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Title: The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Author: Baird, Henry Martyn
Language: English
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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
Inédits 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 Albèri, 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 "Société de
l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français" 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 Réformateurs dans les Pays de
Langue Française," 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 Condé, 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
Clément 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 "Manière 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 Hôtel-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 règne de François Ier," "Cronique du Roy
Françoys, premier de ce nom," "Journal d'un curé 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; Lièvre, 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, Gémozac,
and Mortagne; Corbière, 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'Aubigné,
La Place, La Planche; the important "Histoire Ecclésiastique," ascribed
to Theodore de Bèze; 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 Brantôme; the Commentaries of Jean de Serres, in their
various editions, as well as other writings attributed to the same
author; the rich "Mémoires de Condé," 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 Ræmond, Maimbourg,
Varillas, Soulier, Mézeray, Gaillard; the more recent historical works
of Sismondi, Martin, Michelet, Floquet; the volumes of Browning,
Smedley, and White, in English, of De Félice, 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
Bartholomäusnacht," 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
Académie 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 Bibliothèque Rationale at Paris, and the Simler
Collection at Zurich, several difficult problems. To these names I may
add those of M. Henri Bordier, Bibliothécaire Honoraire in the
Department of MSS. (Bibliothèque 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 État 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 Collége 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
Brantôme'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 Lefèvre d'Étaples 67
Restores Letters to France 68
Wide Range of his Studies 68
Guillaume Farel, his Pupil 68
Devotion of Teacher and Scholar 69
Lefèvre 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
Briçonnet, Bishop of Meaux 72
His First Reformatory Efforts 72
Invites Lefèvre and Farel to Meaux 73
Effects of the Preaching of Roussel and others 74
De Roma's Threat 76
Lefèvre publishes a Translation of the New Testament (1523) 77
The Results surpass Expectation 79
Bishop Briçonnet's Weakness 80
Forbids the "Lutheran" Doctors to preach 81
Lefèvre 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 Grève 89
The Hermit of Livry 92
Briçonnet becomes a Jailer of "Lutherans" 92
Lefèvre's Writings condemned by the Sorbonne (1525) 93
He becomes Tutor of Prince Charles 94
Librarian at Blois 94
Ends his Days at Nérac 95
His Mental Anguish 95
Michel d'Arande and Gérard Roussel 96
CHAPTER III.
1523-1525.
FRANCIS I. AND MARGARET OF ANGOULÊME--EARLY REFORMATORY
MOVEMENTS AND STRUGGLES 99
Francis I. and Margaret of Angoulême 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 Alençon 106
Obtains a Safe-Conduct to visit her Brother 106
Her Second Marriage, to Henry, King of Navarre 107
Bishop Briçonnet'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
François 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 Châtellain at Metz 114
Wolfgang Schuch at St. Hippolyte 115
Farel at Montbéliard 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 Angoulême'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 Pécheresse" 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
Féret'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 Clément 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 Voré 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 Angoulême 201
Leaves France 202
The "Christian Institutes" 202
Address to Francis the First 203
Calvin wins instant Celebrity 204
The Court of Renée 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 MÉRINDOL AND CABRIÈRES, 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 "Arrêt de Mérindol" (Nov. 18, 1540) 236
Condemned by Public Opinion 237
Preparations to carry it into Effect 237
President Chassanée 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 Mérindol 247
Treacherous Capture of Cabrières 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 Châteaubriand (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 Séguier'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 Compiègne (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, Condé, and other Princes favor the Protestants 313
Embassy of the Protestant Electors 313
Psalm-singing on the Pré 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-Cambrésis (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 Façon de Genève"--the Protestant Service 341
Farel's "Manière 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 Genève" 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 Ræmond'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'Aubigné and his Son 393
Francis and the Prince of Condé 393
Condé'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 Condé 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 Nérac 432
New Pressure to induce Navarre and Condé to come 433
Navarre Refuses a Huguenot Escort 434
Disregards Warnings 435
Is refused Admission to Poitiers 435
Condé arrested on arriving at Orleans 436
Return of Renée de France 437
Condé'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 "Epître 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 État 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
Condé 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 Désiré 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 État 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 Châtillon 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 Médard" 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 Angoulême
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 Comté_, as it was briefly designated--had been
imprudently suffered to fall into other hands, and Besançon 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 Saône and Rhône, 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 Châlons, 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 Comtât
Venaissin, a fief directly dependent upon the Pope. Of irregular shape,
and touching the Rhone both above and below Orange, the Comtât 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 mediæval 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 Crécy, 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 État_ 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 État.]
[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 État_ 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 mediæval 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 Lefèvre 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'
Université_.[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 mediæval 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 Œcumenical 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-général_, 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 Trémouille, 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
mediæval 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. Clément 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 Angoulême, 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 Collége 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 "Collége 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 érigée....
O povres gens de savoir tout éthiques!
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 Lefèvre d'Étaples, 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
Garçons," 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, René 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 _Marché-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 Grève_, 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 Châtillon, 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 Mériot--certainly no
friend of the reformatory movement--wrote in his Mémoires: "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 Étienne, 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--Étienne 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 mediæval 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 Manichæism 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 mediæval
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 Déploration de l'Église 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 Châlons, daughter of
the Prince of Orange (Jean de Serres, Inventaire Général 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 Général,
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-Cambrésis.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 3: Mignet, Essai sur la formation territoriale et politique de
la France depuis la fin du onzième siècle jusqu'à la fin du quiinzième.
Notices et Mémoires 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 Périgord 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 così bene poste," etc.
Relazione di Francia dell' Amb. Marino Cavalli, in Relations des
Ambassadeurs Vénitiens (Tommaseo, Paris), i. 220.]
[Footnote 7: "Dico che il regno di Francia per universal consenso del
mondo fu riputato _il primo regno di cristianità_," etc. Commentario del
regno di Francia del clarissimo sig. Michel Suriano, Rel. des Amb. Vén.,
i. 470.]
[Footnote 8: "Dopo il papa che è universal capo della religione, e la
signoria di Venezia, che, come è nata, s'è 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 (Albèri, 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, Chassanée wrote: "Galliæ omnis una est nobilium
norma. Nam rura et prædia sua (dicam potius castra) incolentes _urbes
fugiunt, in quibus habitare nobilem turpe ducitur_. Qui in illis degunt,
ignobiles habentur a nobilibus." Catalogus Gloriæ Mundi, fol. 200.]
[Footnote 12: Michel Suriano, Rel. des Amb. Vén., 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; nè anco ha maggior popolo_,
per mio giudizio, di che loro si gloriano." Rel. Venete (Albèri,
Firenze), serie 1, i. 148.]
[Footnote 16: The lowest estimate, which is that of Guicciardini (Belgiæ
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. Französische 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, François
Premier et la Renaissance, i. 141.]
[Footnote 18: Marino Giustiniano (1535), Rel. Venete (Albèri), i, 185,
François de Rabutin, Guerres de Belgique (Ed. Panthéon), 697.]
[Footnote 19: Marino Giustiniano, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 20: M. A. Boullée (in his Histoire complète des
États-Généraux, 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
Angoulême. M. Boullée 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. Vén., 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.
Vén. (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 _jà délaissés par le temps de quatre-vingts ans ou environ, où
n'y a mémoire 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 façon et manière, et qui y présidoit, 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 République, etc. (Ed. Panthéon), 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 à la diminution de celles du peuple." Pasquier,
Recherches de la France, l. ii. c. 7, p. 82.]
[Footnote 25: "Il rè di Francia _è rè d'asini_, perchè il suo popolo
supoorta ogni sorte di peso, senza rechiamo mai." Michel Suriano,
Commentarii (Rel. des Amb. Vén., Tommaseo), i. 486.]
[Footnote 26: Guerres de Belgique (Éd. Panthéon), 585.]
[Footnote 27: "Egli può 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. (Albèri), ii. 172.]
[Footnote 28: Cayet, Hist. de la guerre sous le règne 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 Brantôme 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 Angoulême, 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 più che cani." Relaz. Ven., ii.
174.]
[Footnote 30: Ibid., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 31: "Mercatores aspernantur," says Chassanée in 1527, "ut vile
atque abjectum omnium genus." Catal. Gloriæ 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 pièces relatives à 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 à sceller quelque lettre, signée 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 après que aura entendu lesdita points,
s'il vous commande la sceller, la scellerez, car lors le péché 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, François
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 Faculté des Lettres of
Caen, entitled "Les juges des Vaudois: Mercuriales du parlement de
Provence au XVI^e siècle, d'après des documents inédits." 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 génuflexion ne le ferait pas moins roi qu'il était."
Ibid., i. 185.]
[Footnote 39: See Pasquier's conclusive argument in his chapter: "Que
l'opinion est erronée par laquelle on attribue l'institution de
l'Université de Paris à 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 hérétique 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 Geneviève: "Quant aux Maistres
és Arts, à 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 mœurs des
escoliers, que nous appelons Chancelier de l'Université." 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'Université
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 _Cité_, or island on which the city was
originally built, and the Ville, or Paris north of the Seine. Pasquier,
Recherches, 797; J. Sinceri, Itinerarium Galliæ (1627), 270.]
[Footnote 46: Juvenal des Ursins, _apud_ Pasquier, 267.]
[Footnote 47: Relazioni Venete (Albèri), i. 149.]
[Footnote 48: Ibid., i. 226.]
[Footnote 49: "Donc, le gouvernement de l'Église n'est pas un empire
despotique." Abbé Claude Fleury, Discours sur les Libertés de l'Église
gallicane, 1724 (reprinted in Leber, Coll. de pièces relatives à l'hist.
de France, iii. 252).]
[Footnote 50: "On a contesté l'authenticité de cette pièce, mais elle
est aujourd'hui généralement reconnu." Isambert, Recueil gén. des
anciennes lois françaises, i. 339.]
[Footnote 51: Preuves des Libertez de l'Eglise Gallicane, pt. ii.;
Isambert, _ubi supra_; Ordonnances des Roys de France de la troisième
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
ecclesiæ 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 ecclesiæ regni nostri." See also
Sismondi, Histoire des Français, vii. 104.]
[Footnote 52: Sismondi, Hist. des Français, 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 troisième race, xiii. 267-291, and
in the Recueil gén. des anc. lois franç., ix. 3-47. Isambert thus
defines the term _pragmatic_: "On appelle _pragmatique_ toute
constitution donnée en connaissance de cause du consentiment unanime de
tous les grands, et consacrée par la volonté du prince. Le mot _pragma_
signifie prononcée, sentence, édit; il était en usage avant Saint
Louis."]
[Footnote 54: Abbé Claude Fleury, Libertés de l'Église Gallicane, in
Leber, iii. 321.]
[Footnote 55: "Commemoravit (_i. e._, the papal legate) ea quæ 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 troisième 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 quædam 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 quæ _in seditione_ et
schismatis tempore ... nata est; et quæ, dum _tibi, a quo sacræ 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 tuæ
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'
mendicité 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, Château 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 gén. des
anc. lois, etc., xii. 75-97.]
[Footnote 65: Leue, publiée et registrée par l'ordonnance et du
commandement du Roy, nostre sire, réiterée 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 ... pragmaticæ 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 pièces relatives à 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 règne de François 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. français, ix. (1860), 122.]
[Footnote 70: Mignet, Établissement de la Réforme à Genève, Mémoires,
ii. 243. Étienne 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,
_Græcum 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 litérature, vi. 405.]
[Footnote 72: Gaillard, Histoire de François premier (Paris ed., 1769),
vii. 282-300. Félibien, among the many interesting documents he has
preserved, reproduces one of the first programmes of the professors of
the Collége 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 Félibien, 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 à vouloir assaillir _les villes closes_: les aucunes desquelles
ils out prinses d'assaut, saccagées, robées et pillées, forcé filles et
femmes, tué les habitans inhumainement, et cruellement traitté les
aucuns _en leur crevant les yeux, et coupant les membres les uns après
les autres, sans en avoir pitié, 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'Angoulême, 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 exécrables avant que souffrir mort,
_ayent la gorge ouverte avec un fer chaud et la langue tirée ou coupée
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 Marché-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 Salcède 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
règnent aujourd'huy dans le monde." Paul L. Jacob, Œuvres françoises
de Calvin, 107, etc.]
[Footnote 82: Despatch of La Mothe Fénélon, June 3, 1573, Corr. dipl.,
v. 345, 346.]
[Footnote 83: L'Heptaméron dea Nouvelles de très haute et très illustre
princesse Marguerite d'Angoulême, Reine de Navarre. Publié sur les MSS.
par la Soc. des Bibliophiles français. Première Journée, Première
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 mémor. 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 Félice seems to suppose (Hist.
des prot. de France, liv. ii. c. 17).]
[Footnote 85: "Advertissement très-utile du grand profit qui reviendroit
à la Chrétienté, s'il se faisoit inventaire de tous les corps saints et
réliques," etc., 1543 (Œuvres françoises 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 à
pleurer de pitié et de joye." Journal de Louise de Savoie, Collection de
mémoires (Petitot), xvi. 407.]
[Footnote 96: Gaillard, Hist. de François premier, vii. 45, etc.;
Mézeray, Abrégé chron. de l'hist. de France (Amst., 1682), iv. 644.]
[Footnote 97: Gaillard, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 98: Cénac Moncaut, Histoire des Pyrénées (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 _officialité_. 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. Vén., Tommaseo, i.
502. The other half went to princes, barons, and other possessors of
lands, etc.]
[Footnote 101: How they behaved there, the abbé of Mériot elsewhere
tells us: "Et si le plus souvent à telles noyseay estoient les premiers
les prebstres, l'espée au poing, car ilz estoient _des premiers aux
danses, jeux de quilles, d'escrime, et ès tavernes où ilz ribloient et
par les rues toute nuict aultant que les plus meschans du pays_." Mém de
Claude Haton, 18.]
[Footnote 102: Mémoires 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, Albèri, ii. 409. Brantôme 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, Œuvres, tom. vii. On
one occasion an enemy of the loquacious courtier caused the
assassination of his _titular_ abbot, apparently in the hope of
depriving Brantôme 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'à la cour s'ils faisoient l'amour, c'estoit discrètement et
sans scandale," etc. Brantôme, _ubi supra_, vii. 312.]
[Footnote 107: "Au moins plus sages hypocrites, qui cachent mieux leurs
vices noirs." Brantôme, _ubi supra_, vii. 287-289.]
[Footnote 108: Brantôme, _ubi supra_, vii. 280.]
[Footnote 109: Brantôme, vii. 286.]
[Footnote 110: Réponse à quelque apologie, etc. Par Antoine de Mouchy,
surnommé Démochares, docteur en théologie, 1558. Feuillet 2. _Apud_
Henri Lutteroth, La réformation en France pendant sa première période
(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 Étienne, _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 ecclésiastique des Églises Réformées au royaume
de France (commonly ascribed to Theodore de Bèze, 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. franç., 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. franç., 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."
Chassanée, Catalogus Gloriæ Mundi, fol. 295. The medals were said to
have been unearthed at Autun, the residence of Chassanée, who informs us
"multum curavi invenire, sed non potui." But, in addition to the coins,
Chassanée 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 _parituræ_; "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: Récits extraits d'un
manuscrit de N. Pithou, seigneur de Chamgobert concernant l'histoire de
la fondation, etc., de l'église réf. de Troyes dès 1539 à 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
mémoires (Petitot), xvi. 407.]
[Footnote 120: See Mézeray's bitter words respecting Cardinal Duprat's
last hours and character, Abrégé 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 _più disposti a fare quattro
guerre die una pace_." Cardinal Campeggio to Cardinal Salviati, _apud_
H. Laemmer, Monumenta Vaticana hist. ecclés. sæculi XVI. illustrantia,
ex tab. sanctæ sedis Apostolicæ secretis, Frib. Brisg., 1861, 67.]
[Footnote 122: The Manichæism 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 Müntz concludes, after a critical
examination of style, etc. (Nicolas de Clémangis; sa vie et ses écrits,
Paris, 1846), the famous treatise De ruina Ecclesiæ, or _De corrupto
Ecclesiæ 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 Præsulibus 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
"rapinæ officina in qua venalia exponuntur sacramenta ... in qua peccata
etiam venduntur," etc. Müntz, 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. franç.,
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 beauté 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 Lefèvre d'Étaples.]
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 mediæval
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 Lefèvre, a native of
Étaples 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 Lefèvre, of Étaples--better known to foreigners under the
Latin designation of Faber Stapulensis--belongs the honor of restoring
letters to France. His eulogist, Scævola 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] Lefèvre 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,
Lefèvre 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 Neufchâtel. Farel was born in 1489, near Gap,
in Dauphiny, and his childhood was spent at the foot of the Alps.
Unlike Lefèvre, 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, Lefèvre 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. Lefèvre 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: Lefèvre's commentary on the Pauline Epistles.]
But the enthusiastic devotion of Lefèvre 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 Lefèvre 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 Lefèvre had proclaimed, in no equivocal
terms, his belief in the same great principles. But Lefèvre'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. Lefèvre 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 Lefèvre 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.]
Lefèvre 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 Lefèvre'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 Lefèvre.[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 Lefèvre's
proposition. Lefèvre 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: Briçonnet, Bishop of Meauz.]
To these two actors in the drama of the French reformation a third must
now be added. Guillanme Briçonnet, 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-Prés 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 Briçonnet 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 Briçonnet
had been successively created Archdeacon of Rheims and Avignon, Abbot of
St. Germain-des-Prés, and Bishop of Lodève 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.
Briçonnet 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 Briçonnet that the church stood in urgent need of reform; and
he resolved to begin the work in his own diocese.
[Sidenote: Lefèvre 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, Lefèvre d'Étaples
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 Briçonnet, 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 Lefèvre, 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 Lefèvre in the new field which Bishop Briçonnet
had thrown open to him. Other pupils or friends of the Picard doctor
followed--Michel d'Arande, Gérard 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
Briçonnet 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
Lefèvre'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 Angoulême 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, Lefèvre 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 Lefèvre's attitude. Placed by Bishop Briçonnet in
charge of the "Léproserie," 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 (Lefèvre), 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: Gérard Roussel and Mazurier.]
The mystic Gérard 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
Collége 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 Lefèvre 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
Clément and Ravaillac, was already formed, and possessed a prodigious
latent vitality.
[Sidenote: Briçonnet's activity.]
Bishop Briçonnet 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 Briçonnet 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: Lefèvre translates the New Testament.]
Under Briçonnet's protection Jacques Lefèvre 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] Lefèvre 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 Lefèvre d'Étaples 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 Lefèvre.]
Lefèvre 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 Briçonnet 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 Lefèvre 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 Briçonnet received with delight the advice of the Swiss
and German reformers. The letters of Œcolampadius, from Basle, in
particular so deeply impressed him, that he commissioned Gérard 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 Briçonnet.]
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
Lefèvre 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 Angoulême! 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 Briçonnet'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 Briçonnet 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, Briçonnet 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 Briçonnet'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 Briçonnet 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 Briçonnet 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 Briçonnet 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 Montbéliard.[171]
[Sidenote: Annoyances of those who remain.]
Lefèvre 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: Lefèvre and Roussel take refuge in Strasbourg.]
[Sidenote: Excessive caution of Roussel.]
At last danger thickened, and Lefèvre 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, Lefèvre 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 Neufchâtel,
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 Gérard 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 Briçonnet 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,
Œcolampadius, 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, Lefèvre 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 Lefèvre and Roussel," he wrote
some months later, "but certainly Lefèvre 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 Angoulême] 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. Briçonnet'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 Lefèvre'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
Briçonnet'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, Lefèvre, 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 Grève.]
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 Grève_.[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 Briçonnet 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 Briçonnet 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: Lefèvre'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 Lefèvre d'Étaples 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 Lefèvre'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 Lefèvre.[200]
[Sidenote: Lefèvre and the Nuncio Aleander.]
When, however, Francis succeeded in regaining his liberty, a year later,
he not only recalled Lefèvre 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 Angoulême secured for
Lefèvre 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 Nérac, in
Gascony.[203] Here, in the ordinary residence of his patron, and treated
by the King of Navarre with marked consideration, Lefèvre d'Étaples 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. Lefèvre'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 Lefèvre 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: Lefèvre's mental suffering.]
The reconciliation of Lefèvre with the church did not take place. The
"bit of a retraction" was never written. But none the less are Lefèvre'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, Lefèvre
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, Lefèvre, 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 Lefèvre," 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 Lefèvre'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-Châteaux, 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 Gérard Roussel.]
Gérard 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 Oléron. 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 Ræmond, 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, Gérard 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
Oléron 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 Gérard Roussel, who is said to have
expressed on his death-bed similar regrets to those which had disturbed
the last hours of Lefèvre d'Étaples. 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 Oléron.[211]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 128: Scævolæ Sammarthani Elog. lib. i., i. 3. "Statura fuit
supra modum humili," etc.]
[Footnote 129: Sc. Sammarthani Elog., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 130: Lefèvre'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. Lefèvre. I have
before me his edition of the Arithmetic of Boëtius, 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 à 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 papauté n'estoit et n'est tant papale que mon cœur l'a
esté.... Car tellement il avoit aveuglé mes yeux et perverti tout en
moy, que s'il y avoit personnage qui fut approuvé 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, ruiné et destruit.... Ainsy Satan avoit logé le
pape, sa papauté, tout ce qui est de luy en mon cœur, 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 cœur, 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 à tous Seigneurs
et Peuples, 164, 167, 169.]
[Footnote 134: Herminjard, Correspondance des Réformateurs, i. 4, 481.]
[Footnote 135: See the dedication, dated Dec. 15, 1512, Herminjard,
Correspondance des Réformateurs, i. 2-9.]
[Footnote 136: Letter of Farel to Pellican (1556), Herminjard,
Correspondance des Réformateurs, 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 à 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 Lefèvre, 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, Lefèvre 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: Scævolæ Sammarthani, Elogia doctorum in Gallia virorum,
lib. i. (Jenæ, 1696); Bayle, s. v. Fèvre and Farel; Tabaraud, Biographie
univ., art. Lefèvre; C. Schmidt, Wilhelm Farel, in Leben und ausgew.
Schriften d. Väter d. ref. Kirche; C. Chenevière, Farel, Froment, Viret
(Genève, 1835).]
[Footnote 138: Gaillard, Histoire de François premier (Paris, 1769), vi.
397. It was the unpardonable offence of Lefèvre 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 Réformateurs,
i. 51: "Tantum virum semel atque iterum ... vocarunt hominem stultum,
insanum fidei, Sacrarum Literarum indoctum et ignarum, et qui, _duntaxat
humanarum artium Magister, præsumptuose se ingerat iis quæ spectant ad
Theologos_." As it clearly appears that Lefèvre 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 Briçonnets, in the Biographie universelle.]
[Footnote 140: According to a contemporary letter, this was the sole
cause of Lefèvre'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 à 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 delibéré de
donner à congnoistre que la vérité de Dieu n'est point hérésie."
Margaret of Angoulême to Briçonnet, Nov., 1521, MSS. National Lib.,
Herminjard, i. 78; Génin, ii. 273.]
[Footnote 144: "Vos piteulx desirs de la reformacion de l'Eglise, où
plus que jamais le Roy et Madame sont affectionnés." Same to same, Dec,
1521, Ibid., Herminjard, i. 84; Génin, 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: Lefèvre was placed in charge of the _Léproserie_, 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, lèverons une cruciade de gens,
et ferons chasser le Roy de son Royaume par ses subjectz propres, s'il
permet que l'Évangile soit presché." Farel au Duc de Lorraine,
Herminjard, i. 483.]
[Footnote 151: Pierre de Sébeville au Chevalier Coct, Grenoble, Dec. 28,
1524: "Je te notifie que l'évesque de Meaulx en Brie, près Paris, cum
Jacobo Fabro Stapulensi, depuis trois moys en visitant l'evesché, ont
bruslé _actu_ tous les imaiges, réservé le crucifix, et sont
personellement ajournés a Paris, à 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'Aubigné,
Hist. de la Réform., 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 Briçonnet's caution:
"Autrefois, en leur preschant l'Évangile, 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 littérature française, i. 275. The
only printed work in favor of which the claim of Lefèvre'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 Lefèvre d'Étaples and of Olivetanus are the
first versions without embellishment or gloss (non historiées et non
glossées), 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 Angoulême,
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 _à la main_, et en _françoys_, 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 Angoulême published by the Soc. dea
bibliophiles français (Paris, 1853), a work enriched with many original
documents of considerable value.]
[Footnote 155: This important letter of Lefèvre to Farel, July 6, 1524,
first published in part from the MS. in the Geneva Library, in the
Bulletin de l'hist. du prot. franç., 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 Europæ! 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 lecturæ interpretando." Lefèvre 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
gelléz." Briçonnet to Margaret of Angoulême, Dec. 22, 1521, Herminjard,
i. 86.]
[Footnote 161: "Celluy qui tous ruyne." Same to same, Jan. 31, 1524,
ibid., i. 186.]
[Footnote 162: "L'état 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
réformateurs, i. 158, note. The same uncertainty affects Briçonnet'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'Église gallicane, iv. 102.]
[Footnote 167: "Et supplie la Cour qu'il soit interrogé 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. Väter und Begründer 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 même
trempe, non lettrés."]
[Footnote 174: MS. Seminary of Meaux, February 6, 1524/5, Bulletin, x.
220.]
[Footnote 175: Compare for the date, Herminjard, i. 378, 389, 401.
Gérard Roussel was ordered by parliament to be seized wherever found,
_etiam in loco sacro_. So, too, were Caroli and Prévost. Jacques Lefèvre
was cited to appear. Régistres du parlement, Oct. 3, 1525, Preuves des
Libertez de l'Égl. 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 Briçonnet, 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 Lefèvre. A letter of the same date to
Œcolampadius is, in some respects, even more instructive. Notice the
pitiful weakness revealed in these sentences: "Reclamabunt episcopi,
reclamabunt doctores, reclamabunt scholæ, 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 Œcolampadius, Malesherbes, July 26,
1526, Herminjard, i. 447.]
[Footnote 181: Mandement de Guillaume Briçonnet an clergé de son
diocèse, 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. français, 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 Briçonnet 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 Jésus Christ et ses enseignes!"]
[Footnote 185: Histoire ecclésiastique des églises réformées, 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 scélérat_."]
[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 ecclésiastique, 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 François Lambert's
letter to the Senate of Besançon, dated August 15, 1525, expressly
states that Leclerc was burned Saturday, July 22, 1525. Herminjard, i.
372. Jean Châtellain 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 à Dieu et à 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. ecclés., i. 4; Haag,
France prot., s. v. On the 26th of August, 1526, if, as is likely, he is
the "jeune filz, escolier bénéficié, non aiant encore ses ordres de
prestrise, nommé maistre ... natif de Thérouanne, 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 fondée qu'un jeune fils, qui encore n'avoit point de
barbe, vous ait fait tant de dommage, sans avoir tant étudié ne veu,
sans avoir aucun degré, et vous étiez 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 _à ces
méprisables noms_, que pour ne laisser ignorer la première origine de la
funeste contagion," etc.]
[Footnote 196: Histoire ecclés., i. 4.]
[Footnote 197: Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris sous le règne de François
I^er, April 14, 1526, p. 284.]
[Footnote 198: Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fol. 118.]
[Footnote 199: Haag, La France protestante, art. Lefèvre; Schmidt,
Wilhelm Farel. Bayle (Diet. s. v. Fèvre) maintains, on the authority of
Melchior Adam's Life of Capito, that Lefèvre and Roussel were sent by
Margaret of Angoulême 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. Lefèvre; Gaillard,
Hist. de François premier, vi. 411. The boy, at this time Duke of
Angoulême, 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_ (Abdénago)!
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, Génin, Lettres de
Marguerite d'Angoulême, 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 Sanctæ Sedis Apostolicæ
Secretis), Friburgi Brisgoviæ, 1861. I have called attention to its
importance in the Bulletin de la Société de l'hist. du prot. franç.,
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
æternum 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 cœperit 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. franç., _ubi supra_; Herminjard,
iii. 399, etc.]
[Footnote 208: Speaking of Roussel's as yet inedited MS., "Familière
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 quiétiste en France au début de la réformation sous François
premier," read before the Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., Bulletin, vi.
449, etc.]
[Footnote 209: Historia de ortu, progressu et ruina hæreseon hujus
sæculi (Col. 1614), lib. vii. c. 3, p. 392.]
[Footnote 210: _E. g._, Tabaraud, Biographie univ., art. Roussel.]
[Footnote 211: Haag, France protestante, art. Gérard Roussel; Gaillard,
Hist. de François premier, vi. 418; Flor. de Ræmond, _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 Angoulême, 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 Angoulême, 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 Angoulême, 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 Angoulême 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 Clément 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 Alençon, 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 Alençon 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 Béarn 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 Briçonnet.]
It was through the instrumentality of the Bishop of Meaux that Margaret
of Angoulême was first drawn into sympathy with the reformatory
movement. Unsatisfied with herself and with the influences surrounding
her, she sought in Briçonnet 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 Manichæan, 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 Lefèvre d'Étaples; 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 François Lambert, son of a former private secretary of the
papal legate entrusted with the government of the Comtât 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, François 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 Montbéliard, all destined to be absorbed in the
growing territories of France, were already bound to it by close ties of
commercial intercourse.
[Sidenote: Jean Châtellain, of Metz.]
In Metz the powerful appeals of an Augustinian monk, Jean Châtellain,
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 Châtellain
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
Châtellain 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, Châtellain 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
Châtellain. 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 Montbéliard.]
Less sanguinary results attended the Reformation at Montbéliard, 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 Montbéliard--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 Aimé 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 Angoulême 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 Bédier, reign
without a rival in the academic halls. Pierre Caroli, one of the doctors
invited by Briçonnet 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 Collége 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 Angoulême, 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. Génin, Supplément a la notice sur
Marg. d'Angoulême, prefixed to the second volume of the Letters).
Nor do I make any account of the vague statement of that mendacious
libertine, Brantôme, 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
Brantôme'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 Cæsar'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 _littérateurs_ 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. Génin 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 français les plus illustres du 16me siècle,
Paris, 1848, 2 vols. fol.]
[Footnote 214: The envoy's description of Francis's curative power is
interesting. "Ha una proprietà, _o vero dono da Dio_, come han tutti li
rè 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 Rè 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 (Albèri), 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), Albèri, 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. Vén., Tommaseo, i. 282.]
[Footnote 219: "Sire, vous en seriez marri le premier, et vous en
prendroit très mal, et y perdriez plus que le pape; car une nouvelle
religion, mise parmi un peuple, ne demande après que changement du
prince." Brantôme, M. l'Admiral de Chastillon, Œuvres, ix. 202.]
[Footnote 220: Brantôme, Femmes illustres: Marguerite, reine de Navarre.
Also Homines ill.: François premier (Œuvres, vii. 256, 257).]
[Footnote 221: The Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. franç., 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 funèbre, 1550, _apud_
Génin, i. 3.]
[Footnote 223:
_Une doulceur_ assise en belle face,
_Qui la beaulté des plus belles efface_;
D'un regard chaste où n'habite nul vice;
. . . . . . . .
Tons ces beaulx dons et mille davantaige
Sont en ung corps né de hault parentaige,
Et de grandeur tant droicte et bien formée,
Que faicte semble exprès pour estre aymée
D'hommes et dieux.
--Ined. Epistle of Marot to Margaret, prefixed to Génin, 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' Angoulême, by Leroux de Lincy,
prefixed to the Heptaméron (Ed. of the Soc. des bibliophiles), i. p.
lxiv.]
[Footnote 225: "La serenissima regina di Navarra ... è donna di molto
valore, e spirito grande, e che intervienne in tutti i consigli." Relaz.
di Francesco Giustiniano, 1538, Albèri, 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_). Après
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, Béarn, 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 demeurés Jean
d'Albret, et ne pensés 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 Pyrénées, 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 (Mém. de La Huguerye,
1, note): "On sait aujourd'hui que cette bulle est apocryphe."]
[Footnote 232: Brantôme 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 Briçonnet's epistles in the first volume of his Correspondance
des réformateurs dans les pays de langue française. M. Génin also gives
specimens of the bishop's bombast, observing maliciously: "Si Briçonnet
argumenta en pareil style aux conciles de Pise et du Latran, il dut
embarrasser beaucoup ses adversaires." Lettres de Marg. d'Angoulême, 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 faculté de théologie à la reine, Oct. 7,
1523, Gerdes., iv. (Doc.) 16, 17.]
[Footnote 238: Articules concernans les responces que après meure
délibération a fait la faculté de théologie. 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 theologiæ in libris prædictis 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, hérétique mauldict,
Te fait prendre la dance
De l'infemal déduyt."
Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. franç., ix. (1860) 381.]
[Footnote 243: Margaret of Angoulême, 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 à 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 calamità _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." Præf. 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_. Châtellain had written a
poetical chronicle of Metz reaching to the year 1524. A friendly hand
continued it, and recorded the fate of Châtellain, described as
"Augustin, grand Docteur
Qui estoit grand prédicateur."
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 prophetæ) fæx in eadem civitate tam
multa est, ut eosdem nongentos esse ferant." Lamberti præf. ad Comm. in
Hoseam, Gerdes., Scrinium Antiq., vi. 485, etc.]
[Footnote 249: Ibid., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 250: Hist. de l'église 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'Aubigné observes,
Hist. of the Reformation, bk. xii. c. 13, it is in keeping with Farel's
character. Œcolampadius, 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 hérésie luthérienne, _qui commance fort à pulluler
par deça. Et jam plures de cineribus valde (Valdo) renascuntur
plantulæ_." 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 Encyclopédie méthodique, s.
v. Sens, and Lyon.]
[Footnote 255: Gaillard, Hist. de François 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 Angoulême, 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
Bénoit-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 Lefèvre d'Étaples, Gérard 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 Lefèvre. From Lefèvre'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 Angoulême.]
The return of Francis from Madrid, and the rescue of Berquin, Lefèvre,
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
Angoulême 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--_êcus-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 Mérindol
and Cabrières, 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 Angoulême, 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 _Fête-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
Budé, 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
Angoulême, 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 Grève, 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 Budé 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'à 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 _Fête 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 Collége 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 Collége 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 Gérard
Roussel--Magister Gerardus--in _Megæra_, 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'âme pécheresse.]
An equally audacious act was the insertion of a work published by
Margaret, under the title of _Le miroir de l'âme pécheresse_, 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 Collége 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 Chrétienne." 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 Angoulême, 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 Bibliothèque Nationale, Génin,
i. 219, and in the library of Soissons, Bulletin de la Soc. de
l'hist. du prot. franç., 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 vengé par les quatre élémens:
_Terre_ luy a désnie sépulture;
_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
Châtillon, Archbishop of Toulouse, Bishop and Count of Beauvais,
elder brother of the more famous _Admiral_ massacred on St.
Bartholomew's day. Cardinal Châtillon, 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 famæ monimenta perennis.
Insigni optabat sanctior esse Numa.
Lector, Ave, et causam properes dignoscere: casus
Hæreseos fœda labe volutus erat.
Hoc impune nefas solida an ratione stetisset,
Et Petri hausissent æquora vasta ratim,
Inviolata fides æterno permanet ævo.
Percutit injustos ira molesta Dei;
Quem neque præmeditans 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
Fortunæ. 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 pæane 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 Aimé 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 Mézeray's unfavorable portrait of the unscrupulous
Duprat, Abrégé chron., iv. 584.]
[Footnote 259: The four were Philippe Pot, President in the _chambre des
enquêtes_, and André 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 arrét en ce
royaume, sinon par l'aide et autorité du bras seculier." Pithou, Essaie,
art. 37.]
[Footnote 264: "Nonobstant oppositions ou appellations quelconques,
_semotâ executione a definitiva_, si en est appellé." 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 françaises, par Jourdan, Decrusy et
Isambert, xii. 232-237.]
[Footnote 267: Isambert, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 268: The author of the anonymous Journal d'un bourgeois dé
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
lignée et moult grand clerc_, expert en science et subtil, mais
néantmoins 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 réformateurs, ii. 183, _seq._]
[Footnote 269: His account is important, but too full for insertion
here. See the letter above quoted.]
[Footnote 270: Arrêt du parlement, Aug. 5, 1523, Haag, France prot. s.
v. _Berquin_.]
[Footnote 271: Félibien, 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 (Génin, Lettres
de Marg. d'Ang., 1ère Coll., No. 54): "Vous merciant du plaisir que
m'avés fait pour le pauvre Berquin, que j'estime aultant que si c'estoit
moy mesmes, et par cela pouvés vous dire que vous m'avés tirée de
prison, etc." To Francis she expressed the assurance "que Celuy pour qui
je croy qu'il a souffert aura agréable la miséricorde que pour son
honneur avez fait à 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._), Félibien,
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'infidélité et esternelle damnacion." Lettres de
Marg. d'Ang., 2de Coll., No. 5, Lyons, May 1525. See, too, 1ère Coll.,
No. 26, addressed to Montmorency.]
[Footnote 276: Margaret's letters to Count Hohenlohe were translated
into Latin and published by himself. M. Génin has rendered them into
French, and inserted them in his Lettres de Marg. d'Angoulême, 1ère
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 œuvre que celluy qui se offre de présent,
_le dict sire fut conseillé_, que juridiquement et par tous droicts
divins et humains, _il pouvoit et debvoit raisonnablement mettre,
subimposer et faire contribuer toutes manières de gens_, de quelque
qualité, auctorité, condition qu'ils fuissent, soient d'église, nobles,
ou du tiers et commun estat, au paiement de la ditte rançon, 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'Écriture, dans lequel il conclut que le traité 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 françaises, 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.
Barthélemi de Chassanée 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 hæreses in fide Christiana
seminavit, _quæ fuerunt extirpatæ 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 Gloriæ 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 læsæ 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.
Félibien, Hist. de Paris, iv. 676.]
[Footnote 287: The strong language of the author of the "Cronique du Roi
Françoys 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 couppée la teste à une ymaige de la vierge Marie ... qui fut
_une grosse horreur à la crestienté_." 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 Félibien, ii. 982, 983, in the Régistres du
parlement, ibid., iv. 677-679, in G. Guiffrey, appendix to "Cronique du
Roy Françoys 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 Françoys 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. Félibien, ii 988, 989; Journal d'un bourgeois,
410.]
[Footnote 290: "Quæris, 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 Budé from comparative
obscurity, and, following his wise counsels, founded the Collége Royale.
Erasmus styled him "The Wonder of France" (De Thou, liv. iii., i. 233),
and Scævole de Ste. Marthe, "omnium, qui hoc patrumque sæculo vixere,
sine controversia doctissimus" (Elog. 3). He was at this time one of the
_maîtres de requêtes_. 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 très-humble et
très-obéissante subjette et seur MARGUERITE." Génin, 2de Coll., No. 52.]
[Footnote 296: A MS. of the Bibliothèque Nationale, printed by M. Génin
(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 expédié ce mesme jour _en grande
diligence, affin qu'il ne fût recourru du Roy ne de madame la Regente_,
qui estoit lors à 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 ecclés., i. 5; Félibien, ii. 985; Haag,
s. v.]
[Footnote 301: Journal d'un bourgeois, and Hist. ecclés., _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 _hæresiarchæ Berquini_, et suorum sequacium pervicacia
delibutus (hæreticus) 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
Franciæ ad Francos, ut fortes in Fide et Vocatione qua vocati sunt,
permaneant, authore Martino Theodorico Bellovaco, Juris Cæsarei
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: Mézeray, Abrégé chronologique, iv. 577.]
[Footnote 305: Soldan, i. 121.]
[Footnote 306: October 28, 1533.]
[Footnote 307: "Con mala sodisfazione di tutta la Francia, perchè pare
ad ogniuno che Clemente pontefice _abbia gabbato_ questo rè
cristianissimo." Marino Giustiniano (1535), Relaz. Ven., Albèri, 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 réformateurs, 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
ecclésiastique_, 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 Ræmond,
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 hæreseon hujus sæculi,
ii. 486.]
[Footnote 311: Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta, fol. 64.]
[Footnote 312: Florimond de Ræmond, ii. 394, 395.]
[Footnote 313: March 6, 1535. Journal d'un bourgeois, 453.]
[Footnote 314: Hist. ecclés., i. 9; Crespin, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 315: John Calvin gives a contemporary's account in a letter to
François Daniel from Paris, October, 1533. Herminjard, Correspond. des
réformateurs, 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 gehennæ 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 præconio 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: "Hæc, quia illis temporibus danda sunt, ne supprimenda quidem
putavimus."]
[Footnote 319: "Ægre 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." Bullæus, 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: "Hæc Joannes Calvinus propria manu
descripsit, et est auctor." This portion is printed in Herminjard,
Corresp. des réformateurs, iii. 418-420, and Calv. Opera, Baum, Cunitz,
et Reuss, ix. 873-876. Merle d'Aubigné 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
ecclés., 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
réformateurs, 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.
franç., i. 437. His orders to parliament of same date, Herminjard,
Corresp. des réformateurs, 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 Féret 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
Féret, 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 Serrières, just out of Neufchâtel,
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.]
Féret, 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 Angoulême had proved unavailing in his behalf. The heretics
who had now ventured to nail an exposé 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 Mæcenas, 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, Barthélemi 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
Geneviève; 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. Honoré 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 Éléonore, 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
Châtillon--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
Angoulême--with a fourth prince of the blood--the Duke of Bourbon
Vendôme--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 Hôtel 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. Honoré, 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 Châtelet
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 Renée of France, Duchess of Ferrara,
affording, for a time, asylum to Clément 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
Châtelet.
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, Voré 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
Voré'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] Voré 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 Voré 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 Brück, 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-Maître_--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 réformateurs, iii. 58, 59. The refrain of one placard,
"Au feu, au feu! c'est leur répère!
Faiz-en justice! Dieu l'a permys,"
gave Clément Marot occasion to reply in a couple of short pieces, the
longer beginning:
"En l'eau, en l'eau, ces folz séditieux."
]
[Footnote 332: Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta (Ed. of 1560), fol. 64.]
[Footnote 333: Bulletin, ix. 27, 28.]
[Footnote 334: Merle d'Aubigné, on the authority of the hostile
Florimond de Ræmond, 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
réformateurs, 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 à 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, après 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. pièces
justif., 1-6; G. Guiffrey, Cronique du Roy Françoys I^er, Appendix,
464-472.]
[Footnote 338: Journal d'un bourgeois, 442. Not _Blois_, as the Hist.
ecclésiastique, i. 10, and, following it, Soldan, Merle d'Aubigné, etc.,
state. Francis had left Blois as early as in September for the castle of
Amboise, see Herminjard, Corresp. des réformateurs, 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., Nérac,
Dec., 1541, Génin, 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
_Hôtel-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 récits
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 pièces rel. à l'hist. de France,
viii. 505, etc.]
[Footnote 342: "Combien que ... nous eussions prohibé et défendu que nul
n'eust dès lors en avant à 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, Études 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'Aubigné 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: Félibien, Hist. de la ville de Paris, ii. 997.]
[Footnote 344: Soissons MS., Bulletin, xi. 255.]
[Footnote 345: I. e., _gaînier_, sheath-or scabbard-maker. Hist.
ecclésiastique, i. 10; Journal d'un bourgeois, 444; see Varillas, Hist.
des révol. arrivées dans l'Eur. en matière de rel., ii. 222.]
[Footnote 346: "Qui ad se ea pericula spectare non putabant, qui non
contaminati erant eo scelere, hi etiam in partem pœnarum 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
alienigenæ 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 hæreticis relinquens deperiit.
Et peribunt omnes sive plebeii, sive primates," etc. Paraclesis Franciæ
(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 François 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 demeuré que l'honneur _et la vie sauve_," etc. Papiers
d'État 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 baillée, et qu'il n'estoit en
sa liberté_." Isambert, Recueil des anc. lois franç., xii. 292.]
[Footnote 350: Registres de l'hôtel de ville. Félibien, pièces justif.,
v. 345. In the preceding account these records, together with those of
parliament (ibid., iv. 686-688), the narrative of Félibien himself (ii.
997-999), and the Soissons MS. (Bulletin, xi. 254, 255), have been
chiefly relied upon. See also Cronique du Roy Françoys I^er, 113-121.]
[Footnote 351: "En sorte que si un des bras de mon corps estoit infecté
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 Mézeray, says
incredulously: "Je ne sais où ces auteurs ont trouvé que François
premier avait prononcé ce discours abominable." M. Poirson answers by
giving as authority Théodore de Bèze (Hist. ecclés., i. 13). But on
referring to the documentary records from the Hôtel de Ville, among the
_pièces justificatives_ collected by Félibien, 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 Françoys I^er, giving the fullest version of the speech
(pp. 121-12), attributes to the king about the same expressions.]
[Footnote 352: Histoire ecclés., i. 13.]
[Footnote 353: Histoire ecclés., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 354: "Une espèce _d'estrapade_ où 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 à diverses reprises,
pour faire durer leur supplice plus longtems." Félibien, 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 héréticques en grant nombre furent après
bruslez à divers jours," says the Cronique du Roy Françoys I^er, p. 129,
"_en sorte que dedans Paris on ne véoit que potences dressées en divers
lieux_," etc.]
[Footnote 357: G. Guiffrey, Cronique du Roy Françoys 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 Alençon, already introduced to our notice;
_Jean Retif_, a preacher; _François Berthault_ and _Jean Courault_,
lately associated in preaching the Gospel under the patronage of the
Queen of Navarre; besides the scholar _Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples_, and
_Guillaume Féret_, 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 privé, aucune doctrine contrariant à la
foy chrétionne." Declaration of Coucy, July 16, 1535, Isambert, Recueil
des anc. lois franç., 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 créateur, luy estant en ce monde, a
plus usé de miséricorde 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 très-crestien et bon roy François premier du nom,
_à la prière du pape_, pardonna à tous, excepté a ceulx qui avoient
touché à l'honneur du saint sacrement de l'autel." Soissons MS.,
Bulletin, xi. 254. Sturm to Melanchthon, July 6, 1535, says: "Pontificem
etiam aiunt æquiorem esse, et haud paulo meliorem quam fuerunt cæteri.
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 Maestà 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 Voré 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 für 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 öffentliche Geschicht
anzeigen." Letter of Aug. 24, 1535. The elector expressed himself at
greater length to his chancellor, Dr. Brück (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, Lüttich, 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 à eux, plus qu'eux se
convertir à l'Église." 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 Ræmond (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. Irenæus 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 è
piccola murmoration quì en Corte, ch'l Orator Francese _facea più 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: François I^er aux Conseils de Zurich, Berne, Bâle et
Strasbourg, Compiègne, 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 Bâle, 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 à François 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 Briçonnet 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 Gérard 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 Nérac 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 Rhône 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. Gérard 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 Gésine_, 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'Étoile, 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 Angoulême.]
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 Angoulême. 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 Renée, at Ferrara, offered to a patriotic Frenchman attractions
hard to be resisted.
[Sidenote: The court of Renée de France.]
[Sidenote: Brantôme's eulogy of Renée.]
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 Renée, 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 Abbé
de Brantôme, "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
Renée 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 Chambéry, 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 "Congrégation." 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 Étienne 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 Étienne 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, André 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 Angoulême. 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 rôle 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 Mérindol and Cabrières 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'espère que nostre _Antioche_ (Charles
V.), qui nous presse maintenant, sera serré de si près, _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
françaises, 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'Aubignê is mistaken in referring the description to Henry II.
Hist. de la Réf., liv. xii. c. 1.]
[Footnote 388: Histoire ecclésiastique, i. 14.]
[Footnote 389: Mémoires de Martin du Bellay (Edition Petitot), xviii.
271-273. See also Mignet, Établissement de la réforme religieuse à
Genève, Mém. historiques, ii. 308, etc. Also, Merle d'Aubigné, 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, quæ 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'Aubigné 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 étonnement
proportionné à la célébrité de l'auteur." Corresp. des réformateurs, ii.
333.]
[Footnote 391: See the very sensible remarks of Herminjard, _ubi supra_,
iii. 202.]
[Footnote 392: A. Crottet, Histoire des églises réf. de Pons, Gémozac,
et Mortagne en Saintonge (Bordeaux, 1841), 10-11, and Merle d'Aubigné,
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 Ræmond, lib. vii. c. 14, from whose account I cannot even
find that the scene was laid in the caverns.]
[Footnote 393: Stähelin (Johannes Calvin, Leben und ausgewählte
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 Gésine and his curacy of
Pont l'Evêque, 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 désir de la pure
doctrine se rangeoyent à 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 délibéré, afin que là je peusse vivre
à requoy en quelque coin incognu." Corresp. des réformateurs, 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 ecclésiastique; various letters in J. Bonnet's Letters
of Calvin, and Herminjard, Corresp. des réformateurs; Haag, France
protestante; the reformer's life by Paul Henry, D.D., and especially the
scholarly work of Dr. E. Stähelin (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 français, 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 premièrement
l'ay mis en latin_ à ce qu'il pust servir à toutes gens d'estude, de
quelque nation qu'ils fussent; puis après désirant de communiquer ce qui
en pouvoit venir de fruict à nostre nation françoise, _l'ay aussy
translaté en nostre langue_." See also chap. iii. of Professors Baum,
Cunitz, and Reuss, Introd. to Institution de la religion chrétienne
(Calv. Opera, t. iii.).]
[Footnote 398: Opera Calvini (Amst., 1667), t. ix.]
[Footnote 399: "La dédicace à François I^er, qui est peut-étre une des
plus belles choses que possède notre langue." Paul L. Jacob, bibliophile
(Lacroix), "Avertissement" prefixed to Œuvres françaises de Calvin.
The Institutes he designates "ce chef-d'œuvre de science théologique,
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 Stähelin 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 Renée to visit her.]
[Footnote 401: Showing, according to Brantôme, "en son visage et en sa
parole qu'elle estoit bien _fille du Roy et de France_." Dames
illustres, Renée de France.]
[Footnote 402: See the pompous ceremonial on this occasion and the
epithalamium of Clément Marot, in Cronique du Roy François I^er (G.
Guiffrey, 1860), 68-73.]
[Footnote 403: Dames illustres, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 404: "Que voulez-vous? Ce sont des pauvres François de ma
maison; et _lesquels si Dieu m'eust donné 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 Renée 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,
épisode de la Renaissance et de la Réforme en Italie. Stähelin has well
traced Calvin's religious influence upon Renée and the important family
of Soubise. Joh. Calvin, i. 94-110. The extant letters of Calvin to
Renée are full of manly and Christian frankness, and affectionate
loyalty. Lettres françaises, i. 428, etc.]
[Footnote 406: Stähelin 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 Visière, 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. français, 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 moræ_ 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: "Genevæ non tam _consilio_, vel _hortatu_, quam _formidabili_
Gulielmi Farelli _obtestatione_ retentus sum, _ac si Deus violentam mihi
e cœlo 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 quærenti Dominus
maledicat." Vita Calvini (Op. Calv., Amst. 1661, tom. i).]
[Footnote 410: This interesting letter, dated Neufchâtel, 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. (Epistolæ),
71.]
[Footnote 412: Declaration pour maintenir la vraye foy que tiennent tous
chrestiens de la Trinité des personnes en un seul Dieu. Par Jean Calvin.
Contre les erreurs detestables de Michel Servet Espaignol. Où il est
aussi monstré, qu'il est licite de punir les heretiques: et qu'à bon
droict ce meschant a esté executé par justice en la ville de Genève.
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 _pœnæ 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: "Hæreticos certe
puniendos _facile concessi_, et in exemplum proposui _impurum illum
canem Servetum_, qui Genevæ ultimo supplicio affectus fuit: verum sedulo
caverent, _ne in Christianos et Dei filios_ velut hæreticos
animadvertant," etc. Letter in Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta Martyrum
(Genevæ, 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, præsertim quum nemo illic sciverit me authorem esse."
Ibid.]
[Footnote 419: "Me tamen non tanta sustinnit magnanimitas, quin
turbulenta ejectione plus quam deceret lætatus sim." Ibid.]
[Footnote 420: "Præstantissimus Christi minister, M. Bucerus me iterum
simili qua usus fuerat Farellus, obsecratione, ad novam stationem
retraxit. Jonæ itaque exemplo, quod proposuerat, territus," etc. Ibid.]
[Footnote 421: "La difficulté 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 tormenté sans cesse d'une doleur qui _ne me souffre quasi
rien faire_. Car oultre les _sermons et lectures_, il y a desjà un mois
que _je n'ay guères faict_, tellement que j'ay presque honte _de vivre
arnsi inutile_." Lettres françaises, 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 è la minera di questa sorte di metallo."
Relazione di M. Suriano, 1561. Relations des Amb. Vénitiens, 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 içy en combats
merveilleux; j'ay esté salué 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 esté,
je le confesse?... On m'a mis les chiens à ma queue, criant _hère,
hère_, et m'ont prins par la robbe et par les jambes." Adieux de Calvin,
_apud_ Bonnet, Lettres françaises, 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'église de Genève, i. 346, 347.]
[Footnote 425: Recherches de la France (ed. of 1621), p. 769. Giovanni
Michiel, in 1561, told the Doge of Venice: "Nè potria vostra Serenità
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 autorità, per la vita, per la dottrina,
e per i scritti appresso tutti quelli di questa sette." Rel. des Amb.
Vén., i. 415.]
[Footnote 426: Histoire ecclésiastique, i. 13-17; Crespin, Actiones et
Monimenta (Geneva, 1560), fol. 65, etc.]
[Footnote 427: Histoire ecclésiastique, i. 15.]
[Footnote 428: "En manèire que pensions nostredit royaume en estre purgé
du tout et nettoyé," Francis is made to say in the Edict of
Fontainebleau. Isambert, Recueil des anciennes lois françaises, xii.
677, etc.]
[Footnote 429: "Tellement qu'il est fort à douter que les nouveaux
erreurs soient pires que les premiers." Ibid., xii. 677.]
[Footnote 430: "Plusieurs gros personnages, qui secrettement les
recèlent, supportent et favorisent en leurs fausses doctrines, leur
aydans et subvenans de leurs biens, de lieux, et de places secrettes et
occultes, èsquelles ils retirent leurs sectateurs, pour les instruire
èsdites erreurs et infections." Ibid., xii. 677.]
[Footnote 431: "Attendu que tels erreurs et fausses doctrines
contiennent en soy crime de lèze majesté divine et humaine, sédition 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 révéler à justice, et de tout leur pouvoir aider à les extirper,
_comme un chacun doit courir à esteindre le feu public_." Ibid., xii.
680.]
[Footnote 433: President Louis Caillaud to the chancellor (Antoine Du
Bourg), Oct. 22, 1538. Musée des archives nationales; Documents orig.
exposés 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
démonstration en soit faite telle et si griefve, que ce puisse estre
perpétuel exemple à tous autres."]
[Footnote 436: Isambert, Recueil des anciennes lois françaises, xii.
785-787.]
[Footnote 437: "Lui a dit qu'il voulait qu'aucun sacramentaire ne fût
admis à abjurer, ains fût puni de mort." Reg. secr. du Parl. de
Bordeaux, July 7, 1543, Boscheron des Portes, i. 47, 48.]
[Footnote 438: "Conspirateurs occultes contre la prospérité de nostre
estat, dépendant principalement et en bonne partie de la conservation de
l'intégrité de la foy catholique en nostredit royaume, rebelles et
désobéyssans a nous et à nostre justice." Recueil des anc. lois
françaises, 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 passé, par le moyen et à l'occasion de
contentions, contradictions et altercations de certain prédicateurs
preschans et publians divers et contraires doctrines." Recueil des anc.
lois françaises, xii. 820.]
[Footnote 441: Recueil des anc. lois franç., 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 à propos d'alleguer le nom des saincts apostres et évangelistes
ou saincts docteurs, qu'ils _n'ayent à les nommer par leurs norm
simplement_, sans aucune préface d'honneur, _comme ont accoustumé dire,
'Paul,' 'Jacques,' 'Mathieu,' 'Pierre,' 'Hiérosme,' 'Augustin_,' etc. Et
ne leur doit estre grief adjouster et préposer 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 faculté 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, Renée, 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 ecclésiastique, 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 "Epistolæ duæ; prima de fugiendis
impiorum illicitis sacris et puritate Christianæ religionis; secunda de
Christiani hominis officio in sacerdotiis papalis ecclesiæ 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 françaises, 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 vérité de Dieu ainsi
assaillie, je faisoys du muet sans sonner mot."]
[Footnote 446: "A exhorté et prié la cour de vouloir faire punir et
brûler les vrais hérétiques," etc. Reg. du Parl., May 24, 1543,
Boscheron des Portes, Hist. du parlement de Bordeaux, i. 63.]
[Footnote 447: "Réclame son privilége de fille de France écrit dans un
livre qui est à 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 MÉRINDOL AND CABRIÈRES, AND LAST DAYS OF
FRANCIS THE FIRST.
[Sidenote: The Vaudois of Provence.]
[Sidenote: Their industry and thrift.]
[Sidenote: Vaudois settlements even in the Comtât 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 Rhône 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 Cabrières, one of the largest Vaudois villages, was
situated within the bounds of the _Comtât 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 Mérindol,
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 Freissinières, and Pierre Masson, of Burgundy. They visited
Œcolampadius at Basle, Bucer and Capito at Strasbourg, Farel at
Neufchâtel, 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 Lefèvre
d'Étaples, 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 Mérindol 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 Mérindol. 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 Arrêt de Mérindol, 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 "_Arrêt de Mérindol_." 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 Mérindol 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
Mérindol 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 _Arrêt de Mérindol_, 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 Mérindol at the hands of merciless judges.[467] The
publication of the _Arrêt_ 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 Chassanée, 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
Mérindol. 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 Chassanée 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 Mérindol 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
Mérindol, 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 Mérindol. 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 Mérindol
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 Mérindol, 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 Cabrières, 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 Mérindol confession is said to have found its way even to Paris, and
to have been read to the king by Châtellain, Bishop of Maçon, 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 Chassanée, who is succeeded by Baron
d'Oppède.]
[Sidenote: Military preparations stopped by a second royal order.]
The _Arrêt de Mérindol_ yet remained unexecuted when, Chassanée having
died, he was succeeded, in the office of First President of the
Parliament of Provence, by Jean Meynier, Baron d'Oppède. 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 Cabrières, 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 "Maître de requêtes"
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 Mérindol
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 "Arrêt de Mérindol,"
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'Oppède'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'Oppède, 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'Oppède, 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'Oppède, directed his course northward, and burned Cabrièrette, 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 Mérindol. 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'Oppède, 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
Mérindol. On the opposite side of the Durance, La Rocque and St. Étienne
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 Mérindol.]
Early on the eighteenth of April, D'Oppède reached Mérindol, 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'Oppède, 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 Mérindol 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 Cabrières.]
Leaving the desolate spot, D'Oppède next presented himself, on the
nineteenth of April, before the town of Cabrières. 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'Oppède 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
Étienne 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'Oppède. 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'Oppède 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'Oppède had washed out a
fancied affront received at the hands of the inhabitants of Cabrières.
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'Oppède 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'Oppède 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 Guérin, being so unfortunate as to possess
no great influence at court, was condemned to the gallows. D'Oppède
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'Oppède, the chief
actor in the mournful tragedy we have been recounting.[508]
[Sidenote: New persecution at Meaux.]
The ashes of Mérindol and Cabrières 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 Briçonnet, 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 Étienne
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-fé 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 Fère, 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 pièces rel. à l'hist. de France,
xvii. 550.]
[Footnote 453: The Comtât 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 Comtât. 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'Oppède), 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 ecclésiastique, i. 22, while admitting that
the Vaudois "had never adhered to papal superstition," asserts that "par
longue succession de temps, la pureté de la doctrine s'estoit grandement
abastardie." From the letter of Morel and Masson to Œcolampadius, 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." Œcolampadius, 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 Œcolampadius 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. ecclés., i. 22; Herminjard, iii.
66.]
[Footnote 457: Printed at Neufchâtel, 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'église 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 Vérité addresse,
Viens done ouyr instamment sa promesse
Et vif parler: lequel en excellence
Veult asseurer nostre grelle espérance.
L'esprit Jésus qui visite et ordonne.
Noz tendres meurs, icy sans cry estonne
Tout hault raillart escumant son ordure.
Remercions eternelle nature,
Prenons vouloir bienfaire librement,
Jésus querons veoir eternellement."
Taking the first letter of each successive word, we obtain the lines:
"_Les Vaudois, peuple évangélique
Ont mis ce thrésor en publique_."
See L. Vulliemin, Le Chroniqueur, Recueil historique (Lausanne, 1836),
103, etc. Bulletin de l'hist. du prot. français, i. 82.]
[Footnote 458: "D'un commun accord," says an able critic, "on a mis
Calvin à la tête de tous nos écrivains en prose; personne n'a songé à
méconnaître les obligations que lui a notre langue. D'où vient qu'on a
été moins juste envers Robert Olivetan, tandis qu'à y regarder de près,
il y a tout lieu de croire que sa part a été au moins égale à celle de
Calvin dans la réformation de la langue? L'_Institution_ de Calvin a eu
un très-grand nombre de lecteurs; mais il n'est pas probable qu'elle ait
été 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 communément, et qui a quelque chose de plus odieux
que véritable."]
[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 sectæ 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 quædam id genus. _Propter quæ
sola vivos comburunt, bona publicant._" Basle MS., Herminjard, iii. 45.]
[Footnote 461: Crespin and the Hist. ecclés. 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 François 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 ecclés., 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 ecclésiastique as _fifteen_ or _sixteen_. M.
Nicolaï (Leber, Coll. de pièces rel. à l'hist. de France, viii. 552)
raises it to nineteen, which seems to be correct.]
[Footnote 466: Histoire ecclés., i. 23; Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta,
fol. 90; De Thou, i. 536; Nicolaï, _ubi supra_; Recueil des anc. lois
françaises, xii. 698. See the _arrêt_ 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 impiétez cy-devant commises, mais _pour
leur obstination à 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. Nicolaï (Leber, Coll. de pièces rel.
à 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 Chassanée: "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 Chassanée 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 Chassanée 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 Chassanée's
_Catalogus Gloriæ 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 Epistolæ, x. 96, etc.]
[Footnote 475: Calvin's Letters (Bonnet), i. 228, 229. Strange to say,
even M. Nicolaï, otherwise very fair, credits one of these absurd rumors
(Leber, _ubi supra_, xvii. 557). While the inhabitants of Mérindol
entered into negotiations, it is stated that those of Cabrières,
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 Cabrières 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. ecclés., 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. français, 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 répondit assez brusquement, qu'il ne se mêloit
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 États, et de
quelle manière il jugeoit à propos de châtier ses sujets coupables." De
Thou, i. 541.]
[Footnote 482: Hist. ecclés., 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 étaient journellement travaillés et molestés par les
_évêques_ du pays et par les _présidens_ et _conseillers_ de notre
parlement de Provence, qui _avaient demandé leurs confiscations et
terres pour leurs parens_," etc. Hist. ecclés., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 485: "Sur ce que l'on auroit fait entendre audit feu Seigneur
Roi, qu'ils étaient en armes en grande assemblée, forçant villes et
châteaux, 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 à 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 città 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 Abbé 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'exécuter les arrêts donnés contre eux, révoquant
lesdites lettres d'évocation, pour le regard des récidifs non ayant
abjuré, et ordonna que tous ceux qui se trouveraient chargés et
coupables d'hérésie et secte Vaudoise, fussent exterminés," etc. Hist.
ecclés., i. 46.]
[Footnote 487: The names are preserved: they were the second president,
François de la Fond; two counsellors, Honoré de Tributiis and Bernard
Badet; and an advocate, Guérin, acting in the absence of the "Procureur
géneral." Letters-Patent of Henry II., _ubi supra_; De Thou, i. 541;
Hist. ecclés., i. 28.]
[Footnote 488: De Thou, _ubi supra_; Sleidan, Hist. de la réformation
(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 Brantôme.]
[Footnote 490: Crespin, fol. 115. Sleidan and De Thou give a similar
incident as befalling fugitives from Mérindol. Garnier, alluding to the
absence of any attempt at self-defence on the part of the Waldenses,
pertinently remarks: "On put connoître alors la fausseté et la noirceur
des bruits que l'on avoit affecté de répandre sur leurs préparatifs de
guerre: _pas un ne songea à se mettre en défense_: des cris aigus et
lamentables portés dans un moment de villages en villages, avertirent
ceux qui vouloient sauver leur vie de fuir promptement du côté des
montagnes." Hist. de France, xxvi. 33.]
[Footnote 491: So say the Letters-Patent of Henry II.: "Furent faites
défenses à son de trompe tant par autorité dudit Menier, que dudit de la
Fond, de non bailler à boire et manger aux Vaudois, sans savoir qui ils
étaient; et ce sur peine de la corde." Hist. ecclés., i. 47; Crespin,
fol. 115.]
[Footnote 492: Crespin, and Hist. ecclês., _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. ecclés., 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'Oppède and his companions, and conflicts too much with
well-established facts to contribute anything to the true history of the
capture of Cabrières.]
[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 tués, femmes et filles forcées jusques au
nombre de vingt-cinq dedans une grange." _Ubi supra_, i. 47.]
[Footnote 496: "Et infinis pillages étaient faits par l'espace de plus
de sept semaines." Ibid, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 497: Hist. ecclés., 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'église de Genève, 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 Mérindol and Cabrières 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 était venue jusqu'à [notre]
dit feu père, auraient envoyé ledit De la Fond devers lui, lequel ...
aurait obtenu lettres données à Arques, le 18me jour d'août 1545,
approuvant paisiblement ladite exécution; n'ayant toutefois fait
entendre à notre dit feu père la vérité du fait; mais supposé par
icelles lettres que tous les habitane des villes brûlées étaient connus
et jugés hérétiques 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. ecclés., 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 Guérin
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'Oppède and himself. Garnier, xxvi.
40; Bouche, ii. 622. The leniency with which D'Oppède 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'étaient pas
moins cruels et sanguinaires en leurs cœurs que les criminels qu'ils
devaient juger, qu'en les condamnant ils ne vinssent à rompre le cours
des jugemens qu'euxmêmes prononçaient tous les jours en pareilles cause,
et voulant aussi sauver l'honneur d'un autre parlement," etc. Hist.
ecclés., i. 50.]
[Footnote 508: "Mais il fut saisi pen après d'une douleur si excessive
dans les intestins, qu'il rendit son âme cruelle au milieu des plus
affreux tourmens; Dieu prenant soin lui-même de lui imposer le châtiment
auquel ses juges ne l'avoient pas condamné, et qui, pour avoir été 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.
ecclésiastique.]
[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. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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. ecclés., i. 33; Crespin, fol. 121.]
[Footnote 513: Hist. ecclés., i. 33-35.]
[Footnote 514: Ibid., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 515: Hist. ecclés., 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 églises réf. de Pons, Gémozac 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 Angoulême, 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 Châtillon, and his
brother, the _Cardinal of Châtillon_; 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
Brezé, 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 Brantôme 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 façades; 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'Étampes, 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. André, 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, Luçon, Alby, and Valence, and Abbot of
Gorze, Fécamp, 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 Brantôme, 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 abbé, 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 Brantôme'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-André.]
[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-André, 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-André 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 Brugière.]
[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 Brugière
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
Châtellain, 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 Châteaubriand, 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 Châteaubriand_ (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
Neufchâtel, 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 Châteaubriand, 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 Châteaubriand 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 Châteaubriand 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 Écrivain,
of Boulogne, in Gascony; Bernard Seguin, of La Réolle, in Bazadois;
Charles Favre, of Blanzac; and Pierre Navihères, 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 Châteaubriand, 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, Séguier, 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 Séguier delivered before the Duke of Guise,
Constable Montmorency, Marshal St. André, and other dignitaries civil
and ecclesiastical, an address full of noble sentiments.[597]
[Sidenote: Speech of President Séguier in opposition.]
"Parliament," said Séguier, "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 Séguier, 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 Séguier 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 Ferrière, 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 Maçon, surnamed La Rivière, 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, Neufchâtel, 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 Châtillon.]
[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
Châtillon, 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
Châtillon, 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 Châtillon, 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] Châtillon'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 Compiègne, 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 Compiègne, 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 Compiègne, 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
Collége 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
Châtelet, 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 Châtelet
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 Budé, 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, Condé, 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 Condé, and
François d'Andelot, brother of Admiral Coligny, at the head of the
hitherto despised "Lutherans." Antoine de Bourbon-Vendôme 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 Châtelet, 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.
Condé 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 Pré 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 _Pré 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 Clément Marot and Théodore de Bèze 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 Châtillon 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 Châtillon 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 Châtillon, 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 _Pré 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 _Pré 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 Châtillon 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 Ruzé, 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 Châtillon, 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-Cambrésis, 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. André, 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-Cambrésis.[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-Cambrésis 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-Cambrésis 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 Comté"--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
Séguier,[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 Œcumenical 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 _à 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 "Cité," 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 œcumenical 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 "Hôtel 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 Façon de Genève"--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 "Manière 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 Neufchâtel,
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 Manière et fasson qu'on tient ès
lieux que Dieu de sa grace a visités_." 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 Neufchâtel, 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 Prières et Chantz Ecclésiastiques, avec la
Manière 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 Théodore de Bèze 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 françaises,
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 "Clément 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 "Manière 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 Genève, 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, _Père Éternel_ 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 Véritable, 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 gagné _Père Éternel_!" 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, ó a querido esperar de hallar oportunidad de
dañarme con disimulacion." From Henry he anticipates little better
treatment. Instruct. of Charles V. to the Infante Philip, Augsburg, Jan.
18, 1548, Pap. d'état 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 Françoys 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 Angoulême, 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 Brantôme, Hommes illustres (Œuvres, vii. 369,
370).]
[Footnote 519: This was as early as 1538. Mémoires 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, "perchè
corrono molte volte alle sbarre con poco vedere, sì 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 levò la carne più che se gli avesse dato una gran frignoccola."
Relazioni Venete, ii. 171.]
[Footnote 522: Relations Vén. (Ed. Tommaseo), i. 286.]
[Footnote 523: Histoire ecclésiastique, 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 à se laisser mener en lesse" (Histoire de l'estat de
France, éd. Panthéon 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, à la vérité, très-bien nay, tant de corps
_que de l'esprit_.... Il avoit un air si affable et humain que, dès le
premier aspect, il emportoit le cœur et la dévotion d'un chacun.
Aussi a il esté constamment chery et aimé de tous ses subjets durant sa
vie, désiré et regretté après sa mort" (Histoire particulière 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 règne du
connestable, de Mme. de Valentinois et de M. de Guise, non le sien."
(Mémoires 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 dégénérer de
leurs majeurs, et mesmes estoit persuadé que les lettres avoyent
engendré les hérésies et accreu les luthériens en telle nombre qu'ils
estoyent au royaume; en sorte qu'il avoit en peu d'estime les sçavans,
et leurs livres." Histoire de l'estat de la France tant de la république
que de la religion sous le règne de François II., p. 309.]
[Footnote 529: The people were as a body declared attainted of treason,
their _hôtel-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: Brantôme, Homines illustres (Œuvres, viii., 129).]
[Footnote 531: Sir John Mason to Council, Poissy, Sept. 14, 1550, State
Paper Office.]
[Footnote 532: Claude de l'Aubespine, Histoire particulière 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'Angoulême, 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 Galliæ, 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 François II., éd.
Panthéon lit., p. 261. The lines are given, with a few variations, by
almost every history of the times; Recueil des choses mémorables, etc.,
1565, p. 31; Mémoires de Condé, 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 prélats avoit eu beaucoup de part aux bonnes graces
de François I^er, _sans autre mérite que de s'être rendu utile à ses
plaisirs_ et d'avoir su se distinguer par une libéralité folle et
indiscrète, deux moyens par lesquels il avoit été assez heureux pour
adoucir la juste indignation de ce prince contre son frère, 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. Abbé Migne, Dictionnaire des Cardinaux; table
chronologique.]
[Footnote 541: Sir John Mason to Council, Feb. 23, 1551. State Paper
Office.]
[Footnote 542: Mémoires 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 débonnaire,
bien emparlé tant en particulier qu'en public, vaillant et magnanime,
prompt à la main," etc. Œuvres 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 frère ne l'eust
prévenu et empoisonné. 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 rè."
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, à ses créanciers, _pour y
succéder 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 avaritiæ dedito_, quæ vitia _religionis ac
sanctimoniæ simulatione obtegere conabatur_." Prosperi Santacrucii de
Civilibus Galliæ 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
égalles entre deux fers." (Ed. Pantheon, p. 423.)]
[Footnote 547: "Non credo fosse in quel regno desiderata alcuna cosa più
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 Vénitiens.]
[Footnote 548: Werke, viii. 141.]
[Footnote 549: Brantôme, Œuvres (Ed. of Fr. Hist. Soc.), iv. 275,
etc.]
[Footnote 550: "Et seroit à desirer que ceste femme et le cardinal
n'eussent jamais esté; car ces deux seuls out esté 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 merité de la postérité toutes les louanges d'un
homme né pour le bien des autres, et le titre même de cardinal de
France, qui lui fut donné par quelques écrivains de son temps." This
blundering eulogist makes him to have been assigned by Francis I. as
counsellor of his son.]
[Footnote 551: Brantôme, Hommes illustres (Œuvres, viii. 63).]
[Footnote 552: Mém. de Vieilleville, i. 179.]
[Footnote 553: La Planche, 205.]
[Footnote 554: Mém. de Vieilleville, i. 186-189.]
[Footnote 555: "Pour du tout s'asseurer, ils se jettèrent 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 près de deux ans, que ne tenant point
de table pour sa personne, _il disnoit à la table de Madame_; ainsi
estoit-elle appellée par la Royne mesme." L'Aubespine, Hist.
particulière, iii. 281.]
[Footnote 556: "Ne pouvant doresenavant estre aultre mon intérest que le
vostre. De quoy Dieu soit loué," etc. Letter of the Card. of Lorraine,
Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. franç., 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 maestà si dimostra religiosa, _non cavalca la domenica,
almen la mattina_." Relaz. Venete, ii. 173.]
[Footnote 558: Histoire ecclés. des égl. réf., i, 43, 44.]
[Footnote 559: Une chambre spéciale composée de "dix ou douze
conseillers des plus sçavants et des plus zélés, pour connoistre du
faict d'hérésie, sans qu'elle pust vacquer à 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 dès nostre nouvel avénement à la couronne, voulans à l'exemple et
imitation de feu nostredit seigneur et père, travailler et prester la
main à purger et nettoier nostre royaume d'une telle peste, nous aurions
pour plus grande et prompte expédition desdites matières et procez sur
le fait desdites hérésies, erreurs et fausses doctrines ordonné et
estably _une chambre particulière en nostre parlement à Paris, pour
seulement vaquer ausdites expéditions, sans se divertir à 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 ecclésiastique," for instance, places the execution of
Brugière 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.
"Voilà," says this document, "le debvoir où ledit seigneur s'est mis
pour continuer la possession de ce nom et titre de Très-Chrestien."]
[Footnote 567: Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 50, 51. Crespin, fol.
157, etc. The registers of parliament can spare for the auto-da-fé but a
few lines at the conclusion of a lengthy description of the magnificent
procession, and inaccurately designate the locality: "Cette aprèsdinée
fut faicte exécution d'aucuns condamnez au feu pour crime d'hérésie,
tant au parvis N. D. que en la place devant Ste. Catherine du Val des
Escolliers." Reg. of Parl., July 4, 1549 (Félibien, Preuves, iv. 745,
746).]
[Footnote 568: Anne Audeberte and Louis de Marsac. Hist. ecclés. des
égl. réf., i. 52, 58; Crespin, fols. 156, 227-234.]
[Footnote 569: Isambert, Recueil gén. 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'ég.
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. ecclés., i. 53.]
[Footnote 571: De Thou, _ubi supra_. Mézeray 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.
Abrégé 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 Châteaubriand 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 édit, par
lequel le Roi se réservoit une entière connoissance du Luthéranisme, et
l'attribuoit à ses juges, sans aucune exception, à moins que l'hérésie
dont il s'agissoit ne demandât quelque éclaircissement, ou que les
coupables ne fussent dans les ordres sacrés."]
[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 fumée en vos cerueauz
Seulmient vous estouffera_."
]
[Footnote 574: Recueil gén. des anc. lois fr., xiii. 189-208.]
[Footnote 575: Hist. ecclés., 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 ædificent 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 æque 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 Galliæ et Italiæ
regionibus tot exules confluunt, ut tantæ multitudini vix nunc
sufficiat."]
[Footnote 578: De Thou, ii. 181.]
[Footnote 579: Mémoires de Vieilleville (written by his secretary,
Vincent Carloix), ed. Petitot, i. 299-301. This incident belongs to the
year 1549.]
[Footnote 580: Histoire ecclés., 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 Écrivain (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 franç. 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 Cæsars, 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 ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 57.]
[Footnote 588: Ibid., _ubi supra_; Crespin, Actiones et Mon., fols.
185-217 (also in Galerie Chrétienne, 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 Félibien,
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 coté 101, au 20 mai 1555, an extract from it: "Que les
inquisiteurs de la foi et juges ecclésiastiques peuvent librement
procéder à la punition des hérétiques, tant clercs que laïcs, jusqu'à
sentence dèfinitive inclusivement; que les accusés qui, avant cette
sentence, appelleront comme d'abus resteront toujours prisonniers, et
leur appel sera porté au parlement. Mais, nonobstant cet appel, si
l'accusé est déclaré hérétique par les inquisiteurs, et pour ne pas
retarder son châtiment, il sera livré au bras séculier." (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 Bécanis (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 Bécanis 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
"Mémoires-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 Séguier in the words
of his own report, from the Registers of Parliament (pp. 246-249). From
this we learn that Séguier 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 créance par bonnes œuvres, et qui ne la veut croire et accuse
les autres estre luthériens, est plus hérétique que les mesmes
luthériens." Mémoires de Guise, 248.]
[Footnote 599: Mémoires de Guise, 246-249; Gamier, xxvii. 55-70; De
Thou, liv. xvi., ii. 375-377.]
[Footnote 600: Mém. 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. ecclés.
des églises réformées) 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, quæ et America dicitur. Qua describitur autoris navigatio,
quæque in mari vidit memoriæ prodenda: Villegagnonis in America gesta,
etc. A Joanne Lerio, Burgundo, etc., 1586." Jean l'Hery or Léry 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 Léry, _ubi supra_, 4-6.]
[Footnote 604: What Villegagnon actually believed was an enigma to Léry,
for the vice-admiral rejected both transubstantiation and
consubstantiation, and yet maintained a _real_ presence. Léry, 58, 54.
Cointas had at first solemnly abjured Roman Catholicism, and applied for
admission to the Reformed Church. Ibid., 46.]
[Footnote 605: Léry 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 præfecti 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. Léry, 304-330;
Hist. ecclés., i. 102; La Place, Commentaires de l'estat de la rel. et
républ., 25.]
[Footnote 607: De Thou, ii. 381-384; Hist. ecclés., 100-102; Léry, 339
_et passim_; La Place, _ubi supra_. "Clarissimi, erudissimique viri D.
Nicolai Villagagnonis, equitis Rhodii, adversus novitium Calvini ...
dogma de sacramento Eucharistiæ, opuscula tria, Coloniæ, 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. ecclés., i. 61.]
[Footnote 609: Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 61-63.]
[Footnote 610: Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 63-71.]
[Footnote 611: "In Gallia pergunt ecclesiæ 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 Mériot deplores the progress of the Reformation during this
year. "L'hérésie prenoit secrètement pied en France.... Mais ah! le
malheur advint tel que la plus part des grands juges de la court de
parlement, comme présidens et conseillers, furent et estoient intoxiquez
et empoisonnez de ladite hérésie luthérienne et calvinienne, et qui pis
est de la moytié, se trouva finallement des évesques 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 à 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
héréticques." Mém. de Claude Haton, 27.]
[Footnote 613: The execution of the "Five from Geneva" at Chambéry, 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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 franç., 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 à Paris, à
Meaux et à 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." Mém. 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
"Fête-Dieu," or "Corpus Christi," by singing "a profane hymn of Clément
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
hérésies et faulces doctrines, qui à mon très grand regret, ennuy et
desplaisir, pullulent en mes royaume et pays de mon obéissance, j'avoys
despiéca advisé, selon les advis _que le cardinal Caraffe estant
dernièrement pardeça m'en a donné de la part de nostre Saint-Père, 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, alléguant
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 semblé pour le mieulx de y parvenir par
aultre voye," etc. Mémoires de Guise, p. 338. The letter is inaccurately
given in Sismondi, Hist. des Français, xviii. 623. See Dulaure, H. de
Paris, iv. 135.]
[Footnote 619: "Comme celluy qui ne désire autre chose en ce monde, que
veoir mon peuple nect et exempt d'une telle dangereuse peste et vermyne
que sont lesdictes hérésies et faulces et reprouvées doctrines." Henry
to De Selve, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 620: Sismondi, Hist. des Français, 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 72.]
[Footnote 623: See the declaration of Henry, in Preuves des Libertez de
l'Égl. gallicane, part iii. 174.]
[Footnote 624: Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 72, 73.]
[Footnote 625: "Hoc quidem tibi possum pro comperto affirmare regnum Dei
tantum nunc progressum _in decem minimum Galliæ urbibus ac Lutetiæ
præsertim_ 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. ecclés., i. 70. No wonder
that the example set by the judges of Autun "served greatly to instruct
others!"]
[Footnote 627: Recueil gén. 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 Mémoires 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 gén. 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 73-75. This detailed and
most authentic account is taken verbatim from that of Crespin, which may
be read in the Galerie chrétienne, ii. 253-259; De la Place (ed.
Panthéon 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. Mémoires, 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
(Mém.), 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.
ecclés des égl. réf., _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 quædam 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. ecclés., 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 Compiègne, "que
plusieurs trouvèrent mauvais." De la Place, Commentaires de l'estat de
la religion et république, soubs les rois Henry et François 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 esté appeléz au martyre ont
esté _contemptibles au monde_, tant pour la _qualité_ de leurs
personnes, que pource que le _nombre_ n'a pas esté si grand pour ung
coup. Que sçavons-nous s'il a desjà appresté 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 églises 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 Montbéliard, as recorded by Beza: "Comes fuit in ea sententia,
ut, dum Helvetii priores cum rege agerent, sollicitaremus alios etiam
Germanos principes, ac præsertim 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 dernièrement aux députés
que les seigneurs des cantons de Zurich, Berne, Basle et Schaffouse, ses
très-chers et bons amys envoyèrent par deçà à la requeste de ceulx de la
vallée d'Angrogne, pour le faict de la religion, Sa Majesté 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 Gœtz
et Louys Oechsly, présens porteurs ... ce que le dict seigneur a trouvé
un pen estrange, pour la considération 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 exécutera en son
royaulme, et moings au faict de la religion, qu'il veult et a délibéré
d'observer et suivre, telle que ses prédécesseurs et luy (comme roys
très-chrestiens) ont faict par le passé, et contenir ses dicts subiects
en icelle, dont il n'a à rendre compte à aultre que à Dieu_, par l'aide,
bonté et protection duquel il s'asseure maintenir son dict royaulme en
estat, en la tranquillité et prospérité là où il a esté jusques icy."
Réponse 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 désyrez. 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 Société de l'hist. du prot.
français, 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. ecclés. des églises réf., 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 franç. (Bonnet),
ii. 159.]
[Footnote 649: Hist. ecclés., i. 84.]
[Footnote 650: Calvin to Bullinger, Bonnet (Eng. tr.), iii. 411; Baum,
i. 317, 318.]
[Footnote 651: Histoire ecclésiastique des églises réformées, i. 78.]
[Footnote 652: Cf. the anonymous letter to Henry the Second, inserted in
La Place, Commentaires de l'estat de la religion et république (éd.
Panthéon Littéraire), p. 5; and in Crespin (see Galerie chrétienne, 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 expugné 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_ Mémoires de
Guise, p. 422.]
[Footnote 654: De Thou, ii. 549-552; Prescott, Philip the Second, i.
255-257.]
[Footnote 655: Hist. ecclés. 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 89.]
[Footnote 658: The letter, dated March 19th, is reproduced in the
Galerie chrét., 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. ecclés., i. 89. Galerie chrétienne, 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 franç., 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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
assemblées qui se sont faictes _ces jours icy, tant au pré aux Clercs,
que par les rues de cette ville de Paris, et à grandes troupes de
personnes, tant escolliers, gentilshommes, damoiselles que autres
chantans à haute voix chansons et pseaumes de David en François_." On
the following day the procureur general was directed to inquire into the
"monopoles, conventicules et assembées 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 à haute voix chansons concernant le faict de la religion,
et tendant à sedition et commotion populaire, et perturbation du repos
et tranquillité publique." Reg. of Parl., _apud_ Félibien, 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. ecclés. de Bretagne depuis la réformation jusqu'à
l'édit 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 91.]
[Footnote 667: Ib., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 668: De Thou, ii. 566, 567; Hist. ecclés., _ubi supra_; La
Place, Commentaires de l'estat, pp. 9, 10; Calvin, Lettres franç. (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, grâces à Dieu, pour crainte de la mort, et moins encore
pour désir que j'aye de recouvrer ma liberté, car je n'ay rien si cher
que je n'abandonne fort voluntiers pour le salut de mon âme et la gloire
de mon Dieu. Mais, toutefois, la perplexité où je suis de vous vouloir
satisfaire et rendre le service que je vous doibs, et ne le pouvoir
faire en cela avec seureté de ma conscience, me travaille et serre le
cueur tellement que pour m'en délivrer j'ay esté contrainct de vous
faire ceste très humble requeste."]
[Footnote 670: Cf. Calvin's letter to the Marq. of Vico, July 19, 1558.
Bonnet, Lettres franç., ii. 213, 214: "Sa femme luy monstrant son ventre
pour l'esmouvoir à 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 ecclésiastique 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. ecclés., 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, Précis de
l'histoire de l'égl. réf. de Paris, Pièces 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 Bourdaisière, 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 magesté 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 confessé
destre sacramentayre et _qui leust_ (qu 'il l'eût) _mené tout droit au
feu comme il meritoit_ ... que _monsieur le cardinal de Lorrayne_,
lequel sa Saincteté a fait son Inquisiteur, ne se sauroit excuser quil
nayt _grandement failly_ ayant layssé 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 Saincteté luy a donnée." 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 Bourdaisière 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 Bourdaisière
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. français, 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_ Félibien, 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 Mémoires 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: Mém. de Vieilleville, _ubi supra_. The text of the treaty
is given in Recueil gén. des anc. lois françaises, 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 Brantôme, 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 à leurs ennemis, le sang, la
vie de tant de Français negligée, cent cinquante forteresses rendues,
pour tirer de prison un vieillard connestable, et se descharger de deux
filles de France." Mém. 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 Franciæ ad heresim
declinare, magnumque in numerum venisse, ita ut, si diutius diferret,
neque ipsius conscientiæ, neque regni tranquillitati prospiceret: ... se
propterea ad quasvis pacis conditiones descendisse, ut regnum hæreticis
ac malis hominibus purgaret.' Hæc 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 (Mém.,
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 authorité 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'Aubigné, "les conventions d'une
paix en effect pour les royaumes de France et d'Espagne, en apparence de
toute la Chrestienté, glorieuse aux Espagnols, desaventageuse aux
François, _redoutable aux Reformez: car comme toutes les difficultez qui
se presenterent au traicté estoient estouffées par le desir de repurger
l'église_, ainsi, après la paix establie, les Princes qui par elle
avoient repos du dehors, _travaillerent par emulation à qui traitteroit
plus rudement ceux qu'on appeloit Heretiques_: et de là 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 Chrestienté, et que ledit Sieur Roy (qui pensoit, que comme
j'avois esté l'un des commis pour le Traicté de la Paix, avois eu
communication en si grandes affaires, que je fusse aussi de cette
partie) m'eust declaré le fond du Conseil du Roy d'Espaigne et du Duc
d'Alve: pour n'estre envers Sa Majesté 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
assés 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 costé nous ne sçavons pas si nous sommes loing
des coups; tant y a _que nous sommes menasséz par-dessus tout le
reste_." Calvin to the Church of Paris, June 29, 1559. Lettres franç.,
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.) déclare
criminels de lèse-majesté tous ceux qui auront quelque commerce avec
Genève, ou en recevront lettres. Cette ville est cause de tous les
malheurs de la France, et il la poursuivra à outrance pour la réduire.
Il promet secours de gens de pied et de cheval au duc de Savoie, et
vient d'obtenir du pape un bref pour décider le roi d'Espagne. Ils vont
unir leurs forces pour une si sainte enterprise." Gaberel, Hist. de
l'égl. de Genève, 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: Séguier, 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 106.]
[Footnote 694: When President Séguier 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 expédiez en les renvoyant devant leurs
évesques! Vrayement voylà une belle expédition, à ceux mesmes qui out
faict profession de leur foy devant vous, tout au contraire de la
saincte église de Rome!" Pierre de la Place, Commentaires de l'estat de
la rel. et rép., p. 11.]
[Footnote 695: "Non, non, dict-il, monsieur le président; mais vous
estes cause que non seulement Poictiers, mais tout Poictou jusques au
pays de Bordeaux, Tholouse, Provence, et généralement France est toute
remplie de ceste vermine, qui s'augmente et pullule soubs espérance de
vous." Ib., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 696: Ib., _ubi supra_, Hist. ecclés., i. 107, 108.]
[Footnote 697: La Place, Comm. de l'estat de la rel. et rép., 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 Majesté 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: Mém. 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, Félibien, 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 mémorables, published
in 1565, and later in the Mémoires de Condé), Castelnau, the Histoire
ecclés., 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 Félice'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
mémorables, 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 édict 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 assemblé." 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. ecclés.,
i. 122; (Crespin, Gal. chrét., ii. 303); De Thou, ii. 670. Félibien,
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; Félibien, Hist. de Paris, ii.
1067; Vieilleville, ii. 405-406; Hist. ecclés. 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 ecclésiastique, 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
Françoys, qui desirent vivre selon la purité de l'Evangile," etc. In the
Recueil des choses mémorables (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 églises réf. de
France (La Haye, 1710), i. 1-12; Hist. univ. du sieur d'Aubigné, 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 ecclésiastique, i. 108-121;
La Place, Com. de l'estat de la religion, et république soubs les roys
Henry et François Seconds, etc., 14-16.]
[Footnote 713: See the history of the Hôtel 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 léans pouvoyent ouir
les clairons, hault-bois et trompettes dudict tournoy." Discours de la
mort du Roy Henry II., Recueil des choses mémorables, p. 5; Mémoires de
Condé, 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 celerité, 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 funèbres du roy Henry II." Mém. 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. ecclés., 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 misérable course de lice_, elle songea comme elle voyoit le
feu Roy mon père blessé à l'œil, comme il fust; et estant esveillée,
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'inévitable destin ne permit tant de bien à ce royaume,
qu'il put recevoir cet utile conseil." Mémoires 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 mémorables, and Mém. de Condé, i. 216.]
[Footnote 723: Hist. ecclés., 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
théatres, estoient tendus tout autour d'une tapisserie d'or et de soie à
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 _père, à son décez_, ne nous auroit rien tant
recommandé, que d'user à nosdits subjets de toutes gracieusetez," etc.
Recueil de choses mém., 20. Card. Santa Croce speaks of him as "ita ex
vulnere concussus, ut primo die sensum fere omnem amiserit." De
civilibus Galliæ dissentionibus commentaria (Martene et Durand, Ampliss.
Collectio), v. 1438, 1439.]
[Footnote 725: Discours de la mort du Roy Henry II., Recueil des choses
mém., _in initio_, and Mém. de Condé, i. 213-216; La Planche, 202; La
Place, Commentaires, etc., 20; J. de Serres, De statu rel., etc. (1570),
i., fol. 18; Hist. ecclés., 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. ecclés., 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 "Manière 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 dejà maintenant copié de notre main et collationné à
Neufchâtel, à Genève et autres endroits, quelque chose comme _six mille
pièces, 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-Vendôme, 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 Châtillons, 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-Vendôme. The latter had not
forgotten the little account made in the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis 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. André 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, Condé 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, Condé, his cousin, La Roche-sur-Yon, and
other great nobles came to meet him at Vendôme, 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
Béarn.[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 Vendôme 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 Béarn, 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 Châtelet, 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 Genève" 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-Prés 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 Châtelet
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 Condé, 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 Genève."]
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 Genève" 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 Luthérien!" 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. André, a _maître de requêtes_ 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 Grève. 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 Ræmond,
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. Fumée, 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 Scævola, 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 Condé--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 Périgord. 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 état," 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 Châtillons 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 Œcumenical 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 Renée 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'Aubigné 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'Aubigné, 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'Aubigné'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 Condé.]
[Sidenote: He is summoned by the king.]
[Sidenote: Condé's defiance.]
[Sidenote: Guise's offer.]
The Prince of Condé 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
Condé 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 Condé'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 Condé
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 Condé 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 Condé
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. Géraut Faure, official de Périgueux, a dit: qu'il y
a deux ans que le feu _Sieur de La Renaudie_ fust à la maison dudit
official, à Nontron, lui dire _que c'estoit grande folie qu'un tel
royaume fust gouverné par un roi seul_, et que si l'official
vouloit l'entendre, qu'il lui feroit un grand avantage; car _on
délibéroit de faire un canton à Périgueux, et un autre a Bordeaux_
dont il espéroit avoir la superintendance. Et lors luy tenant de
tels propos, retira à part ledit official sans qu'autre
l'entendist. Ainsi signé: Faure."
The late M. Boscheron des Portes, giving full credit to the
assertion of the "official" of Périgueux, 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. Condé, 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 Géraut 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 Périgueux 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 mém. 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 rembarré les Luthériens en
Allemagne." Mémoires, Petitot ed., ii. 483.]
[Footnote 733: Davila, Civil Wars of France, p. 6. Hist. du tumulte
d'Amboise, Recueil des choses mémorables, _in initio_; Mém. de Condé, 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 désordres qui out esté jusques icy _par
la minorité du Roy vostre frère_, qui empeschoit que l'on ne pouvoit
faire ce que l'on désiroit." Avis donnez par Catherine de Médicis à
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 più gli è possibile, ed è tanto amato, non
solamente da tutta la corte, ma da tutto il regno che è cosa
incredibile." Rel. del clar^mo Giovanni Soranzo, 1558, Relaz. Ven.,
ii. 429, 430.]
[Footnote 736: "La Royne mère, ambitieuse et craintive." Mém. 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
entièrement résolu, après avoir achevé ces mariages, et renvoyé les
estrangers, de les déchasser arrière de soy, comme une peste de son
royaume." So Hist. ecclés., 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 caractère de ces
Princes, elle crut qu'ils se soumettroient en tout à ses volontés," 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
mère, 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 considérer les humeurs et façons 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
François 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 sçavez que les estats de connestable, mareschaux et
chancelliers de France sont totalement _collez et cousus_ à la teste de
ceulx qui en sont honnorez, que l'on ne peut arracher l'un sans
l'autre." Mém., 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 præter 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
curé 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, néantmoins il m'a
toujours dict qu'il ne se fieroit jamais de luy, ayant bien cogneu que
ce semblant d'amitié qu'il luy portoit n'estoit que pour l'attirer de
son costé, affin de ruiner ses cousins," etc. Instruction donnée par le
seign. de Montluc à M. de la Tour, 22 juillet, 1559, Mém. de Condé, i.
307; Mém. 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 Écouen,
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. Panthéon 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. secretæ, 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. secretæ, 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, Mém. 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 præclaram 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 cœlorum." 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 Négociations relatives
au règne de François 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'Aubigné, 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; Mém. de Castelnau (Eng. tr. of 1724, p.
23), bk. i. c. 5; Declarations of Sept. 4th and Nov. 14, 1559, in the
Mémoires 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.
Mémoires de Condé, i, 310.]
[Footnote 773: La Planche, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 774: Arrêt du parlement, of September 6, 1559, in Mémoires de
Condé, 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. ecclés., i. 144--147, where
the account is taken word for word from La Planche; De Thou, ii. 691,
692; Félibien, Hist. de Paris, ii. 1069; Mém. de Castelnau, liv. i., c.
4.]
[Footnote 777: "La royne Catherine de Medicis, florentine, nation
desireuse de nouvelleté ... haissoit, comme belle mere, la Royne sa
fille, qui l'esloignoit des affaires et portoit l'amitié 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," Mém. de Tavannes, ii. 260.]
[Footnote 778: La Planche, 211; Hist. ecclés., i. 141, seq.; Beza to
Bullinger, Sept. 12, 1559; Baum, ii., App., 3.]
[Footnote 779:
"Vers l'Éternel, des oppressés le père,
Je m'en iray, luy monstrant l'impropère
Que l'on me fait; et luy feray prière," etc.
]
[Footnote 780: "Coppie de lettres envoyées à la Royne Mère par un sien
serviteur après la mort du feu Roy Henri deuxième." 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. ecclés., i. 141, 142.]
[Footnote 781: La Planche, 219; Hist. ecclés., i. 143; cf. Forbes, State
Papers, i. 226.]
[Footnote 782: La Planche, 220; Hist. ecclés., _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. secretæ, 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: Epistolæ secretæ, ii. 30.]
[Footnote 787: See _ante_, c. viii., p. 275. The authority of the
Mémoires de Tavannes (ii. 258)--"Les chambres ardentes sont érigées pour
persecuter les Huguenots, et ce d'autant plus que les princes du sang et
les frères 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'église prot. de France, i. 63, places the original institution
here.]
[Footnote 788: Drion, i. 64; Hist. ecclés., 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. chrétienne,
ii. 304.]
[Footnote 791: La Planche, 209, 210; La Place, 20; Hist. ecclés., i.
138, 139; Crespin, Galerie chrétienne, ii. 305-318; Forbes, State
Papers, i. 185. The Mémoires de Condé, i. 217-304, reprint entire a
contemporary pamphlet entitled, "La vraye histoire, contenant l'inique
jugement et fausse procédure faite contre le fidèle 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 proposé d'écrire, _pour un commencement de
beaucoup de troubles, guerres et divisions: car d'injustice procède 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. ecclés., 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 adonné, et qu'il ne craignoit de séduire toutes les dames
et damoiselles qui avoyent des procès 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. ecclés., i. 154,
state, Otho Henry, but his successor, Frederick III. Baum, Theodor Beza,
ii. 35, 36; Languet, Epistolæ 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 chrétienne, ii.
318-322.]
[Footnote 797: La Place, 23; Crespin, Galerie chrétienne, ii. 322, 323;
Hist. ecclés., 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 supremæ Parisiensis Curiæ
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 Ræmond, Historia de ortu, progressu, et
ruina hæsreseon hujus sæculi (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 Ræmond, ii. 410, 411. Let not the humane
reader mistake. Policy, not pity, dictated toleration. The same
Florimond de Ræmond, presiding as the oldest counsellor, read an _arrêt_
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 églises réformées 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. ecclés., 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'Aubigné, Histoire universelle
(Maillé, 1616), i. 89.]
[Footnote 804: Recueil gén. des anc. lois franç. (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. Epistolæ
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 arrivés en France,
ils n'en sont nullement coupables; qu'il ne doit pas être inconnu au
Conseil qu'ils ont détourné, autant qu'ils ont pu, d'aller à Amboise,
ceux qu'ils ont sceu avoir quelque dessein d'y aller." Registers, Jan.
28, 1561, _apud_ Gaberel, Histoire de l'égl. de Genève, i., pièces
justif., 203.]
[Footnote 810: La Planche, 237.]
[Footnote 811: De Heu was a man of great influence. He had been
_échevin_ 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 "Procès verbal"
(or original minute) "de l'exécution à mort de Caspar de Heu, S^r. de
Buy" among the MSS. of the Bibliothèque 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 caché et secret_ d'alentour
dudit chasteau, d'autant que _l'on ne va souvent ny aysement esdits
fossez, et que les herbes y sont communément 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 esté puny publiquement? Où sont les tesmoingts qui
l'ont chargé? Pourquoy as-tu voulu en sa mort rompre et froisser toutes
les loix de France, si tu pençoys que par les loix, il peut estre
condemné?" 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
mémorables (1565), and Mémoires de Condé, 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 écrit, a le projet _de passer le curéme_ à Amboise,
de se rendre en Guyenne au printemps, en passant par Poitiers, Bordeaux,
Bayonne, d'aller ensuite à Toulouse, de demeurer l'hiver suivant en
Provence et en Languedoc, et _d'agir vigoureusement contre les
hérétiques_." 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. ecclés., 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 mémorables (1565), i. 5, and Mém.
de Condé, i. 329, describes Des Avenelles as "prest de se donner à
louage au premier offrant;" adding "estant ambitieux et nécessiteux tout
ensemble, il pensa avoir trouvé le moyen pour se rendre riche et
memorable à 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. Mém. de Condé, 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 ("à 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. ecclés., _ubi supra_. I need not
call attention to the gross absurdity into which Jean de Tavannes falls
(Mém. 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.
(Mémoires, 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 Condé 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 franç, xiv. 22-24; La Planche, 248;
La Place, 37; Hist. ecclés., 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_ Lutetiæ 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; Mém. 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. Mém. 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 mémorables
(1565), 19-24; La Planche, 252, 253; De Thou, ii. 768; Davila, 24.;
Agrippa d'Aubigné, 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_ Mém. de Condé, i. 327; D'Aubigné, _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: Mémoires de Théodore Agrippa d'Aubigné (Ed. Panthéon
lit.), 472.]
[Footnote 842: La Planche, 267.]
[Footnote 843: I have followed in the text the account of La Planche. La
Place, 36, represents Condé 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. ecclés., i.
171; De Thou, ii. 773, 774; Mém. 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--"commença à, 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 création
jusqu'à sa suppression (1541-1790), œuvre posthume de C. B. F.
Boscheron des Portes, président 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 Mérindol. 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 Rhône.
[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, Neufchâtel, 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 _Pré-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 Rhône, 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 Montélimart 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
Montélimart 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
Montélimart 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. Lô, 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 Comtât 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 Comtât Venaissin, as a Huguenot
leader.[879] Condé 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 Condé 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 Condé 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
Châtillons, 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 Châtillon--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. André 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 "sénéchaussée," 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 Condé 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, François de Vendôme, 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 Condé, 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 "Comtât," 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 Rhône to the Saône.
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 Périgord, 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 Pézénas. 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 Jumièges, 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 sénéchaussée, 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 Hôtel-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 État 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 Nérac.]
[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 Nérac 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 Condé.]
[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. Condé 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 Béarn,
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 Condé, 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 Condé 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: Condé 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, Condé 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 Condé 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
Condé'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 Condé's guilt.[941]
[Sidenote: Return of Renée 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
Renée, 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: Condé'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 Éléonore 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 Condé 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, Condé 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: Condé 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. Condé 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 Condé'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. Condé 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. André,
Brissac, and Termes, were to serve as the instruments of destruction.
Termes was to effect a junction with a Spanish force entering France
through Béarn; 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 Condé,[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-Cléry, 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: "Epître 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 donné
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 Hôtel-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 Mémorables 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 _François 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, Bezæ, 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 envoyée 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
enragé! Vipère venimeuse! Sépulcre d'abomination! Spectacle de
malheur! Jusques à quand sera-ce que tu abuseras de la jeunesse de
nostre Roy? Ne mettras-tu jamais fin à ton ambition démesurée, à
tes impostures, à tes larcins? Ne vois-tu pas que tout le monde les
sçait, les entend, les cognoist? Qui penses-tu qui ignore ton
détestable 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 emparé du gouvernement de
la France, et as dérobé cet honneur aux Princes du sang, pour
mettre la couronne de France en ta maison--que pourras-tu répondre?
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 conspiré 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
sainteté, toy qui ne connois Dieu que de parole; qui ne tiens la
religion chrétienne que comme un masque pour te déguiser; qui fais
ordinaire trafic, banque et marchandise d'éveschés et de bénéfices:
qui ne vois rien de saint que tu ne souilles, rien de chaste que tu
ne violes, rien de bon que tu ne gâtes!... Tu dis que ceux qui
reprennent tes vices médisent du Roy, tu veux donc qu'on t'estime
Roy? Si Cæsar 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 mœurs si
dépravées, que le récit de tes vices ne te sçauroit émouvoir. Tu
n'es point de ceux-là que la honte de leur vilainie, ni le remords
de leurs damnables intentions puisse attirer à aucune résipiscence
et amendement. Mais si tu me veux croyre, tu t'en iras cacher en
quelque tannière, ou bien en quelque désert, si lointain que l'on
n'oye ni vent ni nouvelles de toy! Et par ce moyen tu pourras
éviter la pointe de cent mille espées 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 déclaré leur volonté? En
le souffrant, ils te le commandent; en se taisant, ils te
condamnent. Va donc, malheureux, et tu éviteras la punition digne
de tes mérites!"
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, Epistolæ secr., ii. 50.]
[Footnote 848: "En ce temps (Mars, 1560) furent appellés Huguenots."
Journal d'un curé 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
ecclésiastique, prepared under his supervision, if not by him, have
given his sanction to another explanation.]
[Footnote 850: La Planche, 262; Hist. ecclés., i. 169, 170; De Thou, ii.
(liv. xxiv.) 766. This is also Étienne 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'Aubigné, i. 96.
See also Pasquier, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 852: Mém. 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 mémorables (1565), 7. Also in the Complainte au Peuple François,
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 transporté en Touraine ce nom trente ans après sa naissance, de
Genève où il n'avoit jamais esté 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 mémorables (1565), i.
290; Mém. de Condé, 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." Mém. de Castelnau, liv. iii., c. 3.]
[Footnote 858: Calvin, in a letter sent by François de Saint Paul, a
minister whom he induced to accept the urgent call of the church of
Montélimart, 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 françaises (Bonnet), ii. 335, 336. The author of the Histoire
ecclés. des églises réf., 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_ Négotiations relatives au règne de
François II., etc. (Collection de documents inédits), 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_ Nég. sous François 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. ecclés., 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 édifice, _ressemblant au théatre
de Rome qu'on appelle Collisée, ou aux arênes de Nysmes_. On fut _trois
jours_ à le verser par terre, et ne partismes de Dieppe que n'en
veissions la fin." Mém. de Vieilleville, ii. 448, etc.; Floquet, ii.
318-336.]
[Footnote 867: De Félice, liv. i., c. 12 (Am. ed., p. 111).]
[Footnote 868: See La Planche, 312, 313, and the "Histoire des cinq
rois" (Recueil des choses mém), 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
Négociations sous François II., 456, for a letter from court ordering
search to be made for the author and publisher of the "Complaincte des
fidèles de France contre leurs adversaires les papistes." "En ung lundy
après Pasques, 15^e du moys, fut affiché devant S. Hilaire un papier
estant imprimé d'autre impression de Paris, et y avoit à 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 Mémoires de Condé, 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 ostée_."]
[Footnote 870: La Place, 41-45; La Planche, 316, 317; Mém. 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
François 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 différends 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 Châtillon, 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 Condé (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 Ræmond, 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, Scævola 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
(Ienæ, 1696), lib. ii., p. 95.]
[Footnote 876: This remarkable statement is made by Agrippa d'Aubigné,
Mémoires, 478 (Ed. Panthéon 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'Aubigné makes the same assertion with great
positiveness: "L'Hospital, homme de grand estime, luy succeda, quoyqu'il
eust esté des conjurez pour le faict d'Amboise. Ce que je maintiens
contre tout ce qui en a esté escrit, pource que l'original de
l'entreprise fut consigné entre les mains de mon père, où 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 à
louer, et Dieu, peut-estre, eust bény sa Constance, si est-ce qu'autant
qu'on en peut juger, _luy seul, par ses modérés déportemens a esté
l'instrument duquel Dieu s'est servy pour retenir plusieurs flots
impétueux, où fussent submergés tous les François_." _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 Nérac,
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." Négociations
sous François 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 assemblées," says Agrippa
d'Aubigné, "ont esté appelées _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
Alençon, 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 Alençon 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;
Mém. 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 à Fontainebleau au mois d'Aoust, M.D.LX."
Recueil des choses mémorables 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. ecclés., 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. ecclés., 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, Négotiations sous François 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 præterea luxu, libidinibus, et aliis
sceleribus perditissimi," etc. (Ibid., ii. 73.)]
[Footnote 893: "Autant de deux escus que les banquiers avoyent envoyés à
Rome, autant de curés nous avoyent-ils renvoyés," 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 mémorables (1565),
pp. 286-305; also in La Place, 55-58; Mém. de Condé, 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 événement nous ne voulons périr 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 bénéfices 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. ecclés., 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; Mém. de
Castelnau, liv. ii. c. 8; Hist. ecclés., 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. ecclés. (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 Condé 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 volontà che s'avesse d'esseguirle
quanto per adomentare gli risvegliati, et guadagnar, come si fece." The
Pope and Philip violently opposed the plan "perchè nè l'uno nè 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. Vén., i. 524, etc.]
[Footnote 902: La Planche, 363, 364; La Place, 68; De Thou, ii. 803
(liv. xxv). Cf. the edict in full _apud_ Négociations sous François 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 récit de la calomnieuse accusation de M. le
prince de Condé, Mémoires de Condé, 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_
Négoc. sous François 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 mém. (1565), 75,
76, and Mém. de Condé, i. 573.]
[Footnote 907: See the message in cipher appended to a despatch to the
French ambassador at Madrid, Aug. 31, 1560, _apud_ Nég. sous François
II., pp. 490-497. The discovery is said to have been made within five or
six days. Condé 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
(Négoc. sous François 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; Nég. sous François
II., _ubi supra_; Mém. 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_ Négoc. sous François 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 là, deux charges de mulles de _livres
de Genaive, fort bien reliez_: toutefoys cela ne les en carda que je ne
les fice toux brûler, comensent le prumier à 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-là je ne les voullus croere." Letter of
Villars to the constable, Oct. 12, 1560, _apud_ Négoc. sous François
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. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 207-210.]
[Footnote 915: They are Nismes, Montpellier, Montagnac, Annonay,
Castres, Marsillargues, Aigues Mortes, Pézénas, Gignac, Sommières, St.
Jean de Gardonnenches, Anduze, Vauvers (Viviers?), Uzès, and Privas.]
[Footnote 916: Sommaire des instructions données à Pignan envoyé au roy
par Honorat de Savoye, Cte. de Villars, Oct. 15, 1560, _apud_ Négoc.
sous François II., 659-661.]
[Footnote 917: On hearing of the seizure of Aigues Mortes by treachery.
Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 211.]
[Footnote 918: Letters of De Villars to the Guises, Oct. 27 and 29,
1560. Nég. sous François 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 François Grimaudet, the representative of the
Tiers État 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., i.
199.]
[Footnote 923: Remonstrances, plaintes, et doléançes de l'estat ecclés.,
MSS. Arch. du départ, de la Vienne, Hist. des Protestants et des églises
réf. du Poitou, par A. Lièvre (Poitiers, 1856), i. 84, 85.]
[Footnote 924: Geneva MS., _apud_ Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 110.]
[Footnote 925: See the interesting passage in the Hist. ecclés. des égl.
réf., 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 Condé 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." Négoc.
sous François 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_ Négotiations sous François 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 _à_ _l'endroict de qui que ce
soit_ [sc. Navarre and Condé]: tant ceux-cy craignent qu'il y ait
changement en notre religion et estat." Cf. also pp. 551, 552.]
[Footnote 930: Négociations sous François II., 553, 554.]
[Footnote 931: Instructions of the king to M. de La Burie, commanding in
Guyenne, Sept., 1560, _apud_ Négociations sous François 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. ecclés., 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'Aubigné, liv. ii., c. 19.]
[Footnote 936: La Planche, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 937: Sommaire récit de la calomnieuse accusation de M. le
prince de Condé, in the Recueil des choses mém. (1565), 722-754, and
Mémoires de Condé, ii. 373-395--a contemporaneous account by one who
speaks of himself as "ayant assisté à la conduicte de la plus grand part
de tout le négoce."]
[Footnote 938: "Nevertheless, upon his coming, being accompanied with
his brethren, the Cardinal of Bourbon and Prince of Condé, after they
have [had] done their reverence to the king and queens, the Prince of
Condé 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 récit, _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: Brantôme, Femmes illustres, Renée de France; La Planche,
381; La Place, 74; "que si elle y eust esté, elle l'eust empesché, et
que ceste playe saigneroit long temps après, d'autant que jamais homme
ne s'estoit attaché au sang de France, qu'il ne s'en fust trouvé 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 récit, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 946: La Planche, 402.]
[Footnote 947: Ib., 401; La Place, 75; Sommaire récit, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 948: La Planche, 400; Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 10.]
[Footnote 949: Sommaire récit, _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: Mémoires de Condé, i. 619, containing the royal _arrêt_
of Nov. 20th, rejecting Condé's demand; Sommaire récit. 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 Condé'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 Condé
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'Aubigné, Histoire
universelle, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 955: La Planche, it may be noticed, leans to this supposition.
Ibid., 405.]
[Footnote 956: Ibid., 406; D'Aubigné, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 957: See Michele Suriano's account, Rel. des Amb. Vén., 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 più, 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
á mi paresce que seria mas acertado castigar poco á 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: Mém. de Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 12; La Planche, 404;
Mémoires de Mergey (Collection Michaud and Poujoulat), 567. The Count of
La Rochefoucauld, hearing through the Duchess of Uzès--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'Aubigné, 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'Aubigné (_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 république que de la religion, sous le
règne de François 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. Condé 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 Renée 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 état.]
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 état."
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 état,"
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: Condé cleared and reconciled to Guise.]
At no time since the death of the late king had the reversal of the
sentence against Condé 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 Condé, 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-Vendôme, Prince of Condé, 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
Condé, "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 Condé 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. André, 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 Désiré.]
[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 Désiré 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 Condé 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 régime, 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. André--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. André--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 Châtillons, 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 François de Guise partook side by side of the sacrament
in the chapel of Fontainebleau, and that evening Guise, Joinville, and
St. André 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 Abbé 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. André
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 Châtillon, 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 Abbé
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
Fourré--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 Collége de la
Sorbonne. Toward the end of April information was received that the
city residence of the Sieur de Longjumeau, situated on the _Pré 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 Condé, the
Châtillons, 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. Barthélemi, 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 état" 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 état.]
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 œcumenical 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 Condé, 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
Académie 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 Châtillon'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 Châtillon 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 Condé
betrayed their joy at his coming. The Cardinals of Bourbon and Châtillon
shook hands with him. Indeed, the contrast between Bourbon's present
cordiality and his coldness a year before at Nérac, 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 Condé, 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. Condé
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, Condé, 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 órden
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 trespassé, 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 enterré
à la huguenaute." La Planche, 421.]
[Footnote 974: De la Place, 76.]
[Footnote 975: "De consentir que une femme veuve, une estrangère et
Italienne domine, non-seulement il luy tourneroit à grand déshonneur,
mais à un tel préjudice de la couronne, qu'il en seroit blasmé à
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. Vén., i. 552-554.]
[Footnote 977: Calvin, who read his contemporaries thoroughly, wrote to
Bullinger (May 24, 1561): "Rex Navarræ 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 prævaricator 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 porté à mon endroict, que
j'ay grande occasion de m'en contenter, s'estant du tout mis entre mes
mains et despouillé du pouvoir et d'auctorité soubz mon bon plaisir....
Je l'ay tellement gaigné, 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._ Négociations relat. au règne de Fr. II., p. 786, 787.]
[Footnote 980: "Encore que je souy contraynte d'avoyr le roy de Navarre
auprès de moy, d'aultent que lé louys de set royaume le portet ynsin,
quant le roy ayst en bas ayage, que les prinse du sanc souyt auprès de
la mère; si ne fault-y qu'il entre en neule doulte, car y m'é si
aubéysant et n'a neul comendement que seluy que je luy permès." The fact
that this letter was written by Catharine's own hand well accounts for
the spelling. Négociations, etc., 791.]
[Footnote 981: Mémoires 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. Mémoires de Condé (Edit. Michaud et
Poujoulat), 579.]
[Footnote 982: "Che certo non può più." Relaz. di Giovanne Michele,
_ap._ Tommaseo, Relations des Amb. Vén., 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, recommendé-vous bien à Dyeu, car vous m'avés veue
ausi contente come vous, ne pensent jeamès avoyr aultre tryboulatyon que
de n'estre asés aymayé à mon gré du roy vostre père, qui m'onoret pluls
que je ne merités, mes je l'aymé tant que je avés tousjour peur, come
vous savés fayrement asés: et Dyeu me l'a haulté, et ne se contente de
sela, m'a haulté vostre frère que je aymé come vous savés, et m'a laysée
aveque troys enfans petys, et en heun reaume (un royaume) tout dyvysé,
n'y ayent heum seul à qui je me puise du tout fyer, qui n'aye quelque
pasion partycoulyère." God alone, she goes on to say, can maintain her
happiness, etc. Négociations, etc., 781, 782.]
[Footnote 984: "C'est folie d'espérer paix, repos et amitié entre les
personnes qui sont de diverses religions.... Deux François et Anglois
qui sont d'une mesme religion, ont plus d'affection et d'amitié entre
eux que deux citoyens d'une mesme ville, subjects à un mesme seigneur,
qui seroyent de diverses religions." La Place, p. 85; Histoire ecclés.,
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'à la vérité, puisqu'il n'y a qu'une vraye religion à
laquelle tous, petite et grands, doivent viser, le magistrat doit sur
toutes choses pourvoir à ce qu'elle seule soit avouée et gardée aux pays
de sa sujettion; mais ils niaient que de là il fallût conclure qu'amitié
aucune ni paix ne pût être entre sujets de diverses religions, se
pouvant vérifier le contraire tant par raisons péremptoires, que par
expérience du temps passé et présent en la plupart du monde." Histoire
ecclés., i. 268.]
[Footnote 986: "Ostons ces mots diaboliques, noms de parts, factions et
séditions; _luthériens_, _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 république pp.
80-88; and in the Histoire ecclés. des égl. réf., 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
forcées, ny murailles de villes abbattues, ni maisons bruslées, ny
priviléges ostés aux villes, commes les princes voisins ont faict de
nostre temps en pareils troubles et séditions." La Place, _ubi supra_,
p. 87. See other points specified in Histoire ecclés., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 988: La Place, 88.]
[Footnote 989: Ib., 79; Hist. ecclés., 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 suæ quidem Ecclesiæ
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 archevesché, un
évesché 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 sçavoient auquel desditz bénéfices ilz debvoient
résider._" Mém. de Claude Haton, i. 91.]
[Footnote 992: La Place, Commentaries, 89-93; De Thou, iii. (liv.
xxvii.) 8-10, Hist. ecclés., i. 277-279.]
[Footnote 993: La Place, Commentaires, 89; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.)
8-10; Hist. ecclés., 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 noyés de telles trop fréquentes inondations des
infectées lagunes de Genève." 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 fœdasse vocabulo tam probroso,
sed ex ecclesiarum præscripto cogor." La Place, 101.]
[Footnote 995: "Encores, Sire, vous supplierons-nous très-humblement
pour ce tant bon et tant obéissant peuple françois, duquel Dieu (vostre
père et le leur aussi) vous a faict seigneur et roy; prenez en pitié,
sire, et soublevez un peu les charges que dès long temps ils portent
patiemment. Pour Dieu, sire, ne permettez que ce tiers pied de vostre
throne soit aucunement foulé, meurtry ny brisé." La Place, 108.]
[Footnote 996: Quintin's speech is given in full by La Place, 93-109;
Hist. ecclés., 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 outrées, 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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
franç., 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 hæc 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. ecclés. des églises réf., 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, Mémoires de Condé,
ii. 268.]
[Footnote 1003: March 1st, "puysque la volunté du Roy est," Mém. de
Condé, 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. Mém. de Condé, ii. 271, 272.]
[Footnote 1004: Calvin, Mémoire aux églises réf. de France, Dec., 1560,
Lettres franç. (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 benchè la più parte fossero ignoranti, e predicasse
mille pazzie, però ogn'uno aveva il suo séguito." Michel Suriano,
Commentarii del regno di Francia, Relations des Amb. Vén. (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'église de Genève, i., pièces
just., p. 201-203, from the Archives of Geneva; Soulier, Histoire des
édits de pacification (Paris, 1682), 22-25.]
[Footnote 1008: Gaberel, Hist. de l'église de Genève, i. (pièces
justif.), 203-206. He gives the deliberation of the council, as well as
the reply. Lettres franç. de Calvin, ii. 373-378. It needs scarcely to
be noticed that the "Sieur Soulier, prêtre," 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 récit de la
calomnieuse accusation de Monsieur le prince de Condé, avec l'arrest de
la cour contenant la déclaration de son innocence, in the Mém. de Condé,
ii. 383; De Thou, iii. 38.]
[Footnote 1010: The arrêt of parliament of June 13th is given in
Histoire ecclés., i. 291-293; Sommaire récit de la calomnieuse
accusation de Monsieur le prince de Condé, iii. 391-394. See also La
Place, 128-130; De Thou, iii. 50, 51; Journal de Bruslart, Mém. de
Condé, i. 39, 40.]
[Footnote 1011: Strange to say, the editor of the Mémoires de Condé 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 ecclésiastique, i. 296, 297; De Thou, iii. 56,
gives the wrong date, Aug. 28th. Beza had from the lips of Condé, 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; Mém. de
Condé, 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 Désiré fist amende honorable, tout nud, la torche
au poing, dedans le palais, en ung jeudy, 14^e du mois, et fut
condamné à rester dedans les Chartreux cinq ans au pain et à 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 à Paris."]
[Footnote 1015: "Où 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 préalablement
obtenue," to purchase the meat they needed of the butcher of the
Hôtel-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_
Félibien, 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. ecclés., 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 Mémoires de Condé,
under the title "Sommaire des choses premièrement accordées entre les
Ducs de Montmorency Connestable, et De Guyse Grand Maistre, Pairs de
France, et le Mareschal Sainct André, pour la Conspiration du
Triumvirat, et depuis mises en déliberation à l'entrée du Sacré et
Sainct Concile de Trente, et arrestée entre les Parties, en leur privé
Conseil faict contre les Hérétiques, 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 Mém. de Condé 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 réforme, de la ligue,
etc., ii. 243-245) asserts: "J'ai trouvé cette pièce, qu'on a crue
supposée, en original et signée 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 Mémoires de Guise, the manuscript of
which, according to the statement of the editor, M. Aimé Champollion,
fils (Notice sur François de Lorraine, due d'Aumale et de Guise,
prefixed to his Mémoires, 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 Mémoires de Condé, 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
mémoires 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 Condé 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
Mémoires 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, "è quello che si vede certo con gran fervenzia e devozione
frequentar le chiese, e continuar li riti cattolici." Relations des Amb.
Vén. i., 412.]
[Footnote 1025: "Aulcuns desditz ecclésiasticques," 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 à mettre la main
aux cousteaux et aux armes." Mémoires, i. 129.]
[Footnote 1026: Mémoires de Condé, 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
"assemblée" 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 Mém. de Condé, 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 ecclés.,
i. 287; La Place, 124; Calvin to Bullinger, Baum, ii., App., 33; Journal
de Bruslart, Mém. de Condé, ii. 27. Interesting documents from the
municipal records of Beauvais, Bulletin, xxiii. (1874) 84, etc. Letter
of Chantonnay, Rheims, May 10, 1561 (Mém. de Condé, ii. 11), who adds:
"L'Admiral ha tant peu avec le crédit qu'il ha ver Monsieur de Vendosme
[Navarre], que l'on a exécuté deux ou trois de ceulx du peuple; lequel
depuis s'est levé de nouveau, et a pendu le bourreau qui feit
l'exécution."]
[Footnote 1030: "Car, de toutes les choses, la plus incompatible en ung
estat, ce sont deux religions contraires."]
[Footnote 1031: Journal de Bruslart, Mémoires de Condé, i. 26, etc.;
Registers of Parliament, ibid., ii. 341, etc., and _apud_ Félibien,
Hist. de Paris, Preuves, iv. 798, Arrêt 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. Barthélemi 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, Mém. de
Condé, ii. 334, 335; La Place; and Hist. ecclés., _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 Mémoires 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 apporté ung mémoire et
papier escript, qu'on m'a dict estre la coppie d'un édict 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 à l'autre, et que nous aultres Françoys, e'est assavoir les
hérétiques 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 miséricorde avoir pitié de son église
et du royaume de France, les deux ensemble sont prestz de tomber en
grande ruyne; Dieu veuille bailler bon conseil à nostre jeune roy et
inspirer ses gouverneurs à bien faire; ils entrent à leur gouvernement
par ung pauvre commencement, mais ce est en punition de noz pechez."
Mémoires de Claude Haton, i. 123, 124.]
[Footnote 1034: La Place, 124-126; Histoire ecclés., 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, Mémoires de Condé, 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, assemblées et lieux publicz, ilz huguenotz
avoient le hault parler." Despite the prohibition of the employment of
insulting terms, they called their adversaries "papaux, idolâtres,
pauvres abusez." and "tisons du purgatoire du pape." Mémoires, i. 122.
Doubtless a smaller measure of free speech than this would have sufficed
to stir up the bile of the curate of Mériot.]
[Footnote 1036: Already, on the 6th of March, Claude Boissière 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
égl. réf. de Pons, Gémozac, 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 trouvé une telle obéissance en ceste ville que le roy
demande à tous ses subjects, de sorte qu'il n'y avoit eu jamais un coup
frappé, 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 enragés, car ils ne
cessent de brusler les paoures fidèles de jour à aultre. Le trouppeau
est fort désolé, 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: Mémoires 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, Mémoires de Condé, i. 40, etc.;
Despatches of Chantonnay, Mém. de Condé, ii. 12-15; La Place, 130; Hist.
ecclés., 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 achevée, mais la conclusion
n'est pas encores publiée."]
[Footnote 1047: H. Martin, Hist. de France, x. 83.]
[Footnote 1048: The text of the Edict of July is given in Isambert,
Recueil gén. des anc. lois fr., xiv. 109-111; Histoire ecclés., i.
294-296; Mém. de Condé, i. 42-45. Cf. La Place, 130, 131; De Thou, iii.
54, 55; Mém. de Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 3.]
[Footnote 1049: "Que son épée ne tiendrait jamais au fourreau quand il
serait question da faire sortir effet à cet arrêté." 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 530-532.]
[Footnote 1053: Letter to the church of Sauve, July, 1561, Bonnet,
Lettres franç., ii. 415-418. It is instructive to note that the
Provincial Synod of Sommières 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, Mém.
de Condé, ii. 281-284.]
[Footnote 1055: La Place, Commentaires, 140; De Thou, iii. 57; Mém. 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
Chassanée, in that remarkable book, Catalogus Gloriæ Mundi (edition of
1586), lib. xi., c. 5, fol. 239. Chassanée, who was himself of Autun,
traces the title and office of _vierg_ back to the Vergobretus of
ancient Gallic times. Cæsar, 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 créature de Dieu à luy subjecte, de
manière 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
mémorables (1565), 620-645, in La Place, liv. vi. 141-150, and in the
Hist. ecclés. des églises réformées, 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 état," 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. Mémoires d'Achille Gamon--advocate and consul of
Annonay--_apud_ Collection de Mémoires, 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 (Mémoires de
Condé, 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 Abbé Bruslart, touched to the quick by the suggestion, notes in
his quaint journal: "Voilà les incommoditez de la nouvelle religion,"
etc. (Ib., i. 28).]
[Footnote 1061: "La diversité 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. ecclés., 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 esté requise, y a déja quelques mois, de la
pluspart de la noblesse et des gens du tiers estat de ce Royaume, de
faire ouïr lea ministres, qui sont départis en plusieurs villes de cedit
Royaume, sur leur Confession de Foy; je fus conseillée 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 avisé après avoir longuement
et meurement délibéré là-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 découvrant ce qu'il y a d'erreur et
d'hérésie." 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 ... accordé à ceux desdits Ministres _qui seroient nez en
France_, de comparoittre à Poissy."]
[Footnote 1065: The letters of La Rivière, Condé, Châtillon, 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 Rivière, 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 Bourdaisière to the Bishop of Rennes, Rome, August 23, 1561,
ibid., and of Chantonnay to Tisnacq, September 6, Mém. de Condé, 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 reginæ
persuasit, ut Possiaci conventus haberetur episcoporum Galliæ, 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 quæ erant de religione controversa proponerentur; futurum sperans, ut
ne respondere quidem ad sua postulata auderent. Confidebat enim
Lotharingius et doctrinæ et eloquentiæ suæ, et plurimum, ut debebat,
ipsius causæ bonitati." Cardinal Tournon was opposed to this course:
"Non probabat hoc factum Turnonius, ut qui disputationem omnem cum
hæreticis fugiendam noverat." P. Santacrucii de civilibus Galliæ
dissensionibus commentarii, Martene et Durand, tom. v. 1462.]
[Footnote 1069: Letter of La Rivière, 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 ausgewählte Schriften der Väter
und Begründer 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 congé de se
départir jusques à ce qu'ils y eussent donné 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
Popelinière, 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, où 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 Mém. de Castelnau, i.
731. If we are to construe the language of the Histoire ecclés. des égl.
réf. (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 (Mém. de Condé, ii. 16).]
[Footnote 1079: "Mais ceux qui sont extremement malades sont excusez
d'appliquer toutes herbes à 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 reçu change depuis qu'il n'avoit voulu
parler à moy de peur d'estre excommunié." 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, à Villedieu." The Duke d'Aumale has also published this
letter in his Histoire des Princes de Condé, 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
desiré." _Ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 1085: Letter of Beza of Aug. 25th, _ubi supra_. Beza, to whom
Condé 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 à la court, ilz y furent mieux
accueillis que n'eust esté le pape de Rome, s'il y fust venu." Mém. 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. ecclés. des
égl. réf. i. 309-312.]
[Footnote 1088: "Nous confessons, dy-je, que panis est corpus
sacramentale, et pour définir que c'est à 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 donné ce corps et reçu par nous, moyennant la
foy," etc. Baum, ii. App., 52.]
[Footnote 1089: "Je le croy ainsy, dit-il, Madame, et voilà 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 à 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 à la cour,
mais aussi à Possy, et jusques aux pays loingtains, que de Bèze avoit
esté vaincu et réduict 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 cessé de se venter qu'il
m'a convaincu et reduict à 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 Connétable ayant dit à le
Reine à son disner, comme s'en rejouissant, elle lui dict tout
hautement, comme celle qui avoit assisté, qu'il estoit très-mal
informé." Histoire ecclés. des égl. réf., 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. ecclés., 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 même jour selon nostre requeste a
esté accordé 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 tranché 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
proposées. Les ecclesiastiques qui estoyent presens out dit qu'ils ne
vouloyent rien respondre de ceste affaire, qu'ils n'en eussent parlé à
leurs compaygnons." Letter of François de Morel, Aug. 25, 1561, Baum,
ii., App., 55.]
[Footnote 1101: On the 9th of June, 1561, Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf, 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 Reginæ
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
malaisé 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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: Théodore de Bèze, 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; François de
Saint Paul, a learned theologian and the founder of the churches of
Montélimart, a delegate from Provence; Jean Raymond Merlin, professor of
Hebrew at Geneva, and chaplain of Admiral Coligny; Jean Malot, pastor at
Paris; François de Morel, who had presided in the First National Synod
of 1559, and had recently been given to the Duchess Renée of Ferrara, as
her private chaplain; Nicholas Folion, surnamed La Vallée, a former
doctor of the Sorbonne, now pastor at Orleans; Claude de la Boissière,
of Saintes; Jean Bouquin, of Oléron; 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 Béarn; 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 Châtillon, 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 Bèze 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 Grève_ 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 Abbé 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 Séez in Normandy, the Abbé'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 Châtillon'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 abbé'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--Andreä,
Beuerlin, and Balthasar Bidembach--had been sent by the Duke of
Würtemberg; 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 Würtemberg, 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 Würtembergers, 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 Renée 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. André, 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, Montbéron 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. André, were set aside,
to make room for those of Condé 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 Condé,
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 Condé, 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: Châlons-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 Châlons-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 "assemblée" 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 "École 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 Grève 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 Brabançon, niece of the Duchess
d'Étampes, had been performed on St. Michael's Day, and in the presence
of Condé 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 Châtillon, 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 Collége 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. Barthélemi, 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 Médard."]
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 Médard. 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. Médard'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. Médard'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 Châtelet," 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 Médard"--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 Médard 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 progrès de la Réf. 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 ecclésiastique, i. 316; though the Abbé Bruslart (Mém. de
Condé, 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 Mém. 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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. ecclés. des églises
réf., 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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 ecclés. des égl. réf., have done
the same by the king's speech, and a rejoinder of Tournon to
L'Hospital's address.]
[Footnote 1115: Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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 conférence de Poissy avec un
ministre de Genève, un cardinal dit: _Voici les chiens de Genève!_ M. de
Besze, l'ayant entendu, répondit: _Il est bien nécessaire que, dans la
bergerie du Seigneur, il y ait des chiens pour abboyer contre les
loups._"]
[Footnote 1117: "Es sind auch die Cardinäl, diewyl er geredt, mit
entdektem Houpt gestunden, und beede mal, diewyl sy gebätet, hat sich
die alte Künigin niderglassen und mit gebätet, der Künig 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. ecclés. des égl. réf. 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
cætera quæ in precationum formula recitantur statim initio." The margin
reads: "Initium precum solennium Geneuæ." Actiones et monimenta
martyrum, Genevæ 1560, fol. 321.]
[Footnote 1120: La Place, 159; Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 316.]
[Footnote 1121: "De Bèze portant la parole pour tous les autres,
commença et continua longuement sa rémonstrance en assez doux termes, se
soûmettant 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 hæc 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 schöne 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_, _rütschen_, _brummlen_, das
nieman nüt mer mögen hören, dess die alte Königin übel zufriden gsyn.
Dessgleichen auch der Cardinal von Lutringen und sy gheissen in Stille
losen, man werde sy doch hernach auch gutwilliklich verhören." Letter of
Haller to Bullinger, Sept. 25, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 73. "Cela fut
trouvé si nouveau et estrange entre les prélats, que soubdain ils
commencèrent tous à murmurer et faire un grand bruict; lequel toutesfois
estant aucunement appaisé," 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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. ecclés.
des égl. réf., i. 316-327. Cf. De Thou, iii. 67, 68; Castelnau, 1. iii.,
c. 4; Abbé Bruslart, Mém. de Condé, i. 51; Letters of Stuck, Haller, and
Martyr, _ubi supra_. Summa eorum quæ a die 22. Augusti usque ad 15.
Septembr. in aula regis Galliæ 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 327; La Place, 168; De
Thou, iii. 68; Letter of Haller, _ubi supra_; Actes de Poissy, Recueil
des choses mém., 657, 658.]
[Footnote 1128: The response of the queen is concisely given by La
Place, the Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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 à present par la force," writes
Catharine de' Medici at this very time, "il s'y voit un si éminent
peril, pour estre ce mal penetré si avant comme il est, que je n'en suis
en sorte du monde conseillée 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. "È d'assai bello aspetto, _ma d'animo molto
brutto_, perciocchè, oltra l'eresie sue, è sedizioso e pieno di vizii e
di scelerità, che non racconto per brevità. Ha vivo spirito, e ingegno
acuto, ma non è prudente, nè ha ponto di giudizio. Mostra d'esser
eloquente, perchè parla assai con belle parole e prontamente," etc. Rel.
des Amb. Vén., i. 52.]
[Footnote 1131: "Ha operato tanto con la sua lingua, che non solamente
ha persuaso infiniti, massimamente dei nobili e grandi, ma è 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 Epistolæ, 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 Bèze) tombé 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. ecclés.
des égl. réf., 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., _ubi supra_; J.
de Serres, i. 273.]
[Footnote 1136: La Place, 170; Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 330, 331,
where the protest is reproduced.]
[Footnote 1137: "Me excludere volebant adversarii, ne interessem,
tanquam hominem peregrinum. Regina tamen mater per Condæum 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 332.]
[Footnote 1139: Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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 Abbé Bruslart (Mém. de Condé, i. 52),
he spoke "en si bons et élégans 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.... Cætera ejusmodi quæ
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. ecclés. des égl. réf., _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. ecclés. des égl. réf., Jean de Serres,
etc., _ubi supra_, Castelnau, l. iii., c. 4.]
[Footnote 1145: No wonder; the prelates had just solemnly decreed, as
Abbé Bruslart informs us (Mém. de Condé, i. 52): "Non erat congrediendum
cum his qui principia et fundamentum totius nostræ fidei et religionis
christianæ 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 conféreroient avec eux
seroient excommuniés." 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 infecté 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. ecclés., 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 égl. réf., 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 364;
Jean de Serres, i. 315; Beza, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 1152: La Place, 192; Jean de Serres, i. 321-323; Hist. ecclés.
des égl. réf., 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. ecclés. des égl.
réf., _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.
ecclés. des égl. réf., 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 François le grand, Henry le
débonnaire, François dernier décédé, et Charles à present règnant (et
faisoit sonner ces mots autant qu'il pouvoit) avoient été tyrans et
simoniacles." Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 375.]
[Footnote 1156: La Place, Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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 sçachant parler françois); 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 érudition 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 377-379;
Jean de Serres, i. 335-339; Letter of Beza to Calvin, Sept. 27th, Baum,
ii., App., 79.]
[Footnote 1161: "Qui præ ceteris doctrina et ingenio, atque etiam
moderatione præstare 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 Gérard 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 présentes,
et que la foy prent véritablement le corps et le sang de nostre Seigneur
Jésus-Christ, par la vertu du Sainct-Esprit; en cest esgard nous
confessons la présence du corps et du sang d'iceluy en la saincte cène,
en laquelle il nous présente, donne et exhibe véritablement la substance
de son corps et sang, par l'opération de son Sainct-Esprit; y recevons
et mangeons spirituellement et par foy," etc. Mém. de Condé, i. 55; La
Place, 199; Jean de Serres, i. 340. Letter of Des Gallars, Baum, ii.,
App., 83.]
[Footnote 1166: "Nous confessons que Jésus-Christ en sa céne nous
présente, donne et exhibe véritablement la substance de son corps et de
son sang par l'opération 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, à fin d'en estre
vivifié, et percevoir tout ce qui est requis à nostre salut. Et pour ce
que la foy appuyée sur la parolle de Dieu fait et rend présentes 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 présence du corps et
sang d'iceluy en sa saincte cène." La Place, 199; J. de Serres, i. 341.
Letter of des Gallars, _ubi supra_, 83, 84; Languet, Epist. secr., ii.
148; Mém. de Condé, i. 55.]
[Footnote 1167: Letter of Beza, Oct. 3d and 4th, Baum, ii., App., 93;
Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 382.]
[Footnote 1168: "Peutêtre qu'il pensait dire vrai," shrewdly observes
the author of the Hist. des églises réformées (i. 382), "_n'ayant jamais
le loisir telles gens de bien penser, s'ils croient ou non, ni à ce
qu'ils pensent croire_."]
[Footnote 1169: Letter of N. des Gallars, _ubi supra_, 84: "Quum hanc
formam legisset Cardinalis, mire approbavit, ac lætatus 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
ecclés. des égl. réf, of La Place (Commentaires de l'estat de la rel. et
république, 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 ecclés., 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, Mém. de Condé, 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 franç.,
xiv. 122.]
[Footnote 1177: Text of the edict in Mém. de Condé, ii. 520-528 (De
Thou, iii. 99, following the Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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. Joinvillæus, Nov. 5th, Baum,
ii., App., 123.]
[Footnote 1179: Oct. 19th, according to Bruslart, Mém. de Condé, 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 assemblée, sans
apporter autre fruict, après avoir esté toutesfois assemblés [les
prélats] 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
franç., 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.
ecclés. des égl. réf., 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 franç., xiv. 55, 56.]
[Footnote 1184: See Baum, ii. 215.]
[Footnote 1185: "Affulserat aliqua spes concordiæ, 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. Galliæ 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 Romæ gravissimis curis Pius pontifex,
quod nec quæ 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, magnæque 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'état du
card. de Granvelle, vi. 416.]
[Footnote 1192: "Diess waren zwölf gewiss mächtige Gründe," etc. Baum,
ii. 302; La Place, 153; Marc' Ant. Barbaro, Rel. des Amb. Vén., ii. 86.]
[Footnote 1193: "Multum inde auri reportaturus existimetur, si ibi annum
vel biennium communi omnium more transigat." Santacrucii, de civil.
Galliæ 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 quæ 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-Taillé, 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. Galliæ 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'état du cardinal de Granvelle, vi. 404, 405.]
[Footnote 1206: Marc' Antonio Barbaro, Relations des Ambassadeurs
Vénitiens, ii. 88; Letter of Santa Croce, Poissy, Nov. 15, 1561, Lettres
anecdotes écrites au card. Borromée par Prosper de Sainte-Croix, nonce
du pape Pie IV. auprès 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. "Repetíle lo que otras
vezes le havia dicho, y con quanto escándolo y ofension de la religion
se tractava en Francia, estrechándose en amistad con Vandoma y almirante
Chatiglon, obispo de Valencia, y los demas principales hereges, con gran
desconsuelo y desfavor de los cathólicos; 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'état du cardinal de Granvelle, vi. 403, 404; see also pp. 405, 406.]
[Footnote 1207: Examine the curious passage in Santacrucii, de civil.
Galliæ 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'état 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. Vén., ii.
88, 89. "È 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 maestà 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 Galliæ regnum occuparet."
Sanctacrucii, de civ. Gall. diss. comment., 1471.]
[Footnote 1211: Ibid., 1473.]
[Footnote 1212: Santacrucii, de civ. Galliæ 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 términos en que está," etc.
Papiers d'état du cardinal de Granvelle, vi. 344.]
[Footnote 1213: De Thou, iii. 78, 79.]
[Footnote 1214: Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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'Orléans 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 ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 418.]
[Footnote 1220: "Je ny voulu faillir de vous advertir," writes the
Prince of Condé 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 418.]
[Footnote 1224: "Graces à Dieu, les choses sont bien changées en peu
d'heure, estant maintenant faicts guardiens des assemblées ceux-là 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 leçons 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 esté possible jamais recouvrer ung
ministre, quelque diligence que nous avons faicte, seulement par
quelqu'un de nous faisons faire des prières ainsi que par vostre Eglise
sont dressées." Lettre de l'église de Foix à la Vénérable Compagnie
(1561); Gaberel, i., Pièces justif., 165-167.]
[Footnote 1228: Lettre de Fornelet à, l'église 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-général de sa Majesté en la ville de Paris,
publié le 16 Octobre 1561, Mém. de Condé, 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: Mémoires de Philippi (Collection Michaud et Poujoulat),
624, 625: "Le populaire des fidèles continuoit de mettre en pièces les
sepulchres, déterrer les morts, et faire mille follies.... Le peuple
porta sa haine jusqu'aux bennets quarrés, et les gens de justice furent
obligés 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: Mém. de Condé, 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, Mém. de Condé, 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 leyó aquel passo de la letra (que si la reyna
madre no quisiesse el ayuda que se le offrescia, la darie V. M. á quien
se la pidiesse para favorescer la religion y conservarle en la verdad)
reparó un rato _y hechó á V. M. muchas bendiciones, diziendo que aquello
era un principe veramente cathólico y defensor de la religion, y que no
esperava ménos de V. M._" Vargas to Philip II., Nov. 7, 1561, Papiers
d'état 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 adhérens."]
[Footnote 1242: "Rapport secret du secrétaire Courtewille, et fondement
de son envoy devers Madame la duchesse de Parma ès Pays-Bas en Decembre,
1561." Papiers d'état 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 più
Francia."]
[Footnote 1244: Michel Suriano, Rel. des Amb. Vén., 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 "arrêt" 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
déchassé par les barbares la fit anciennement bastir, ayant entrée sur
la grande rue dudict S. Marcel." Félibien, 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 véritable 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. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 422.]
[Footnote 1249: That the disturbance was premeditated is proved by the
fact, attested by the Histoire véritable, p. 60, that the precious
possessions of the church had been removed from St. Médard 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. ecclés. des égl.
réf., 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. Arrêt of parliament, Aug. 18,
1562, Félibien, iv., Preuves, 806. Of course, Saint Médard 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. Médard riot given in the
text are: "Histoire véritable de la mutinerie, tumulte et sédition,
faite par les Prestres Sainct Médard contre les Fideles, le Samedy xxvii
iour de Decembre, 1561" (in Recueil des choses mémorables, 822, etc.;
Mém. de Condé, ii. 541, etc.; Cimber et Danjou, iv. 49, etc.), a
contemporaneous pamphlet written by an eye-witness; other documents
inserted in Mém. de Condé, 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. ecclés., 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
mém., 686-695; Mémoires de Condé, ii. 606, etc.]
[Footnote 1253: Abbé Bruslart accuses Chancellor L'Hospital of packing
the convention with delegates of the parliaments who were his creatures;
"La pluspart desquels avoient esté éleus et choisis par monsieur le
Chancelier De l'Hospital, _qui n'estoit sans grande suspition_." Journal
de Bruslart, Mém. de Condé, 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 è nell' estrema
ruina, che non vi è speranza alcuna, che si vede cascar a occhiate, che
tutto è 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; Mém. de Condé, iii. 8-15; Agrippa d'Aubigné,
liv. ii., t. i. 124-128; J. de Serres, etc.]
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