condition of French affairs, especially in view of the edict of July
just published, that made the two Swiss reformers and their colleagues
hesitate before undertaking a mission which might possibly prove
productive of less benefit than injury to the cause they had at heart.
Well might they suspect the sincerity of a court from which so unfair an
ordinance as that of July had but just emanated. What good results could
flow from an interview for which the blood-stained persecutor of their
brethren, Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, professed his eagerness,
promising himself and his friends an easy victory over the Huguenot
orators?[1068]
[Sidenote: Urgency of Parisian Huguenots.]
The Protestants of Paris viewed the matter in a different light. So soon
as they heard that Beza had concluded not to accede to their request,
they wrote again, on the tenth of August. In this letter they begged
him, although it was already so late that they had little hope of his
being able to reach Poissy in time to take part in the opening of the
colloquy, at least to change his mind, and to set out as soon, and
travel as expeditiously as possible, in order to succor those who had,
in his absence, entered upon the contest. Already, seeing little
eagerness on the part of the Protestants, their adversaries had begun to
boast of victory. The common cry at Paris, even, was that the
Protestants would not dare to maintain their errors "before so good a
company." If the prelates should be allowed to adjourn without advantage
being taken of the opportunity accorded the reformers of defending their
faith, the nobles would be too much disgusted to interfere in their
behalf a second time; and the queen had distinctly said that, in that
case, she would never be able to believe that they had any right on
their side. "As to the edict," they added, "which has induced you to
adopt this resolution, although it is very bad, yet it can place you in
no danger; for by it there is nothing condemned excepting the
'assemblies;' and as to simple heresy, as they call it, it can at most
be punished only by banishment from the kingdom, without other loss.
Moreover, we know with certainty that this edict was made for the sole
purpose of contenting King Philip and the Pope, and drawing some money
from the ecclesiastics. These ends are bad, but it seems to us that
there is nothing in all this that ought to prevent our appearing for the
maintenance of the truth of God, since it has pleased Him to give us the
opportunity of coming forward and being heard, as we have so long
desired."[1069] Two days later Antoine of Navarre added his
solicitations in an earnest letter to the "Magnificent Seigniors, the
Syndics and Council of the Seigniory of Geneva."[1070]
[Sidenote: Beza comes to St. Germain.]
That it was no personal fear which had occasioned Beza's delay was soon
proved. Antoine had written on the twelfth of August; on the sixteenth,
without waiting for a safe-conduct, the reformer was already on his way
to St. Germain, acting upon the principle laid down by Calvin: "If it be
not yet God's pleasure to open a _door_, it is our duty to creep in at
the _windows_, or to penetrate through the smallest _crevices_, rather
than allow the opportunity of effecting a happy arrangement to escape
us."[1071] So expeditious, in fact, was Beza, that on the twenty-second
of August he was in Paris.[1072] The next day he reached the royal court
at St. Germain.
[Sidenote: Beza's previous history.]
The theologian whose advent had been so anxiously awaited was a French
exile for religion's sake. Born, on the twenty-fourth of June, 1519, of
noble parents, in the small but famous Burgundian city of Vezelay, none
of the reformers sacrificed more flattering prospects than did Theodore
Beza when he cast in his lot with the persecuted Protestants. At Bourges
he had been a pupil of Wolmar, until that eminent teacher was recalled
to Germany. At Orleans he had been admitted a licentiate in law when
scarcely twenty years old. At Paris he gave to the world a volume of
Latin poetry of no mean merit, which secured the author great applause.
The "Juvenilia" were neither more nor less pagan in tone than the rest
of the amatory literature of the age framed on the model of the
classics. That they were immoral seems never to have been suspected
until Beza became a Protestant, and it was desirable to find means to
sully his reputation. The discovery of the hidden depths of iniquity in
the reformer's youthful productions it was reserved for the same
prurient imaginations to make that afterward fancied that they had
detected obscene allusions in the most innocent lines of the Huguenot
psalter. At the age of forty-two years, Beza, after having successively
discharged with great ability the functions of professor of Greek in the
Academie of Lausanne, and of professor of theology in that of Geneva,
was, next to Calvin, the most distinguished Protestant teacher of French
origin. He was a man of commanding presence, of extensive erudition, of
quick and ready wit, of elegant manners and bearing. No better selection
could have been made by the Huguenots of a champion to represent them at
the court of Charles the Ninth.[1073]
[Sidenote: Wrangling of the prelates.]
Meantime the prelates had been in session more than three weeks. But
little good had thus far come of their deliberations. In vain, had the
king delivered before them a speech in which he incited them "to provide
such good means that the people might be induced to live in concord, and
in obedience to the Catholic Church." In vain had he assured them that
he would not give them permission to separate until they had made a
satisfactory settlement of the religious affairs of the kingdom.[1074]
The prelates much preferred to fritter away their time in the discussion
of petty details of ecclesiastical order and discipline--in regulating
the number of priests, settling the dignity of cathedral churches,
prescribing the duties of bishops, and other matters of equal
importance--"fancying that, in answering such questions, they were
applying an efficacious remedy to the ills that desolated the church in
these times of troubles and divisions."[1075] In the words of a minister
of state, writing to a French ambassador on the very day of Beza's
arrival at court, they intended to treat of the reformation of manners
alone, "without coming to the point of doctrine, which they had as lief
touch as handle fire."[1076]
[Sidenote: Cardinal Chatillon's communion.]
The doubtful allegiance of some of their own number to the Romish Church
was a source of peculiar vexation. As the prelates were about to join in
the celebration of the Lord's Supper, Cardinal Chatillon and two other
bishops insisted upon communicating under both forms; and when their
demand was refused, they went to another church and celebrated the
divine ordinance with many of the nobility, all partaking both of the
bread and of the wine, thus earning for themselves the nickname of
Protestants.[1077]
[Sidenote: Determination of Catharine and L'Hospital.]
What with the disinclination of the bishops to enter into the
consideration of the real difficulties that beset the kingdom, and the
open hostility of the Pope and of Philip the Second[1078] to any
assembly that bore the least resemblance to a national council,
Catharine and her principal adviser, the chancellor, had an arduous and
well-nigh hopeless task. They strove to quiet the King of Spain and the
Pope by the assurance that the prelates had only been assembled in
order to prepare them to go in a body to attend the universal council
soon to be convened. "Those who are dangerously ill," wrote Catharine in
her defence, "may be excused for applying all herbs to their ache, in
order to alleviate it when it becomes insupportable. Meanwhile they send
for the good physician--whom I take to be a good council--to cure so
furious and dangerous a disease." Only those who feel the suffering, she
intimated, can talk understandingly with respect to its treatment.[1079]
[Sidenote: A remarkable letter to the Pope.]
[Sidenote: Effect produced at Rome.]
Catharine was not, however, satisfied with this general apology; she
even undertook to express to the pontifical court her idea of some of
the reforms which were dictated by the times.[1080] On the fourth of
August--nearly three weeks before Beza's arrival--she wrote a letter to
Pius the Fourth of so radical a character that its authenticity has been
called into question, although without sufficient reason. After
acquainting the Pope with the extraordinary increase in the number of
those who had forsaken the Roman Church, and with the impossibility of
restoring unity by means of coercion, she declared it a special mark of
divine favor that there were among the dissidents neither Anabaptists
nor Libertines, for all held the creed as explained by the early
councils of the Church. It was, consequently, the conviction of many
pious persons that, by the concession of some points of practice, the
present divisions might be healed. But more frequent and peaceful
conferences must be held, the ministers of religion must preach concord
and charity to their flocks, and the scruples of those who still
remained in the pale of the Church must be removed by the abolition of
all unnecessary and objectionable practices. Images, forbidden by God
and disapproved of by the Fathers, ought at once to be banished from
public worship, baptism to be stripped of its exorcisms, communion in
both forms to be restored, the vernacular tongue to be employed in the
services of the church, private masses to be discountenanced. Such were
the abuses which it seemed proper to correct, while leaving the papal
authority undiminished, and the doctrines of the Church unaffected by
innovations.[1081] To such a length was a woman--herself devoid of
strong convictions, and possessing otherwise little sympathy with the
belief or the practice of the reformers--carried by the force of the
current by which she was surrounded. But, whether the letter was
dictated by L'Hospital, or inspired by Bishop Montluc--at this time
suspected of being more than half a Huguenot at heart--the fact that a
production openly condemning the Roman Catholic traditional usages on
more than one point should have emanated from the pen of Catharine de'
Medici, is certainly somewhat remarkable. At Rome the letter produced a
deep impression. If the Pope did not at once give utterance to his
serious apprehensions, he was at least confirmed in his resolution to
redeem his pledge in respect to a universal council, and he must have
congratulated himself on having already despatched an able negotiator to
the French court, in the person of the Cardinal of Ferrara, a legate
whose intrigues will occupy us again presently.[1082]
[Sidenote: Beza's flattering reception.]
Despite Pope and prelates, Beza met with the most flattering reception.
He was welcomed upon his arrival by the principal statesmen of the
kingdom. L'Hospital showed his eagerness to obtain the credit of having
introduced him. Coligny, the King of Navarre, and the Prince of Conde
betrayed their joy at his coming. The Cardinals of Bourbon and Chatillon
shook hands with him. Indeed, the contrast between Bourbon's present
cordiality and his coldness a year before at Nerac, provoked Beza to
make the playful remark that "he had not undergone any change since the
cardinal had refused to speak to him through fear of being
excommunicated."[1083] Afterward, attended by a numerous escort,[1084]
the reformer was conducted to the quarters of the Prince of Conde, where
the princess and Madame de Coligny showed themselves "marvellously well
disposed." On the morrow, which was Sunday, Beza preached in the
prince's apartments before a large and honorable audience. Conde
himself, however, was absent, engaged in making that unfortunate St.
Bartholomew's Day reconciliation with the Duke of Guise, of which
mention has already been made.[1085] Certainly neither Beza nor the
other reformers could complain of the greeting extended to them. "They
received a more cordial welcome than would have awaited the Pope of
Rome, had he come to the French court," remarks a contemporary curate
with a spice of bitterness.[1086]
[Sidenote: Beza meets Cardinal Lorraine.]
[Sidenote: The cardinal professes to be satisfied.]
[Sidenote: A witty woman's caution.]
That very evening Beza and Lorraine crossed swords for the first time in
the apartments of Navarre.[1087] The former, coming by invitation, was
much surprised to find there before him not only Antoine and his
brothers, but Catharine de' Medici and Cardinal Lorraine, neither of
whom had he previously met. Without losing his self-possession, however,
he briefly adverted to the occasion of his coming, and the queen mother
in return graciously expressed the joy she would experience should his
advent conduce to the peace and quietness of the realm. Hereupon the
cardinal took part in the conversation, and said that he hoped Beza
might be as zealous in allaying the troubles of France as he had been
successful in fomenting discord--a remark which Beza did not let pass
unchallenged, for he declared that he neither had distracted nor
intended to distract his native land. From inquiries respecting Beza's
great master, Calvin, his age and health, the discourse turned to
certain obnoxious expressions which Lorraine attributed to Beza himself;
but the latter entirely disclaimed being their author, much to the
confusion of the cardinal, who had expected to create a strong prejudice
against his opponent in the minds of the by-standers. The greater part
of the evening, however, was consumed in a discussion respecting the
real presence. Beza, while denying that the sacramental bread and wine
were transmuted into the body and blood of Christ, was willing to admit,
according to Calvin's views and his own, "that the bread is
sacramentally Christ's body--that is, that although that body is now in
heaven alone, while we have the signs with us on earth, yet the very
body of Christ is as truly given to us and received by faith, and that
to our eternal life, on account of God's promise, as the sign is in a
natural manner placed in our hands."[1088] The statement was certainly
far enough removed from the theory of the Romish Church to have
consigned its author to the flames, had the theologians of the Sorbonne
been his judges. But it satisfied the cardinal,[1089] who confessed that
he was little at home in a discussion foreign to his ordinary studies--a
fact quite sufficiently apparent from his confused statements[1090]--and
did not attempt to conceal the little account which he made of the dogma
of transubstantiation.[1091] "See then, madam," said Beza, "what are
those sacramentarians, who have been so long persecuted and overwhelmed
with all kinds of calumnies." "Do you hear, cardinal?" said the queen to
Lorraine. "He says that the sacramentarians hold no other opinion than
that to which you have assented."[1092] With this satisfactory
conclusion the discussion, which had lasted a couple of hours,[1093] was
concluded. The queen mother left greatly pleased with the substantial
agreement which the two champions of opposite creeds had attained in
their first interview, and flattering herself that greater results might
attend the public conferences. The cardinal, too, professed high esteem
for Beza, and said to him, as he was going away: "I adjure you to
confer with me; you will not find me so black as I am painted."[1094]
Beza might have been pardoned, had he permitted the cardinal's
professions somewhat to shake his convictions of the man's true
character. He was, however, placed on his guard by the pointed words of
a witty woman. Madame de Crussol, who had listened to the entire
conversation, as she shook the cardinal's hand at the close of the
evening, significantly said, in a voice loud enough to be heard by all:
"Good man for to-night; but to-morrow--what?"[1095] The covert
prediction was soon fulfilled. The very next day the cardinal was
industriously circulating the story that Beza had been vanquished in
their first encounter.[1096]
[Sidenote: A Huguenot petition.]
[Sidenote: Vexatious delay.]
[Sidenote: The petition informally granted.]
The Protestant ministers, assembled at St. Germain about ten days before
Beza's arrival,[1097] had, with wise forethought, presented to the king
a petition embracing four points of prime importance.[1098] They guarded
against an unfair treatment of the cause they had come to maintain, by
demanding that their opponents, the prelates, should not be permitted to
constitute themselves their judges, that the king and his council should
preside in the conferences, and that the controversy should be decided
by reference to the Word of God. Moreover, lest the incidents of the
discussion should be perverted, and each party should so much the more
confidently arrogate to itself the credit of victory as the claim was
more difficult of refutation, they insisted on the propriety of
appointing, by common consent of the two parties, clerks whose duty it
would be to take down in writing an accurate account of the entire
proceedings. To so reasonable a petition the court felt compelled to
return a gracious reply. The requests could not, however, be definitely
granted, the ministers were told, without first consulting the prelates,
and gaining, if possible, their consent.[1099] This was no easy matter.
Many of the doctors of Poissy, and even some members of the council,
maintained that with condemned heretics, such as the Huguenots had long
been, it was wrong to hold any sort of discussion.[1100] Day after day
passed, but the attainment of the object for which the ministers had
come seemed no nearer than when they left their distant homes. They were
not yet permitted to appear before the king and vindicate the confession
of faith which they had, several months before, declared themselves
prepared to maintain.[1101] Meantime it was notorious that their enemies
were ceaselessly plotting to arrange every detail of the conference--if,
indeed, it must be held--in a manner so unfavorable to the reformers,
that they might rather appear to be culprits brought up for trial and
sentence, before a court composed of Romish prelates, than as the
advocates of a purer faith.[1102] At length, weary of the protracted
delay, the Protestant ministers presented themselves before Catharine
de' Medici, on the eighth of September, and demanded the impartial
hearing to which they were entitled; and they plainly announced their
intention to depart at once, unless they should receive satisfactory
assurances that they would be shielded from the malice of their
enemies.[1103] It was well for the Protestants that they exhibited such
decision. Catharine, who always deferred a definite decision on
important matters until the last moment--a habit not unfrequently
leading to the hurried adoption of the means least calculated to effect
her selfish ends--was constrained to yield a portion of their demands.
In the presence of the Protestants an informal decree was passed, with
the consent of Navarre, Conde, Coligny, and the chancellor[1104]--those
members of the council who happened to be in the audience chamber--that
the bishops should not be made judges; that to one of the secretaries of
state should be assigned the duty of writing out the minutes of the
conference, but that the Protestants should retain the right of
appending such notes as they might deem proper. The king would be
present at the discussions, together with the princes of the blood. But
Catharine peremptorily declined to grant a formal decree according these
points. This, she said, would only be to furnish the opposite party with
a plausible pretext for refusing to enter into the colloquy.[1105]
Meanwhile she urged them to maintain a modest demeanor, and to seek only
the glory of God, which she professed to believe that they had greatly
at heart.[1106]
[Sidenote: Last efforts of the Sorbonne to prevent the colloquy.]
The Romish party, however, was unwilling to approach the distasteful
conference without a final attempt to dissuade the queen from so
perilous an undertaking. As the Protestants left Catharine's apartments,
a deputation of doctors of the Sorbonne entered the door. They came to
beg her not to grant a hearing to heretics already so often condemned.
If this request could not be accorded, they suggested that at least the
tender ears of the king should be spared exposure to a dangerous
infection. But Catharine was too far committed to listen to their
petition. She was resolved that the colloquy should be held, and held in
the king's presence.[1107]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 968: Evidently the Guises had acquiesced with so much alacrity
in the convocation of the States General only because of their
confidence in their power to intimidate any party that should undertake
to oppose them. Chantonnay, the Spanish ambassador, informed Philip of
this before Francis's death, and gave the Cardinal of Lorraine as his
authority for the statement: "Le ha dicho el cardenal de Lorrena que
para aquel tiempo avria aqui tanta gente de guerra y se daria tal orden
que a qualquiera que quiziesse hablar se le cerrasse la boca, y assi ne
se hiziesse mas dello que ellos quiziessen." Simancas MSS., _apud_
Mignet, Journal des savants, 1859, p. 40.]
[Footnote 969: Letter of Beza to Bullinger, Jan. 22, 1561, Baum, ii.,
App., 18.]
[Footnote 970: From Nov. 20th to Dec. 1st, De la Place, 77, 78.]
[Footnote 971: La Planche, 418.]
[Footnote 972: "Si possible estoit," wrote Calvin, "il seroit bon de
leur faire veiller le corps da trespasse, comme ils out faict jouer ce
rosle aux aultres." Letter to ministers of Paris, Lettres franchises,
ii. 347.]
[Footnote 973: "Lutherano more sepultus Lutheranorum hostis." Letter of
Beza to Bullinger, _ubi supra_, p. 19. "Dont advint un brocard: que le
roy, ennemy mortel des huguenauds, n'avoit pen empescher d'estre enterre
a la huguenaute." La Planche, 421.]
[Footnote 974: De la Place, 76.]
[Footnote 975: "De consentir que une femme veuve, une estrangere et
Italienne domine, non-seulement il luy tourneroit a grand deshonneur,
mais a un tel prejudice de la couronne, qu'il en seroit blasme a
jamais." Calvin to the ministers of Paris, Lettres fr., ii. 346.]
[Footnote 976: Commentarii del regno di Francia, probably written early
in 1562, in Tommaseo, Rel. des Amb. Ven., i. 552-554.]
[Footnote 977: Calvin, who read his contemporaries thoroughly, wrote to
Bullinger (May 24, 1561): "Rex Navarrae non minus segnis aut flexibilis
quam hactenus liberalis est promissor; nulla fides, nulla constantia,
etsi enim videtur interdum non modo viriles igniculos jacere, sed
luculentam flammam spargere, mox evanescit. Hoc quando subinde accidit
non aliter est metuendus quam praevaricator forensis. Adde quod totus est
venereus," etc. Baum, vol. ii., App., 32.]
[Footnote 978: Letter of Francis Hotman, Strasbourg, December 31, 1560,
to the King of Navarre, Bulletin, ix. (1860) 32.]
[Footnote 979: "En quoy il fault que je vous dye que le roy de Navarre,
qui est le premier, et auquel les lois du royaume donnent beaucoup
d'avantage, s'est si doulcement et franchement porte a mon endroict, que
j'ay grande occasion de m'en contenter, s'estant du tout mis entre mes
mains et despouille du pouvoir et d'auctorite soubz mon bon plaisir....
Je l'ay tellement gaigne, que je fais et dispose de luy tout ainsy qu'il
me plaist." Letter of Catharine to the Bishop of Limoges, December 19,
1560, _ap._ Negociations relat. au regne de Fr. II., p. 786, 787.]
[Footnote 980: "Encore que je souy contraynte d'avoyr le roy de Navarre
aupres de moy, d'aultent que le louys de set royaume le portet ynsin,
quant le roy ayst en bas ayage, que les prinse du sanc souyt aupres de
la mere; si ne fault-y qu'il entre en neule doulte, car y m'e si
aubeysant et n'a neul comendement que seluy que je luy permes." The fact
that this letter was written by Catharine's own hand well accounts for
the spelling. Negociations, etc., 791.]
[Footnote 981: Memoires de Castelnau, liv. iii., c. 2. In July, 1561,
the salaries of the officers of the Parliament of Paris were in arrears
for nearly a year and a half. Memoires de Conde (Edit. Michaud et
Poujoulat), 579.]
[Footnote 982: "Che certo non puo piu." Relaz. di Giovanne Michele,
_ap._ Tommaseo, Relations des Amb. Ven., i. 408.]
[Footnote 983: And yet--such are the inconsistencies of human
character--this queen, whose nature was a singular compound of timidity,
hypocrisy, licentiousness, malice, superstition, and atheism, would seem
at times to have felt the need of the assistance of a higher power. If
Catharine was not dissembling even in her most confidential letters to
her daughter, it was in some such frame of mind that she recommended
Isabella to pray to God for protection against the misfortunes that had
befallen her mother. The letter is so interesting that I must lay the
most characteristic passage under the reader's eye. The date is
unfortunately lost. It was written soon after Charles's accession: "Pour
se, ma fille, m'amye, recommende-vous bien a Dyeu, car vous m'aves veue
ausi contente come vous, ne pensent jeames avoyr aultre tryboulatyon que
de n'estre ases aymaye a mon gre du roy vostre pere, qui m'onoret pluls
que je ne merites, mes je l'ayme tant que je aves tousjour peur, come
vous saves fayrement ases: et Dyeu me l'a haulte, et ne se contente de
sela, m'a haulte vostre frere que je ayme come vous saves, et m'a laysee
aveque troys enfans petys, et en heun reaume (un royaume) tout dyvyse,
n'y ayent heum seul a qui je me puise du tout fyer, qui n'aye quelque
pasion partycoulyere." God alone, she goes on to say, can maintain her
happiness, etc. Negociations, etc., 781, 782.]
[Footnote 984: "C'est folie d'esperer paix, repos et amitie entre les
personnes qui sont de diverses religions.... Deux Francois et Anglois
qui sont d'une mesme religion, ont plus d'affection et d'amitie entre
eux que deux citoyens d'une mesme ville, subjects a un mesme seigneur,
qui seroyent de diverses religions." La Place, p. 85; Histoire eccles.,
i. 264.]
[Footnote 985: Yet the Huguenots, more enlightened than the chancellor,
while not renouncing the notion that the civil magistrate is bound to
maintain the true religion, justly censured L'Hospital's statements as
refuted by the experience of the greater part of the world. "Disaient
davantage, qu'a la verite, puisqu'il n'y a qu'une vraye religion a
laquelle tous, petite et grands, doivent viser, le magistrat doit sur
toutes choses pourvoir a ce qu'elle seule soit avouee et gardee aux pays
de sa sujettion; mais ils niaient que de la il fallut conclure qu'amitie
aucune ni paix ne put etre entre sujets de diverses religions, se
pouvant verifier le contraire tant par raisons peremptoires, que par
experience du temps passe et present en la plupart du monde." Histoire
eccles., i. 268.]
[Footnote 986: "Ostons ces mots diaboliques, noms de parts, factions et
seditions; _lutheriens_, _huguenauds_, _papistes_; ne changeons le nom
de _chrestien_." La Place, p. 87.]
[Footnote 987: The chancellor's address is given _in extenso_ in Pierre
de la Place, Commentaires de l'estat de la religion et republique pp.
80-88; and in the Histoire eccles. des egl. ref., i. 257-268. De Thou,
iii. (liv. xxvii.) 3-7. "Habuit longam orationem Cancellarius," says
Beza, "in qua initio quidem pulchre multa de antiquo regni statu
disseruit, sed mox _aulicum suum ingenium_ prodidit." Letter to
Bullinger, Jan. 22, 1561, Baum, Theod. Beza, ii. App., 19. Prof. Baum
has shown (vol. ii., p. 159, note) that this last assertion is fully
borne out by portions of the speech, even when viewed quite
independently of the impatience naturally felt by a Huguenot when an
enlightened statesman undertook to sail a middle course where justice
was so evidently on one side. I refer, for instance, to that
extraordinary passage in which L'Hospital speaks of the treatment to
which the Protestants had hitherto been subjected as _so gentle_, "qu'il
semble plus correction paternelle que punition. Il n'y a eu ni portes
forcees, ny murailles de villes abbattues, ni maisons bruslees, ny
privileges ostes aux villes, commes les princes voisins ont faict de
nostre temps en pareils troubles et seditions." La Place, _ubi supra_,
p. 87. See other points specified in Histoire eccles., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 988: La Place, 88.]
[Footnote 989: Ib., 79; Hist. eccles., i. 269, 270; Beza to Bullinger,
Jan. 22, 1561, _ubi supra_: "quam ipsius audaciam cum nobilitas et plebs
magno cum fremitu repulisset, indignatus ille ne suae quidem Ecclesiae
patrocinium suscipere voluit."]
[Footnote 990: This was on the 1st day of Jan., 1561: "Habuerunt hi
singuli suas orationes publice, sedente rege et delecto ipsius concilio,
Calendis Januarii." Letter of Beza, _ubi supra_, p. 20.]
[Footnote 991: All previous legislation appears to have proved
fruitless. "Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be
gathered together." It was all in vain to endeavor to confine the gay
and aspiring ecclesiastics to the provinces, so long as promotion was
only to be found at Paris and worldly pleasures in the large cities. An
edict of 1557, enjoining residence, Haton tells us, had little effect.
It was obeyed only by the poorest and most obscure of the curates, and
by them only for a short time. The great were not able to observe it, if
they would. How could they? They could not have told on which benefice
to reside, for they held many. "Ung homme seul tenoit un archevesche, un
evesche et trois abbayes tout ensemble; ung aultre deux ou trois cures,
avec aultant de prieurez, le tout par permission et dispense du pape....
_Et pour ce ne scavoient auquel desditz benefices ilz debvoient
resider._" Mem. de Claude Haton, i. 91.]
[Footnote 992: La Place, Commentaries, 89-93; De Thou, iii. (liv.
xxvii.) 8-10, Hist. eccles., i. 277-279.]
[Footnote 993: La Place, Commentaires, 89; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.)
8-10; Hist. eccles., i. 277, 279. None of these authors give more than a
very imperfect sketch of L'Ange's harangue. Beza, in the letter more
than once referred to above, says: "Nobilitatem ferunt valde fortiter et
libere locutam, sed plebs imprimis graviter et copiose disseruit de
rerum omnium perturbatione, de intolerabili quorundam potentia, etc....
adeo ut omnes audientes valde permoverit." Baum, Theod. Beza, ii., App.,
20, 21.]
[Footnote 994: "Quasi noyes de telles trop frequentes inondations des
infectees lagunes de Geneve." The mention of the heretical capital
requires an apology on the part of our pious orator, and he adds in
Latin, after the fashion of other parts of his mongrel address:
"Desplicet aures vestras et os meum foedasse vocabulo tam probroso,
sed ex ecclesiarum praescripto cogor." La Place, 101.]
[Footnote 995: "Encores, Sire, vous supplierons-nous tres-humblement
pour ce tant bon et tant obeissant peuple francois, duquel Dieu (vostre
pere et le leur aussi) vous a faict seigneur et roy; prenez en pitie,
sire, et soublevez un peu les charges que des long temps ils portent
patiemment. Pour Dieu, sire, ne permettez que ce tiers pied de vostre
throne soit aucunement foule, meurtry ny brise." La Place, 108.]
[Footnote 996: Quintin's speech is given in full by La Place, 93-109;
Hist. eccles., i. 270-274; De Thou, iii., liv. xxvii., 11, etc. Letter
of Beza to Bullinger, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 997: "Son discours, qu'il lut presque tout entier, fut long et
ennuyeux.... rempli de lonanges fades, et de flatteries outrees, fit
rougir, et ennuya les assistans." De Thou, iii. 11, 12. Quintin's
address drew forth from the Protestants a written reply, directed to the
queen, exposing his "ignorance, calumnies, and malicious omissions." It
is inserted in Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 275-277.]
[Footnote 998: La Place, 109, 112; De Thou, iii. 12, 14; Hist. eccl., i.
280.]
[Footnote 999: Beza, Letter to Bullinger, Geneva, Jan. 22, 1561; Baum,
Th. Beza, ii., App., 21, 22; Calvin to Ministers of Paris, Lettres
franc., ii. 348.]
[Footnote 1000: "Hanc supplicationem, scribitur ad nos, Regina ex
Amyraldi manu acceptam promisisse se Concilio exhibituram, et magna
omnium spes est nobis omnia haec concessum iri, modo privatis locis et
sine tumultu pauci simul conveniant.... Ita brevi futurum spero ut
Gallia tandem Regem et nomine et re christianissimum habeat." Beza, _ubi
supra_.]
[Footnote 1001: Catharine's fears that the States would enter upon the
discussion of matters affecting her regency undoubtedly had much to do
with this action (Hist. eccles. des eglises ref., i. 280: "qu'on
craignoit vouloir passer plus outre en d'autres affaires qu'on ne
vouloit remuer"). Ostensibly in order to avoid confusion and expense,
each of the thirteen principal provinces was to depute only two
delegates to Pontoise.]
[Footnote 1002: Letter of Charles IX., Jan. 28, 1561, Memoires de Conde,
ii. 268.]
[Footnote 1003: March 1st, "puysque la volunte du Roy est," Mem. de
Conde, ii. 273. When the secretary of state, Bourdin, brought to
parliament the mandates of Charles and Catharine from Fontainebleau, of
Feb. 13th and 14th, ordering its registry, he stated that Charles had
granted this document "at the urgent prayer of the three estates, and in
order to obviate and provide against troubles and divisions, while
waiting for the decision of the General Council granted by the Pope." On
the 22d of February a new missive of the king was received in
parliament, enjoining the publication of the letter of January 28th,
with the modification that any of the liberated prisoners that would not
consent to live in a Catholic fashion must leave the kingdom under pain
of the halter. Mem. de Conde, ii. 271, 272.]
[Footnote 1004: Calvin, Memoire aux eglises ref. de France, Dec., 1560,
Lettres franc. (Bonnet), ii. 350.]
[Footnote 1005: Letter of Calvin to brethren of Paris, Feb. 26, 1561,
_ap._ Baum, ii., App., 26; Bonnet, Lettres fr. de Calvin, ii. 378, etc.]
[Footnote 1006: "E benche la piu parte fossero ignoranti, e predicasse
mille pazzie, pero ogn'uno aveva il suo seguito." Michel Suriano,
Commentarii del regno di Francia, Relations des Amb. Ven. (Tommaseo), i.
532. M. Tommaseo supposes this relation to belong to 1561, and mentions
the somewhat remarkable opinion of others that it was somewhere between
1564 and 1568. The document itself gives the most decided indications
that it was written in the early part of 1562, before the outbreak of
the first civil war--indeed, before the return of the Guises to court.
After stating that Charles IX. when he ascended the throne was _ten_
years old (page 542), the author says that he is now _eleven and a
half_. The proximate date would, therefore, seem to be January or
February, 1562. Throkmorton wrote to the queen, Paris, Nov. 14, 1561,
that "the Venetians had sent Marc Antonio Barbaro to reside there, in
the place of Sig. Michaeli Soriano." State Paper Office MSS.]
[Footnote 1007: Gaberel, Histoire de l'eglise de Geneve, i., pieces
just., p. 201-203, from the Archives of Geneva; Soulier, Histoire des
edits de pacification (Paris, 1682), 22-25.]
[Footnote 1008: Gaberel, Hist. de l'eglise de Geneve, i. (pieces
justif.), 203-206. He gives the deliberation of the council, as well as
the reply. Lettres franc. de Calvin, ii. 373-378. It needs scarcely to
be noticed that the "Sieur Soulier, pretre," while he parades the royal
letter as a convincing proof of the seditious character of the Huguenot
ministers, does not deign even to allude to the satisfactory reply. No
wonder; so apposite a refutation would have been sadly out of place in a
book written expressly to justify the successive steps of the violation
of the solemn compacts between the French crown and the Protestants--to
prepare the way, in fact, for the formal revocation of the edict of
Nantes (three years later) toward which the priests were fast hurrying
Louis XIV.]
[Footnote 1009: La Place, Commentaires, 120; Sommaire recit de la
calomnieuse accusation de Monsieur le prince de Conde, avec l'arrest de
la cour contenant la declaration de son innocence, in the Mem. de Conde,
ii. 383; De Thou, iii. 38.]
[Footnote 1010: The arret of parliament of June 13th is given in
Histoire eccles., i. 291-293; Sommaire recit de la calomnieuse
accusation de Monsieur le prince de Conde, iii. 391-394. See also La
Place, 128-130; De Thou, iii. 50, 51; Journal de Bruslart, Mem. de
Conde, i. 39, 40.]
[Footnote 1011: Strange to say, the editor of the Memoires de Conde in
the Collection Michaud-Poujoulat expresses his disbelief of this
occurrence; but not only are the historians explicit, but an official
statement was drawn up and signed by the secretaries of state, under
Charles's orders. This notarial document is inserted in La Place, 139,
140, and in the Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 296, 297; De Thou, iii. 56,
gives the wrong date, Aug. 28th. Beza had from the lips of Conde, that
very afternoon, an account, which he transmitted the next day to Calvin.
Letter of Aug. 25th, _apud_ Baum, iii., App., 47.]
[Footnote 1012: La Place, 121; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.) 40; Mem. de
Conde, ii. 24, 25.]
[Footnote 1013: La Place, 121, 122; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.) 40, 41.]
[Footnote 1014: Letter of Beza to Wolf, March 25, 1561, _ap._ Baum, ii.,
App., 30, 31; The Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, under May, 1561 (p. 43),
has this entry: "Artus Desire fist amende honorable, tout nud, la torche
au poing, dedans le palais, en ung jeudy, 14^e du mois, et fut
condamne a rester dedans les Chartreux cinq ans au pain et a l'eau: il y
fut quatre moys; les ungs disent qu'il s'en fut, les aultres que les
Chartreux le firent sortir, craignant les huguenots. Depuis il ne se
cacha pas, et se promenoit a Paris."]
[Footnote 1015: "Ou il n'a rien entendu qui ne fust bon." Reg. capit.
Eccles. Rothom., March 16, 1561, _apud_ Floquet, Hist. du parlement de
Normandie, ii. 374, 375.]
[Footnote 1016: "Aliud est Christianum esse quatn Papistam non esse."
Letter to Wolf, March 25, 1561, _ap._ Baum, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 1017: This very year parliament had issued an order, at the
commencement of Lent, directing the sick, "permission prealablement
obtenue," to purchase the meat they needed of the butcher of the
Hotel-Dieu, who alone was permitted to sell, and who was compelled to
submit weekly to the court a record, not only of the permissions granted
and the persons to whom he sold, but even of the _quantity_ which each
applicant obtained! Registers of Parliament, Feb. 27, 1561, _apud_
Felibien, Histoire de Paris, iv., Preuves, 797.]
[Footnote 1018: Honorat de Savoie, Comte de Villars, had a private
grudge to satisfy against the admiral, who had complained to the king of
the cruelties which he had perpetrated in Languedoc. La Place, 122.]
[Footnote 1019: La Place, Commentaires, _ubi supra_; De Thou, iii. (liv.
xxvii.) 41-43; Hist. eccles., i. 287; Huguenot poetical libel in Le
Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i. 745.]
[Footnote 1020: "Auquel (l'evesque de Valence) il dict qu'il se
contentoit de ceste fois, et qu'il n'y retournerois plus." La Place,
Commentaires, _ubi supra_; De Thou, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 1021: La Place, Commentaires, 123, De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.)
45. How deep the disappointment felt by the Protestants at the
constable's course must have been, can be gathered from the sanguine
picture of the prospects of the French Reformation drawn by Languet a
couple of months earlier. Arguing from the comparative mildness of
Montmorency in the persecutions under Henry II., from the fact that he
had allowed no one of his five sons to enter the ecclesiastical state,
which offered rare opportunities of advancement, and from the influence
which his sons and his three nephews--all favorably inclined to, if not
open adherents of the new doctrines--would exert over the old man, he
not unnaturally came to this conclusion: "I am, therefore, of opinion
that, if the Guises still retain any power, the constable will join
Navarre for the purpose of overwhelming them, and will make no
opposition to Navarre if he sets on foot a moderate reformation of
doctrine." Epist. secr., ii., p. 102.]
[Footnote 1022: La Place and De Thou, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 1023: This document first appears in the Memoires de Conde,
under the title "Sommaire des choses premierement accordees entre les
Ducs de Montmorency Connestable, et De Guyse Grand Maistre, Pairs de
France, et le Mareschal Sainct Andre, pour la Conspiration du
Triumvirat, et depuis mises en deliberation a l'entree du Sacre et
Sainct Concile de Trente, et arrestee entre les Parties, en leur prive
Conseil faict contre les Heretiques, et contre le Roy de Navarre, en
tant qu'il gouverne et conduit mal les affaires de Charles neufiesme Roy
de France, Mineur; lequel est Autheur de continuel accroissement de la
nouvelle Secte qui pullule en France." The principal provisions are
given by De Thou, iii. (liv. xxix.) 142, 143, under date of 1562, who
explicitly states his disbelief of its authenticity. Neither, indeed,
does the compiler of the Mem. de Conde vouch for it. Among other
objections that have been urged with force against the genuineness of
the document, are the following: The improbability that the Triumvirs
would mature a plan involving all the Catholic sovereigns of Europe
without previously obtaining their consent, of which there is no trace;
the inconsistency of the project with the well-known policy and
character of the German Emperor Ferdinand; the improbability that the
Council of Trent would indorse a plan aimed at the humiliation of
Navarre, who, when the council actually reassembled in January, 1562,
was completely won over to the Roman party. In favor of the document may
be urged: First, that M. Capefigue (Histoire de la reforme, de la ligue,
etc., ii. 243-245) asserts: "J'ai trouve cette piece, qu'on a crue
supposee, en original et signee dans les MSS. Colbert, bibl. du roi."
Prof. Soldan, who has devoted an appendix to the first volume of his
Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, to a discussion of this reported
agreement between the Triumvirs, was unsuccessful in finding any trace
of such a paper. Secondly, that the Memoires de Guise, the manuscript of
which, according to the statement of the editor, M. Aime Champollion,
fils (Notice sur Francois de Lorraine, due d'Aumale et de Guise,
prefixed to his Memoires, first published in the Collection
Michaud-Poujoulat, 1851, p. 5), is partly in the handwriting of the duke
himself, partly in that of his secretary, Millet, insert the "Sommaire"
precisely as it stands in the Memoires de Conde, without any denial of
its authenticity. This would appear, at first sight, to settle the
question beyond cavil. But it must be borne in mind that many of the
memoires of the sixteenth century are compiled on the plan of including
all contemporary papers of importance, whether written by friend or by
foe. Frequently the most contradictory narratives of the same event are
placed side by side, with little or no comment. This is precisely the
case with those of Guise, in which, for example, no less than _four_
accounts--_three_ of them from Huguenot sources--are given of the
massacre of Vassy. Now we have the testimony of De Thou (_ubi supra_)
that this agreement, industriously circulated by the Prince of Conde and
the Huguenots, made a powerful impression not only in France, but in
Germany and all Northern Europe. So important a document, even if a
forgery, would naturally find a place in such a collection as the
Memoires of Guise. Altogether the matter is in a singularly interesting
position. Could the manuscript seen by M. Capefigue be found and
re-examined critically, the truth might, perhaps, be reached. M. Henri
Martin, in his excellent Histoire de France, x. 79, note, accepts the
document as genuine.]
[Footnote 1024: The "plebe e populo minuto," the Venetian Michiel tell
us, "e quello che si vede certo con gran fervenzia e devozione
frequentar le chiese, e continuar li riti cattolici." Relations des Amb.
Ven. i., 412.]
[Footnote 1025: "Aulcuns desditz ecclesiasticques," is Claude Haton's
ingenuous admission respecting his fellow priests of this period,
"estoient fort vicieux encores pour lors, et les plus vicieux estoient
ceux qui plus resistoient auxditz huguenotz, jusques a mettre la main
aux cousteaux et aux armes." Memoires, i. 129.]
[Footnote 1026: Memoires de Conde, i. 27.]
[Footnote 1027: "In viginti urbibus aut circiter trucidati fuerunt pii a
furiosa plebe." Letter of Calvin to Bullinger, May 24, 1561, _apud_
Baum, ii., App., 33. At Mans, on Lady-Day (March 25th), so serious a
riot took place, that the bishop felt compelled to apologize in a letter
to Catharine (April 23d), in which he excuses his flock by alleging that
they were exasperated beyond endurance by the sight of a Huguenot
"assemblee" openly held by day in the "Faubourg St. Jehan," contrary to
the royal ordinances--some of the attendants, he asserts, coming out of
the meeting armed. His letter is to be found in the Mem. de Conde, ii.
339.]
[Footnote 1028: And was openly denounced by his clergy from the pulpit,
in Passion Week, as an "apostate," a "traitor," a "new Judas," etc.
Bulletin, xxiii. 84.]
[Footnote 1029: De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 51, 52; Histoire eccles.,
i. 287; La Place, 124; Calvin to Bullinger, Baum, ii., App., 33; Journal
de Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, ii. 27. Interesting documents from the
municipal records of Beauvais, Bulletin, xxiii. (1874) 84, etc. Letter
of Chantonnay, Rheims, May 10, 1561 (Mem. de Conde, ii. 11), who adds:
"L'Admiral ha tant peu avec le credit qu'il ha ver Monsieur de Vendosme
[Navarre], que l'on a execute deux ou trois de ceulx du peuple; lequel
depuis s'est leve de nouveau, et a pendu le bourreau qui feit
l'execution."]
[Footnote 1030: "Car, de toutes les choses, la plus incompatible en ung
estat, ce sont deux religions contraires."]
[Footnote 1031: Journal de Bruslart, Memoires de Conde, i. 26, etc.;
Registers of Parliament, ibid., ii. 341, etc., and _apud_ Felibien,
Hist. de Paris, Preuves, iv. 798, Arret of April 28th and 29th.
According to the information that had reached Calvin, twelve had been
killed and forty wounded by Longjumeau and his friends (Calvin to
Bullinger, _ubi supra_). The parliamentary registers do not give the
precise number. The good curate of S. Barthelemi makes no allusion to
any attack, but sets down the loss of the Roman Catholics at three
killed and nine wounded. Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, 41. Hubert
Languet says seven were killed. Epist. secr., ii. 117.]
[Footnote 1032: Letters patent of Fontainebleau, April 19, 1561, Mem. de
Conde, ii. 334, 335; La Place; and Hist. eccles., _ubi supra_; De Thou,
iii. (liv. xxviii.) 52.]
[Footnote 1033: How the devoted adherents of the Roman church received
this edict and its predecessor appears from the Memoires of Claude
Haton. In the city of Provins, a short distance from Paris, one or two
preachers reluctantly consented to read it in the churches; but "maistre
Barrier," a Franciscan and curate of Sainte Croix, instead of the
required proclamation, made these remarks to the people at the
commencement of his sermon: "On m'a cejourd'-huy apporte ung memoire et
papier escript, qu'on m'a dict estre la coppie d'un edict du roy, pour
vous le publier; et _veult-on que je vous dye que les chatz et les ratz
doibvent vivre en paix les ungs avec les aultres_, sans se rien faire de
mal l'ung a l'autre, et que nous aultres Francoys, e'est assavoir les
heretiques et les catholicques, fassions ainsi, et que le roy le veult.
_Je ne suis crieur ni trompette de la ville pour faire telles
publications._ Dieu veuille par sa misericorde avoir pitie de son eglise
et du royaume de France, les deux ensemble sont prestz de tomber en
grande ruyne; Dieu veuille bailler bon conseil a nostre jeune roy et
inspirer ses gouverneurs a bien faire; ils entrent a leur gouvernement
par ung pauvre commencement, mais ce est en punition de noz pechez."
Memoires de Claude Haton, i. 123, 124.]
[Footnote 1034: La Place, 124-126; Histoire eccles., i. 288, etc.; De
Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 52, 53. The remonstrance of parliament was, in
point of fact, little more than an echo of the strenuous protest of the
Spanish ambassador to the queen mother. See Chantonnay to Catharine de'
Medici, April 22, 1561, Memoires de Conde, ii. 6-10.]
[Footnote 1035: According to Claude Haton, the edict was received with
ineffable delight, especially in those cities of the kingdom where there
were Huguenot judges. The Catholics were despised. The Huguenots became
bold: "En toutes compagnies, assemblees et lieux publicz, ilz huguenotz
avoient le hault parler." Despite the prohibition of the employment of
insulting terms, they called their adversaries "papaux, idolatres,
pauvres abusez." and "tisons du purgatoire du pape." Memoires, i. 122.
Doubtless a smaller measure of free speech than this would have sufficed
to stir up the bile of the curate of Meriot.]
[Footnote 1036: Already, on the 6th of March, Claude Boissiere had
written to the Genevan reformer from Saintes: "God has so augmented His
church that we number to-day by the grace of God thirty-eight pastors in
this province" (Saintonge in Western France), "each of us having the
care of so many towns and parishes, that, had we fifty more, we should
scarcely be able to satisfy half the charges that present themselves."
Geneva MSS., _apud_ Bulletin, xiv. (1855) 320, and Crottet, Hist. des
egl. ref. de Pons, Gemozac, etc., 57.]
[Footnote 1037: Letter to Bullinger, May 24, 1561, _apud_ Baum, ii.,
App., 32, and Bonnet, Eng. tr., iv. 190.]
[Footnote 1038: Letter of Gilbert de Vaux, April 5, 1561. MS. in Nat.
Lib. of Paris, _apud_ Bulletin, xiv. 321, 322.]
[Footnote 1039: After having examined the churches, convents, etc., the
lieutenant, though a Roman Catholic, reported to the Toulouse parliament
"qu'il avoit trouve une telle obeissance en ceste ville que le roy
demande a tous ses subjects, de sorte qu'il n'y avoit eu jamais un coup
frappe, ne injure dicte aux papistes par ceux de l'Evangile."]
[Footnote 1040: Letter of Du Vignault to M. d'Espeville (Calvin), May
26, 1561, in Geneva MSS., Bulletin, xiv. (1865) 322-324.]
[Footnote 1041: "Ceux de Tholoze sont du tout enrages, car ils ne
cessent de brusler les paoures fideles de jour a aultre. Le trouppeau
est fort desole, et croy qu'est sans pasteur." Letter of La Chasse,
Montpellier, June 14, 1561, to M. d'Espeville, Geneva MSS., _ubi supra_,
p. 325.]
[Footnote 1042: La Place, 127, 128; De Thou, iii., liv. xxviii. 53.]
[Footnote 1043: Memoires de Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 3. The discussion was
long, and would have been tedious, had it not turned upon so important a
topic. There were 140 members of parliament, and according to its
regulations no one was allowed to concur simply in the views of another,
but each counsellor was compelled to express his own sentiments, which
were then committed to writing. As some of the high dignitaries of state
also gave their opinions, there were altogether more than 150 speakers,
and parliament met twice a day to listen to them. The Bishop of Paris,
after harshly advocating the rekindling of the extinct fires of the
estrapade, was compelled to hear in return some plain words from Admiral
Coligny, who boldly accused the bishops and priests of being the cause
of all the evils from which the Christian world was suffering, while at
the same time they instigated a cruel persecution of those who exposed
their crimes. The letters of Hubert Languet, who was in Paris at the
time, are exceedingly instructive. Epist. secr., ii. 122, 125, etc.]
[Footnote 1044: Or _seven_, according to Languet, Epist. sec., ii. 130.]
[Footnote 1045: Journal de Bruslart, Memoires de Conde, i. 40, etc.;
Despatches of Chantonnay, Mem. de Conde, ii. 12-15; La Place, 130; Hist.
eccles., i. 293, 294; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 54. Cf. Martin, Hist.
de France, x. 82, Baum, Theod. Beza, ii. 172, etc., and Soldan,
Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 428.]
[Footnote 1046: It is styled a "_mercuriale_" in a contemporary letter
of Du Pasquier (Augustin Marlorat), Rouen, July 11, 1561, Bulletin, xiv.
(1865) 364: "On dit que la mercuriale est achevee, mais la conclusion
n'est pas encores publiee."]
[Footnote 1047: H. Martin, Hist. de France, x. 83.]
[Footnote 1048: The text of the Edict of July is given in Isambert,
Recueil gen. des anc. lois fr., xiv. 109-111; Histoire eccles., i.
294-296; Mem. de Conde, i. 42-45. Cf. La Place, 130, 131; De Thou, iii.
54, 55; Mem. de Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 3.]
[Footnote 1049: "Que son epee ne tiendrait jamais au fourreau quand il
serait question da faire sortir effet a cet arrete." Martin, x. 83.]
[Footnote 1050: Ibid., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 1051: The cathedral alone persisted in holding out a day or
two longer, and then made an unwilling sacrifice of its pictures,
protesting at the same time that it only wanted peace and friendship.]
[Footnote 1052: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 530-532.]
[Footnote 1053: Letter to the church of Sauve, July, 1561, Bonnet,
Lettres franc., ii. 415-418. It is instructive to note that the
Provincial Synod of Sommieres took the decisive step of deposing the
pastor of Sauve; nor was he pardoned until he had been convinced of his
error, and had declared that he had done nothing except through
righteous zeal, and in order to preclude many scandals. Geneva MS.,
_apud_ Bonnet, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 1054: See the royal letters of prorogation of March 25th, Mem.
de Conde, ii. 281-284.]
[Footnote 1055: La Place, Commentaires, 140; De Thou, iii. 57; Mem. de
Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 4.]
[Footnote 1056: The famous chateau of St. Germain-en-Laye, a favorite
residence of the monarchs of the later Valois branch, is situated on the
river Seine, a few miles below Paris. Poissy, where the assembly of the
prelates convened, was selected on account of its proximity to the
court. It is also on the Seine, which, between Poissy and St. Germain,
makes a great bend toward the north; across the neck of the peninsula
the distance from place to place is only about three miles. Pontoise,
deriving its name from its bridge over the river Oise, a tributary of
the Seine, lies about eight miles north of St. Germain.]
[Footnote 1057: The origin of the singular designation of this
officer--a designation quite unique--is discussed _con amore_ by
Chassanee, in that remarkable book, Catalogus Gloriae Mundi (edition of
1586), lib. xi., c. 5, fol. 239. Chassanee, who was himself of Autun,
traces the title and office of _vierg_ back to the Vergobretus of
ancient Gallic times. Caesar, Bell. Gallic, i. 16.]
[Footnote 1058: The curious may find an instructive paragraph in his
speech, devoted to a list of onerous taxes bearing in great part, or
exclusively, on the people. La Place, 145.]
[Footnote 1059: "Le temps est une creature de Dieu a luy subjecte, de
maniere que dix mille ans ne sont une minute en la puissance de nostre
Dieu." The long speech of M. Bretagne, certainly one of the noblest
pleas for freedom of religious worship to be found within the limits of
the sixteenth century, is inserted in full in the Recueil des choses
memorables (1565), 620-645, in La Place, liv. vi. 141-150, and in the
Hist. eccles. des eglises reformees, i. 298-305. Summary in De Thou,
iii. 57, 58.]
[Footnote 1060: Projects somewhat similar had been made, early in the
year, in some of the provincial estates. In those of Languedoc, held at
Montpellier in March, 1561, Terlon, a "capitoul" of Toulouse, speaking
for the "tiers etat," advocated the sale of all the secular possessions
of the clergy, reserving only a residence for the incumbent, and
assigning him a pension equal to his present income, to be paid by the
cities of the kingdom. Chabot, a lawyer of Nismes, went further, and,
when the clamor of the people had secured the hearing at first denied
him, did not hesitate to say that the burdens of the province should be
placed upon the shoulders of the priests and monks--whom he stigmatized
as ignorant and corrupt--because of the evils they had inflicted upon
the people. He even wanted a petition to this effect, signed by thirty
syndicates favorable to the reformed religion, to be inserted in the
_cahier_ of Languedoc. Memoires d'Achille Gamon--advocate and consul of
Annonay--_apud_ Collection de Memoires, Michaud et Poujoulat, 611. Some
such wholesale confiscation seems even to have entered into the plans of
the cabinet. In May, 1561, royal letters were sent to the Bishop of
Paris, to the provost, and indeed, throughout France, demanding a return
of the true value of all episcopal and other revenues (Memoires de
Conde, i. 27). The object was plain enough. The clergy remonstrated
energetically, as may be imagined (Ib., i. 29-39). The Paris clergy had
especial recourse to the Cardinal of Lorraine, in a letter of June 3d.
Honest Abbe Bruslart, touched to the quick by the suggestion, notes in
his quaint journal: "Voila les incommoditez de la nouvelle religion,"
etc. (Ib., i. 28).]
[Footnote 1061: "La diversite d'opinion soubstenues par vos subjects ne
provient que d'ung grand zelle et affection qu'ils ont au salut de leurs
ames."]
[Footnote 1062: La Place, 152; De Thou, iii. 58, 59; Hist. eccles., i.
306; Garnier, H. de France, xxix. 308, etc., who gives a very full
abstract; but Ranke, v. 93-97, publishes from the MS. the hitherto
inedited _cahier_.]
[Footnote 1063: Catharine's own account is given in an important letter
to the Bishop of Rennes, written September 14, 1561--five days after the
colloquy commenced: "Ayant este requise, y a deja quelques mois, de la
pluspart de la noblesse et des gens du tiers estat de ce Royaume, de
faire ouir lea ministres, qui sont departis en plusieurs villes de cedit
Royaume, sur leur Confession de Foy; je fus conseillee par mon frere le
Roy de Navarre, les autres Princes du sang, et les Gens du Conseil du
Roy Monsieur mon fils, de ce faire; ayant avise apres avoir longuement
et meurement delibere la-dessus, que aux grands troubles ... il n'y
avoit meilleur moyen ny plus fructueux pour faire abandonner les dits
Ministres et retirer ceux qui leur adherent, que en faissant confondre
leur doctrine et montrant et decouvrant ce qu'il y a d'erreur et
d'heresie." Le Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i. 732, 733.]
[Footnote 1064: Baum, Theod. Beza, ii. 175; Martin, Hist. de France, x.
84. The restriction of the invitation to Frenchmen is referred to by
Catharine in a letter of September 14 (Le Laboureur, Add., i. 733):
"Ayant ... accorde a ceux desdits Ministres _qui seroient nez en
France_, de comparoittre a Poissy."]
[Footnote 1065: The letters of La Riviere, Conde, Chatillon, and Antoine
of Navarre, are printed in Baum, App., 34, 35. The question naturally
arises, Why did not Calvin himself, who had been specially invited by
the Protestant princes, receive permission from the magistrates of
Geneva to go to Poissy? The truth is, that the Protestants of Paris "did
not see the possibility of his being present without grave peril, in
view of the rage conceived against him by the enemies of the Gospel, and
the disturbances his name alone would excite in the country were he
known to be in it." "In fact," they say in a letter but recently brought
to light, "the Admiral by no means favors your undertaking the journey,
and we have learned with certainty that the queen would not relish
seeing you there, frankly saying that she cannot pledge herself for your
safety in these parts, as she can for that of the rest. Meanwhile, the
enemies of the Gospel, on the other hand, say that they would be glad to
hear all the rest [of the reformers], but that, as for you, they could
not bring themselves to listen to you or look at you. You see, sir, in
what esteem you are held by these venerable prelates. I suspect that you
will not be very much grieved by it, nor consider yourself dishonored by
being thus regarded by such gentry!" La Riviere, in the name of all the
ministers of Paris, to Calvin, July 31, 1561, Bulletin, xvi. (1867),
602-604.]
[Footnote 1066: Letter of the Syndics and Council of Geneva to the Lords
of Zurich, July 21, 1561, and Charles IX.'s safe-conduct for Peter
Martyr, July 30, Baum, ii., App., 36, 37.]
[Footnote 1067: Le Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i. 724; cf. letter of
Card. de la Bourdaisiere to the Bishop of Rennes, Rome, August 23, 1561,
ibid., and of Chantonnay to Tisnacq, September 6, Mem. de Conde, ii.
18.]
[Footnote 1068: The papal nuncio, Prospero di Santa Croce, indeed,
represents the Cardinal of Lorraine as the originator of the perilous
scheme. When Lorraine and Tournon, whom the Pope had constituted his
legates, with the commission to put forth their most strenuous exertions
to uphold the Roman Church in France, found advice, exhortation, and
persuasion all in vain, Lorraine, in an evil hour, advised the holding
of a colloquy: "Lotharingius audaci potius quam prudenti consilio reginae
persuasit, ut Possiaci conventus haberetur episcoporum Galliae, in quo de
religione ac moribus tractaretur: simulque copia fieret Hugonottorum
principibus, Ministros illi vocant, si vellent, veniendi, neque iis
solum qui erant in Gallia, sed ex finitimis etiam provinciis vocarentur,
ut quae erant de religione controversa proponerentur; futurum sperans, ut
ne respondere quidem ad sua postulata auderent. Confidebat enim
Lotharingius et doctrinae et eloquentiae suae, et plurimum, ut debebat,
ipsius causae bonitati." Cardinal Tournon was opposed to this course:
"Non probabat hoc factum Turnonius, ut qui disputationem omnem cum
haereticis fugiendam noverat." P. Santacrucii de civilibus Galliae
dissensionibus commentarii, Martene et Durand, tom. v. 1462.]
[Footnote 1069: Letter of La Riviere, in the name of all the ministers
of Paris, Aug. 10, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 37-39.]
[Footnote 1070: The letter, now in the State archives of Geneva, is
signed "_Le Roy de Navarre bien vostre, Anthoyne_," Baum, _ubi supra_,
ii. 40. The character of this contemptible prince is best understood
when such lines are read in the light of the intrigues he was at this
very moment--as we shall have occasion to see--carrying on at Rome. When
it is borne in mind that the colloquy of Poissy _preceded_ the edict of
January by four months, and that Beza manifested no little _hesitation_
in coming to France, it becomes somewhat difficult to comprehend Mr.
Froude's account (Hist. of England, vii. 390): "The Cardinal of Lorraine
demanded from the Parliament of Paris the revocation of the edicts (sic)
of January. Confident of his power, he even challenged the Protestants
to a public discussion before the court. Theodore Beza _snatched
eagerly_ at the gage; the Conference of Poissy _followed_," etc.]
[Footnote 1071: Letter of Calvin to Martyr, Aug. 17, 1561, _apud_ Baum,
ii., App., 40; and Bonnet, Calvin's Letters, Eng. tr., iv. 209.]
[Footnote 1072: Letter of Beza to Calvin, Aug. 22, 1561, written three
hours after his arrival, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 44.]
[Footnote 1073: See the admirable biography of Beza, by Dr. H. Heppe,
being the sixth volume of the Leben und ausgewaehlte Schriften der Vaeter
und Begruender der reformirte Kirche; as well as the more extended work
of Prof. Baum, frequently referred to.]
[Footnote 1074: "Les avertissant qu'il ne leur donneroit conge de se
departir jusques a ce qu'ils y eussent donne ordre." Letter of the Sieur
du Mortier, French amb. at Rome, to the Bp. of Rennes, Aug. 9, 1561,
_apud_ Le Laboureur, Additions to Castelnau, i. 730. This authority
would seem to be a positive proof that the speech which is attributed by
La Place and other historians of the period to the king at the opening
of the conference with the Protestants on the 9th of September, has, by
a very natural error, been transposed from this place. De Thou, La
Popeliniere, and others have made the more serious blunder of placing
the chancellor's speech, which belongs here, at the same conference, and
omitting the true address which La Place, etc., insert. Prof. Baum
(Theodor Beza, ii. 242, note) first detected the inconsistencies between
the two reported speeches of L'Hospital on the 9th of September, but
gave preference in the text to the wrong document. Prof. Soldan has
elucidated the whole matter with his usual skill (Geschichte des Prot.
in Frankreich, i. 440, note).]
[Footnote 1075: De Thou, iii. 63; La Place, 155.]
[Footnote 1076: "Sans venir au fait de la doctrine, ou ils ne veulent
toucher non plus qu'au feu." Letter of Secretary Bourdin to his
brother-in-law Bochetel, the Bishop of Rennes, French ambassador in
Germany, Aug. 23, 1561, _apud_ Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, i.
731. If we are to construe the language of the Histoire eccles. des egl.
ref. (i. 307) with verbal strictness, the theological discussions
occasionally waxed so hot that the prelates found themselves unable to
solve the knotty questions with which they were occupied, without
recourse to the convincing argument of the fist!]
[Footnote 1077: Languet, letter of Aug. 6th, ii. 130.]
[Footnote 1078: Letter of Chantonnay, Aug. 31 (Mem. de Conde, ii. 16).]
[Footnote 1079: "Mais ceux qui sont extremement malades sont excusez
d'appliquer toutes herbes a la douleur pour l'appaiser, quand elle est
insupportable, attendant le bon medecin, que j'estime devoir estre un
bon Concile, pour une si furieuse et dangereuse maladie." Letter of
Catharine to the Bishop of Rennes, Aug. 23, 1561, _apud_ Le Laboureur,
Add. to Castelnau, i. 727.]
[Footnote 1080: An incident, preserved for us by Languet, which happened
about this time, reveals somewhat of Catharine's temper and of the
doubts that pervaded the young king's mind. On Corpus Christi day, the
queen mother, in conversation with her son, recommended to him that,
while duly reverencing the sacrament, he should not entertain so gross a
belief as that the bread which was carried around in the procession was
the very body of Christ which hung from the cross. Charles replied that
he had received the same warning from others, but coupled with the
injunction that he should say nothing about it to any one. "Yet,"
responded Catharine smiling, "you must take care not to forsake your
ancestral religion, lest your kingdom may be thrown into confusion, and
you yourself be driven into banishment." To which Charles aptly replied:
"The Queen of England has changed the religion of her kingdom, but no
one gives her any trouble." Epist. secr., ii. 127.]
[Footnote 1081: De Thou (iii., liv. xxviii., pp. 60-63) gives the
substance, Gerdesius (Scrinium Antiq., v. 339, _seq._) the text of this
extraordinary letter. See also Jean de Serres, i. 212, etc.]
[Footnote 1082: From Hurault's letter of July 12th, to the Bishop of
Rennes, we learn the date of the Cardinal of Ferrara's departure from
Rome--July 2d. He travelled so slowly, however, that it was not until
September 19th that he reached St. Germain.]
[Footnote 1083: "Que je n'avoys recu change depuis qu'il n'avoit voulu
parler a moy de peur d'estre excommunie." Letter of Beza to Calvin, Aug.
25, 1561, Baum, ii. Appendix, 46. This long and important letter, giving
a graphic account of the first days of Beza at St. Germain, was signed,
for safety's sake, "T. de Chalonoy," and addressed to "Monsieur
d'Espeville, a Villedieu." The Duke d'Aumale has also published this
letter in his Histoire des Princes de Conde, i. 340-342. There are some
striking differences in the two; none more noteworthy than the omission
in Prof. Baum's copy of a sentence which very clearly marks the distrust
still felt by the reformers of the upright Chancellor L'Hospital. After
reference to L'Hospital's greeting, Beza originally wrote: "Force me fut
de le suyvre, mais ce fut avec un tel visage qu'il congnut assez que je
le congnoissois." From the later copy and from the Latin translation
inserted by Beza himself in the collection of Calvin's letters, these
words are omitted.]
[Footnote 1084: "Avec une troupe cent foys plus grande que je n'eusse
desire." _Ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 1085: Letter of Beza of Aug. 25th, _ubi supra_. Beza, to whom
Conde immediately afterward gave an account of the act of
reconciliation, was not altogether satisfied with it. I have spoken of
it as unfortunate, because it removed all the obstacles to the more
complete union of the constable and the Guises against the Huguenots. La
Place, 140; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 56.]
[Footnote 1086: "Estant arrivez a la court, ilz y furent mieux
accueillis que n'eust este le pape de Rome, s'il y fust venu." Mem. de
Claude Haton, i. 155.]
[Footnote 1087: Letter of Beza of Aug. 25th, Baum. ii., Appendix, 47-54;
La Place, 155-157; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 64; Hist. eccles. des
egl. ref. i. 309-312.]
[Footnote 1088: "Nous confessons, dy-je, que panis est corpus
sacramentale, et pour definir que c'est a dire _sacramentaliter_, nous
disons qu'encores que le corps soit aujourd'huy au ciel et non ailleurs,
et les signes soyent en la terre avec nous, toutefoys aussi
veritablement nous est donne ce corps et recu par nous, moyennant la
foy," etc. Baum, ii. App., 52.]
[Footnote 1089: "Je le croy ainsy, dit-il, Madame, et voila qui me
contente." Ibid., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 1090: "Sed illud totum ita complectebatur, ut satis ostenderet
penitus se non tenere quid hoc rei esset. Agnoscebat enim se aliis
studiis tempus impendisse." Beza, _ubi supra_, p. 50. The Latin version
of Beza's letter of August 25th, made under the writer's own
supervision, for publication with a selection of Calvin's letters
(Geneva, 1576), contains a fuller account of the discussion than the
French original actually despatched. See Baum, _ubi supra_, 45-54.]
[Footnote 1091: "Cardinalis testatus iterum non urgere se
transubstantiationem." Latin version, _ubi supra_. "Car, disoit il, pour
la transsubstantiation je ne suys poinct d'advis qu'il y ayt schisme en
l'eglise." French original, _ubi supra_, 50, 51.]
[Footnote 1092: "Tum ego ad reginam conversus: 'Ecce inquam
sacramentarios illos tam diu vexatos, et omnibus calumniis oppressos.'
'Escoutez vous,' dit elle, 'Monsieur le cardinal? Il dit que les
sacrementaires n'out point aultre opinion que ceste-cy a laquelle vous
accordez.'" Letter of Beza, _ubi supra_, 52.]
[Footnote 1093: Cf. letter of Beza, _ubi supra_, 47 and 52.]
[Footnote 1094: "Vous trouverez que je ne suis pas si noir qu'on me
faict." Beza, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 1095: "Bon homme pour ce soir, mays demain quoy?" Beza, _ubi
supra_.]
[Footnote 1096: "Le lendemain le bruict courut, non seulement a la cour,
mais aussi a Possy, et jusques aux pays loingtains, que de Beze avoit
este vaincu et reduict par le cardinal de Lorraine au premier colloque
faict entr'eux." La Place, 157. So Beza himself heard the very morning
he wrote: "Or est-il que tout ce matin il n'a cesse de se venter qu'il
m'a convaincu et reduict a son opinion;" but he adds: "J'ay bons
tesmoins et bons garants, Dieu mercy, de tout le contraire." _Ubi
supra_. So also in his letter of Aug. 30th (Ib., 59): "Cardinalis
fortiter jactat me primo statim congressu a se superatum, sed a
gravissimis tesbibus refellitur." "Ce que le Connetable ayant dit a le
Reine a son disner, comme s'en rejouissant, elle lui dict tout
hautement, comme celle qui avoit assiste, qu'il estoit tres-mal
informe." Histoire eccles. des egl. ref., i. 312.]
[Footnote 1097: "Duodecima hujus mensis profectos esse in aulam octo ex
fratribus nostris, quibus nunc accessit noster Galasius." Letter of
Beza, Aug. 22, 1561, Baum, 2 App., 44.]
[Footnote 1098: Aug. 17th. Hist. eccles., i. 308, etc., where this
document is given; La Place, 154; Letter of Beza of Aug. 22d, _ubi
supra_, 45.]
[Footnote 1099: La Place, 154. "Ce meme jour selon nostre requeste a
este accorde que nous serons ouys et que nos parties ne seront nos
juges, mais il y a encore de l'encloueure qui fait que n'avons encore eu
une reponse resolutive, laquelle on diet que nous aurons solemnement et
en cour pleniere." Beza, letter of Aug. 25th, Baum, ii., App., 47]
[Footnote 1100: La Place, _ubi supra_. "Nous avons entendu a ce matin
qu'on avoyt mis en deliberation au conseil, si nous devions estre ouys
selon nostre requeste. Mais la royne a tranche tout court, qu'elle ne
vouloit point qu'on deliberat de cela, mais qu'elle vouloyt que nous
fussions ouys, qu'on regardast seulement aux conditions par nous
proposees. Les ecclesiastiques qui estoyent presens out dit qu'ils ne
vouloyent rien respondre de ceste affaire, qu'ils n'en eussent parle a
leurs compaygnons." Letter of Francois de Morel, Aug. 25, 1561, Baum,
ii., App., 55.]
[Footnote 1101: On the 9th of June, 1561, Hist. eccles. des egl. ref, i.
308.]
[Footnote 1102: Letter of Beza to Calvin, Sept. 12, 1561, Baum, ii.,
App., 60.]
[Footnote 1103: "Eo deventum est ut necesse fuerit nos parenti Reginae
testari statim discessuros nisi nobis adversus hostium audaciam
caveretur." Beza, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 1104: Beza to Calvin, Sept. 12, 1561, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 1105: Not unreasonably did the queen mother allege--and none
knew it better than she--that even written engagements derive their
chief value from the good faith of those that make them: "Que il estoit
malaise mesmes avec l'escripture d'empescher de decevoir celuy qui ha
intention de tromper." La Place, 157.]
[Footnote 1106: "Sans rien chercher que la gloire de Dieu, de laquelle
elle estimoit qu'ils fussent studieux et amateurs." La Place, 157.
Compare the letter of Catharine to the Bp. of Rennes, Sept. 14, 1561,
_apud_ Le Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i, 733.]
[Footnote 1107: Beza to Calvin, Sept. 12, 1561, _ubi supra_; La Place,
157; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 314.]