CHAPTER XII.

THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY AND THE EDICT OF JANUARY.

[Sidenote: The Huguenot ministers and delegates.]

On Tuesday, the ninth of September, 1561, the long-expected conference

was to be opened. That morning, at ten o'clock, a procession of

ministers and delegates of the Reformed churches left St.

Germain-en-Laye on horseback for the village of Poissy. The ministers,

twelve in number, were men of note: Theodore de Beze, or Beza, with whom

the reader is already well acquainted; Augustin Marlorat, a native of

Lorraine, formerly a monk, but now famous in the Protestant ranks, and

the leading pastor in Rouen, a man over fifty years of age; Francois de

Saint Paul, a learned theologian and the founder of the churches of

Montelimart, a delegate from Provence; Jean Raymond Merlin, professor of

Hebrew at Geneva, and chaplain of Admiral Coligny; Jean Malot, pastor at

Paris; Francois de Morel, who had presided in the First National Synod

of 1559, and had recently been given to the Duchess Renee of Ferrara, as

her private chaplain; Nicholas Folion, surnamed La Vallee, a former

doctor of the Sorbonne, now pastor at Orleans; Claude de la Boissiere,

of Saintes; Jean Bouquin, of Oleron; Jean Virel; Jean de la Tour, a

patriarch of nearly seventy years; and Nicholas des Gallars, who, after

having been a prominent preacher at Geneva and Paris, had for the past

two years ministered to the large congregation of French refugees in

London. It was a body of Huguenot theologians unsurpassed for ability by

any others within the kingdom.[1108]

So high ran the excitement of the populace, stirred up by frequent

appeals to the worst passions in the human breast, and by highly-colored

accounts of the boldness with which the "new doctrines" had for weeks

been preached within the precincts of the court, that serious

apprehension was entertained lest Beza and his companions might be

assaulted by the way.[1109] The peaceable ministers of religion were,

therefore, accompanied by a strong escort of one hundred mounted archers

of the royal guard. After a ride of less than half an hour, they reached

the nuns' convent, in which the prelates had been holding their

sessions.

[Sidenote: Assembly in the nuns' refectory.]

[Sidenote: The prelates.]

Meantime, an august and imposing assembly was gathered in the spacious

conventual refectory.[1110] On an elevated seat, upon the dais at its

farther extremity, was the king, on whose youthful shoulders rested the

crushing weight of the government of a kingdom rent by discordant

sentiments and selfish factions, and already upon the verge of an open

civil war. Near him sat his wily mother--that "merchant's daughter"

whose plebeian origin the first Christian baron of France had pointed

out with ill-disguised contempt, but whose plans and purposes had now

acquired such world-wide importance that grave diplomats and shrewd

churchmen esteemed the difficult riddle of her sphinx-like countenance

and character a worthy subject of prolonged study. Not far from their

royal brother, were two children: the elder, a boy of ten years, Edward

Alexander, a few years later to appear on the pages of history under

the altered name of Henry the Third, the last Valois King of France; the

younger, a girl of nine--that Margaret of Valois and Navarre, whose

nuptials have attained a celebrity as wide as the earth and as lasting

as the records of religious dissensions. Antoine and Louis of Bourbon,

brothers by blood but not in character; Jeanne d'Albret, heiress of

Navarre, more queenly at heart than many a sovereign with dominions far

exceeding the contracted territory of Bearn; the princes representing

more distant branches of the royal stock, and the members of the council

of state, completed the group. On two long benches, running along the

opposite sides of the hall, the prelates were arranged according to

their dignities. Tournon, Lorraine, and Chatillon, each in full

cardinal's robes, faced their brethren of the Papal Consistory,

Armagnac, Bourbon, and Guise, while a long row of archbishops and

bishops filled out the line on either side. Altogether, forty or fifty

prelates, with numerous attendant theologians and members of the

superior clergy, regular and secular, had been marshalled to oppose the

little band of reformers.[1111]

It was an array of pomp and power, of ecclesiastical place and wealth

and ambition, of traditional and hereditary nobility, of all that an

ancient and powerful church could muster to meet the attack of fresh and

vigorous thought, the inroad of moral and religious reforms, the

irrepressible conflict of a faith based solely upon a written

revelation. The external promise of victory was all on the side of the

prelates. Yet, strange to say, the engagement that was about to take

place was none of their seeking. With the exception of the Cardinal of

Lorraine, they were well-nigh unanimous in reprobating a venture from

which they apprehended only disaster. Perhaps even Lorraine now repented

his presumption, and felt less assured of his dialectic skill since he

had tried the mettle of his Genevese antagonist. Rarely has battle been

forced upon an army after a greater number of fruitless attempts to

avoid it than those made by the French ecclesiastics, backed by the

alternate solicitations and menaces of Pius the Fourth, and Philip of

Spain. Such reluctance was ominous.

On the other side, the feeling of the reformers was, indeed, confidence

in the excellence of the cause they represented, but confidence not

unmingled with anxiety.

[Sidenote: Diffidence of Beza.]

A letter written by Beza only a few days before affords us a glimpse of

the secret apprehensions of the Protestants. "If Martyr come in time,"

he wrote Calvin, "that is, if he greatly hasten, his arrival will

refresh us exceedingly. We shall have to do with veteran sophists, and,

although we be confident that the simple truth of the Word will prove

victorious, yet it is not in the power of every man instantly to resolve

their artifices and allege the sayings of the Fathers. Moreover, it will

be necessary for us to make such answers that we shall not seem, to the

circle of princes and others that stand by, to be seeking to evade the

question. In short, when I contemplate these difficulties, I become

exceedingly anxious, and much do I deplore our fault in neglecting the

excellent instruments which God has given us, and thus in a manner

appearing to tempt His goodness. Meanwhile, however, we have resolved

not to retreat, and we trust in Him who has promised us a wisdom which

the world cannot resist.... Direct us, my father, like children by your

counsels in your absence from us, since you cannot be present with us.

For, simple children I daily see and feel that we are, from whose mouth

I hope that our wonderful Lord will perfect the praise of His

wisdom."[1112]

[Sidenote: L'Hospital explains the objects in view.]

The king opened the conference with a few words before the Protestants

were admitted,[1113] and then called upon the chancellor to explain more

fully the objects of the gathering. Hereupon Michel de L'Hospital,

seating himself, by Charles's direction, on a stool at the king's right

hand, set forth at considerable length the religious dissensions which

had fallen upon France, and the ineffectual measures to which the king

and his predecessors had from time to time resorted. Severity and

mildness had proved equally futile. Dangerous division had crept in. He

begged the assembled prelates to heal this disease of the body politic,

to appease the anger of God visibly resting upon the kingdom by every

means in their power; especially to reform any abuses contrary to God's

word and the ordinances of the apostles, which the sloth or ignorance of

the clergy might have introduced, and thus remove every excuse which

their enemies might possess for slandering them and disturbing the peace

of the country. As the chief cause of sedition was diversity of

religious opinion, Charles had acceded to the advice of two previous

assemblies, and had granted a safe-conduct to the ministers of the new

sect, hoping that an amicable conference with them would be productive

of great advantage. He, therefore, prayed the company to receive them as

a father receives his children, and to take pains to instruct them.

Then, at all events, it could not be said, as had so often been said in

the past, that the dissenters had been condemned without a hearing.

Minutes of the proceedings carefully made and disseminated through the

kingdom would prove that the doctrine they professed had been refuted,

not by violence or authority, but by cogent reasoning. Charles would

continue to be the protector of the Gallican Church.[1114]

[Sidenote: The Huguenots are summoned.]

[Sidenote: Beza's retort.]

These preliminaries over, the Protestants were summoned. Conducted by

the captain of the royal guard, they entered and advanced toward the

king, until their farther progress was arrested by a railing which

separated the space allotted to the king and his courtiers, with the

assembled prelates, from the lower end of the hall filled by a crowd of

curious spectators.[1115] No place had been assigned the Protestants

where they might sit during the colloquy on an equality with their

opponents, the Romish ecclesiastics. They were subjected to the paltry

indignity of appearing in the guise of culprits brought to the bar to be

judged and condemned. In truth, the spirit of conciliation which

L'Hospital had been at so much pains to inculcate had found little

welcome in the breast of the prelates. "Here come the Genevese curs,"

exclaimed a cardinal as the reformers made their appearance.

"Certainly," quietly retorted Beza, whose ear had caught the insulting

expression, turning to the quarter whence it came, "faithful dogs are

needed in the Lord's sheep-fold to bark at the rapacious wolves."[1116]

[Sidenote: Beza's prayer and address.]

When the twelve ministers had reached the bar, Theodore Beza, at their

request, addressed the king: "Sire, since the issue of all enterprises,

both great and small, depends upon the aid and favor of our God, and

chiefly when these enterprises concern the interests of His service and

matters which surpass the capacity of our understandings, we hope that

your Majesty will not find it amiss or strange if we begin by the

invocation of His name, supplicating Him after the following manner."

As the orator pronounced these words, he reverently kneeled upon the

floor. His colleagues and the delegates of the churches followed his

example. A deep solemnity fell upon the assembly. According to one

account of the scene, even the Roman cardinals stood with uncovered

heads while the Huguenot minister prayed. Catharine de' Medici joined

with still greater devotion, while King Charles remained seated on his

throne.[1117] After a moment's pause, Beza, with hands stretched out to

heaven, according to the custom of the reformed churches of

France,[1118] commenced his prayer with the confession of sins which in

the Genevan liturgy of Calvin formed the introduction to the worship of

the Lord's day.[1119]

"Lord God! Almighty and everlasting Father, we acknowledge and confess

before Thy holy majesty that we are miserable sinners, conceived and

born in guilt and corruption, prone to do evil, unfit for any good; who,

by reason of our depravity, transgress without end Thy holy

commandments. Wherefore we have drawn upon ourselves by Thy just

sentence, condemnation and death. Nevertheless, O Lord, with heartfelt

sorrow we repent and deplore our offences; and we condemn ourselves and

our evil ways, with a true repentance beseeching that Thy grace may

relieve our distress. Be pleased, therefore, to have compassion upon us,

O most gracious God! Father of all mercies; for the sake of thy son

Jesus Christ, our Lord and only Redeemer. And, in removing our guilt and

pollution, set us free and grant us the daily increase of Thy Holy

Spirit; to the end that, acknowledging from our inmost hearts our

unrighteousness, we may be touched with a sorrow that shall work true

repentance, and that this may mortify all our sins, and thereby bear the

fruit of holiness and righteousness that shall be well-pleasing to thee,

through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord and only Saviour.

"And, inasmuch as it pleaseth Thee this day so far to exhibit Thy favor

to Thy poor and unprofitable servants, as to enable them with freedom,

and in the presence of the king whom Thou hast set over them, and of the

most noble and illustrious company on earth, to declare that which Thou

hast given them to know of Thy holy Truth, may it please Thee to

continue the course of Thy goodness and loving kindness, O God and

Father of lights, and so to illumine our understandings, guide our

affections, and form them to all teachableness, and so to order our

words, that in all simplicity and truth, after having conceived,

according to the measure which it shall please Thee to grant unto us,

the secrets Thou hast revealed to men for their salvation, we may be

able, both with heart and voice to propose that which may conduce to the

honor and glory of Thy holy name, and the prosperity and greatness of

our king and of all those who belong to him, with the rest and comfort

of all Christendom, and especially of this kingdom. O Almighty Lord and

Father, we ask Thee all these things in the name and for the sake of

Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Saviour, as He Himself hath taught us to seek

them, saying: 'Our Father, which art in heaven, etc.'"[1120]

[Sidenote: His conciliatory remarks.]

Having concluded his petitions, Beza arose from his knees, and addressed

the king. His speech was graceful and conciliatory.[1121] It was a great

privilege, he said, for a faithful and affectionate subject to be

permitted to see his prince, and thus to be more clearly impressed with

the fealty and submission which is his due. Still happier was he if

permitted to be seen by his prince, and, what was more important, to be

heard, and finally accepted and approved by him. To these great

advantages a part of Charles's very humble and obedient subjects, much

to their regret, had long been strangers. It were sufficient ground for

gratitude to God to the end of their days that now at length they were

granted an audience before the king and so noble and illustrious a

company. But, when the same day that admitted them into the royal

presence also invited, or rather kindly and gently constrained them

with common voice to confess the name of their God, and declare the

obedience they owed Him, their minds were so incompetent to conceive,

their tongues so inadequate to utter the promptings of their hearts,

that they preferred to confess their impotence by modest silence rather

than to disparage so great a benefit by the defect of their words. Yet

one of the points they had so long desired was still unfulfilled, and

that the most important, namely the acceptance of their service as

agreeable. Would to God that so happy a termination might by their

coming be put, not so much to their past sufferings--of which the memory

was well-nigh extinguished by this joyful day--as to the troubles that

had afflicted the kingdom in consequence of religious dissensions, and

to the attending ruin of so great a number of the king's poor subjects.

[Sidenote: The Huguenots victims of calumny.]

[Sidenote: Their creed.]

[Sidenote: Points of agreement.]

[Sidenote: His declaration as to the body of Christ.]

What, then, had hitherto prevented the Huguenots from obtaining a boon

so long and ardently desired? It was the belief entertained by some that

they were, through ambition or restless love of innovation, the enemies

of all concord, and the impression in the minds of others that their

arrogance demanded impossible conditions of peace. The prejudice arising

from this and other sources to which he avoided an allusion, lest he

might seem to be reopening old wounds, was so strong, that the reformed

would have good reason to give way to despair, were they not sustained

by a good conscience, by their assurance of the gentleness and equity of

Charles and the illustrious princes of the blood, and by a charitable

presumption that the prelates with whom they had come to confer were

disposed to exert themselves with them in the common endeavor rather to

make the truth clear than to obscure it. Respecting the extent of the

differences between the prelatic and the reformed beliefs, those who

represented them as of insignificant importance, and those who made them

as great as between the creed of Christians and the creed of Jews or

Moslems, were equally mistaken. If in some of the principal articles of

the Christian faith there was full agreement, on others, alas! there was

an opposition between their tenets. The orator here enumerated in

considerable detail the articles of the ancient creeds in which the

Huguenot, not less than the Roman Catholic, professed his concurrence.

What then, some one would say, are not these the terms of our belief? In

what are we at variance? To which inquiry the true answer was, that the

two sides differed not only because they gave some of these articles

divergent interpretations, but because the Church had built upon this

foundation a structure that comported little with it, "as if the

Christian religion were an edifice which was never finished." To speak

with greater detail, the reformed maintained, in opposition to the

Romish theory, that there could be no satisfaction for sin save in

Christ, and that to suppose the blessed Saviour to pay but a part of the

price of man's salvation, would be to rob him of his perfect mercy, and

of his offices of prophet, priest, and king. They agreed with the

Romanists neither in their definition of justifying faith, nor in their

account of its origin and effects. The same might be said respecting

good works. And, again, as to the Holy Scriptures, they received the Old

and New Testaments as the word of God and the complete revelation of all

that is necessary for salvation, and consequently, as the touchstone for

testing the Fathers, the councils, and the traditions of the Church. Two

points remained for consideration: the sacraments and the government of

the Church. "We are agreed, in our opinion," said Beza, "regarding the

meaning of the word sacrament. The sacraments are visible signs by means

of which our union with our Lord Jesus Christ is not merely signified or

set forth, but is truly offered to us on the Lord's side, and therefore

confirmed, sealed, and, as it were, engraved by the Holy Spirit's

efficiency in those who by a true faith apprehend Him who is thus

signified and presented to them. We, consequently, agree that in the

sacraments there must necessarily supervene a heavenly, a supernatural

change. For we do not assert that the water of holy baptism is simply

water, but that it is a true sacrament of our regeneration, and of the

washing of our souls in the blood of Jesus Christ. So also we do not say

that the bread is simply bread, but the sacrament of the precious body

of our Lord Jesus Christ which was offered up for us. Yet we do not say

that this change takes place in the substance of the signs, but in the

use and end for which they are ordained." The reformer then touched

upon the doctrines of transubstantiation and consubstantiation; both of

which he rejected. "If then," he continued, "some one asks us, whether

we make Jesus Christ absent from His Holy Supper, we answer that we do

not. But, if we regard the local distance (as we must do, when His

corporeal presence and His humanity distinctly considered are in

question), we say that His body is as far removed from the bread and

wine as the highest heaven is from the earth; since, as to ourselves, we

are on the earth, and the sacraments also; while, as to Him, His flesh

is in heaven, so glorified that his glory, as says St. Augustine, has

not taken away from Him the nature, but only the infirmity of a true

body."

[Sidenote: Outcry of the theologians of the Sorbonne.]

The last words of the sentence were inaudible, except to those who were

close to the speaker. The words, "We say that His body is as far removed

from the bread and wine as the highest heaven is from the earth," had

fired the train to the magazine of concealed impatience and anger

underlying the studied external calmness of the prelatical body. An

explosion instantly ensued. The cry, "Blasphemavit! Blasphemavit Deum!"

resounded from every quarter.[1122] Beza's voice was drowned in the

noisy expressions of disapproval by which the theologians of the

Sorbonne sought to testify their own unimpeachable orthodoxy.[1123] It

seemed for the moment as if the ecclesiastics would continue their

repetition of the words and actions of the Jewish high-priest in the

ancient Sanhedrim, and break up the conference with the exclamation:

"What further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard his

blasphemy." Some of the prelates arose as if to leave, and Cardinal

Tournon went so far as to address himself to Charles and beg him either

to impose silence upon Beza, or to permit him and his brother

ecclesiastics to retire. But no notice was taken of his request.[1124]

On the contrary, the queen and the Cardinal of Lorraine felt constrained

to express their displeasure at this outburst of passion on the part of

the prelates, and their desire that the conference should proceed.[1125]

[Sidenote: Beza's peroration.]

When the storm had somewhat spent its violence, and comparative silence

had been restored, Beza, in no wise discomposed by the uproar, resumed

his interrupted discourse. He deemed it unnecessary to dwell upon the

matter of the administration of holy baptism, he said, for none could

confound the reformers with the Anabaptists, who found no more

determined enemies than they were. With respect to the other five

sacraments of the Romish Church, while the reformed refused to designate

them by that name, they believed that among themselves true confirmation

was established, penitence enjoined, marriage celebrated, ordination

conferred, and the visitation of the sick and dying practised,

conformably to God's Word. The last point--the government of the

Church--Beza despatched with a few words; for, appealing to the prelates

themselves to testify to the results of their recent deliberations, he

described the structure ecclesiastic as one in which everything was so

perverted, everything in such confusion and ruin, that scarce could the

best architects in the world, whether they considered the present order

or had regard to life and morals, recognize the remains, or detect the

traces of that ancient edifice so symmetrically laid out and reared by

the apostles. He closed by declaring the fervent desire of those whose

spokesman he was for the restoration of the Church to its pristine

purity, and by making on their behalf a warm profession of loyalty and

devotion to their earthly king. As he concluded, Beza and his associates

again kneeled in prayer. Then rising, he presented anew to Charles the

confession of faith of the reformed churches, begging him to receive it

as the basis of the present conference between their delegates and the

Romish prelates.[1126]

[Sidenote: Cardinal Tournon tries to cut short the conference.]

As soon as Beza had ended his speech, Cardinal Tournon, the oldest

member of the Papal consistory in France, and presiding officer in the

convocation of the prelates, rose, trembling with anger, and addressed

the king. It was only by express command of Charles, he said, that the

prelates had consented to hear "these new evangelists." They had

hesitated from conscientious scruples, fearing, with good reason, as the

event had proved, that they would utter words unworthy of entering the

ears of a very Christian king, and calculated to offend the good people

around him. It was for this reason that the ecclesiastical convocation

had instructed him, in such case, humbly to entreat his Majesty to give

no credit to the words of him who had spoken for "those of the new

religion," and to suspend his judgment until he had heard the answer

they intended to give. But for their respect for the king, he said, the

prelates, on hearing the abominable blasphemies pronounced in their

hearing, would have risen and broken off the colloquy. He prayed Charles

with the greatest humility to persevere in the faith of his fathers, and

invoked the Virgin Mary and the blessed saints of paradise that thus it

might be.[1127]

[Sidenote: Catharine's decision.]

How long the age-stricken cardinal, the active persecutor of an entire

generation of reformers, would have proceeded in his diatribe against

the "blasphemy" of the Genevese doctor, is doubtful. He was cut short in

the midst of it by the queen mother, who, in a decided tone, informed

him that the plan of the conference had been adopted only after mature

deliberation, with the advice of the council of state and by consent of

parliament. No change or innovation was contemplated, but the appeasing

of the troubles incident upon diversity of religious sentiment, and the

restoration to the right path of such as had erred. The matter in hand

was to demonstrate the truth by means of the simple Word of God, which

should be the sole rule. "We are here," she said, "for the purpose of

hearing you on both sides, and of considering the matter on its own

merits. Therefore, reply to the speech of Sieur de Beze which you have

just heard." "The speech was too long for us to undertake to answer it

on the spur of the moment," responded Tournon, in a more tractable tone;

but he promised that, if a copy of it were given to them in writing, a

suitable refutation would soon be forthcoming on the part of the

prelates.[1128] Thus the conference broke up for the day.

[Sidenote: Advantages gained.]

It could not be denied that Beza had spoken with great effect. For the

first time in forty years the Reformation had obtained a partial

hearing. The time-honored fashion of condemning its professors without

even the formality of a trial had for once been violated; and, to the

satisfaction of some and the dismay of many, it was found that the

arguments that could be alleged in its behalf were neither few nor

insignificant. The Huguenots had acquired a new position in the eyes of

the court; that was certain. They were not a few seditious persons, who

must be put down. They were not a handful of enthusiasts, whom it were

folly to attempt to reason with. The child had become a full-grown man,

whose prejudices--if prejudices they were--must be overcome by calm

argument, rather than removed by chastisement.[1129] If the studied

arrangement of the bar at the Colloquy of Poissy had been employed by

the petty malice of their opponents in order to give them the aspect of

convicted culprits, public opinion, unbiassed by such solemn trifling,

regarded the disputants as equals in the eye of the law, and attempted

to derive from the bearing of the champions some impression concerning

the justice of their respective positions.

The change in the basis for the settlement of the controversy was not

less apparent. For an entire generation the advocates of Protestantism

had been pressing the claims of the Holy Scriptures as the ultimate

authority for the decision of all doubtful questions. The only reply was

a reference to the dogmas of the Church, and the demand of an

unconditional submission to them. Beza had only reiterated the offer,

made a thousand times by his fellow-reformers, to surrender at once his

religious position should it be rendered untenable by means of proofs

drawn from the Scriptures. Cardinal Tournon had again made the trite

rejoinder of the clergy; but sensible persons were tired of the

unsatisfactory repetition. Catharine had given expression to the

peremptory requisition of all enlightened France when she announced the

sole appeal as lying to the "simple Word of God."

[Sidenote: Brilliant success of Beza.]

From this exhibition of his brilliant oratorical powers, and from those

displays that shortly followed, Theodore Beza acquired the highest

reputation both with friend and foe. Even those who would have it that

"he deceived the people," that his acquirements were superficial, that

he lacked good judgment, and, on the whole, had "a very hideous soul,"

could not help admitting that he was of a fine presence, ready wit, and

keen intellect, and that his excellent choice of language and ready

utterance entitled him to the credit of eloquence.[1130] On the other

hand, nothing could exceed the admiration and love excited by his ardent

espousal of their cause in the breasts of the Protestants in all parts

of the kingdom. His appearance at Poissy became their favorite episode

in recent history. His portrait was hung up in many a chamber. He was

almost adored by whole multitudes of Frenchmen,[1131] as one whom noble

birth, learning, and brilliant prospects had not deterred from following

the dictates of his conscientious convictions; whom security in a

foreign land had not rendered indifferent to the interests of the land

of his birth; whose persuasive eloquence had won new adherents to the

cause of the oppressed from among the rich and noble; who had maintained

the truth unabashed in the presence of the king and "of the most

illustrious company on earth."

[Sidenote: His frankness justified.]

Nor will the candid student of history, if he but consider the attitude

of the prelates at the colloquy of Poissy, be more inclined than were

the Protestants of his own day to censure Theodore Beza for any degree

of alleged injudiciousness exhibited in that celebrated sentence in his

speech which provoked the outburst of indignation on the part of Tournon

and his colleagues. What, forsooth, had their reverences come to the

colloquy expecting to hear from the lips of the reformed orators? If not

the most orthodox of sentiments--more orthodox than many sentiments

whose proclamation had been tolerated in their own private

convocation--was there not a moderate allowance of hypocrisy in their

pretended horror at the impiety of the heretic Beza? For certainly it

was scarcely to be anticipated by the most sanguine that he would

profess an unwavering belief in the transmutation of the substance of

the bread and wine into the very body and blood of Jesus Christ that

suffered on the cross; seeing that for a little more than a third of a

century those of whom he was the avowed representative had, it must be

admitted, pretty clearly testified to the contrary on a thousand

"estrapades" from the _Place de Greve_ to the remotest corner of France.

Surely this extreme sensitiveness, this refined orthodoxy, unable to

endure the simple enunciation of an opinion differing from their own on

the part of an avowed opponent, savored a little of affectation; the

more so as it came from prelates whose solicitude for their flocks had

been manifested more in the way of seeking to obtain as large a number

of folds as possible, than in the way of giving any special pastoral

supervision to one, and who found a more congenial residence at the

dissolute court where pleasures and preferment could best be obtained,

than in obscure dioceses where a rude peasantry were thirsting for

instruction in the first rudiments of a Christian education. The truth

was--and no one was so blind as not to see it--that the Romish prelates

had come determined to seize the first good opportunity to break up the

colloquy, because from the colloquy they had good reason to apprehend

serious injury to their interests. Nothing short of a complete betrayal

of his cause by Beza could have precluded this.[1132] Had he been never

so cautious, he could not have avoided giving some handle to those who

were watching him so closely. Not the nature of the sentiment he

expressed, but the danger lest the prelates might take advantage of it

to refuse peremptorily to proceed with the colloquy, was the true ground

of Catharine's displeasure.[1133] In order to remove this, so far as it

might be based upon any misapprehension of the import of his words, Beza

addressed to the queen, on the next day, a dignified but conciliatory

letter of explanation.[1134]

[Sidenote: The prelates' notion of a conference.]

A full week elapsed before the Cardinal of Lorraine was ready to make

his reply. Meantime the prelates had met, and had resolved that, instead

of embracing a discussion of the entire field of controversy between the

two churches, the conference should be restricted to _two_ points--the

nature of the church and the sacraments. It was even proposed that a

formula of faith should be drawn up and submitted to the Protestant

ministers. If they refused to subscribe to it, they were to be formally

excommunicated, and the conference abruptly broken off. Such was the

crude notion of a colloquy conceived by the prelates. No discussion at

all, if possible![1135] Otherwise only on those points where agreement

was most difficult, and it was easiest to excite the _odium theologicum_

of the by-standers. On the other hand, when this came to the ears of the

Protestants, they felt constrained to draw up another solemn protest to

the king against the folly of making the prelates judges in a suit in

which they appeared also as one of the parties--a course so impolitic

that it would rob the colloquy of all the good effects that had been

expected to flow from it.[1136]

[Sidenote: September 16th.]

[Sidenote: Peter Martyr arrives.]

[Sidenote: The Cardinal of Lorraine's reply.]

[Sidenote: The Huguenots to wait for their faith to grow old.]

The remonstrance was not without its effect. On the next day, the

sixteenth of September, the same assemblage was again gathered in the

conventual refectory of Poissy, to hear the reply of the Cardinal of

Lorraine. The reformers appeared as on the previous occasion; but their

ranks had received a notable accession in the venerable Peter Martyr,

just arrived from Zurich. The prelates had, it is true, objected to the

admission of a native of Italy; for the invitation, it was urged, had

been extended only to Frenchmen. But the queen, who had greeted her

distinguished countryman with flattering marks of attention, interfered

in his behalf, and, at the last moment, announced it to be her desire

that he should appear at the colloquy.[1137] The same trickery that had

brought Beza to the bar, in order to give him the appearance of a

criminal put upon trial, rather than that of the representative of a

religious party claiming to possess the unadulterated truth, assigned

Charles of Lorraine a pulpit among his brother prelates, where, with a

theologian more proficient in theological controversy at his elbow, he

could assume the air of a judge giving his final sentence respecting the

matters in dispute.[1138] His long exordium was devoted to a

consideration of the royal and the sacerdotal authority, each of which

he in turn extolled. Then passing to the particular occasion of the

convocation of so goodly a number of archbishops, bishops, and

theologians--to all of whom he professed himself inferior in

intelligence, knowledge, and eloquence--he expressed most sincere pity

for the persons who a week ago had, by the king's command, been

introduced into this assembly--persons long separated from the prelates

by a discordant profession of faith and by insubordination, but showing,

according to their own assertions, some desire to be instructed by

returning to this their native land and to the house of their fathers,

who stood ready to receive and embrace them as children so soon as they

should recognize the Church's authority. He would utter no reproaches,

but compassionate their infirmity. He would recall, not reject; unite,

not separate. The prelates had gladly heard the confession of faith the

Huguenots had made, and heartily wished that, as they agreed in the

words of that document, so they might also agree in the interpretation

of its articles. Dismissing the consideration of the remaining points,

as requiring more time than could be given on a single day, the cardinal

undertook to prove only two positions, viz.: that the Church is not an

invisible, but a visible organization, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is

really and bodily present in the Holy Supper. He then called upon the

reformed ministers, if, in their views respecting the eucharist, they

could accord neither with the Latin Church, nor with the Greek, nor with

the Lutherans of Germany, at least to seek that solitude for which they

seemed to long. "If you have so little desire to approach our faith and

our practice," he said, "go also farther from us, and disturb no longer

the flocks over which you have no legitimate charge, according to the

authority which we have of God; and, allowing your new opinions, if God

permit, to grow as old as our doctrine and traditions have grown, you

will restore peace to many troubled consciences and leave your native

land at rest." He urged Charles to cling steadfastly to the faith of his

ancestors, of whom none had gone astray, and who had transmitted to him

the proud title of "Very Christian" and of "First Son of the Church." He

exhorted the queen mother and his other noble hearers to emulate the

glorious examples set for their imitation by Clotilde, who brought

Clovis to the Christian religion, and by their own illustrious ancestry;

and he concluded by declaring the unalterable determination of the

ecclesiastics of the Gallican Church never to forsake the holy, true,

and Catholic doctrine which they preached, and to sustain which they

would not spare their blood nor their very lives.[1139]

[Sidenote: Tournon's new demand.]

[Sidenote: Beza asks a hearing.]

Such was the substance of the speech of Charles of Lorraine, so long

heralded by his brother ecclesiastics and by the devout Roman Catholics

of the land as the sure refutation of all the heresies which the

reformers might advance. It was fitting that some signal proof of its

success should be given. Scarcely had Lorraine ceased when the whole

body of prelates arose and gathered around the throne. Tournon was again

their spokesman. He declared the full approval with which the Gallican

bishops regarded the address of the Cardinal of Lorraine. They were

ready, if need be, to sign it with their own blood, for it was in

accordance with the will of Christ and of his bride, our Mother Holy

Church. They begged Charles to give it full credit, and persevere in the

Catholic faith of his fathers. Let the Protestants sign what the

cardinal had said, as a preliminary to their receiving further

instruction. If they refused, let Charles purge his very Christian realm

of them, so that there might be only "_une foy_, _une loy_, _un

roy_."[1140] He was followed at once by Theodore Beza, who, on the

contrary, urged his Majesty to grant him the liberty of replying on the

very spot to the arguments of his opponent. But Catharine, after a brief

consultation with the members of the royal council seated near her,

denied the request, and adjourned the discussion until another

occasion.[1141]

[Sidenote: Advancing shadows of civil war.]

The opportunity thus promised, however, seemed distant and doubtful. The

determination of the prelates to have nothing to do with any project for

a fair and equal conference was undisguised, and rumors were frequent

and ominous that the queen would yield before their resolute attitude.

The decision of the reformers, under these circumstances, was soon

taken: it was, that, if these repeated delays were persisted in, they

would leave the court, protesting against the injustice which had been

manifested to them and to their cause.[1142] Yet their anxiety was

great. That dark cloud of portentous aspect could be descried by all

sharp-sighted observers. It was the approaching storm of civil war,

every moment rising higher above the horizon.[1143] Even now its advent

was heralded by the anarchy pervading entire provinces--a righteous

retribution for the sanguinary legislation and the yet more barbarous

executions ordered by the courts of law, to repress the free action of

the human intellect in the most noble sphere in which its energies could

be exercised--the region of religious thought.

[Sidenote: Another conference reluctantly conceded, September 24th.]

[Sidenote: Beza's reply to the Cardinal of Lorraine.]

[Sidenote: Claude D'Espense.]

[Sidenote: Claude de Sainctes.]

Another tedious week passed by. Again, in view of the threats of an

abrupt termination of the colloquy, the Huguenot ministers petitioned

Charles to give them a patient hearing; reminding him of the distance

they had come--some of their number even from foreign lands, relying on

his royal word for a friendly interview with the prelates of his

kingdom--in order to exhibit the inveterate abuses which the Pope and

his agents had introduced into the Church. Other remonstrances of like

tenor followed.[1144] At last, with great reluctance,[1145] the

twenty-fourth of September was selected for a third conference. The

obstinate resistance of the Romish ecclesiastics gained them one point.

The public character of the colloquy was abandoned.[1146] The large

refectory was exchanged for the small chamber of the prioress. The king

was not present. Catharine presided, and Antoine and Jeanne d'Albret,

with the members of the royal council, replaced the more numerous

assemblage of the previous occasions. Instead of the crowd of prelates

whose various and striking dress formed a notable feature of the

colloquy, there appeared five or six cardinals, about as many bishops,

and fifteen or sixteen theologians of the Sorbonne, laden with thick

folios--the writings of the Fathers of the first five centuries, with

which the Cardinal of Lorraine still professed his ability to confute

the Reformed.[1147] Again the twelve Huguenot ministers were admitted;

but the lay deputies of the churches were excluded.[1148] The

discussion was long and desultory. Beza began by replying to the first

part of the cardinal's speech, and showed that there is an invisible as

well as a visible church, and that the marks of the true church are the

preaching of God's Word and the right administration of the sacraments.

Not a succession of ministry from the apostles, but a succession of

doctrine is essential.[1149] He was followed by a theologian of the

Sorbonne, Claude D'Espense, who, after making the gratuitous admission

that he wholly disapproved of the persecutions to which the Protestants

had been subjected,[1150] attempted to prove that the Protestant

ministers had no "calling" to their office, and that recourse must be

had to tradition to explain and supplement the Holy Scriptures. When

Beza was about to reply, the floor was seized by a coarse Dominican

friar, one Claude de Sainctes, who in a scurrilous speech went over much

of the same ground, and, waxing more and more vehement, did not hesitate

to assert that tradition stood on a firmer foundation than the Bible

itself, which could be perverted to countenance the most opposite

doctrines.[1151] An hour and a half of precious time was wasted by this

unseasonable interruption, which had disgusted friend as well as foe.

Then Beza, after remonstrating against the long and irregular character

of the discussion, proceeded, amid frequent interruptions, to set forth

the views of the reformers respecting the extraordinary vocation which

they had received.

[Sidenote: Lorraine demands subscription to the Augsburg Confession.]

[Sidenote: Beza's home thrust.]

But this portion of the debate was soon closed by the Cardinal of

Lorraine, who, declaring that the doctrine respecting the Church had

been sufficiently considered, proposed the question of the sacraments,

asserting that the prelates refused to proceed with the conference until

this should be settled. He then demanded of the ministers _whether they

would subscribe to the Augsburg Confession, which was received by the

Protestants of Germany_. His object was manifest. He had long since

resolved on adopting this course, with the view of either setting the

French reformers at war with their brethren beyond the Rhine, or sowing

dissension in the ranks of the Huguenots themselves. Beza, however, was

not unprepared for the question. He replied by asking whether the

cardinal was himself ready to give the Augsburg Confession his

unqualified approval. The wily prelate parried this home thrust, and

still persisted in his inquiry. Under these circumstances, could the

reformers have relied upon the fairness of the conduct of the

conference, their course would have been clear. But, aware that their

distinct refusal to consider a formula which their opponents were not

themselves prepared to adopt would be seized upon as a welcome pretext

for abruptly breaking off the colloquy, Beza, after declaring that he

and his brethren were deputed by the French churches to maintain their

own confession, and that this document alone furnished the proper

subject for debate, asked that a copy of the articles which they were

required to sign might be furnished him for the deliberation of his

fellow-ministers. The request was granted; and, as the session ended, a

short extract was handed to him, which asserted the real presence of

Christ's body and blood in the sacrament, and its actual reception by

those who partook of the holy ordinance.[1152]

[Sidenote: Alternatives presented to the Huguenots.]

[Sidenote: September 26th.]

[Sidenote: Beza claims fair play]

Two days later the colloquy was renewed. The delay, which had at first

been a source of annoyance to the ministers, was now recognized by them

as a providential interference in their behalf. What they had only

surmised, they now learned with certainty from trustworthy friends.

Their _hesitation_ to sign the Augsburg Confession was to be used as a

convenient handle for breaking up the conference; their _refusal_, for

involving them in a quarrel with Protestant Germany; their _consent_,

for causing their expulsion from the churches they had betrayed, or

splitting those churches up into many parts.[1153] Theodore Beza opened

the discussion by reading the reply which he had carefully prepared by

common consent of all his brethren. Never had his oratorical skill been

exhibited to better advantage. He began by showing the evident

impropriety of introducing, as his opponents had done in the last

conference, a discussion of the validity of the divine vocation of the

Protestant ministers; for they had come here to confer, not to

_officiate_--much less to witness the institution of the semblance of a

penal prosecution against them. The objectionable character of such a

debate would be the more manifest, should he address any supposed bishop

with whom he was disputing and who had inquired: "By what authority do

you preach and administer the sacraments?" and retort by asking him in

turn: "Were you elected by the elders of the church of which you are

bishop? Did the people seek for you? Were inquiries first made

respecting your life, your morals, and your belief?" or, "Who ordained

you? How much did you pay him?" The answers to such questions would make

many a bishop blush. Beza next reminded the cardinal of his promise to

confute the Protestants by the testimony of the Fathers of the first

five centuries. For a discussion based upon them the ministers had come

prepared. But now he brought them a single article on the Lord's Supper,

and imperiously said: "Sign this, or we will proceed no farther!" Even

were the Huguenots prisoners brought before him for trial, they would

not be so treated. Their very office required the prelates to speak

differently, for the bishop must be "able by sound doctrine both to

exhort and to convince the gainsayers."

[Sidenote: and an amicable conference.]

Then turning to the queen mother, Beza reminded her that he and his

companions were there, not only for the purpose of submitting a

confession of their faith, but to serve God, Charles, and herself, by

laboring in all possible ways to appease the troubles that had arisen in

connection with religion. To dismiss them without giving them an

opportunity for an amicable conference would not be the means of

allaying the prevailing disturbances; and those who proposed to do so

knew it well. Were the handful of Protestants at Poissy the only persons

concerned, there might, in the world's eye, be little likelihood that

danger would result from treating them as their enemies desired. But it

might please her Majesty to consider that they were here in behalf of a

million persons in this realm, in Switzerland, Poland, Germany, England,

and Scotland, who watched the proceedings of the colloquy, and who would

be astonished to hear, as they would hear, that, instead of such a

conference as had been promised, the ministers had received the tenth

part of an article, and had been told: "Sign this; otherwise we will

proceed no farther." What would be gained if the Protestants did sign

it; for, did the prelates agree in the Augsburg Confession? If there was

a real desire to confer, let persons be appointed who were willing to

meet the Protestants, and let them examine together the Holy Scriptures

and the old Fathers of the Christian Church, with the books before them,

and let secretaries write out the results of the discussion in an

authentic form. Then it would be known that the ministers had not come

to sow troubles, but to promote accord.[1154]

[Sidenote: Lorraine's anger.]

The prelates were much excited when Beza concluded. His reference to

episcopal elections stung them to the quick. Lorraine angrily accused

him of insulting not only the _sacerdotal_, but the _royal_ authority,

since it was Francis the First that had taken away the election of the

priesthood from the people.[1155] Beza, replying, said that this very

act was an evidence of the radical disturbance of the ancient order,

when avarice, ambition, and unworthy rivalry between monks and canons

rendered such a change necessary. Pressed again to sign the article

submitted two days before, Beza persisted that it was unjust to endeavor

to compel the Protestants to subscribe to that to which the prelates

refused their own indorsement.[1156]

[Sidenote: Peter Martyr and Lainez the Jesuit.]

The discussion was next carried on between the doctors of the Sorbonne

and Beza and Martyr. The latter spoke in Italian,[1157] and won

universal applause; but he was rudely interrupted by the Cardinal of

Lorraine, who said that he did not want to hear a foreign language. A

little later, a Spaniard, Lainez, the second general of the rising order

of Jesus, who had just reached Paris in the train of the Cardinal Legate

of Ferrara, begged permission to speak. Leave was granted him, and he

indulged in an address much more remarkable for its coarse invective

than for its weight of argument.[1158] Not content with dissuading his

hearers from listening to the Protestant ministers as persons already

sufficiently convicted of error, he called them apes and foxes,[1159]

and advised that they be sent to Trent, where the Pope had convoked a

free council to which they might have free access. He condemned the

French for holding a separate council, and reprobated the discussion of

topics of such importance as those now under consideration in the

presence of women, and of men trained to war. After these gentle hints

respecting the qualifications of the queen and his noble auditors to act

as judges, he approached the all-absorbing question of the real

presence--a feeble part of his speech in which we may be excused from

following him. The remainder of the day was spent in warm debate, which

continued until the approach of night. Just as all were rising and about

to leave, however, the queen called to her Beza and the Cardinal of

Lorraine, and adjured them in God's name to strive for the establishment

of peace. A knot of friends gathered around each; the conference was

renewed amid much confusion and noise; but the darkness soon

necessitated an adjournment.[1160]

[Sidenote: Close of the Colloquy of Poissy.]

It was the last day of the Colloquy of Poissy. If anything more had

until now been needed to demonstrate the futility of all hopes based

upon an open discussion regulated solely by the caprice of the Cardinal

of Lorraine, it was certainly furnished by the experience of the last

session. Catharine, however, was loth to abandon the scheme from which

she had expected such important results to flow. With her usual

incapacity to understand the strength of religious convictions deeply

implanted in the soul, she still hoped to secure, from a private

interview of the more moderate Roman Catholics with a few of the leading

Protestants, a plan of agreement that might serve to unite both

communions. Some of her more conscientious advisers shared in the same

sanguine expectations.

[Sidenote: A private conference.]

[Sidenote: The Roman Catholic champions.]

[Sidenote: The Abbe de Salignac.]

Five Roman Catholic ecclesiastics were chosen to confer with as many

Protestant ministers. They were selected as well for learning and

ability as for reputed moderation of sentiment.[1161] The Bishops

Montluc of Valence, and Du Val of Seez in Normandy, the Abbe's de

Salignac and Bouteiller, and D'Espense, doctor in the Sorbonne, were

probably all believed to be half inclined to fall in with the

reformatory current. Of Montluc and D'Espense, mention has already more

than once been made. Bouteiller, it will be remembered, was the priest

who had officiated in the Cardinal of Chatillon's episcopal palace at

Beauvais, the last Easter preceding, when the communion was administered

under both kinds, "after the fashion of Geneva."[1162] Salignac was a

timid man, a fair sample of the "Nicodemites," who had proved the bane

of the Reformation in France. For thirty years he had held, and to some

extent--if we may credit his own words--professed the same doctrines as

Calvin, continually exhorting his hearers to turn from an empty, formal

worship, to Christ as the only Saviour. Confessedly he had not rejected

"_that false doctrine_"--for thus he did not hesitate, in his private

correspondence with a Protestant, to designate the Romish creed--so

openly as the reformers were wont to do; but he claimed to have won the

universal approval of the best men around him by his attacks upon

"Babylon," which he had approached sometimes "by mines," sometimes "in

open warfare," according to time and circumstances.[1163] Since no

violent opposition seems ever to have been made, no persecution ever to

have arisen against Salignac, and in view of the fact that the conflict

of the last thirty years had been sufficiently sanguinary and little

calculated to reassure timid combatants, it is highly probable that the

prudent abbe's subterranean operations greatly outnumbered his more

valiant exploits. Well might the reformers, who knew that victory was to

be obtained, not by burrowing under the ground, but by facing the perils

of the battle-field, exclaim:

Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis

Tempus eget.

[Sidenote: Conference at St. Germain.]

[Sidenote: A discussion of words.]

Theodore Beza, Peter Martyr, Angustin Marlorat, Jean de L'Espine, and

Nicholas des Gallars, were appointed to represent the Protestants, and

it was arranged that secretaries should be present at the conferences to

note the progress made toward unity. The ten theologians met in the

apartments of the King of Navarre, at St. Germain. Their conclusions

were to be submitted to the Protestant ministers and delegates present

at the court, and at the same time carried to Poissy for ratification by

the still assembled prelates. Both parties were in earnest in seeking

for common ground on which they might stand. Compelled by the

instructions the bishops had received, to commence with the knotty

question of the eucharist instead of adopting the more natural order of

the articles of the confession of faith, the Romish party inquired

whether, abandoning discussion for the time, both sides might not agree

on the formula which had been drawn up and approved by four of their

number on the twenty-fifth of September, or on some similarly moderate

statement. The question, so far as the formula they referred to was

concerned, was promptly answered by Peter Martyr. The Zurich reformer,

somewhat apprehensive, as he had lately shown, lest his colleagues

should, in their eagerness for accord, make something approaching a

sacrifice of doctrine, greatly to their surprise drew from his pocket a

paper which he proceeded to read: "I reply, for my part, that the body

of Christ is truly and substantially nowhere else than in heaven. I do

not, however, deny that Christ's true body and his true blood, which

were given on the cross for the salvation of men, are by faith and

spiritually received by the believing in the Holy Supper."[1164] A

friendly but laborious discussion, not of ideas nor of doctrines, but of

words, ensued. At length a statement was drawn up sufficiently

comprehensive, yet sufficiently general to admit of being approved in

good conscience by the entire number of theologians.[1165] But the

prelates of Poissy promptly rejecting the article, the next day it was

necessary to renew the deliberation. A second form of agreement was

drafted,[1166] which the Roman Catholic deputies felt confident would

meet with the approval of those who had sent them.

[Sidenote: Premature delight of the queen mother.]

[Sidenote: The article rejected by the prelates.]

[Sidenote: Their demand.]

Although the article itself was to be kept secret until submitted to the

prelates, the tidings that a harmonious result had been reached rapidly

flew through the court and was carried to Catharine herself. Beza and

Montluc were summoned into her presence. In the excess of her joy at the

prospect of the peaceful solution of a difficult problem, and of an

issue of the colloquy which would greatly conduce to her glory and the

firmer establishment of her rule, Catharine even cordially embraced the

reformer, and bade him go on in the good way he and his companions had

entered. Beza, not blind to the difficulties that still beset their

path, replied that their highest desires were for truth and peace, but

that a good beginning only had been made.[1167] The Cardinal of

Lorraine, after reading the article, expressed the belief that the

prelates of Poissy would be pleased,[1168] and for his own part seemed

to regard the Protestants as having surrendered the entire ground of

controversy to the Roman Catholics.[1169] But both queen and cardinal

were soon undeceived. The assembled prelates rejected the modified

article with scorn, treating with insult the deputies that brought it,

as having betrayed their cause and played into the hands of the

reformers.[1170] Under these circumstances a continuation of the

conference would have been absurd. The Roman Catholic deputies,

despairing of any good fruits from their efforts at conciliation, never

returned; and the last vestige of the colloquy, on which such brilliant

anticipations had been based, vanished into thin air.[1171] The prelates

themselves continued to sit for a few days. A committee of three bishops

and sundry doctors of the Sorbonne, to whom the article agreed upon by

the Roman Catholic and Huguenot delegates was submitted for examination,

pronounced it (on the sixth of October) to be incomplete, dangerous, and

heretical. Three days later the prelates published a formal condemnation

of it, offered a definition which they declared to be orthodox, and

called upon the king to require Beza and his companions either to sign

this new formula, or to consult the public peace by leaving France

altogether. A long series of canons, in which the question of church

discipline was touched lightly, and that of doctrine not at all--the

paltry result of more than two months of sufficiently animated,[1172] if

not very harmonious discussion--was at the same time given to the

world.[1173]

[Sidenote: Catharine's financial success.]

From a political point of view, the assembly of the prelates at Poissy

had not been unprofitable to the government. Alarmed by the radical

projects of the wholesale confiscation of ecclesiastical property which

had found no little favor with the other orders at Pontoise, equally

alarmed by the possibility of being compelled to enter into a full and

fair discussion with the champions of the Protestant doctrines, the

wealthy dignitaries of the Gallican Church brought themselves, not

without a severe struggle, to purchase exemption from these perils by a

pecuniary concession which delighted the perplexed financiers of France.

They pledged themselves to pay, by semi-annual instalments, the entire

sum needed for the redemption of the royal domain which had been

alienated to satisfy the public creditors.[1174] But in return they

demanded important equivalents. The first item was that the severe

"Edict of July" should be made perpetual and irrevocable. This request

Catharine and the council denied. To declare that odious law, which it

had never been possible to carry into execution in several provinces of

France, a part of the fundamental constitution, would be a gratuitous

insult to the Huguenots, and would precipitate the country instantly

into the abyss upon the verge of which it was already hanging.

[Sidenote: Order for the restitution of the churches.]

The other demands of the bishops it seemed more practicable to grant.

They required that Charles should by solemn edict order the

instantaneous restitution of the churches seized by the Huguenots. In

spite of the earnest protest of Beza,[1175] the government (on the

eighteenth of October) complied with the request.[1176] Within

twenty-four hours after the receipt of this edict, all persons who had

taken possession of churches were commanded, on penalty of death as

rebels and felons, to vacate them, restoring whatever valuables they had

removed, and replacing the images and crosses they had destroyed. At the

same time the prohibition of the use of insulting language and acts was

renewed, and both parties were bidden to place their arms in the hands

of the local magistrates.[1177] Thus, to use Beza's language, was Christ

betrayed, but at a much dearer price than that for which he was,

centuries ago, sold by Judas--for sixteen millions of francs instead of

the thirty pieces of silver.[1178] Having, by extorting the Edict of

Restitution, succeeded in paving the way for renewed commotions, soon to

culminate in open and widespread war, the prelates adjourned, with

mingled satisfaction and disgust, toward the end of October, 1561.[1179]

[Sidenote: Arrival of five German delegates.]

The conference of Poissy had scarcely been definitely abandoned when

five German Protestants appeared upon the scene. Three of these--Andreae,

Beuerlin, and Balthasar Bidembach--had been sent by the Duke of

Wuertemberg; the others--Bouquin and Dilher--by the Elector Palatine.

Early in the summer, the King of Navarre, anxious to strengthen himself

by enlisting in his favor the Protestant princes of Germany, had

expressed to them the desire, in which Catharine coincided, that some

theologians--learned and pious men, and inclined to peace--should be

sent from beyond the Rhine to take part in the adjustment of the

religious questions at the Colloquy of Poissy. The Protestant electors,

the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Duke of Wuertemberg, were unable,

however, to agree on the instructions to be given to the envoys. While

the duke, devotedly attached to the doctrines of Luther, was bent upon

strongly recommending the adoption of the Augsburg Confession, the other

princes could not acquiesce in his plan. The landgrave refused to throw

additional difficulties in the way of the reformed churches of France,

just emerging from a period of relentless persecution, and seeking for

the public recognition of the right to worship God, for which so many

martyrs had cheerfully laid down their lives. The Elector of Saxony

distrusted the sincerity of the intentions of the French court. As for

the Count Palatine, he himself had embraced the reformed theology, and

could not be expected to urge the Huguenots to give up their own

well-digested confession for one which they considered far inferior to

it in all respects.[1180] And so it happened that, in consequence of a

diversity of sentiment regarding both doctrine and policy, there was no

general deputation sent to France, and the delegates of the two princes

who complied with the invitation arrived at Paris after the

colloquy--too late to do any harm, if not soon enough to do much good.

They were courteously received by the court. The Wuertembergers, in

particular, were allowed frequent opportunities of explaining the merits

of the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Before their return into

Germany, they were distinctly informed by Navarre that, while he

recommended a closer union between the two branches of the Protestant

Church, his own views accorded with those of the adherents of the

Augsburg Confession; and that his only reason for delaying to subscribe

to it was a fear lest this step might interfere with the execution of

the union he desired to effect.[1181]

[Sidenote: Why the colloquy proved a failure.]

The Colloquy of Poissy had proved, so far as the objects contemplated by

its originators were concerned, a complete failure. Instead of drawing

the Roman Catholic and the reformed churches together, it had only

widened the breach separating them. Instead of exhibiting in a clearer

light the common ground on which a union might be practicable, it had

rendered patent to all the antagonism which could not be cloaked by

ambiguous phrases and incomplete statements of doctrine. It is certainly

worth while to inquire into some of the causes of a result so unexpected

to a great number of intelligent men, who had framed their anticipations

upon no superficial view of the subject.

[Sidenote: Catharine's crude notion of a conference.]

The crude notions of the court respecting the character which such a

conference ought to assume must be regarded as one of these causes.

Catharine, while extending the most gracious invitations to foreign

Protestants, was herself apparently undecided how to treat the Huguenots

when they should make their appearance. Even if we grant that her

explanations of the object of the projected colloquy, referred to on a

preceding page,[1182] received their coloring from the fact that she was

supplying her ambassador in Germany with plausible representations

wherewith to appease such irritated bigots as feared that the French

queen intended to propose a grave discussion of the religious question

upon its own merits, yet the entire course of the conference exhibits

her inability to comprehend the nature of a fair debate of the matters

in dispute. The Huguenot ministers and delegates were obliged to

petition that the prelates should not be permitted to act as their

judges, and afterward to remind her of the promise she had given them to

this effect. Even after the point had been nominally accorded, the most

important questions respecting the conference were decided in the

council, where _five_ cardinals and _three_ bishops had seats.[1183]

Under these circumstances it is not astonishing that Lorraine assumed a

tone of superiority which his relation to the debate by no means

warranted.

[Sidenote: Character of the prelates.]

Besides this, the character of the assembly of prelates itself precluded

the possibility of an adjustment. With the exception of six or seven, so

insignificant were these ecclesiastical dignitaries individually, that,

as a modern historian has well remarked, not one distinguished himself

sufficiently to be named by any of the writers who treat of the

conference. They were, generally, the younger sons of the most

distinguished families in France, and had entered the church not from

devotion, but in consequence of an immemorial custom which consigned to

the episcopal dignity or to a rich abbacy the youth whom an elder

brother debarred from entertaining the hope of succeeding to his

father's dignities and possessions. Few of them had ever seen their

dioceses save on some great festival; none possessed the literary or

theological training necessary to qualify them for coping with the

master-minds among the Protestants. Accordingly, each bishop had to come

to Poissy with one or more "theologians," doctors of the Sorbonne, to

whose better judgment and superior learning he was content to defer on

every disputed point. There was little probability that a body thus

constituted would consent to enter into a candid consideration of the

differences separating the Roman Catholic and Protestant worlds.[1184]

[Sidenote: Influence of the papal legate.]

[Sidenote: The despondent nuncio, Viterbo.]

But the single event said by an eye-witness and actor in these scenes

to have conduced more than any other to destroy all hope of agreement,

was the arrival at court of the papal legate, Ippolito D'Este, Cardinal

of Ferrara.[1185] Pope Pius IV. had long been watching the affairs of

France with deep solicitude. If his legates, Tournon and Lorraine, had

failed to alarm him by their reports of the progress of the "new

doctrines," he could not but be troubled by the accounts which came from

his nuncio in France, Sebastiano Gualtieri, Bishop of Viterbo.

Gualtieri, an experienced diplomatist, learned, eloquent--and not

wanting in cunning,[1186] if we may believe his successor in office--had

proved himself unequal to the duties of his present position, by giving

way to extreme despondency. In the gay capital of France he led a

wretched life, in constant dread of future disaster, and ceaselessly

uttering lugubrious prognostications. To the Pope he announced that

religious matters in France were desperate; everything was rushing to

ruin with ever-increasing velocity. The queen mother was unsound in the

faith, although, from motives of policy, she dissembled her true

sentiments. She favored a preacher, one Bouteiller, who was equally

unsound; and she refused to dismiss him when admonished of her error. He

begged the pontiff to recall him, so that he might not witness the

funeral obsequies of the unhappy kingdom.[1187]

[Sidenote: Anxiety of Pope Pius IV.]

[Sidenote: The Nuncio Santa Croce.]

[Sidenote: The Cardinal of Ferrara.]

Pius, rendered more apprehensive by these continual tidings of evil, and

displeased with much that his legates had done,[1188] could no longer

delay to take decided action. Accordingly, he resolved to grant

Gualtieri's request, and to send as apostolic nuncio in his place Santa

Croce, Bishop of Pisa, who had formerly occupied this position at

Paris, but was now acting in a similar capacity in Portugal.[1189] But

so grave did the conjuncture appear in the eyes of the papal court,

that, at a solemn consistory held on the twenty-eighth of June, the

resolution was adopted to despatch a _third_ legate to St. Germain! The

pretext of this extraordinary mission was the desire to testify more

clearly than the selection of the two previously existing legates had

done, to the earnestness of the solicitude felt at Rome for the

interests of the Church in France.[1190] The true reason would appear to

have been to correct the mistakes which the existing legates were

supposed to have committed. For the delicate post of _legatus a latere_,

no better candidate could be found than the Cardinal of Ferrara.

Although a man of no high intellectual abilities, he had received a

thorough training in the Macchiavellian theory of politics,[1191] and,

during many years of diplomatic service, had enjoyed a fair opportunity

for schooling himself in its practical workings. The son of Lucretia

Borgia, the grandson of Pope Alexander the Sixth, could scarcely help

being an adept at intrigue. Next to this special qualification, his

highest recommendations were that he was the brother-in-law of Renee of

France, and so by marriage uncle of the Duke of Guise; and that he had

twelve good reasons for feeling deep concern for the steadfastness of

French orthodoxy, viz.: the three archbishoprics, the one bishopric, and

the eight rich abbeys which he held within the confines of Charles's

dominions, deriving therefrom an income which was popularly estimated at

from forty to sixty thousand crowns.[1192]

[Sidenote: Master Renard turned monk.]

The new legate accepted the appointment with alacrity. Not so the

nuncio. It was no small trial to leave the quiet court of Lisbon--where

his predecessors had been accustomed, during a short stay of a year or

two, to accumulate a handsome fortune[1193]--for the turmoil of the

French capital, threatened every day with the outbreak of civil war,

where nothing but censure and hatred could be reaped.[1194] But Santa

Croce did not hesitate long to renounce his golden prospects, and almost

at the same moment that the Cardinal of Ferrara started from the banks

of the Tiber, the Bishop of Pisa set forth from the gates of Lisbon.

Neither legate nor nuncio, however, was in much haste to reach his

destination. Ferrara could plead ill-health, Santa Croce the prostrating

heat of the season.[1195] It took each of the prelates two months and a

half to accomplish his journey--the legate reaching the French court on

the nineteenth of September, the nuncio toward the end of the same

month.[1196] The former travelled in great magnificence, with a

brilliant escort of four hundred horsemen or more, and accompanied by

several bishops and other persons of distinction, among whom was Lainez,

the Jesuit, whose acquaintance we have already made. Avoiding the larger

French cities where the Reformation had gained a foothold, and where,

consequently, marks of popular insult were apprehended,[1197] he

received a brilliant welcome at the court, the king's brother Henry, and

others, riding out to greet him at his approach. The _people_ were less

cordial. His assumed devotion could not deceive those who knew him to be

a devotee of pleasure.[1198] His appearance forcibly reminded them of

the old story of Master Fox turned hermit, and cries of "Au Renard! Au

Renard!" were so loudly uttered when he was seen in the streets preceded

by an attendant carrying a large silver cross, the badge of his office,

that he was soon fain to discard the obnoxious emblem.[1199] This was

not the only insult he was compelled to swallow. A portrait of his

grandfather, Pope Alexander the Sixth, was engraved and published, with

an account of his life and death, in which the moral character of

Lucretia Borgia was painted in the darkest colors.[1200] It was,

however, speedily suppressed by the civil authorities.

[Sidenote: Opposition of people and chancellor.]

The plenary powers which the papal commission conferred upon Ippolito

d'Este created an opposition even in higher circles. He had, it is true,

apprehending an unfavorable reception, taken the pains to invite the

French ambassador at Venice to confer with him while he was stopping in

Ferrara on his way to Paris, and had assured him that he went with the

sole intention of subserving the interests of France, and would use the

powers given him by the Pope no farther than Charles desired.[1201] This

and reiterated assurances of the same tenor, after his arrival, did not

remove the scruples of Michel de l'Hospital. The latter insisted that

the authority which the Pope pretended to confer upon his legate was in

direct contravention of the resolution of the recent States General,

that ecclesiastical benefices should henceforth be at the disposition,

not of the Pope, but of the prelates in their respective dioceses, and

that no papal dispensations should hereafter be received. He therefore

declined to give to the pontifical warrant the official ratification

without which it was of no validity in the kingdom; and he was supported

in his refusal by the majority of the royal council. He was, however,

overruled. It would be highly improper, the Cardinal of Ferrara

persuaded Catharine and her advisers to believe, that a prelate allied

to the royal house of France should be the first legate to be denied the

customary honors. And so L'Hospital, after receiving a direct order from

the king, and having had several altercations with the legate,

reluctantly affixed the great seal of France, taking care to relieve

himself of all responsibility by writing below it the words, _Me non

consentiente_. This addition for the present rendered the document

entirely useless, for parliament promptly refused to receive or register

that which had failed to meet with the chancellor's approbation.[1202]

[Sidenote: The legate's successful intrigues.]

[Sidenote: His excessive complaisance.]

The first great aim of Ferrara was to prevent the assembly of prelates

at Poissy from assuming in any degree the character of a national

council by undertaking a genuine reformation of doctrine or practice,

and to induce the reference of all such questions as ought there to have

been discussed, to the Council of Trent.[1203] How well he succeeded was

shown by the event. By purposely delaying his arrival until the assembly

had convened, he avoided the defeat that he might have experienced had

he been on the spot and opposed its opening.[1204] He was sufficiently

early, however, to effect all that was really of moment. His manners

were conciliatory and paved the way for his intrigues. Catharine was the

more friendly both to him and to Santa Croce, because of the contrast

between their deportment and that of Gualtieri, whom she hated for his

sour disposition and boorish ways.[1205] Navarre and the princes

suspected of a leaning toward Protestantism were plied with other arts.

In fact, so well did the legate counterfeit liberality of sentiment,

that even the Pope and his brethren of the Roman consistory seem to have

become a little alarmed. For he went so far, on one occasion, as to

accompany the Huguenot nobles to hear the sermon of one of their

ministers, greatly to the displeasure of the Pope and of Philip the

Second, as well as of the Cardinal of Tournon and other bigots at the

French court who could not follow the tangled thread of his tortuous

policy.[1206] It was difficult for him to convince them that he had made

this extraordinary concession simply in order to induce Antoine and his

more intractable queen in their turn to attend the Roman Catholic

services. Navarre was naturally the person whom legate and nuncio were

most anxious to influence. For, respecting Catharine, they soon

satisfied themselves that, if she was not a very ardent Romanist, she

was nothing of a Protestant.[1207] The King of Navarre, however, was to

be gained only by skilful and concerted diplomacy. Easy to be duped as

he was, he had met with so many disappointments that he required

something more than vague assurances to induce him to throw away the

solid advantages derived from still being the reputed head of the

Huguenots. For about this time his agents at Madrid and at Rome had been

coldly received. Philip and his minister Alva excused themselves from

paying any attention to his claims upon Navarre or an equivalent, until

Antoine had shown more decided devotion to Catholicism than was afforded

by simply attending mass, and they had made it evident that armed

intervention in behalf of the French adherents of the old faith was

rather to be expected from the Spaniard, than any act of condescension

in favor of the titular king. From Rome he had scarcely obtained more

encouragement than from Madrid.[1208] Under these circumstances, it

seemed that little was needed to make his alienation from Romanism

complete.

[Sidenote: Antoine of Navarre plied with suggestions.]

While, therefore, the Spanish ambassador, Chantonnay, brother of

Cardinal Granvelle, by his severity and his continual threats of war not

only discouraged the Navarrese king, but rendered himself so hateful to

the court that his presence could scarcely be endured,[1209] the papal

emissaries, to whom the Venetian Barbaro lent efficient aid, allured him

by brilliant hopes of a sovereignty which Philip, induced by the Pope's

intercessions, would confer upon him. Convinced that the destruction of

all hope of recovering Navarre from the Spanish king would instantly

cause Antoine to throw himself without disguise into the arms of the

Calvinists, and would thus secure the speedy triumph of the Reformation

throughout all France,[1210] they even persuaded Chantonnay to abate

somewhat of his insolence, and to ascribe his master's delay in

satisfying Antoine's requests to Philip's belief that his suppliant was

confident of being able to frighten the Spaniards into

restitution.[1211] They represented to Antoine himself that his only

chance of success lay in devotion to the Catholic faith. Joining arms

with "those flagitious men" the Huguenots, he would arouse the hostility

of almost all Christendom. The Pope, the priests, even the greater part

of France, would be his enemies. In a conflict with them he could place

little reliance upon troops unaccustomed to war and drawn from every

quarter--none at all upon the English, who were ancient enemies, or upon

the Germans, who fought for pay. Better would it be for him to secure

but half his demands by peace, than to lose all by trying the fortunes

of war.[1212]

How thoroughly the legate and nuncio, with the assistance of their

faithful allies, the Spanish ambassador and the Guises, Montmorency and

St. Andre, were successful in seducing the unstable King of Navarre from

his allegiance to the Protestant faith, this, and the disastrous results

of his defection, will be developed in a subsequent part of our history.

[Sidenote: Contradictory counsels.]

[Sidenote: The triumvirate retire in disgust.]

The edict of the eighteenth of October, for the restitution of the

churches of which the Huguenots had taken possession, was by no means an

exponent of the true dispositions of the court. It was rather a measure

of political expediency, reluctantly adopted, to attain the double end

of securing the pecuniary grant of which the government stood in

pressing need, and of preventing Philip from executing the threats of

invasion which Alva had but too plainly made in his interview with the

French envoy extraordinary, Montberon d'Auzances, and the ambassador,

Sebastien de l'Aubespine[1213]--threats which nothing would have been

more likely to convert into stern realities than the concession of the

churches for which the Protestants clamored. It was a measure

determined upon by a royal council in which the influence of the party

inclined to Protestant and liberal principles was preponderant; in which

the advice of the moderate Chancellor L'Hospital was supreme; in which

the plans of the Guises, of Montmorency and St. Andre, were set aside,

to make room for those of Conde and Montluc, Bishop of Valence. It is

this fact that furnishes the clue to a circumstance which at first sight

seems an inexplicable paradox, namely, that almost the very day on which

the intolerant resolution, compelling the Huguenots to surrender the

churches, even in places where they constituted the vast majority of the

population, was adopted, the members of the triumvirate, formed for the

express purpose of upholding the papal church in France, left the court

in disgust. It was scarcely to be expected that these ambitious nobles,

accustomed to occupy the first rank, and to dispose of the national

concerns according to their own private pleasure, should submit with

good grace to the decisions of a council in which the Bourbons held the

sway, and a hated chancellor's opinions were followed whom they

themselves had raised to his elevated position. Much less was it natural

for them to remain when the measures which the administration proposed

were of enlarged toleration, instead of greater repression. Accordingly,

the Duke of Guise left Saint Germain for Joinville, one of his estates

on the borders of Lorraine, while his brother, the cardinal, repaired to

his archbishopric of Rheims. Here, while pretending to apply himself

with unheard-of diligence to his duties as a spiritual shepherd, and

preaching, as was reported, rather the Lutheran than the Romish view of

the eucharist, he was making bids as high as those of the duke, if of a

different kind, for the favor and support of the neighboring German

princes who adhered to the Confession of Augsburg. Catharine, not sorry

to be rid of their presence, and "best pleased when the world was

discordant," gave them a kind dismissal. The elements were less

propitious. An extraordinarily severe storm that swept over St. Germain

on the day of their departure gave rise to a report among the courtiers

that "the devil was carrying them off." It was little suspected,

quaintly remarks the narrator of this incident, how soon he was going

to bring them back![1214] Cardinal Tournon and Constable Montmorency

followed the example of the Guises, and went into retirement.

[Sidenote: Hopes entertained of the young king.]

[Sidenote: Charles's curiosity respecting the mass.]

The prospect was at this moment as dark to the papal party as it was

full of encouragement for the Huguenots and their sympathizers. Nothing

but a resort to violence could avert the speedy downfall of the

authority of the Roman pontiff in France. A few months more of peace,

and everything might be lost.[1215] If the young king continued under

the influences now surrounding him, he might become a Huguenot openly,

as it was pretty well understood, by those who had the opportunity of

seeing him daily and noting his words and actions, that he was already

half inclined to be one now. The Queen of Navarre, the Prince of Conde,

and the leading Protestants at court perceived this and could not hide

their delight. One day about this time, Jeanne D'Albret drew the English

ambassador apart from the courtiers waiting upon her, and, having seated

him by her side, related a conversation she had within the past few days

held with Charles. It is thus reported by Throkmorton in a despatch to

Queen Elizabeth: "Good aunt," said the king, "I pray you tell me what

doth this mean, that the king, my uncle, your husband, doth every day go

to mass, and you come not there, nor my cousin, your son, the Prince of

Navarre? I answered (quoth the queen), Sire, the king, my husband doth

so because you go thither, to wait upon you and obey your order and

commandment. Nay, aunt (quoth he), I do neither command nor desire him

to do so. But if it be naught (as I do hear say it is), he might well

enough forbear to be at it, and offend me nothing at all; for if I might

as well as he, and did believe of it as he doth, I would not be at it

myself. The queen said, Why, sir, what do you believe of it? The king

answered, The queen, my mother, Monsieur de Cipierre, and my

schoolmaster doth tell me, that it is very good, and that I do there

daily see God; but (said the king) I do hear by others that neither God

is there nor the thing very good. And surely, aunt, to be plain with

you, _I would not be there myself_. And therefore you may boldly

continue and do as you do, and so may the king, my uncle, your husband,

use the matter according to his conscience for any displeasure he shall

do unto me. _And, surely, aunt_ (quoth he), _when I shall be at my own

rule I mean to quit the matter!_ But I pray you (said the king), keep

this matter to yourself, and use it so that it come not to my mother's

ears."[1216]

It need not occasion surprise that the Queen of Navarre paused, in the

midst of her expressions of intense gratification, to give utterance to

the fear that Charles might be "too toward, too virtuous, and too good

to tarry amongst them," or recalled the many similar "acts and sayings

of the late King Edward of England, who did not live long."[1217]

[Sidenote: Beza is begged to remain.]

When the first intimation of the edict for the restoration of the

churches reached Beza, his impulse was to abandon forthwith a court

where his hopes had been so cruelly disappointed, and a want of proper

confidence had been displayed by his very friends among the royal

counsellors. But his indignant remonstrances were met by the assurance

that benevolent designs for the Reformation were concealed beneath the

apparent harshness of the law, which was a necessary concession to

certain circumstances. He was entreated to be of good courage and to

remain. Catharine joined her solicitations to those of Conde, Admiral

Coligny, and other chiefs of the Protestants. Beza reluctantly

consented, and while Martyr was suffered to depart with courteous

acknowledgments of his services, the Genevese was still more honorably

retained at court.[1218] The new measure from which brilliant results

were expected was the calling of an assembly of notables, including

representatives from each of the parliaments, the princes of the blood,

and members of the council, etc., which was to meet in December, and to

suggest some decree on the subject of the religious question, of a

provisional, if not of a permanent character.[1219]

[Sidenote: Spanish plot to kidnap the Duke of Orleans.]

[Sidenote: The Huguenot churches in France.]

About the same time, upon a rumor that the Duke of Nemours, a faithful

ally of the Guises, had plotted to carry off the young Duke of Orleans,

the future Henry the Third, into Spain, with the view of affording his

brother-in-law Philip a specious pretext for interfering in Trench

affairs,[1220] Catharine de' Medici turned to the Protestants, and

inquired what forces of theirs she could rely upon in the threatened

contest with the Spanish, Papal, and German Roman Catholic troops. Her

question elicited the significant fact that there were two thousand one

hundred and fifty Huguenot churches in France, varying in size from a

mere handful of believers to a community of thousands of members,

embracing almost the entire population of a provincial city, and under

the guidance of several pastors. In the name of these churches a

petition was presented to the king, asking for places of worship, and

loyally tendering life and property in his defence.[1221]