote 1238: Journal de Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 60, etc.] + +[Footnote 1239: Ibid., i. 65; a highly colored, partisan, and +consequently inaccurate account is given by Claude Haton, i. 214-221. T. +Shakerley, in his letter of Dec. 16th, relates the friar's interview +with Catharine, who, on seeing the fellow's boldness and the strength of +his popularity among the merchants of Paris (at least sixty of whom +escorted him), easily accepted his disclaimers, told him "she was much +content to hear that his preaching was good, without giving trouble to +the people," and bade him "go his way and preach and fear no harm, for +it should always please her son and her that the people should be taught +as in old time they had been preached unto." The intercession of the +Parisians, accompanied "by offers of forty thousand crowns pledge of his +forthcoming," Shakerley affirms, "has given _such a blow to the +preachers of the other side_ [the Huguenots] that there is _wonderful +change_." State Paper Office.] + +[Footnote 1240: "Y quando leyo aquel passo de la letra (que si la reyna +madre no quisiesse el ayuda que se le offrescia, la darie V. M. a quien +se la pidiesse para favorescer la religion y conservarle en la verdad) +reparo un rato _y hecho a V. M. muchas bendiciones, diziendo que aquello +era un principe veramente catholico y defensor de la religion, y que no +esperava menos de V. M._" Vargas to Philip II., Nov. 7, 1561, Papiers +d'etat du card. de Granvelle, vi. 399. The Pope had agreed to assist the +orthodox party with sixty galleys (Ibid., vi. 437), and he cared little +if the French knew that he was in league with Philip (Ibid., vi. +401)--their fears might serve as a check upon their insolence.] + +[Footnote 1241: "Qui premier voulsist monstrer les dens audist Sieur de +Vendosme et ses adherens."] + +[Footnote 1242: "Rapport secret du secretaire Courtewille, et fondement +de son envoy devers Madame la duchesse de Parma es Pays-Bas en Decembre, +1561." Papiers d'etat du card. de Granvelle, vi. 433, etc. Letter of +Margaret of Parma to Philip II., Dec. 13, 1561, Ibid., vi. 444, seq.] + +[Footnote 1243: "E s'avesse quello spirito che aveva il padre, o il +padre avesse avuto la presente fortuna, la Francia non saria piu +Francia."] + +[Footnote 1244: Michel Suriano, Rel. des Amb. Ven., i. 558-562.] + +[Footnote 1245: Discours sur le Saceagement des Eglises Catholiques ... +en l'an 1562. Par F. Claude de Sainctes, 1563. Reprinted in Cimber et +Danjou, iv. 371. Claude Haton, i. 177, 178. I need not stop to refute +these partial statements. They are not surprising, coming as they do +from writers who accept all the vile stories of Huguenot midnight orgies +with unquestioning faith.] + +[Footnote 1246: It is described in an "arret" of parliament as "une +maison size au fauxbourg S. Marcel, rue de Mouffetard, vulgairement +dicte la maison du Patriarche, pour ce que un patriarche d'Alexandrie +dechasse par les barbares la fit anciennement bastir, ayant entree sur +la grande rue dudict S. Marcel." Felibien, Hist. de Paris, iv., Preuves, +806.] + +[Footnote 1247: De Thou (iii. 100) is much below the mark in stating the +number at about two thousand; the author of the "Histoire veritable de +la mutinerie" does not seem to exaggerate when he estimates it at twelve +thousand to thirteen thousand. The congregation was unusually large, the +day being the festival of St. John, and a holiday. The day before, the +Protestants had for the first time been permitted to assemble on a +feast-day, and Beza himself had preached without interruption to crowded +audiences at Popincourt and at the Patriarche. He had again preached on +the morning of St. John's Day. Letter of Beza to Calvin, Dec, 30, 1561, +Baum, ii., App., 148.] + +[Footnote 1248: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 422.] + +[Footnote 1249: That the disturbance was premeditated is proved by the +fact, attested by the Histoire veritable, p. 60, that the precious +possessions of the church had been removed from St. Medard a few hours +before its occurrence. Its object was clearly revealed by the haste with +which the parliament despatched a messenger to St. Germain, to solicit +the king in council to revoke the permission heretofore granted the +Protestants to meet in the suburbs of Paris. Hist. eccles. des egl. +ref., i. 422.] + +[Footnote 1250: With this scene the connection of the "Patriarche" with +the reformed services disappears from history. It had been let to the +Protestants by a merchant of Lucca, who was himself only a tenant. In +the ensuing summer the owner, moved by displeasure for the impiety of +the religious services it had witnessed, made a gift of the "Patriarche" +to the parliament, asking that it might be employed for the relief of +the poor and other charitable purposes. Arret of parliament, Aug. 18, +1562, Felibien, iv., Preuves, 806. Of course, Saint Medard was suitably +propitiated by solemn expiatory processions and pageantry.] + +[Footnote 1251: And with every indignity on the part of the people. See +extracts from "Journal de 1562," in Baum, ii. 480, 481. The authorities +I have made use of in the account of the St. Medard riot given in the +text are: "Histoire veritable de la mutinerie, tumulte et sedition, +faite par les Prestres Sainct Medard contre les Fideles, le Samedy xxvii +iour de Decembre, 1561" (in Recueil des choses memorables, 822, etc.; +Mem. de Conde, ii. 541, etc.; Cimber et Danjou, iv. 49, etc.), a +contemporaneous pamphlet written by an eye-witness; other documents +inserted in Mem. de Conde, among them the Journal de Bruslart, i. 68; +Letter of Beza, who was present, to Calvin, Dec. 30, 1561, _apud_ Baum, +ii. App., 148-150; Hist. eccles., i. 421; De Thou, iii. 100; Claude +Haton, i. 179, etc.; Castelnau, l. iii., c. 5; J. de Serres, i. 346; +Claude de Sainctes, Saccagement (in Cimber et Danjou). It is almost +superfluous to add that the Roman Catholic and Protestant authorities +differ widely in the coloring given to the event. If any reader should +be inclined to think that I have given undue weight to the Huguenot +representations, let him examine the Roman Catholic De Thou--here, as +everywhere, candid and impartial.] + +[Footnote 1252: De Thou, iii. (liv. xxix.) 118-123; Eecueil des choses +mem., 686-695; Memoires de Conde, ii. 606, etc.] + +[Footnote 1253: Abbe Bruslart accuses Chancellor L'Hospital of packing +the convention with delegates of the parliaments who were his creatures; +"La pluspart desquels avoient este eleus et choisis par monsieur le +Chancelier De l'Hospital, _qui n'estoit sans grande suspition_." Journal +de Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 70.] + +[Footnote 1254: Strange to say, Santa Croce employs, in his letters to +Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, the very same despairing expressions as those +for the use of which in his Latin commentaries he condemns Gualtieri. He +wishes to be recalled; he declares: "Che questo regno e nell' estrema +ruina, che non vi e speranza alcuna, che si vede cascar a occhiate, che +tutto e infetto, in capite et in membris," and that he does not want to +be present at the funeral of this wretched kingdom. Letter of January 7, +1562, Aymon, i. 21, 22; Cimber et Danjou, vi. 16,17.] + +[Footnote 1255: Ibid., _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1256: Letter of Santa Croce, Jan. 15, 1562, Aymon, i. 35-40.] + +[Footnote 1257: Of _forty-nine_ opinions, _twenty-two_ were given in +favor of an unconditional grant of the Protestant demand for churches, +_sixteen_ for a simple toleration of their religious assemblies and +worship, such as had been informally practised for the last two months, +while _eleven_ stood out boldly for the continued hanging and burning of +heretics. Among the most determined of these last were the Constable and +Cardinal Tournon. Much to their regret, they saw themselves compelled to +acquiesce in a liberal policy which they detested, in order to avoid +opening the doors wide to the establishment of Protestantism in France. +See Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 499. Compare, on the course of the +proceedings, Beza's letters and those of Santa Croce, _ubi supra_.] + +[Footnote 1258: See the text of the Edict of January, in Du Mont, Corps +diplomatique, v. 89-91; Mem. de Conde, iii. 8-15; Agrippa d'Aubigne, +liv. ii., t. i. 124-128; J. de Serres, etc.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2), by +Henry Martyn Baird + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RISE OF THE HUGENOTS *** + +***** This file should be named 22762.txt or 22762.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/7/6/22762/ + +Produced by Sigal Alon, Daniel J. 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