CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE VAUDOIS OF MERINDOL AND CABRIERES, AND LAST DAYS OF
FRANCIS THE FIRST.
[Sidenote: The Vaudois of Provence.]
[Sidenote: Their industry and thrift.]
[Sidenote: Vaudois settlements even in the Comtat Venaissin.]
That part of Provence, the ancient Roman Provincia, which skirts the
northern bank of the Durance, formerly contained, at a distance of
between twenty and fifty miles above the confluence of the river with
the Rhone near Avignon, more than a score of small towns and villages
inhabited by peasants of Waldensian origin. The entire district had been
desolated by war about a couple of centuries before the time of which we
are now treating. Extensive tracts of land were nearly depopulated, and
the few remaining tillers of the soil obtained a precarious subsistence,
at the mercy of banditti that infested the mountains and forests, and
plundered unfortunate travellers. Under these circumstances, the landed
gentry, impoverished through the loss of the greater part of their
revenues, gladly welcomed the advent of new-comers, who were induced to
cross the Alps from the valleys of Piedmont and occupy the abandoned
farms.[449] By the industrious culture of the Vaudois, or Waldenses, the
face of the country was soon transformed. Villages sprang up where there
had scarcely been a single house. Brigandage disappeared. Grain, wine,
olives, and almonds were obtained in abundance from what had been a
barren waste. On lands less favorable for cultivation numerous flocks
and herds pastured.[450] A tract formerly returning the scanty income of
four crowns a year now contained a thriving village of eighty
substantial houses, and brought its owners nearly a hundredfold the
former rental.[451] On one occasion at least, discouraged by the
annoyance to which their religious opinions subjected them, a part of
the Vaudois sought refuge in their ancient homes, on the Italian side of
the mountains. But their services were too valuable to be dispensed
with, and they soon returned to Provence, in answer to the urgent
summons of their Roman Catholic landlords.[452] In fact, a very striking
proof both of their industry and of their success is furnished by the
circumstance that Cabrieres, one of the largest Vaudois villages, was
situated within the bounds of the _Comtat Venaissin_, governed, about
the time of their arrival, by the Pope in person, and subsequently, as
we have seen, by a papal legate residing in Avignon.[453]
[Sidenote: They send delegates to the Swiss and German reformers.]
The news of an attempted reformation of the church in Switzerland and
Germany awakened a lively interest in this community of simple-minded
Christians. At length a convocation of their ministers[454] at Merindol,
in 1530, determined to send two of their number to compare the tenets
they had long held with those of the reformers, and to obtain, if
possible, additional light upon some points of doctrine and of practice
respecting which they entertained doubt. The delegates were George
Morel, of Freissinieres, and Pierre Masson, of Burgundy. They visited
Oecolampadius at Basle, Bucer and Capito at Strasbourg, Farel at
Neufchatel, and Haller at Berne. From the first-named they received the
most important aid, in the way of suggestions respecting the errors[455]
into which the isolated position they had long occupied had insensibly
led them. Grateful for the kindness manifested to them, and delighted
with what they had witnessed of the progress of the faith they had
received from their fathers, the two envoys started on their return. But
Morel alone succeeded in reaching Provence; his companion was arrested
at Dijon and condemned to death. Upon the report of Morel, however, the
Waldenses at once began to investigate the new questions that had been
raised, and, in their eagerness to purify their church, sent word to
their brethren in Apulia and Calabria, inviting them to a conference
respecting the interests of religion.[456]
[Sidenote: They furnish means for publishing the Scriptures.]
A few years later (1535) the Waldenses by their liberal contributions
furnished the means necessary for publishing the translation of the Holy
Scriptures made by Pierre Robert Olivetanus, and corrected by Calvin,
which, unless exception be made in favor of the translation by Lefevre
d'Etaples, is entitled to rank as the earliest French Protestant
Bible.[457] It was a noble undertaking, by which the poor and humble
inhabitants of Provence, Piedmont, and Calabria conferred on France a
signal benefit, scarcely appreciated in its full extent even by those
who pride themselves upon their acquaintance with the rich literature of
that country. For, while Olivetanus in his admirable version laid the
foundation upon which all the later and more accurate translations have
been reared, by the excellence of his modes of expression he exerted an
influence upon the French language perhaps not inferior to that of
Calvin or Montaigne.[458]
[Sidenote: Preliminary persecutions.]
Intelligence of the new activity manifested by the Waldenses reaching
the ears of their enemies, among whom the Archbishop of Aix was
prominent, stirred them up to more virulent hostility. The accusation
was subsequently made by unfriendly writers, in order to furnish some
slight justification for the atrocities of the massacre, that the
Waldenses, emboldened by the encouragement of the reformers, began to
show a disposition to offer forcible resistance to the arbitrary arrests
ordered by the civil and religious authorities of Aix. But the
assertion, which is unsupported by evidence, contradicts the well-known
disposition and practice of a patient people, more prone to submit to
oppression than to take up arms even in defence of a righteous
cause.[459]
[Sidenote: The Dominican De Roma foremost in the work.]
[Sidenote: Iniquitous order of the Parliament of Aix.]
For a time the persecution was individual, and therefore limited. But in
the aggregate the number of victims was by no means inconsiderable, and
the flames burned many a steadfast Waldensee.[460] The Dominican De Roma
enjoyed an unenviable notoriety for his ferocity in dealing with the
"heretics," whose feet he was in the habit of plunging in boots full of
melted fat and boiling over a slow fire. The device did, indeed, seem to
the king, when he heard of it, less ingenious than cruel, and De Roma
found it necessary to avoid arrest by a hasty flight to Avignon, where,
upon papal soil, as foul a sink of iniquity existed as anywhere within
the bounds of Christendom.[461] But other agents, scarcely more merciful
than De Roma, prosecuted the work. Some of the Waldenses were put to
death, others were branded upon the forehead. Even the ordinary rights
of the accused were denied them; for, in order to leave no room for
justice, the Parliament of Aix had framed an iniquitous order,
prohibiting all clerks and notaries from either furnishing the accused
copies of legal instruments, or receiving at their hands any petition or
paper whatsoever.[462] Such were the measures by which the newly-created
Parliament of Provence signalized its zeal for the faith, and attested
its worthiness to be a sovereign court of the kingdom.[463] From its
severe sentences, however, appeals had once and again been taken by the
Waldenses to Francis, who had granted them his royal pardon on condition
of their abjuration of their errors within six months.[464]
[Sidenote: Inhabitants of Merindol cited.]
The slow methods heretofore pursued having proved abortive, in 1540 the
parliament summoned to its bar, as suspected of heresy, fifteen or
twenty[465] of the inhabitants of the village of Merindol. On the
appointed day the accused made their way to Aix, but, on stopping to
obtain legal advice of a lawyer more candid than others to whom they had
first applied, and who had declined to give counsel to reputed
Lutherans, they were warned by no means to appear, as their death was
already resolved upon. They acted on the friendly injunction, and fled
while it was still time.
[Sidenote: The atrocious Arret de Merindol, Nov. 18, 1540.]
Finding itself balked for the time of its expected prey, the parliament
resolved to avenge the slight put upon its authority, by compassing the
ruin of a larger number of victims. On the eighteenth of November, 1540,
the order was given which has since become infamous under the
designation of the "_Arret de Merindol_." The persons who had failed to
obey the summons were sentenced to be burned alive, as heretics and
guilty of treason against God and the King. If not apprehended in
person, they were to be burned in effigy, their wives and children
proscribed, and their possessions confiscated. As if this were not
enough to satisfy the most inordinate greed of vengeance, parliament
ordered _that all the houses of Merindol be burned and razed to the
ground, and the trees cut down for a distance of two hundred paces on
every side, in order that the spot which had been the receptacle of
heresy might be forever uninhabited_! Finally, with an affectation which
would seem puerile were it not the conclusion of so sanguinary a
document, the owners of lands were forbidden to lease any part of
Merindol to a tenant bearing the same name, or belonging to the same
family, as the miscreants against whom the decree was fulminated.[466]
[Sidenote: It is condemned by public opinion.]
A more atrocious sentence was, perhaps, never rendered by a court of
justice than the _Arret de Merindol_, which condemned the accused
without a hearing, confounded the innocent with the guilty, and
consigned the entire population of a peaceful village, by a single
stroke of the pen, to a cruel death, or a scarcely less terrible exile.
For ten righteous persons God would have spared guilty Sodom; but
neither the virtues of the inoffensive inhabitants, nor the presence of
many Roman Catholics among them, could insure the safety of the
ill-fated Merindol at the hands of merciless judges.[467] The
publication of the _Arret_ occasioned, even within the bounds of the
province, the most severe animadversion; nor were there wanting men of
learning and high social position, who, while commenting freely upon the
scandalous morals of the clergy, expressed their conviction that the
public welfare would be promoted rather by restraining and reforming the
profligacy of the ecclesiastics, than by issuing bloody edicts against
the most exemplary part of the community.[468]
[Sidenote: Preparations to carry it into effect.]
Meantime, however, the archbishops of Arles and of Aix urged the prompt
execution of the sentence, and the convocations of clergy offered to
defray the expense of the levy of troops needed to carry it into effect.
The Archbishop of Aix used his personal influence with Chassanee, the
First President of the Parliament, who, with the more moderate judges,
had only consented to the enactment as a threat which he never intended
to execute.[469] And the wily prelate so far succeeded by his
arguments, and by the assurance he gave of the protection of the
Cardinal of Tournon, in case the matter should reach the king's ears,
that the definite order was actually promulgated for the destruction of
Merindol. Troops were accordingly raised, and, in fact, the vanguard of
a formidable army had reached a spot within three miles of the devoted
village, when the command was suddenly received to retreat, the soldiers
were disbanded, and the astonished Waldenses beheld the dreaded outburst
of the storm strangely delayed.[470]
[Sidenote: It is delayed by friendly interposition.]
[Sidenote: The "mice of Autun."]
The unexpected deliverance is said to have been due to the remonstrance
of a friend, M. d'Allens. D'Allens had adroitly reminded the president
of an amusing incident by means of which Chassanee had himself
illustrated the ample protection against oppression afforded by the law,
in the hands of a sagacious advocate and a righteous judge; and he had
earnestly entreated his friend not to show himself less equitable in the
matter of the defenceless inhabitants of Merindol than he had been in
that of the "mice of Autun."[471]
[Sidenote: Francis I. instructs Du Bellay to investigate.]
The delay thus gained permitted a reference of the affair to the king.
It is said that Guillaume du Bellay is entitled to the honor of having
informed Francis of the oppression of his poor subjects of Provence, and
invoked the royal interposition.[472] However this may be, it is certain
that Francis instructed Du Bellay to set on foot a thorough
investigation into the history and character of the inhabitants of
Merindol, and report the results to himself. The selection could not
have been more felicitous. Du Bellay was Viceroy of Piedmont, a province
thrown into the hands of Francis by the fortunes of war. A man of calm
and impartial spirit, his liberal principles had been fostered by
intimate association with the Protestants of Germany. Only a few months
earlier, in 1539, he had, in his capacity of governor, made energetic
remonstrances to the Constable de Montmorency touching the wrongs
sustained by the Waldenses of the valleys of Piedmont at the hands of a
Count de Montmian, the constable's kinsman. He had even resorted to
threats, and declared "that it appeared to him wicked and villanous, if,
as was reported, the count had invaded these valleys and plundered a
peaceful and unoffending race of men." Montmian had retorted by accusing
Du Bellay of falsehood, and maintaining that the Waldenses had suffered
no more than they deserved, on account of their rebellion against God
and the king. The unexpected death of Montmian prevented the two
noblemen from meeting in single combat, but a bitter enmity between the
constable and Du Bellay had been the result.[473]
[Sidenote: Du Bellay's favorable report.]
The viceroy, in obedience to his instructions, despatched two agents
from Turin to inquire upon the ground into the character and antecedents
of the people of Merindol. Their report, which has fortunately come down
to us, constitutes a brilliant testimonial from unbiassed witnesses to
the virtues of this simple peasantry. They set forth in simple terms the
affecting story of the cruelty and merciless exactions to which the
villagers had for long years been subjected. They collected the
concurrent opinions of all the Roman Catholics of the vicinity
respecting their industry. In two hundred years they had transformed an
uncultivated and barren waste into a fertile and productive tract, to
the no small profit of the noblemen whose tenants they were. They were a
people distinguished for their love of peace and quiet, with firmly
established customs and principles, and warmly commended for their
strict adherence to truth in their words and engagements. Averse alike
to debt and to litigation, they were bound to their neighbors by a tie
of singular good-will and respect. Their kindness to the unfortunate and
their humanity to travellers knew no bounds. One could readily
distinguish them from others by their abstinence from unnecessary oaths,
and their avoidance even of the very name of the devil. They never
indulged in lascivious discourse themselves, and if others introduced it
in their presence, they instantly withdrew from the company. It was true
that they rarely entered the churches, when pleasure or business took
them to the city or the fair; and, if found within the sacred enclosure,
they were seen praying with faces averted from the paintings of the
saints. They offered no candles, avoided the sacred relics, and paid no
reverence to the crosses on the roadside. The priests testified that
they were never known to purchase masses either for the living or for
the dead, nor to sprinkle themselves with holy water. They neither went
on pilgrimages, nor invoked the intercession of the host of heaven, nor
expended the smallest sum in securing indulgences. In a thunderstorm
they knelt down and prayed, instead of crossing themselves. Finally,
they contributed nothing to the support of religious fraternities or to
the rebuilding of churches, reserving their means for the relief of tho
poor and afflicted.[474]
[Illustration: MAP OF THE VAUDOIS VILLAGES IN PROVENCE.
_To face p. 240._]
[Sidenote: Francis signs a letter of pardon.]
Although the enemies of the Waldenses were not silenced, and wild
stories of their rebellious acts still found willing listeners at
court,[475] it was impossible to resist the favorable impression made by
the viceroy's letter. Consequently, on the eighth of February, 1541,
Francis signed a letter granting pardon not only to the persons who by
their failure to appear before the Parliament of Aix had furnished the
pretext for the proscriptive decree, but to all others, meantime
commanding them to abjure their errors within the space of three months.
At the same time the over-zealous judges were directed henceforth to use
less severity against these subjects of his Majesty.[476]
[Sidenote: Parliament issues a new summons.]
[Sidenote: The Vaudois publish a confession.]
[Sidenote: Bishop Sadolet's kindness.]
Little inclined to relinquish the pursuit, however, parliament seized
upon the king's command to abjure within three months, as an excuse for
issuing a new summons to the Waldenses. Two deputies from Merindol
accordingly presented themselves, and offered, on the part of the
inhabitants, to abandon their peculiar tenets, so soon as these should
be refuted from the Holy Scriptures--the course which, as they believed,
the king himself had intended that they should take. As it was no part
of the plan to grant so reasonable a request, the sole reply vouchsafed
was a declaration that all who recanted would receive the benefit of
the king's pardon, but all others would be reputed guilty of heresy
without further inquiry. Whereupon the Waldenses of Merindol, in 1542,
drew up a full confession of their faith, in order that the excellence
of the doctrines they held might be known to all men.[477] The important
document was submitted not merely to parliament, but to Cardinal
Sadolet, Bishop of Carpentras. The prelate was a man of a kindly
disposition, and did not hesitate, in reply to a petition of the
Waldenses of Cabrieres, to acknowledge the falsity of the accusations
laid to their charge.[478] Not long after, he successfully exerted his
influence with the vice-legate to induce him to abandon an expedition he
had organized against the last-mentioned village; while, in an interview
which he purposely sought with the inhabitants, he assured them that he
firmly intended, in a coming visit to Rome, to secure the reformation of
some incontestable abuses.[479]
[Sidenote: Intercession of the Germans.]
The Merindol confession is said to have found its way even to Paris, and
to have been read to the king by Chatellain, Bishop of Macon, and a
favorite of the monarch. And it is added that, astonished at the purity
of its doctrine, Francis asked, but in vain, that any erroneous teaching
in it should be pointed out to him.[480] It is not, indeed, impossible
that the king's interest in his Waldensian subjects may have been
deepened by the receipt of a respectful remonstrance against the
persecutions now raging in France, drawn up by Melanchthon in the name
of the Protestant princes and states of Germany.[481]
[Sidenote: Death of President Chassanee, who is succeeded by Baron
d'Oppede.]
[Sidenote: Military preparations stopped by a second royal order.]
The _Arret de Merindol_ yet remained unexecuted when, Chassanee having
died, he was succeeded, in the office of First President of the
Parliament of Provence, by Jean Meynier, Baron d'Oppede. The latter was
an impetuous and unscrupulous man. Even before his elevation to his new
judicial position, Meynier had looked with envious eye upon the
prosperity of Cabrieres, situated but a few miles from his barony; and
scarcely had he taken his place on the bench, before, at his bidding,
the first notes of preparation for a great military assault upon the
villages of the Durance were heard. The affrighted peasants again had
recourse to the mercy of their distant sovereign. A second time Francis
(on the twenty-fifth of October, 1544) interfered, evoking the case from
parliament, and assuming cognizance of it until such time as he might
have instituted an examination upon the spot by a "Maitre de requetes"
and a theologian sent by him.[482]
[Sidenote: Calumnious accusations.]
The interruption was little relished. A fresh investigation was likely
to disclose nothing more unfavorable to the Waldenses than had been
elicited by the inquiries of Du Bellay, or than the report which had led
Louis the Twelfth, on an earlier occasion (1501), to exclaim with an
oath: "They are better Christians than we are!"[483] and, what was
worse, the poor relations, both of the prelates and of the judges, had
only a sorry prospect of enriching themselves through the confiscation
of the property of the lawful owners.[484] It was time to venture
something for the purpose of obtaining the coveted prize. Accordingly,
the Parliament of Aix, at this juncture, despatched to Paris one of its
official servants, with a special message to the king. He was to beg
Francis to recall his previous order. He was to tell him that Merindol
and the neighboring villages had broken out into open rebellion; that
fifteen thousand armed insurgents had met in a single body. They had
captured towns and castles, liberated prisoners, and hindered the course
of justice. They were intending to march against Marseilles, and when
successful would establish a republic fashioned on the model of the
Swiss cantons.[485]
[Sidenote: Francis, misinformed, revokes his last orders.]
Thus reinforced, Cardinal Tournon found no great difficulty in exciting
the animosity of a king both jealous of any infringement upon his
prerogative, and credulous respecting movements tending to the
encouragement of rebellion. On the first of January, 1545, Francis sent
a new letter to the Parliament of Aix. He revoked his last order,
enjoined the execution of the former decrees of parliament, so far as
they concerned those who had failed to abjure, and commanded the
governor of Provence, or his lieutenant, to employ all his forces to
exterminate any found guilty of the Waldensian heresy.[486]
[Sidenote: His letter construed as authorizing a new crusade.]
The new order had been skilfully drawn. The "Arret de Merindol,"
although not alluded to by name, might naturally be understood as
included under the general designation of the parliament's decrees
against heretics; while the direction to employ the governor's troops
against those who had not abjured could be construed as authorizing a
local crusade, in which innocent and guilty were equally likely to
suffer. Such were the pretexts behind which the first president and his
friends prepared for a carnage which, for causelessness and atrocity,
finds few parallels on the page of history.
[Sidenote: An expedition stealthily organized.]
Three months passed, and yet no attempt was made to disturb the peaceful
villages on the Durance. Then the looked-for opportunity came. Count De
Grignan, Governor of Provence, was summoned by the king and sent on a
diplomatic mission to Germany. The civil and military administration
fell into the Baron d'Oppede's hands as lieutenant. The favorable
conjuncture was instantly improved. On a single day--the twelfth of
April--the royal letter, hitherto kept secret, that the intended victims
might receive no intimations of the impending blow, was read and
judicially confirmed, and four commissioners were appointed to
superintend the execution.[487] Troops were hastily levied. All men
capable of bearing arms in the cities of Aix, Arles, and Marseilles were
commanded, under severe penalties, to join the expedition;[488] and some
companies of veteran troops, which happened to be on their way from
Piedmont to the scene of the English war, were impressed into the
service by D'Oppede, in the king's name.[489]
[Sidenote: Villages burned and their inhabitants butchered.]
On the thirteenth of April, the commissioners, leaving Aix, proceeded to
Pertuis, on the northern bank of the Durance. Thence, following the
course of the river, they reached Cadenet. Here they were joined by the
Baron d'Oppede, his sons-in-law, De Pouriez and De Lauris, and a
considerable force of men. A deliberation having been held, on the
sixteenth, Poulain, to whom the chief command had been assigned by
D'Oppede, directed his course northward, and burned Cabrierette, Peypin,
La Motte and Saint-Martin, villages built on the lands of De Cental, a
Roman Catholic nobleman, at this time a minor. The wretched inhabitants,
who had not until the very last moment credited the strange story of the
disaster in reserve for them, hurriedly fled on the approach of the
soldiery, some to the woods, others to Merindol. Unable to defend them
against a force so greatly superior in number and equipment, a part of
the men are said to have left their wives, old men, and children in
their forest retreat, confident that if discovered, feminine weakness
and the helplessness of infancy or of extreme old age would secure
better terms for them than could be hoped for in case of a brave, but
ineffectual defence by unarmed men.[490] It was a confidence misplaced.
Unresisting, gray-headed men were despatched with the sword, while the
women were reserved for the grossest outrage, or suffered the mutilation
of their breasts, or, if with child, were butchered with their unborn
offspring. Of all the property spared them by previous oppressors,
nothing was left to sustain the miserable survivors. For weeks they
wandered homeless and penniless in the vicinity of their once
flourishing settlements; and there one might not unfrequently see the
infant lying on the road-side, by the corpse of the mother dead of
hunger and exposure. For even the ordinary charity of the humane had
been checked by an order of D'Oppede, savagely forbidding that shelter
or food be afforded to heretics, on pain of the halter.[491]
Lourmarin, Villelaure, and Treizemines were next burned on the way to
Merindol. On the opposite side of the Durance, La Rocque and St. Etienne
de Janson suffered the same fate, at the hands of volunteers coming from
Arles. Happily they were found deserted, the villagers having had timely
notice of the approaching storm.
[Sidenote: The destruction of Merindol.]
Early on the eighteenth of April, D'Oppede reached Merindol, the
ostensible object of the expedition. But a single person was found
within its circuit, and he a young man reputed possessed of less than
ordinary intellect. His captor had promised him freedom, on his pledging
himself to pay two crowns for his ransom. But D'Oppede, finding no other
human being upon whom to vent his rage, paid the soldier the two crowns
from his own pocket, and ordered the youth to be tied to an olive-tree
and shot. The touching words uttered by the simple victim, as he turned
his eyes heavenward and breathed out his life, have been preserved:
"Lord God, these men are snatching from me a life full of wretchedness
and misery, but Thou wilt give me eternal life through Jesus Thy
Son."[492]
[Sidenote: The village razed.]
Meantime the work of persecution was thoroughly done. The houses were
plundered and burned; the trees, whether intended for shade or for
fruit, were cut down to the distance of two hundred paces from the
place. The very site of Merindol was levelled, and crowds of laborers
industriously strove to destroy every trace of human habitation. Two
hundred dwellings, the former abode of thrift and contentment, had
disappeared from the earth, and their occupants wandered,
poverty-stricken, to other regions.[493]
[Sidenote: Treacherous capture of Cabrieres.]
Leaving the desolate spot, D'Oppede next presented himself, on the
nineteenth of April, before the town of Cabrieres. Behind some weak
entrenchments a small body of brave men had posted themselves,
determined to defend the lives and honor of their wives and children to
their last drop of blood. D'Oppede hesitated to order an assault until a
breach had first been made by cannon. Then the Waldenses were plied with
solicitations to spare needless effusion of blood by voluntary
surrender. They were offered immunity of life and property, and a
judicial trial. When by these promises the assailants had, on the
morrow, gained the interior of the works, they found them guarded by
Etienne de Marroul and an insignificant force of sixty men, supported by
a courageous band of about forty women. The remainder of the population,
overcome by natural terror at the strange sight of war, had taken
refuge--the men in the cellars of the castle, the women and children in
the church.
[Sidenote: Men butchered and women burned.]
The slender garrison left their entrenchments without arms, trusting in
the good faith of their enemies. It was a vain and delusive reliance.
They had to do with men who held, and carried into practice, the
doctrine that no faith is to be observed with heretics. Scarcely had the
Waldenses placed themselves in their power, when twenty-five or more of
their number were seized, and, being dragged to a meadow near by, were
butchered in cold blood, in the presence of the Baron d'Oppede. The rest
were taken to Aix and Marseilles. The women were treated with even
greater cruelty. Having been thrust into a barn, they were there burned
alive. When a soldier, more compassionate than his comrades, opened to
them a way of escape, D'Oppede ordered them to be driven back at the
point of the pike. Nor were those taken within the town more fortunate.
The men, drawn from their subterranean retreats, were either killed on
the spot, or bound in couples and hurried to the castle hall, where two
captains stood ready to kill them as they successively arrived. It was,
however, for the sacred precincts of the church that the crowning orgies
of these bloody revels were reserved. The fitting actors were a motley
rabble from the neighboring city of Avignon, who converted the place
consecrated to the worship of the Almighty into a charnel-house, in
which eight hundred bodies lay slain, without respect of age or
sex.[494]
In the blood of a thousand human beings D'Oppede had washed out a
fancied affront received at the hands of the inhabitants of Cabrieres.
The private rancor of a relative induced him to visit a similar revenge
on La Coste, where a fresh field was opened for the perfidy, lust, and
greed of the soldiery. The peasants were promised by their feudal lord
perfect security, on condition that they brought their arms into the
castle and broke down four portions of their wall. Too implicit reliance
was placed in a nobleman's word, and the terms were accepted. But when
D'Oppede arrived, a murderous work began. The suburbs were burned, the
town was taken, the citizens for the most part were butchered, the
married women and girls were alike surrendered to the brutality of the
soldiers.[495]
[Sidenote: The results.]
For more than seven weeks the pillage continued.[496] Twenty-two towns
and villages were utterly destroyed. The soldiers, glutted with blood
and rapine, were withdrawn from the scene of their infamous excesses.
Most of the Waldenses who had escaped sword, famine, and exposure,
gradually returned to the familiar sites, and established themselves
anew, maintaining their ancient faith.[497] But multitudes had perished
of hunger,[498] while others, rejoicing that they had found abroad a
toleration denied them at home, renounced their native land, and settled
upon the territory generously conceded to them in Switzerland.[499] In
one way or another, France had become poorer by the loss of several
thousands persons of its most industrious class.[500]
[Sidenote: The king led to give his approval.]
The very agents in the massacre were appalled at the havoc they had
made. Fearing, with reason, the punishment of their crime, if viewed in
its proper light,[501] they endeavored to veil it with the forms of a
judicial proceeding. A commission was appointed to try the heretics whom
the sword had spared. A part were sentenced to the galleys, others to
heavy fines. A few of the tenants of M. de Cental are said to have
purchased reconciliation by abjuring their faith.[502] But, to conceal
the truth still more effectually, President De la Fond was sent to
Paris. He assured Francis that the sufferers had been guilty of the
basest crimes, that they had been judicially tried and found guilty, and
that their punishment was really below the desert of their
offences.[503] Upon these representations, the king was induced--it was
supposed by the solicitation of Cardinal Tournon--to grant letters (at
Arques, on the eighteenth of August, 1545) approving the execution of
the Waldenses, but recommending to mercy all that repented and
abjured.[504]
[Sidenote: An investigation subsequently ordered.]
Thus did the authors of so much human suffering escape merited
retribution at the hands of earthly justice during the brief remainder
of the reign of Francis the First. If, as some historians have asserted,
that monarch's eyes were at last opened to the enormities committed in
Provence, it was too late for him to do more than enjoin on his son and
successor a careful review of the entire proceedings.[505] After the
death of Francis an opportunity for obtaining redress seemed to offer.
Cardinal Tournon and Count De Grignan were in disgrace, and their places
in the royal favor were held by men who hated them heartily. The new
favorites used their influence to secure the Waldenses a hearing.
D'Oppede and the four commissioners were summoned to Paris. Count De
Grignan himself barely escaped being put on trial--as responsible for
the misdeeds of his lieutenant--by securing the advocacy of the Duke of
Guise, which he purchased with the sacrifice of his domains at Grignan.
For fifty days the trial of the other criminals was warmly prosecuted
before the Parliament of Paris; and so ably and lucidly did Auberi
present the claims of the oppressed before the crowded assembly, that a
severe verdict was confidently awaited.
[Sidenote: Meagre effect.]
The public expectation, however, was doomed to disappointment. Only one
of the accused, the advocate Guerin, being so unfortunate as to possess
no great influence at court, was condemned to the gallows. D'Oppede
escaped with De Grignan, through the protection of the Duke of Guise,
and, like his fellow-defendants, was reinstated in office.[506] For the
rendering of a decision so flagrantly unjust the true cause must be
sought in the sanguinary character of the Parisian judges themselves,
who, while they were reluctant, on the one hand, to derogate from the
credit of another parliament of France, on the other, feared lest, in
condemning the persecuting rage of others, they might seem to be passing
sentence upon themselves for the uniform course of cruelty they had
pursued in the trial of the reformers.[507]
The oppressed and persecuted of all ages have been ready, not without
reason, to recognize in signal disasters befalling their enemies the
retributive hand of the Almighty himself lifting for a moment the veil
of futurity, to disclose a little of the misery that awaits the
evil-doer in another world. But, in the present instance, it is a candid
historian of different faith who does not hesitate to ascribe to a
special interposition of the Deity the excruciating sufferings and death
which, not long after his acquittal, overtook Baron d'Oppede, the chief
actor in the mournful tragedy we have been recounting.[508]
[Sidenote: New persecution at Meaux.]
The ashes of Merindol and Cabrieres were scarcely cold, before in a
distant part of France the flame of persecution broke out with fresh
energy.[509] The city of Meaux, where, under the evangelical preachers
introduced by Bishop Briconnet, the Reformation had made such auspicious
progress, had never been thoroughly reduced to submission to papal
authority. "The Lutherans of Meaux" had passed into a proverb.
Persecuted, they retained their devotion to their new faith; compelled
to observe strict secrecy, they multiplied to such a degree that their
numbers could no longer be concealed. Twenty years after their
destruction had been resolved upon, the necessity of a regular church
organization made itself felt by the growing congregations. Some of the
members had visited the church of Strasbourg, to which John Calvin had,
a few years before, given an orderly system of government and
worship--the model followed by many Protestant churches of subsequent
formation. On their return a similar polity was established in Meaux. A
simple wool-carder, Pierre Leclerc, brother of one of the first martyrs
of Protestant France, was called from the humble pursuits of the artisan
to the responsible post of pastor. He was no scholar in the usual
acceptation of the term; he knew only his mother-tongue. But his
judgment was sound, his piety fervent, his familiarity with the Holy
Scriptures singularly great. So fruitful were his labors, that the
handful of hearers grew into assemblies often of several hundreds, drawn
to Meaux from villages five or six leagues distant.
[Sidenote: A woman's pointed remark.]
[Sidenote: A favorite psalm.]
Betrayed by their size, the conventicles came to the knowledge of the
magistrates, and on the eighth of September, 1546, a descent was made
upon the worshipping Christians. Sixty-two persons composed the
gathering. The lieutenant and provost of the city, with their meagre
suite, could easily have been set at defiance. But the announcement of
arrest in the king's name prevented any attempt either at resistance on
their part, or at rescue on that of their friends. Respecting the
authority of law, the Protestants allowed themselves to be bound and led
away by an insignificant detachment of officers. Only the pointed remark
of one young woman to the lieutenant, as she was bound, has come down to
us: "Sir, had you found me in a brothel, as you now find me in so holy
and honorable a company, you would not have used me thus." As the
prisoners passed through the streets of Meaux, their friends neither
interfered with the ministers of justice, nor exhibited solicitude for
their own safety; but accompanying them, as in a triumphal procession,
loudly gave expression to their trust in God, by raising one of their
favorite psalms, in Clement Marot's translation:[510]
Les gens entrez sont en ton heritage:
Ils ont pollu, Seigneur, par leur outrage,
Ton temple sainct, Jerusalem destruite,
Si qu'en monceaux de pierres, l'on reduite.
It was neither the first time, nor was it destined to be by any means
the last, that those rugged, but nervous lines thrilled the souls of the
persecuted Huguenots of France as with the sound of a trumpet, and
braced them to the patient endurance of suffering or to the performance
of deeds of valor.
[Sidenote: The "Fourteen of Meaux."]
Dragged with excessive and unnecessary violence to Paris, the prisoners
were put on trial, and, within a single month, sentence was passed on
them. The crime of having celebrated the Lord's Supper was almost
inexpiable. Fourteen men, with Leclerc their minister, and Etienne
Mangin, in whose house their worship had been held, were condemned to
torture and the stake; others to whipping and banishment; the remainder,
both men and women, to public penance and attendance upon the execution
of their more prominent brethren. Upon one young man, whose tender years
alone saved him from the flames, a sentence of a somewhat whimsical
character was pronounced. He was to be suspended under the arms during
the auto-da-fe of his brethren, and, with a halter around his neck, was
from his elevated position to witness their agony, as an instructive
warning of the dangerous consequence of persistence in heretical errors.
Mangin's house was to be razed, and on the site a chapel of the Virgin
erected, wherein a solemn weekly mass was to be celebrated in honor of
the sacramental wafer, the expense being defrayed by the confiscated
property of the Protestants.
Neither in the monasteries to which they were temporarily allotted, nor
on their way back to Meaux, did the courage of the "Fourteen" desert
them. It was even enhanced by the boldness of a weaver, who, meeting
them in the forest of Livry, cried out: "My brethren, be of good cheer,
and fail not through weariness to give with constancy the testimony you
owe the Gospel. Remember Him who is on high in heaven!"[511]
[Sidenote: Their execution.]
On the seventh of October, Mangin and Leclerc on hurdles, the others on
carts, were taken to the market-square, where fourteen stakes had been
set up in a circle. Here, facing one another, amid the agonies of death,
and in spite of the din made by priests and populace frantically
intoning the hymns "_O salutaris hostia_" and "_Salve Regina_" they
continued till their last breath to animate each other and to praise the
Almighty Giver of every blessing. But if the humane heart recoils with
horror from the very thought of the bloody holocaust, the scene of the
morrow inspires even greater disgust; when Picard, a doctor of the
Sorbonne, standing beneath a canopy glittering with gold, near the yet
smoking embers, assured the people that it was essential to salvation to
believe that the "Fourteen" were condemned to the lowest abyss of hell,
and that even the word of an angel from heaven ought not to be credited,
if he maintained the contrary. "For," said he, "God would not be God did
He not consign them to everlasting damnation." Upon which charitable and
pious assertions of the learned theologian the Protestant chronicler had
but a simple observation to make: "However, he could not persuade those
who knew them to be excellent men, and upright in their lives, that this
was so. Consequently the seed of the truth was not destroyed in the city
of Meaux."[512]
[Sidenote: Wider diffusion of the reformed doctrines.]
Far from witnessing the extinction of the Reformation in his dominions,
the last year of the life of Francis the First was signalized by its
wider diffusion. At Senlis, at Orleans, and at Fere, near Soissons,
fugitives from Meaux planted the germs of new religious communities.
Fresh fires were kindled to destroy them; and in one place a preacher
was burned in a novel fashion, with a pack of books upon his back.[513]
Lyons and Langres, in the east, received reformed teachers about the
same time; although from the latter place the pastor and four members of
his flock were carried to the capital and perished at the stake. Even
Sens, see of the primate, contributed its portion of witnesses for the
Gospel, who sealed their testimony in their blood.[514]
[Sidenote: The printer, Jean Chapot, before parliament.]
In Paris itself parliament tried a native of Dauphiny, Jean Chapot, who,
having brought several packages of books from Geneva, had been denounced
by a brother printer. His defence was so apt and learned that the judges
were nearly shaken by his animated appeals. It fared ill with three
doctors of the Sorbonne, Dean Nicholas Clerici, and his assistants,
Picard and Maillard, who were called in to refute him; for they could
not stand their ground, and were forced, avoiding proofs from the Holy
Scriptures, to have recourse to the authority of the church. In the end
the theologians covered their retreat with indignant remonstrances
addressed to parliament for listening to such seductive speakers; and
the majority of the judges, mastering their first inclination to acquit
Chapot, condemned him to the stake, reserving for him the easier death
by strangling, in case he recanted. An unusual favor was allowed him. He
was permitted to make a short speech previously to his execution. Faint
and utterly unable to stand, in consequence of the tortures by which his
body had been racked, he was supported on either side by an attendant,
and thus from the funeral cart explained his belief to the by-standers.
But when he reached the topic of the Lord's Supper, he was interrupted
by one of the priests. The milder sentence of the halter was inflicted,
in order to create the impression that he had been so weak as to repeat
the "_Ave Maria_." But the practice henceforth uniformly followed by the
"_Chambre ardente_" of parliament, of cutting out the tongues of the
condemned before sending them to public execution, confirmed the report
that Maillard had exclaimed that "all would be lost, if such men were
suffered to speak to the people."[515]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 449: This was true particularly of the wealthy noble family to
whom belonged the fief of Cental, perhaps at a somewhat later date.
Among the Waldensian villages owned by it were those of La Motte
d'Aigues, St. Martin, Lourmarin, Peypin, and others in the same
vicinity. Bouche, Histoire de Provence, i. 610.]
[Footnote 450: Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta (Geneva, 1560), fols. 88,
90, 100.]
[Footnote 451: Ibid., _ubi supra_, fol. 100; Garnier, Histoire de
France, xxvi. 27.]
[Footnote 452: Leber, Collection de pieces rel. a l'hist. de France,
xvii. 550.]
[Footnote 453: The Comtat Venaissin was not reincorporated in the French
monarchy until 1663. Louis XIV., in revenge for the insult offered him
when, on the twentieth of August of the preceding year, his ambassador
to the Holy See was shot at by the pontifical troops, and some of his
suite killed and wounded, ordered the Parliament of Aix to re-examine
the title by which the Pope held Avignon and the Comtat. The parliament
cited the pontiff, and, when he failed to appear, loyally declared his
title unsound, and, under the lead of their first president (another
Meynier, Baron d'Oppede), proceeded at once to execute sentence by force
of arms, and oust the surprised vice-legate. No resistance was
attempted. Meynier was the first to render homage to the king for his
barony; and the people of Avignon, according to the admission of the
devout historian of Provence, celebrated their independence of the Pope
and reunion to France by Te Deums and a thousand cries of joy and
thanksgiving to Almighty God. Bouche, Histoire de Provence, ii. (Add.)
1068-1071.]
[Footnote 454: "Ministri, quos _Barbas_ eorum idiomate id est,
_avunculos_, vocabant." Crespin, fol. 88.]
[Footnote 455: The Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 22, while admitting that
the Vaudois "had never adhered to papal superstition," asserts that "par
longue succession de temps, la purete de la doctrine s'estoit grandement
abastardie." From the letter of Morel and Masson to Oecolampadius, it
appears that, in consequence of their subject condition, they had formed
no church organization. Their _Barbes_, who were carefully selected and
ordained only after long probation, could not marry. They were sent out
two by two, the younger owing implicit obedience to the elder. Every
part of the extensive territory over which their communities were
scattered was visited at least once a year. Pastors, unless aged,
remained no longer than three years in one place. While supported in
part by the laity, they were compelled to engage in manual labor to such
an extent as to interfere much with their spiritual office and preclude
the study that was desirable. The most objectionable feature in their
practice was that they did not themselves administer the Lord's Supper,
but, while recommending to their flock to discard the superstitions
environing the mass, enjoined upon them the reception of the eucharist
at the hands of those whom they themselves regarded as the "members of
Antichrist." Oecolampadius, while approving their confession of faith
and the chief points of their polity, strenuously exhorted them to
renounce all hypocritical conformity with the Roman Church, induced by
fear of persecution, and strongly urged them to put an end to the
celibacy and itinerancy of their clergy, and to discontinue the
"sisterhoods" that had arisen among them. The important letters of the
Waldensee delegates and of Oecolampadius are printed in Gerdes., Hist.
Evang. Renov., ii. 402-418. An interesting account of the mission is
given by Hagenbach, Johann Oekolampad und Oswald Myconius, 150, 151.]
[Footnote 456: Crespin, fol. 89; Hist. eccles., i. 22; Herminjard, iii.
66.]
[Footnote 457: Printed at Neufchatel, by the famous Pierre de Wringle,
_dit_ Pirot Picard; completed, according to the colophon, June 4, 1535.
The Waldenses having determined upon its publication at the Synod of
Angrogna, in 1532, collected the sum, enormous for them, of 500 (others
say 1,500) gold crowns. Adam (Antoine Saunier) to Farel, Nov. 5, 1532,
Herminjard, ii. 452. Monastier, Hist. de l'eglise vaudoise, i. 212. The
part taken by the Waldenses in this publication is attested beyond
dispute by ten lines of rather indifferent poetry, in the form of an
address to the reader, at the close of the volume:
"Lecteur entendz, si Verite addresse,
Viens done ouyr instamment sa promesse
Et vif parler: lequel en excellence
Veult asseurer nostre grelle esperance.
L'esprit Jesus qui visite et ordonne.
Noz tendres meurs, icy sans cry estonne
Tout hault raillart escumant son ordure.
Remercions eternelle nature,
Prenons vouloir bienfaire librement,
Jesus querons veoir eternellement."
Taking the first letter of each successive word, we obtain the lines:
"_Les Vaudois, peuple evangelique
Ont mis ce thresor en publique_."
See L. Vulliemin, Le Chroniqueur, Recueil historique (Lausanne, 1836),
103, etc. Bulletin de l'hist. du prot. francais, i. 82.]
[Footnote 458: "D'un commun accord," says an able critic, "on a mis
Calvin a la tete de tous nos ecrivains en prose; personne n'a songe a
meconnaitre les obligations que lui a notre langue. D'ou vient qu'on a
ete moins juste envers Robert Olivetan, tandis qu'a y regarder de pres,
il y a tout lieu de croire que sa part a ete au moins egale a celle de
Calvin dans la reformation de la langue? L'_Institution_ de Calvin a eu
un tres-grand nombre de lecteurs; mais il n'est pas probable qu'elle ait
ete lue et relue comme la _Bible_ d'Olivetan." Le Semeur, iv. (1835),
167. By successive revisions this Bible became that of Martin, of
Osterwald, etc.]
[Footnote 459: Sleidan (Fr. trans. of Courrayer), ii. 251, who remarks
of this charge of rebellion, "C'est l'accusation qu'on intente
maintenant le plus communement, et qui a quelque chose de plus odieux
que veritable."]
[Footnote 460: Professor Jean Montaigne, writing from Avignon, as early
as May 6, 1533, said: "Valdenses, qui Lutheri sectam jamdiu sequuntur
istic male tractantur. _Plures jam vivi combusti fuerunt, et quotidie
capiuntur aliqui_; sunt enim, ut fertur, illius sectae plus quam _sex
millia_ hominum. Impingitur eis quod non credant _purgatorium_ esse,
quod non orent _Sanctos_, imo dicant non esse orandos, teneant _decimas_
non esse solvendas presbyteris, et alia quaedam id genus. _Propter quae
sola vivos comburunt, bona publicant._" Basle MS., Herminjard, iii. 45.]
[Footnote 461: Crespin and the Hist. eccles. place De Roma's exploits
_before_, De Thou relates them _after_ the massacre. As to the
surpassing and shameless immorality of the ecclesiastics of Avignon, it
is quite sufficient to refer to Crespin, ubi supra, fol. 97, etc., and
to the autobiography of Francois Lambert, who is a good witness, as he
had himself been an inmate of a monastery in that city.]
[Footnote 462: Crespin, fol. 103, b.]
[Footnote 463: The Parliament of Provence, with its seat at Aix, was
instituted in 1501, and was consequently posterior in date and inferior
in dignity to the parliaments of Paris, Toulouse, Grenoble, Bordeaux,
Dijon, and Rouen.]
[Footnote 464: By royal letters of July 16, 1535, and May 31, 1536.
Histoire eccles., i. 23.]
[Footnote 465: There is even greater discrepancy than usual between the
different authorities respecting the number of Waldenses cited and
subsequently condemned to the stake. Crespin, fol. 90, gives the _names_
of _ten_, the royal letters of 1549 state the number as _fourteen_ or
_fifteen_, the Histoire ecclesiastique as _fifteen_ or _sixteen_. M.
Nicolai (Leber, Coll. de pieces rel. a l'hist. de France, viii. 552)
raises it to nineteen, which seems to be correct.]
[Footnote 466: Histoire eccles., i. 23; Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta,
fol. 90; De Thou, i. 536; Nicolai, _ubi supra_; Recueil des anc. lois
francaises, xii. 698. See the _arret_ in Bouche, Hist. de Provence, _ubi
supra_. The last-mentioned author, while admitting the proceedings of
the Parliament of Aix to be apparently "somewhat too violent," excuses
them on the ground that the Waldenses deserved this punishment, "non
tant par leurs insolences et impietez cy-devant commises, mais _pour
leur obstination a ne vouloir changer de religion_;" and cites, in
exculpation of the parliament, the "bloody order of Gastaldo," in
consequence of which, in 1655, fire, sword, and rapine were carried into
the peaceful valley of Luserna (ibid., 615, 623)! The massacre of the
unhappy Italian Waldenses thus becomes a capital vindication of the
barbarities inflicted a century before upon their French brethren.]
[Footnote 467: See the remark of M. Nicolai (Leber, Coll. de pieces rel.
a l'hist. de France, viii. 556).]
[Footnote 468: Crespin (fols. 91-94) gives an interesting report of some
discussions of the kind. It may be remarked that the Archbishop of Aix,
who was the prime mover in the persecution, had exposed himself to
unusual censure on the score of irregularity of life.]
[Footnote 469: The remark is ascribed to Chassanee: "itaque decretum
ipsi tale fecissent, eo consilio factum potius, ut Lutheranis, quorum
multitudinem augeri quotidie intelligebant, metus incuteretur, quam ut
revera id efficeretur quod ipsius decreti capitibus continebatur."
Crespin, _ubi supra_, fol. 98.]
[Footnote 470: Crespin, _ubi supra_, fol. 100.]
[Footnote 471: The ludicrous story of the "mice of Autun," which thus
obtains a historic importance, had been told by Chassanee himself. It
appears that on a certain occasion the diocese of Autun was visited with
the plague of an excessive multiplication of mice. Ordinary means of
stopping their ravages having failed, the vicar of the bishop was
requested to excommunicate them. But the ecclesiastical decree was
supposed to be most effective when the regular forms of a judicial trial
were duly observed. An advocate for the marauders was therefore
appointed--no other than Chassanee himself; who, espousing with
professional ardor the interests of his quadrupedal clients, began by
insisting that a summons should be served in each parish; next, excused
the non-appearance of the defendants by alleging the dangers of the
journey by reason of the lying-in-wait of their enemies, the cats; and
finally, appealing to the compassion of the court in behalf of a race
doomed to wholesale destruction, acquitted himself so successfully of
his fantastic commission, that the mice escaped the censures of the
church, and their advocate gained universal applause! See Crespin, fol.
99; De Thou, i. 536, Gamier, xxvi. 29, etc. Crespin, writing at least as
early as 1560, speaks of the incident as being related in Chassanee's
_Catalogus Gloriae Mundi_; but I have been unable to find any reference
to it in that singular medley.]
[Footnote 472: De Thou, i. 539.]
[Footnote 473: This striking incident is not noticed in the well-known
Memoirs of Du Bellay, written by his brother. The reader will agree with
me in considering it one of the most creditable in Du Bellay's eventful
life. Calvin relates it in two letters to Farel, published by Bonnet
(Calvin's Letters, i. 162, 163-165). The reformer had had it from Du
Bellay's own lips at Strasbourg, and had perused the letter in which the
latter threw up his alliance with Montmian, and stigmatized the baseness
of his conduct.]
[Footnote 474: De Thou, i. 539; Crespin, _ubi supra_, fols. 100,
101.--Historians have noticed the remarkable points of similarity this
report presents to that made by the younger Pliny to the Emperor Trajan
regarding the primitive Christians. Plinii Epistolae, x. 96, etc.]
[Footnote 475: Calvin's Letters (Bonnet), i. 228, 229. Strange to say,
even M. Nicolai, otherwise very fair, credits one of these absurd rumors
(Leber, _ubi supra_, xvii. 557). While the inhabitants of Merindol
entered into negotiations, it is stated that those of Cabrieres,
subjects of the Pope, took up arms. Twice they repulsed the
vice-legate's forces, driving them back to the walls of Avignon and
Cavaillon. Flushed with success, they began to preach openly, to
overturn altars, and to plunder churches. The Pope, therefore, Dec.,
1543, called on Count De Grignan for assistance in exterminating the
rebels. But the incidents here told conflict with the undeniable facts
of Cardinal Sadolet's intercession for, and peaceable relations with the
inhabitants of Cabrieres in 1541 and 1542; as well as with the royal
letters of March 17, 1549 (1550 New Style), and the report of Du Bellay.
Bouche, on the weak authority of _Meynier_, De la guerre civile, gives
similar statements of excesses, ii. 611, 612.]
[Footnote 476: Hist. eccles., i. 24; Crespin, fol. 101; De Thou, i. 539;
Bouche, ii. 612. The last asserts that this unconditional pardon was
renewed by successive royal letters, dated March 17, 1543, and June 14,
1544; but that in those of Lyons, 1542, the king had meanwhile, at
Cardinal Tournon's instigation, exhorted the Archbishop and Parliament
of Aix to renewed activity in proceeding against the heretics. Ibid, ii.
612-614.]
[Footnote 477: Given in full by Crespin, _ubi supra_, fols. 104-110, and
by Gerdes., Hist. Reform., iv. 87-99; in its brief form, as originally
composed in French to be laid before the Parliament of Provence, in
Bulletin de l'hist. du prot. francais, viii. 508, 509. Several articles
were added when it was laid before Sadolet. Crespin, fol. 110.]
[Footnote 478: De Thou, i. 540; Crespin, fol. 110.]
[Footnote 479: Crespin, fols. 110, 111.]
[Footnote 480: Ibid., fol. 110.]
[Footnote 481: May 23, 1541. Bretschneider, Corpus Reform., iv. 325-328;
Gerdes., iv. (Doc). 100,101. But when the Germans intervened later in
behalf of the few remnants of the dispersed Waldenses, they received a
decided rebuff: "Il leur repondit assez brusquement, qu'il ne se meloit
pas de leurs affaires, et qu'ils ne devoient pas entrer non plus dans
les siennes, ni s'embarrasser de ce qu'il faisoit dans ses Etats, et de
quelle maniere il jugeoit a propos de chatier ses sujets coupables." De
Thou, i. 541.]
[Footnote 482: Hist. eccles., i. 27, 28; Crespin, fol. 114.]
[Footnote 483: Vesembec, _apud_ Perrin, History of the Old Waldenses
(1712), xii. 59; Garnier, xxvi. 23.]
[Footnote 484: Henry II.'s letters of March 17, 1549, summoning Meynier
and his accomplices to the bar of the Parliament of Paris, state
distinctly the motives of the perpetrators of the massacre, as alleged
by the Waldenses in their appeal to Francis I.: "Auquel ils firent
entendre, qu'ils etaient journellement travailles et molestes par les
_eveques_ du pays et par les _presidens_ et _conseillers_ de notre
parlement de Provence, qui _avaient demande leurs confiscations et
terres pour leurs parens_," etc. Hist. eccles., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 485: "Sur ce que l'on auroit fait entendre audit feu Seigneur
Roi, qu'ils etaient en armes en grande assemblee, forcant villes et
chateaux, eximant les prisonniers des prisons," etc. Letters Patent of
Henry II., _ubi supra_, i. 46; also, i. 28; De Thou, i. 541.
Notwithstanding the evident falsity of these assertions of Courtain, the
parliament's messenger, writers of such easy consciences as Maimbourg
(Hist. du calvinisme, liv. ii. 83) and Freschot (Origine, progressi e
ruina del Calvinismo nella Francia, di D. Casimiro Freschot, Parma,
1693, p. 34) are not ashamed to endorse them. Freschot says: "_Nello
stesso tempo_ che mandavano a Parigi le loro proposizioni, travagliavano
ad accrescere le loro forze, non che ad assicurare il proprio Stato. Per
il che conseguire avendo praticato alcune intelligenze nella citta di
Marsiglia, s'avanzarono sin' al numero di sedici mila per
impossessarsene," etc. The assertions of so ignorant a writer as
Freschot shows himself to be, scarcely require refutation. See, however,
Le Courrayer, following Bayle, note to Sleidan, ii. 256. The impartial
Roman Catholic continuation of the Eccles. Hist. of the Abbe Fleury,
xxviii. 540, gives no credit to these calumnies.]
[Footnote 486: The substance of the royal order of January 1, 1545, is
given in the Letters-Patent of Henry II., dated Montereau, March 17,
1549 (1550, New Style), which constitute our best authority: "Le feu dit
Seigneur permit d'executer les arrets donnes contre eux, revoquant
lesdites lettres d'evocation, pour le regard des recidifs non ayant
abjure, et ordonna que tous ceux qui se trouveraient charges et
coupables d'heresie et secte Vaudoise, fussent extermines," etc. Hist.
eccles., i. 46.]
[Footnote 487: The names are preserved: they were the second president,
Francois de la Fond; two counsellors, Honore de Tributiis and Bernard
Badet; and an advocate, Guerin, acting in the absence of the "Procureur
general." Letters-Patent of Henry II., _ubi supra_; De Thou, i. 541;
Hist. eccles., i. 28.]
[Footnote 488: De Thou, _ubi supra_; Sleidan, Hist. de la reformation
(Fr. trans. of Le Courrayer), ii. 252.]
[Footnote 489: The fleet carrying these troops, consisting of
twenty-five galleys, was under the joint command of Poulin, Poulain, or
Polin--afterward prominent in military affairs, under the name of Baron
de la Garde--and of the Chevalier d'Aulps. Bouche, ii. 601. The Baron de
la Garde is made the object of a special notice by Brantome.]
[Footnote 490: Crespin, fol. 115. Sleidan and De Thou give a similar
incident as befalling fugitives from Merindol. Garnier, alluding to the
absence of any attempt at self-defence on the part of the Waldenses,
pertinently remarks: "On put connoitre alors la faussete et la noirceur
des bruits que l'on avoit affecte de repandre sur leurs preparatifs de
guerre: _pas un ne songea a se mettre en defense_: des cris aigus et
lamentables portes dans un moment de villages en villages, avertirent
ceux qui vouloient sauver leur vie de fuir promptement du cote des
montagnes." Hist. de France, xxvi. 33.]
[Footnote 491: So say the Letters-Patent of Henry II.: "Furent faites
defenses a son de trompe tant par autorite dudit Menier, que dudit de la
Fond, de non bailler a boire et manger aux Vaudois, sans savoir qui ils
etaient; et ce sur peine de la corde." Hist. eccles., i. 47; Crespin,
fol. 115.]
[Footnote 492: Crespin, and Hist. eccles., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 493: Many, overtaken in their flight, were slain by the sword,
or sent to the galleys, and about twenty-five, having taken refuge in a
cavern near Mus, were stifled by a fire purposely kindled at its mouth.
Sleidan, ii. 255.]
[Footnote 494: Hist. eccles., i. 29; Crespin, fol. 116; De Thou, _ubi
supra_; Sleidan, ii. 254. The deposition of Antoine d'Alagonia, Sieur de
Vaucler, a Roman Catholic who was present and took an active part in the
enterprise (Bouche, ii. 616-619), is evidently framed expressly to
exculpate D'Oppede and his companions, and conflicts too much with
well-established facts to contribute anything to the true history of the
capture of Cabrieres.]
[Footnote 495: De Thou, i. 543; Sleidan, ii. 255. Of the affair at La
Coste, the Letters-Patent of Henry II. say: "Au lieu de La Coste y
auroit eu plusieurs hommes tues, femmes et filles forcees jusques au
nombre de vingt-cinq dedans une grange." _Ubi supra_, i. 47.]
[Footnote 496: "Et infinis pillages etaient faits par l'espace de plus
de sept semaines." Ibid, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 497: Hist. eccles., i. 30.]
[Footnote 498: Letters-Patent of Henry II., _ubi sup._]
[Footnote 499: At Geneva the fugitives were treated with great kindness.
Calvin was deputed by the Council of the Republic, in company with
Farel, to raise contributions for them throughout Switzerland. Reg. of
Council, May, 1545, _apud_ Gaberel, Hist. de l'eglise de Geneve, i. 439.
Nine years later the council granted a lease of some uncultivated lands
near Geneva to 700 of these Waldenses. The descendants of the former
residents of Merindol and Cabrieres are to be found among the
inhabitants of Peney and Jussy. Reg. of Council, May, 10, 1554, Gaberel,
i. 440.]
[Footnote 500: Bouche, ii. 620, states, as the results of the
investigations of Auberi, advocate for the Waldenses, that about 3,000
men, women and children were killed, 666 sent to the galleys, of whom
200 shortly died, and 900 houses burned in 24 villages of Provence.]
[Footnote 501: Francis I., on complaint of Madame De Cental, whose son
had lost an annual revenue of 12,000 florins by the ruin of his
villages, had, June 10, 1545, called upon the Parliament of Aix to send
full minutes of its proceedings. Bouche, ii. 620, 621.]
[Footnote 502: De Thou, i. 544.]
[Footnote 503: "Et sachant que la plainte en etait venue jusqu'a [notre]
dit feu pere, auraient envoye ledit De la Fond devers lui, lequel ...
aurait obtenu lettres donnees a Arques, le 18me jour d'aout 1545,
approuvant paisiblement ladite execution; n'ayant toutefois fait
entendre a notre dit feu pere la verite du fait; mais suppose par
icelles lettres que tous les habitane des villes brulees etaient connus
et juges heretiques et Vaudois." Letters-Patent of Henry II., _ubi
supra_, i. 47; De Thou, i. 544.]
[Footnote 504: Letters-Patent of Henry II., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 505: De Thou, i. 544; Hist. eccles., i. 30. It is worthy of
notice, however, that the letters of Henry II., from which we have so
often drawn, and which would naturally have alluded to this incident,
are silent in regard to the supposed change of view on Francis's part.]
[Footnote 506: De Thou, i. 545. Care was even taken to state that Guerin
was punished for a different crime--that of forging papers to clear
himself from accusations of malfeasance in other official duties than
those in which the Waldenses were concerned, and which came to light in
consequence of a quarrel between D'Oppede and himself. Garnier, xxvi.
40; Bouche, ii. 622. The leniency with which D'Oppede was treated may be
accounted for in part, perhaps, by the fact that the Pope addressed
Henry II. a very pressing letter in his behalf, as "persecuted in
consequence of his zeal for religion." Martin, Hist. de France, ix.
480.]
[Footnote 507: "Mais, craignant ceux d'entre les juges qui n'etaient pas
moins cruels et sanguinaires en leurs coeurs que les criminels qu'ils
devaient juger, qu'en les condamnant ils ne vinssent a rompre le cours
des jugemens qu'euxmemes prononcaient tous les jours en pareilles cause,
et voulant aussi sauver l'honneur d'un autre parlement," etc. Hist.
eccles., i. 50.]
[Footnote 508: "Mais il fut saisi pen apres d'une douleur si excessive
dans les intestins, qu'il rendit son ame cruelle au milieu des plus
affreux tourmens; Dieu prenant soin lui-meme de lui imposer le chatiment
auquel ses juges ne l'avoient pas condamne, et qui, pour avoir ete un
peu tardif, n'en fut que plus rigoureux." De Thou, i. 545. See a more
detailed account of his death, and the exhortations of a pious surgeon,
Lamotte, of Aries, in Crespin, fol. 117. Other instances in Hist.
ecclesiastique.]
[Footnote 509: The story of the martyrdom of the "Fourteen of Meaux" is
told in detail by Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta, fols. 117-121, and the
Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 31-33.]
[Footnote 510: Ps. 79. I quote, with the quaint old spelling, from a
Geneva edition of 1638, in my possession, which preserves unchanged the
original words and the grand music with which the words were so
intimately associated.]
[Footnote 511: The hero of this action was of course arrested. Crespin,
fol. 120.]
[Footnote 512: Hist. eccles., i. 33; Crespin, fol. 121.]
[Footnote 513: Hist. eccles., i. 33-35.]
[Footnote 514: Ibid., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 515: Hist. eccles., i. 34. Occasionally, instead of cutting
out the tongue of the "Lutheran," a large iron ball was forced into his
mouth, an equally effective means of preventing distinct utterance. This
was done to two converted monks, degraded and burned in Saintonge, in
August, 1546. A. Crottet, Hist. des eglises ref. de Pons, Gemozac et
Mortagne, 212.]