The Estates met at Orléans on the 13th of December. The opening speech

by the Chancellor, Michel de l'Hôpital, showed that the Regent and her

councillors were at least inclined to a policy of tolerance. The three

orders (Clergy, Nobles, and Third Estate), he said, had been summoned to

find remedies for the divisions which existed within the kingdom; and

these, he believed, were due to religion. He could not help recognising

that religious beliefs, good or bad, tended to excite burning passions.

He could not avoid seeing that a common religion was a stricter bond of

unity than belonging to the same race or living under the same laws.

Might they not all wait for the decision of a General Council? Might

they not cease to use the irritating epithets of _Lutherans_,

_Huguenots_, _Papists_, and remember that they were all good Christians.

The spokesmen of the three orders were heard at the second sitting. Dr.

Quintin, one of the Regents of the University of Paris, voiced the

Clergy. He enlarged against the proposals which were to be brought

forward by the other two orders to despoil the revenues of the Church,

to attempt its reform by the civil power, and to grant toleration and

even liberty of worship to heretics. Coligny begged the Regent to note

that Quintin had called subjects of the King heretics, and the spokesman

of the Clergy apologised. Jacques de Silly, Baron de Rochefort, and Jean

Lange, an advocate of Bordeaux, who spoke for the Nobles and for the

Third Estate, declaimed against the abuses of ecclesiastical courts, and

the avarice and ignorance of the clergy.

At the sitting on Jan. 1st, 1561, each of the three Estates presented a

written list of grievances (_cahiers_). That of the Third Estate was a

memorable and important document in three hundred and fifty-four

articles, and reveals, as no other paper of the time does, the evils

resulting from absolutist and aristocratic government in France. It

asked for complete toleration in matters of religion, for a Reformation

of the Church in the sense of giving a large extension of power to the

laity, for uniformity in judicial procedure, for the abolition or

curtailment of powers in signorial courts, for quinquennial meetings of

the Estates General, and demanded that the day and place of the next

meeting should be fixed before the end of the present sitting. The

Nobles were divided on the question of toleration, and presented three

separate papers. In the first, which came from central Prance, stern

repression of the Protestant faith was demanded; in the second, coming

from the nobles of the Western provinces, complete toleration was

claimed; in the third it was asked that both parties should be made to

keep the peace, and that only preachers and pastors be punished. The

list presented by the Clergy, like those of the other two orders,

insisted upon the reform of the Church; but it took the line of urging

the abolition of the Concordat, and a return to the provisions of the

Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges.

The Government answered these lists of grievances presented by an edict

and an ordinance. In the edict (Jan. 28th, 1561) the King ordered that

all prosecutions for religion should cease, and that all prisoners

should be released, with an admonition "to live in a catholic manner"

for the future. The ordinance (dated Jan. 31st, but not completed till

the following August), known as the _Ordinance of Orléans_, was a very

elaborate document. It touched upon almost all questions brought forward

in the lists of grievances, and enacted various reforms, both civil and

ecclesiastic--all of which were for the most part evaded in practice.

The Estates were adjourned until the 1st of May.

The Huguenots had gained a suspension of persecution, if not toleration,

by the edict of Jan. 28th, and the disposition of the Government made

them hope for still further assistance. Refugees came back in great

numbers from Switzerland, Germany, England, and even from Italy. The

number of Protestant congregations increased, and Geneva provided the

pastors. The edict did not give liberty of worship, but the Protestants

acted as if it did. This roused the wrath of the more fanatically

disposed portion of the Roman Catholic population. Priests and monks

fanned the flames of sectarian bitterness. The Government was denounced,

and anti-Protestant riots disturbed the country. When the Huguenots of

Paris attempted to revive the psalm-singings in the Pré-aux-Clercs, they

were mobbed, and beaten with sticks by the populace. This led to

reprisals in those parts of the country where the Huguenots were in a

majority. In some towns the churches were invaded, the images torn down,

and the relics burnt. The leaders strove to restrain their

followers.[215] Calvin wrote energetically from Geneva against the

lawlessness:

"God has never enjoined on any one to destroy idols, save on every

man in his own house or on those placed in authority in public

places.... Obedience is better than sacrifice; we must look to what

it is lawful for us to do, and must keep ourselves within bounds."

At the Court at Fontainebleau, Renée, Duchess of Ferrara, and the

Princess of Condé were permitted by the Regent to have worship in their

rooms after the Reformed rite; and Coligny had in his household a

minister from Geneva, Jean Raymond Merlin, to whose sermons outsiders

were not only admitted but invited. These things gave great offence to

the Constable Montmorency, who was a strong Romanist. He was still more

displeased when Monluc, Bishop of Valence, preached in the State

apartments before the boy King and the Queen Mother. He thought it was

undignified for a Bishop to preach, and he believed that Monluc's

sermons contained something very like Lutheran theology. He invited the

Duke of Guise and Saint-André, both old enemies, to supper (April 16th,

1561), and the three pleged themselves to save the Romanism of France.

This union was afterwards known as the Triumvirate.

Meanwhile religious disturbances were increasing. The Huguenots demanded

the right to have "temples" granted to them or built at their own

expense; and in many places they openly gathered for public worship and

for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. They frequently met armed to

protect themselves from attack. The Government at length interfered, and

by an edict (July 1561) prohibited, under penalty of confiscation of

property, all conventicles, public or private, whether the worshippers

were armed or unarmed, where sermons were made and the sacraments

celebrated in any other fashion than that of the Catholic Church. The

edict declared, on the other hand, that magistrates were not to be too

zealous; persons who laid false information were to be severely

punished; and all attacks on houses were forbidden. It was evidently

meant to conciliate both parties. Coligny did not discontinue the

services in his apartments, and wrote to his co-religionists that they

had nothing to fear so long as they worshipped in private houses. Jeanne

d'Albret declared herself openly a Protestant; and as she travelled from

Nérac to Fontainebleau she restored to the Huguenots churches which the

magistrates had taken from them in obedience to the edict of July.

The prorogued meeting of the States General did not assemble until the

1st of August, and even then representatives of two orders only were

present. An ecclesiastical synod was sitting at Poissy (opened July

28th), and the clerical representatives were there. It was the 27th of

August before the three orders met together in presence of the King and

the members of his Council at Saint-Germain. The meeting had been called

for the purpose of discussing the question of national finance; but it

was impossible to ignore the religious question.

In their _cahiers_, both the Nobles and the Third Estate advocated

complete toleration and the summoning a National Council. The financial

proposals of the Third Estate were thoroughgoing. After a statement of

the national indebtedness, and a representation that taxation had

reached its utmost limits, they proposed that money should be obtained

from the superfluity of ecclesiastical wealth. In their _cahier_ of Jan.

1st, the Third Estate had sketched a civil constitution for the French

Church; they now went further, and proposed that all ecclesiastical

revenues should be nationalised, and that the clergy should be paid by

the State. They calculated that a surplus of seventy-two million livres

would result, and proposed that forty-two millions should be set aside

to liquidate the national debt.

This bold proposal was impracticable in the condition of the kingdom.

The _Parlement_ of Paris regarded it as a revolutionary attack on the

rights of property, and it alienated them for ever from the Reformation

movement; but it enabled the Government to wring from the alarmed

Churchmen a subsidy of sixteen million livres, to be paid in six annual

instalments.

§ 11. _The Conference at Poissy._

It was scarcely possible, in view of the Pope and Philip of Spain, to

assemble a National Council, but the Government had already conceived

the idea of a meeting of theologians, which would be such an assembly in

all but the name. They had invited representatives of the Protestant

ministers (July 25th) to attend the synod of the clergy sitting at

Poissy. The invitation had been accepted, and the Government intended to

give an air of unusual solemnity to the meeting. The King, surrounded by

his mother, his brothers, and the Princes of the Blood, presided as at a

sitting of the States General. The Chancellor, in the King's name,

opened the session with a remarkable speech, in which he set forth the

advantages to be gained from religious union. He addressed the assembled

bishops and Roman Catholic theologians, assuring them that they ought to

have no scruples in meeting the Protestant divines. The latter were not

heretics like the old Manicheans or Arians. They accepted the Scriptures

as the Rule of Faith, the Apostles' Creed, the four principal Councils

and _their_ Creeds (the symbols of Nicea, Constantinople, and

Chalcedon). The main difference between them was that the Protestants

wished the Church to be reformed according to the primitive pattern.

They had given proof of their sincerity by being content to die for

their faith.

The Reformers were represented by twelve ministers, among whom were

Morel of Paris; Nicolas des Gallars, minister of the French Protestant

Church in London, and by twenty laymen. Their leader was Théodore de

Bèze (Beza), a man of noble birth, celebrated as a Humanist, a brilliant

writer and controversialist, whom Calvin, at the request of Antoine de

Bourbon, Catherine de' Medici, and Coligny, had commissioned to

represent him. De Bèze was privately presented to the King and the

Regent by the King of Navarre and by the Prince de Condé, and his

learning, presence, and stately courtesy made a great impression upon

the Court. He had been born in the same year as the Regent (1519), and

had thrown away very brilliant prospects to become a minister of the

Reformed Church.

The meeting was held in the refectory of the nuns of Poissy.[216] The

King and his suite were placed at one end of the hall, and the Romanist

bishops and theologians were arranged by the walls on the two sides.

After the Chancellor had finished his speech, the representatives of the

Protestants were introduced by the Duke of Guise, in command of an

escort of the King's archers. They were placed in front of a barrier

which separated them from the Romanist divines. "There come the dogs of

Geneva," said the Cardinal of Tournon as they entered the hall.

The speech of de Bèze, delivered on the first day (Sept. 7th) of the

Colloquy, as it came to be called, made a great impression. He expounded

with clearness of thought and precision of language the creed of his

Church, showing where it agreed and where it differed from that of the

Roman Catholic. The gravity and the charm of his eloquence compelled

attention, and it was not until he began to criticise with frank

severity the doctrine of transubstantiation that he provoked murmurs of

dissent. The speech must have disappointed Catherine. It had made no

attempt to attenuate the differences between the two confessions, and

held out no hopes of a reunion of the Churches.

The Cardinal of Lorraine was charged to reply on behalf of the Roman

Catholic party (Sept. 16th). His speech was that of a strong partisan,

and dealt principally with the two points of the authority of the Church

in matters of faith and usage, and the doctrine of the Sacrament of the

Holy Supper. There was no attempt at conciliation.

Three days after (Sept. 19th), Cardinal Ippolito d'Este arrived at

Saint-Germain, accompanied by a numerous suite, among whom was Laynez,

the General of the Society of Jesus. He had been sent by the Pope,

legate _a latere_, to end, if possible, the conference at Poissy, and to

secure the goodwill of the French Government for the promulgation of the

decrees of the Council of Trent. He so far prevailed that the last two

sittings of the conference (Sept. 24th, 26th) were with closed doors,

and were scenes of perpetual recriminations. Laynez distinguished

himself by his vituperative violence. The Protestant ministers were

"wolves," "foxes," "serpents," "assassins." Catherine persevered. She

arranged a conference between five of the more liberal Roman Catholic

clergy and five Protestant ministers. It met (Sept. 30th, Oct. 1st), and

managed to draft a formula about the Holy Supper which was at once

rejected by the Bishops of the French Church (Oct. 9th).

Out of this Colloquy of Poissy came the edict of January 17th, 1562,

which provided that Protestants were to surrender all the churches and

ecclesiastical buildings they had seized, and prohibited them from

meeting for public worship, whether within a building or not, inside the

walls of any town. On the other hand, they were to have the right to

assemble for public worship anywhere outside walled towns, and meetings

in private houses within the walls were not prohibited. Thus the

Protestants of France secured legal recognition for the first time, and

enjoyed the right to worship according to their conscience. They were

not satisfied--they could scarcely be, so long as they were kept outside

the walls; but their leaders insisted on their accepting the edict as a

reasonable compromise. "If the liberty promised us in the edict lasts,"

Calvin wrote, "the Papacy will fall to the ground of itself." Within one

year the Huguenots of France found themselves freed from persecution,

and in the enjoyment of a measured liberty of public worship. It can

scarcely be doubted that they owed this to Catherine de' Medici. She

was a child of the Renaissance, and was naturally on the side of free

thought; and she was, besides, at this time persuaded that the Huguenots

had the future on their side. In the coming struggle they regarded this

edict as their charter, and frequently demanded its restitution and

enforcement.

Catherine de' Medici had shown both courage and constancy in her

attempts at conciliation. To the remonstrances of Philip of Spain she

had replied that she meant to be master in her own house; and when the

Constable de Montmorency had threatened to leave the Court, he had been

told that he might do as he pleased. But she was soon to be convinced

that she had overestimated the strength of the Protestants, and that she

could never count on the consistent support of their nominal leader, the

vain and vacillating Antoine de Bourbon. Had Jeanne d'Albret been in her

husband's place, things might have been different.

The edict of January 17th, 1562, had exasperated the Romanists without

satisfying the mass of the Protestants. The marked increase in the

numbers of Protestant congregations, and their not very strict

observance of the limitations of the edict, had given rise to

disturbances in many parts of the country. Everything seemed to tend

towards civil war. The spark which kindled the conflagration was the

Massacre of Vassy.[217]

§ 12. _The Massacre of Vassy._

The Duke of Guise, travelling from Joinville to Paris, accompanied by

his brother, the Cardinal of Guise, his children and his wife, and

escorted by a large armed retinue, halted at Vassy (March 1st, 1562). It

was a Sunday, and the Duke wished to hear Mass. Scarcely a gunshot from

the church was a barn where the Protestants (in defiance of the edict,

for Vassy was a walled town) were holding a service. The congregation,

barely a year old, was numerous and zealous. It was an eyesore to

Antoinette de Bourbon, the mother of the Guises, who lived in the

neighbouring château of Joinville, and saw her dependants attracted by

the preaching at Vassy. The Duke was exasperated at seeing men whom he

counted his subjects defying him in his presence. He sent some of his

retainers to order the worshippers to quit the place. They were received

by cries of "Papists! idolaters!" When they attempted to force an

entrance, stones began to fly, and the Duke was struck. The barn was

rushed, the worshippers fusilladed, and before the Duke gave orders to

cease firing, sixty-three of the six or seven hundred Protestants were

slain, and over a hundred wounded.

The news of the massacre spread fast; and while it exasperated the

Huguenots, the Romanists hailed it as a victory. The Constable de

Montmorency and the Marshal Saint André went out to meet the Duke, and

the Guises entered Paris in triumph, escorted by more than three

thousand armed men. The Protestants began arming themselves, and crowded

to Paris to place themselves under the orders of the Prince of Condé. It

was feared that the two factions would fight in the streets.

The Regent with the King retired to Fontainebleau. She was afraid of the

Triumvirs (Montmorency, the Duke of Guise, and Marshal Saint-André), and

she invited the Prince de Condé to protect her and her children. Condé

lost this opportunity of placing himself and his co-religionists in the

position of being the support of the throne. The Triumvirate, with

Antoine de Bourbon, who now seemed to be their obedient servant, marched

on Fontainebleau, and compelled the King and the Queen Mother to return

to Paris. Catherine believed that the Protestants had abandoned her, and

turned to the Romanists.

The example of massacre given at Vassy was followed in many places where

the Romanists were in a majority. In Paris, Sens, Rouen, and elsewhere,

the Protestant places of worship were attacked, and many of the

worshippers slain. At Toulouse, the Protestants shut themselves up in

the Capitol, and were besieged by the Romanists. They at last

surrendered, trusting to a promise that they would be allowed to leave

the town in safety. The promise was not kept, and three thousand men,

women, and children were slain in cold blood. This slaughter, in

violation of oath, was celebrated by the Roman Catholics of Toulouse in

centenary festivals, which were held in 1662, in 1762, and would have

been celebrated in 1862 had the Government of Napoleon III. not

interfered to forbid it.

These massacres provoked reprisals. The Huguenots broke into the

Romanist churches, tore down the images, defaced the altars, and

destroyed the relics.

§ 13. _The Beginning of the Wars of Religion._

Gradually the parties faced each other with the Duke of Guise and the

Constable Montmorency at the head of the Romanists, and the Prince of

Condé and Admiral Coligny at the head of the Huguenots. France became

the scene of a civil conflict, where religious fanaticism added its

cruelties to the ordinary barbarities of warfare.

The Venetian Ambassador, writing home to the chiefs of his State, was of

opinion that this first war of religion prevented France from becoming

Protestant. The cruelties of the Romanists had disgusted a large number

of Frenchmen, who, though they had no great sympathy for the Protestant

faith, would have gladly allied themselves with a policy of toleration.

The Huguenot chiefs themselves saw that the desecration of churches did

not serve the cause they had at heart. Calvin and de Bèze wrote,

energetically urging their followers to refrain from attacks on

churches, images, and relics. But it was all to no purpose. At Orléans,

Coligny and Condé heard that their men were assaulting the Church of the

Holy Spirit. They hastened there, and Condé saw a Huguenot soldier on

the roof of the church about to cast an image to the ground. Seizing an

arquebus, he pointed it at the man, and ordered him to desist and come

down. The soldier did not stop his work for an instant. "Sire," he said,

"have patience with me until I destroy this idol, and then let me die if

it be your pleasure." When men were content to die rather than refrain

from iconoclasm, it was in vain to expect to check it. Somehow the

slaughter of men made less impression than the sack of churches, and

moderate men came to the opinion that if the Huguenots prevailed, they

would be as intolerant as the Romanists had been. The rising tide of

sympathy for the persecuted Protestants was checked by these deeds of

violence.

The progress of the war was upon the whole unfavourable to the

Huguenots, and in the beginning of 1553 both parties were exhausted. The

Constable Montmorency had been captured by the Huguenots, and the Prince

de Condé by the Romanists. The Duke of Guise was shot from behind by a

Huguenot, and died six days later (Feb. 24th, 1563). The Marshal

Saint-André and Antoine de Bourbon had both died during the course of

the war. Catherine de' Medici was everywhere recognised as the head of

the Romanist party. She no longer needed the Protestants to

counterbalance the Guises and the Constable. She could now pursue her

own policy.

From this time forward she was decidedly hostile to the Huguenots. She

had learned the resources and popularity of the Romanists. But she

disliked fighting, and the religious war was ruining France. Her idea

was that it would be necessary to tolerate the Protestants, but

impossible to grant them common rights with the Romanists. She applied

herself to win over the Prince de Condé, who was tired of his captivity.

Negotiations were opened. Catherine, the Constable, Condé, and d'Andelot

met at Orléans; and, after discussion, terms were agreed upon (March

7th), and the Edict of Amboise incorporating them was published (March

18th, 1563).

Condé had asked for the restitution of the edict of Jan. 17th, 1561, and

the strict enforcement of its terms. This was refused. The terms of the

new edict were as favourable for men of good birth, but not for others.

Condé had to undergo the reproaches of Coligny, that he had secured

rights for himself but had betrayed his poorer brethren in the faith;

and that he had destroyed by his signature more churches than the united

forces of Romanism had done in ten years. Calvin spoke of him as a poor

Prince who had betrayed God for his own vanity.

The truce, for it was no more than a truce, concluded by the Edict of

Amboise lasted nearly five years. It was broken by the Huguenots, who

were suspicious that Catherine was plotting with the Duke of Alva

against them. Alva was engaged in a merciless attempt to exterminate the

Protestants of the Low Countries, and Catherine had been at pains to

provide provisions for his troops. The Protestant leaders came to the

desperate conclusion to imitate the Triumvirate in 1561, and seize upon

the King's person. They failed, and their attempt began the Second War

of Religion. The indecisive battle of Saint Denis was fought on Nov.

10th, 1567, and the Constable Montmorency fell in the fight. Both

parties were almost exhausted, and the terms of peace were the same as

those in the Edict of Amboise.

The close of this Second War of Religion saw a determined attempt,

mainly directed by the Jesuits, to inspire the masses of France with

enthusiasm for the Roman Catholic Church. Eloquent preachers traversed

the land, who insisted on the antiquity of the Roman and the novelty of

the Protestant faith. Brotherhoods were formed, and enrolled men of all

sorts and conditions of life sworn to bear arms against every kind of

heresy. Outrages and assassinations of Protestants were common; and the

Government appeared indifferent. It was, however, the events in the Low

Countries which again alarmed the Protestants. The Duke of Alva, who had

begun his rule there with an appearance of gentleness, had suddenly

seized and executed the Counts Egmont and Horn. He had appointed a

commission to judge the leaders and accomplices in the earlier rising--a

commission which from its deeds gained for itself the name of the

Tribunal of Blood. Huguenot soldiers hastened to enrol themselves in the

levies which the Prince of Orange was raising for the deliverance of his

countrymen. But the Huguenot leaders had other thoughts. Was Catherine

meaning to treat them as Alva had treated Egmont and Horn? They found

that they were watched. The suspicion and suspense became intolerable.

Coligny and Condé resolved to take refuge in La Rochelle. As they passed

through the country they were joined by numbers of Huguenots, and soon

became a small army. Their followers were eager to avenge the murders

committed on those of their faith, and pillage and worse marked the

track of the army. Condé and the Admiral punished some of their

marauding followers by death; and this, says the chronicler, "made the

violence of the soldier more secret if not more rare."

D'Andelot had collected his Normans and Bretons. Jeanne d'Albret had

roused her Gascons and the Provençals, and appeared with her son, Henry

of Navarre, a boy of fifteen, at the head of her troops. She published a

manifesto to justify her in taking up arms. In the camp at La Rochelle

she was the soul of the party, fired their passions, and sustained their

courage.[218]

In the war which followed, the Huguenots were unfortunate. At the battle

of Jarnac, Condé's cavalry was broken by a charge on their flank made by

the German mercenaries under Tavannes. He fought till he was surrounded

and dismounted. After he had surrendered he was brutally shot in cold

blood. The Huguenots soon rallied at Cognac, where the Queen of Navarre

joined them. She presented her son and her nephew, young Henry of

Condé, to the troops, and was received with acclamations. Young Henry of

Navarre was proclaimed head of the party, and his cousin, Henry of

Condé, a boy of the same age, was associated with him. The war went on.

The Battle of Moncontour ended in the most disastrous defeat the

Huguenots had ever sustained. Catherine de' Medici thought that she had

them at her mercy, and proposed terms of submission which would have

left them liberty of conscience but denied the right to worship. The

heroic Queen of Navarre declared that the names of Jeanne and Henry

would never appear on a treaty containing these conditions; and Coligny,

like his contemporary, William the Silent, was never more dangerous than

after a defeat. The Huguenots announced themselves ready to fight to the

last; and Catherine, to her astonishment, saw them stronger than ever.

An armistice was arranged, and the Edict of Saint-Germain (Aug. 8th,

1570) published the terms of peace. It was more favourable to the

Huguenots than any earlier one. They were guaranteed freedom of

conscience throughout the whole kingdom. They had the liberty of public

worship in all places where it had been practised before the war, in the

suburbs of at least two towns in every government, and in the residences

of the great nobles. Four strongly fortified towns--La Rochelle,

Montauban, Cognac, and La Charité--were to be held by them as pledges

for at least two years. The King withdrew himself from the Spanish

alliance and the international policy of the suppression of the

Protestants. William of Orange and Ludovic of Nassau were declared to be

his friends, in spite of the fact that they were the rebel subjects of

Philip of Spain and had assisted the Huguenots in the late war.

After the peace of Saint-Germain, Coligny, now the only great leader

left to the Huguenots, lived far from the Court at La Rochelle, acting

as the guardian of the two young Bourbon Princes, Henry of Navarre and

Henry of Condé. He occupied himself in securing for the Reformed the

advantages they had won in the recent treaty of peace.

Catherine de' Medici had begun to think of strengthening herself at home

and abroad by matrimonial alliances. She wished one of her sons, whether

the Duke of Anjou or the Duke of Alençon it mattered little to her, to

marry Elizabeth of England, and her daughter Marguerite to espouse the

young King of Navarre. Both designs meant that the Huguenots must be

conciliated. They were in no hurry to respond to her advances. Both

Coligny and Jeanne d'Albret kept themselves at a distance from the

Court. Suddenly the young King, Charles IX., seemed to awaken to his

royal position. He had been hitherto entirely submissive to his mother,

expending his energies now in hunting, now in lock-making; but, if one

can judge from what awakened him, cherishing a sullen grudge against

Philip of Spain and his pretensions to guide the policy of Roman

Catholic Europe.

Pope Pius V. had made Cosmo de' Medici, the ruler of Florence, a Grand

Duke, and Philip of Spain and Maximilian of Austria had protested. Cosmo

sent an agent to win the German Protestants to side with him against

Maximilian, and to engage the Dutch Protestants to make trouble in the

Netherlands. Charles saw the opportunity of gratifying his grudge, and

entered eagerly into the scheme. His wishes did not for the time

interfere with his mother's plans. If her marriage ideas were to

succeed, she must break with Spain. Coligny saw the advantages which

might come to his fellow-believers in the Netherlands--help in money

from Italy and with troops from France. He resolved to make his peace

with Catherine, respond to her advances, and betake himself to Court. He

was graciously received, for Catherine wished to make use of him; was

made a member of the Council, received a gift of one hundred and fifty

thousand livres, and, although a heretic, was put into possession of an

Abbey whose revenues amounted to twenty thousand livres a year. The

Protestant chiefs were respectfully listened to when they stated

grievances, and these were promptly put right, even at the risk of

exasperating the Romanists. The somewhat unwilling consent of Jeanne

d'Albret was won to the marriage of her son with Marguerite, and she

herself came to Paris to settle the terms of contract. There she was

seized with pleurisy, and died--an irreparable loss to the Protestant

cause. Catherine's home policy had been successful.

But Elizabeth of England was not to be enticed either into a French

marriage or a stable French alliance, and Catherine de' Medici saw that

her son's scheme might lead to France being left to confront Spain

alone; and the Spain of the sixteenth century played the part of Russia

in the end of the nineteenth--fascinating the statesmen of the day with

its gloomy, mysterious, incalculable power. She felt that she must

detach Charles at whatever cost from his scheme of flouting Philip by

giving assistance to the Protestants of the Low Countries. Coligny was

in her way--recognised to be the greatest statesman in France,

enthusiastically bent on sending French help to his struggling

co-religionists, and encouraging Charles IX. Coligny must be removed.

The Guises were at deadly feud with him, and would be useful in putting

him out of the way. The Ambassador of Florence reported significantly

conferences between Catherine and the Duchess de Nemours, the mother of

the Guises (July 23rd, 1572). The Queen had secret interviews with

Maureval, a professional bravo, who drew a pension as "tueur du Roy."

Nothing could be done until Henry, now King of Navarre by his mother's

death, was safely married to Marguerite. The wedding took place on

August 18th, 1572. On Friday (Aug. 22nd), between ten and eleven

o'clock, Coligny left the Louvre to return to his lodging. The assassin

was stationed in a house belonging to a retainer of the Guises, at a

grated window concealed by a curtain. The Admiral was walking slowly,

reading a letter. Suddenly a shot carried away the index finger of his

right hand and wounded his left arm. He calmly pointed to the window

from whence the shot had come; and some of his suite rushed to the

house, but found nothing but a smoking arquebus. The news reached the

King when he was playing tennis. He became pallid, threw down his

racquet, and went to his rooms.

Catherine closeted herself with the Duke of Anjou to discuss a situation

which was fraught with terror.[219]

§ 14. _The Massacre of St. Bartholomew._

Paris was full of Huguenot gentlemen, drawn from all parts of the

country for the wedding of their young chief with the Princess

Marguerite. They rushed to the house in which Coligny lay. The young

King of Navarre and his cousin, Henry de Condé, went to the King to

demand justice, which Charles promised would be promptly rendered.

Coligny asked to see the King, who proposed to go at once. Catherine

feared to leave the two alone, and accompanied him, attended by a number

of her most trusty adherents. Even the Duke of Guise was there. The King

by Coligny's bedside swore again with a great oath that he would avenge

the outrage in a way that it would never be forgotten. A commission was

appointed to inquire into the affair, and they promptly discovered that

retainers of the Guises were implicated. If the investigations were

pursued in the King's temper, Guise would probably seek to save himself

by revealing Catherine's share in the attempted assassination. She

became more and more a prey to terror. The Huguenots grew more and more

violent. At last Catherine, whether on her own initiative or prompted by

others will never be known, believed that she could only save herself by

a prompt and thorough massacre of the Huguenots, gathered in unusual

numbers in Paris.[220]

She summoned a council (Aug. 23rd), at which were present, so far as is

known, the Duke of Anjou, her favourite son, afterwards Henry III.,

Marshal Tavannes, Nevers, Nemours (the stepfather of the Guises), Birago

(Chancellor), the Count de Retz, and the Chevalier d'Angoulême--four of

them Italians. They were unanimous in advising an instant massacre.

Tavannes and Nevers, it is said, pled for and obtained the lives of the

two young Bourbons, the King of Navarre and the Prince de Condé. The

Count de Retz, who was a favourite with Charles, was engaged to win the

King's consent by appealing to his fears, and by telling him that his

mother and brother were as deeply implicated as Guise.

Night had come down before the final resolution was taken; but the

fanatical and bloodthirsty mob of Paris might be depended upon. At the

last moment, Tavannes (the son) tells us in his Memoirs, Catherine

wished to draw back, but the others kept her firm. The Duke of Guise

undertook to slay Coligny. The Admiral was run through with a pike, and

the body tossed out of the window into the courtyard where Guise was

waiting. At the Louvre the young Bourbon Princes were arrested, taken to

the King, and given their choice between death and the Mass. The other

Huguenot gentlemen who were in the Louvre were slain. In the morning the

staircases, balls, and anti-chambers of the Palace were deeply stained

with blood. When the murders had been done in the Louvre, the troops

divided into parties and went to seek other victims. Almost all the

Huguenot gentlemen on the north side of the river were slain, and all

in the Quartier Latin. But some who lodged on the south side (among them

Montgomery, and Jean de Ferrières, the Vidame de Chartres) escaped.

Orders were sent to complete the massacre in the provinces. At Orléans

the slaughter lasted five days, and Protestants were slain in numbers at

Meaux, Troyes, Rouen, Lyons, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and in many other

places. The total number of victims has been variously estimated. Sully,

the Prime Minister of Henry IV., who had good means of knowing, says

that seventy thousand perished. Several thousands were slain in Paris

alone.

The news was variously received by Roman Catholic Europe. The German

Romanists, including the Emperor, were not slow to express their

disapprobation. But Rome was illuminated in honour of the event, a medal

was struck to commemorate the _Hugonotorum Strages_,[221] and Cardinal

Orsini was sent to convey to the King and Queen Mother the

congratulations of the Pope and the College of Cardinals. Philip of

Spain was delighted, and is said to have laughed outright for the first

and last time in his life. He congratulated the son on having such a

mother, and the mother on having such a son.

Catherine herself believed that the massacre had ended all her troubles.

The Huguenots had been annihilated, she thought; and it is reported that

when she saw Henry of Navarre bowing to the altar she burst out into a

shrill laugh.

§ 15. _The Huguenot resistance after the Massacre._

Catherine's difficulties were not ended. It was not so easy to

exterminate the Huguenots. Most of the leaders had perished, but the

people remained, cowed for a time undoubtedly, but soon to regain their

courage. The Protestants held the strongholds of La Rochelle and

Sancerre, the one on the coast and the other in central France. The

artisans and the small shopkeepers insisted that there should be no

surrender. The sailors of La Rochelle fraternised with the Sea-Beggars

of Brill, and waged an implacable sea-war against the ships of Spain.

Nimes and Montauban closed their gates against the soldiers of the King.

Milhaud, Aubenas, Privas, Mirabel, Anduze, Sommières, and other towns of

the Viverais and of the Cevennes became cities of refuge. All over

France, the Huguenots, although they had lost their leaders, kept

together, armed themselves, communicated with each other, maintained

their religious services--though compelled generally to meet at night.

The attempt to capture these Protestant strongholds made the Fourth

Religious War. La Rochelle was invested, beat back many assaults, was

blockaded and endured famine, and in the end compelled its enemies to

retire from its walls. Sancerre was less fortunate. After the failure of

an attempt to take it by assault, La Châtre, the general of the

besieging army, blockaded the town in the closest fashion. The citizens

endured all the utmost horrors of famine. Five hundred adults and all

the children under twelve years of age died of hunger. "Why weep," said

a boy of ten, "to see me die of hunger? I do not ask bread, mother: I

know that you have none. Since God wills that I die, thus we must accept

it cheerfully. Was not that good man Lazarus hungry? Have I not so read

in the Bible?" The survivors surrendered: their lives were spared; and

on payment of a ransom of forty thousand livres the town was not

pillaged.

The war ended with the peace of Rochelle (July 1573), when liberty of

conscience was accorded to all, but the right of public worship was

permitted only to Rochelle, Nimes, Montauban, and in the houses of some

of the principal Protestant nobles. These terms were hard in comparison

with the rights which had been won before the Massacre of Saint

Bartholomew; but the Huguenots had reason for rejoicing. Their cause was

still alive. Neither war, nor massacre, nor frauds innumerable had made

any impression on the great mass of the French Protestants.

The peace declared by the treaty of La Rochelle did not last long, and

indeed was never universal. The Protestants of the South used it to

prepare for a renewal of conflict. They remained under arms, perfecting

their military organisation. They divided the districts which they

controlled into regular governments, presided over by councils whose

members were elected and were the military leaders of a Protestant

nation for the time being separate from the kingdom of France. They

imposed taxes on Romanists and Protestants, and confiscated the

ecclesiastical revenues. They were able to stock their strongholds with

provisions and munitions of war, and maintain a force of twenty thousand

men ready for offensive action.

Their councils at Nimes and Montauban formulated the conditions under

which they would submit to the French Government. Nimes sent a

deputation to the King furnished with a series of written articles, in

which they demanded the free exercise of their religion in every part of

France, the maintenance at royal expense of Huguenot garrisons in all

the strongholds held by them, and the cession of two strong posts to be

cities of refuge in each of the provinces of France. The demands of the

council of Montauban went further. They added that the King must condemn

the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, execute justice on those who had

perpetrated it, reverse the sentences passed on all the victims, approve

of the Huguenot resistance, and declare that he praised _la singulière

et admirable bonté de Dieu_ who had still preserved his Protestant

subjects. They required also that the rights of the Protestant minority

in France should be guaranteed by the Protestant States of Europe--by

the German Protestant Princes, by Switzerland, England, and Scotland.

They dated their document significantly August 24th--the anniversary of

the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. The deputies refused to discuss these

terms; they simply presented them. The King might accept them; he might

refuse them. They were not to be modified.

Catherine was both furious and confounded at the audacity of these

"rascals" (_ces misérables_), as she called them. She declared that

Condé, if he had been at the head of twenty thousand cavalry and fifty

thousand infantry, would never have asked for the half of what these

articles demanded. The Queen Mother found herself face to face with men

on whom she might practise all her arts in vain, very different from the

_debonnaire_ Huguenot princes whom she had been able to cajole with

feminine graces and enervate with her "Flying Squadron." These farmers,

citizens, artisans knew her and her Court, and called things by rude

names. She herself was a "murderess," and her "Flying Squadron" were

"fallen women." She had cleared away the Huguenot aristocracy to find

herself in presence of the Protestant democracy.

The worst of it was that she dared not allow the King to give them a

decided answer. A new force had been rising in France since Saint

Bartholomew's Day--the _Politiques_,[222] as they were called. They put

France above religious parties, and were weary of the perpetual

bloodshed; they said that "a man does not cease to be a citizen because

he is excommunicated"; they declared that "with the men they had lost in

the religious wars they could have driven Spain out of the Low

Countries." They chafed under the rule of "foreigners," of the Queen

Mother and her Italians, of the Guises and their Jesuits. They were

prepared to unite with the Huguenots in order to give France peace. They

only required leaders who could represent the two sides of the

coalition. If the Duke of Alençon, the youngest brother of the King, and

Henry of Navarre could escape from the Court and raise their standards

together, they were prepared to join them.

Charles IX. died on Whitsunday 1574 of a disease which the tainted

blood of the Valois and the Médicis induced. The memories of Saint

Bartholomew also hastened his death. Private memoirs of courtiers tell

us that in his last weeks of fever he had frightful dreams by day and by

night. He saw himself surrounded by dead bodies; hideous faces covered

with blood thrust themselves forward towards his. The crime had not been

so much his as his mother's, but _he_ had something of a conscience, and

felt its burden. "Et ma Mère" was his last word--an appeal to his

mother, whom he feared more than his God.

On Charles' death, Henry, Duke of Anjou, succeeded as Henry III.[223] He

was in Poland--king of that distracted country. He abandoned his crown,

evaded his subjects, and reached France in September 1574. His advent

did not change matters much. Catherine still ruled in reality. The war

went on with varying success in different parts of France. But the Duke

of Anjou (the Duke of Alençon took this title on his brother's

accession) succeeded in escaping from Court (Sept. 15th, 1575), and the

King of Navarre also managed to elude his guardians (Feb. 3rd, 1576).

Anjou joined the Prince of Condé, who was at the head of a mixed force

of Huguenots and Politiques. Henry of Navarre went into Poitou and

remained there. His first act was to attend the Protestant worship, and

immediately afterwards he renounced his forced adhesion to Romanism. He

did not join any of the parties in the field, but sent on his own

demands to be forwarded to the King along with those of the

confederates, adding to them the request that the King should aid him to

recover the Spanish part of Navarre which had been forcibly annexed to

Spain by Ferdinand of Aragon.

The escape of the two Princes led in the end to the "Peace of Monsieur,"

the terms of which were published in the Edict of Beaulieu (May 6th,

1576). The right of public worship was given to Protestants in all

towns and places within the kingdom of France, Paris only and towns

where the Court was residing being excepted. Protestants received eight

strongholds, partly as cities of refuge and partly as guarantees.

Chambers of Justice "mi-parties" (composed of both Protestants and Roman

Catholics) were established in each Parliament. The King actually

apologised for the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew, and declared that it

had happened to his great regret; and all sentences pronounced on the

victims were reversed. This edict was much more favourable to the

Protestants than any that had gone before. Almost all the Huguenots'

demands had been granted.

§ 16. _The beginnings of the League._

Neither the King, who felt himself humiliated, nor the Romanists, who

were indignant, were inclined to submit long to the terms of peace. Some

of the Romanist leaders had long seen that the Huguenot enthusiasm and

their organisation were enabling an actual minority to combat, on more

than equal terms, a Romanist majority. Some of the provincial leaders

had been able to inspire their followers with zeal, and to bind them

together in an organisation by means of leagues. These provincial

leagues suggested a universal organisation, which was fostered by Henry,

Duke of Guise, and by Catherine de' Medici. This was the first form of

that celebrated League which gave twenty years' life to the civil war in

France. The Duke of Guise published a declaration in which he appealed

to all France to associate together in defence of the Holy Church,

Catholic and Roman, and of their King Henry III., whose authority and

rights were being taken from him by rebels. All good Catholics were

required to join the association, and to furnish arms for the

accomplishment of its designs. Those who refused were to be accounted

enemies. Neutrals were to be harassed with "toutes sortes d'offences et

molestes"; open foes were to be fought strenuously. Paris was easily

won to the League, and agents were sent abroad throughout France to

enrol recruits. Henry III. himself was enrolled, and led the movement.

The King had summoned the States General to meet at Blois and hold their

first session there on Dec. 6th, 1576. The League had attended to the

elections, and the Estates declared unanimously for unity of religion.

Upon this the King announced that the Edict of Beaulieu had been

extracted from him by force, and that he did not intend to keep it. Two

of the Estates, the Clergy and the Nobles, were prepared to compel unity

at any cost. The Third Estate was divided. A minority wished the unity

brought about "by gentle and pacific ways"; the majority asked for the

immediate and complete suppression of the public worship of the

Protestants, and for the banishment of all ministers, elders, and

deacons.

These decisions of the States General were taken by the Huguenots as a

declaration of war, and they promptly began to arm themselves. It was

the first war of the League, and the sixth of Religion. It ended with

the Peace of Bergerac (Sept. 15th, 1578), in which the terms granted to

the Huguenots were rather worse than those of the Edict of Beaulieu. A

seventh war ensued, terminated by the Peace of Fleix (Nov. 1580).

The Duke of Anjou died (June 10th, 1584), and the King had no son. The

heir to the throne, according to the Salic Law, which excluded females,

was Henry of Navarre, a Protestant. On the death of Anjou, Henry III.

found himself face to face with this fact. He knew and felt that he was

the guardian of the dynastic rights of the French throne, and that his

duty was to acknowledge Henry of Navarre as his successor. He

accordingly sent one of his favourites, Éperon, to prevail upon Henry of

Navarre to become a Roman Catholic and come to Court. Henry refused to

do either.

§ 17. _The League becomes disloyal._[224]

Meanwhile the Romanist nobles were taking their measures. Some of them

met at Nancy towards the close of 1584 to reconstruct the League. They

resolved to exclude the Protestant Bourbons from the throne, and

proclaim the Cardinal Bourbon as the successor of Henry III. They hoped

to obtain a Bull from the Pope authorising this selection; and they

received the support of Philip of Spain in the Treaty of Joinville (Dec.

31st, 1584).

Paris did not wait for the sanction or recommendation of the nobles. A

contemporary anonymous pamphlet, which is the principal source of our

information, describes how four men, three of them ecclesiastics, met

together to found the League of Paris. They discussed the names of

suitable members, and, having selected a nucleus of trustworthy

associates, they proceeded to elect a secret council of eight or nine

who were to direct and control everything. The active work of recruiting

was superintended by six associates, of whom one, the Sieur de la

Rocheblond, was a member of the secret council. Soon all the most

fanatical elements of the population of Paris belonged to this secret

society, sworn to obey blindly the orders of the mysterious council who

from a concealed background directed everything. The corporations of the

various trades were won to the League; the butchers of Paris, for

example, furnished a band of fifteen hundred resolute and dangerous men.

Trusty emissaries were sent to the large towns of France, and secret

societies on the plan of the one in Paris were formed and affiliated

with the mother-society in Paris, all bound to execute the orders of the

secret council of the capital. The Sieur de la Rocheblond, whose brain

had planned the whole organisation, was the medium of communication with

the Romanist Princes; and through him Henry, Duke of Guise, le Balafré

as he was called from a scar on his face, was placed in command of this

new and formidable instrument, to be wielded as he thought best for the

extirpation of the Protestantism of France.

The King had published an edict forbidding all armed assemblies, and

this furnished the Leaguers with a pretext for sending forth their

manifesto: _Déclaration des causes qui ont meu Monseigneur le Cardinal

de Bourbon et les Pairs, Princes, Seigneurs, villes et communautez

catholiques de ce royaume de France: De s'opposer à ceux qui par tous

moyens s'efforcent de subvertir la religion catholique et l'Estat (30

Mars 1585)._ It was a skilfully drafted document, setting forth the

danger to religion in the foreground, but touching on all the evils and

jealousies which had arisen from the favouritism of Henry III. Guise at

once began to enrol troops and commence open hostilities; and almost all

the great towns of France and most of the provinces in the North and in

the Centre declared for the League.

Henry III. was greatly alarmed. With the help of his mother he

negotiated a treaty with the Leaguers, in which he promised to revoke

all the earlier Edicts of Toleration, to prohibit the exercise of

Protestant public worship throughout the kingdom, to banish the

ministers, and to give all Protestants the choice between becoming Roman

Catholics or leaving the realm within six months (Treaty of Nemours,

July 7th, 1585). These terms were embodied in an edict dated July 18th,

1585. The Pope, Sixtus V., thereupon published a Bull, which declared

that the King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé, being heretics, were

incapable of succeeding to the throne of France, deprived them of their

estates, and absolved all their vassals from allegiance. The King of

Navarre replied to "Monsieur Sixtus, self-styled Pope, saving His

Holiness," and promised to avenge the insult done to himself and to the

_Parlements_ of France.

"The war of the three Henrys," from Henry III., Henry of Guise, and

Henry of Navarre, began in the later months of 1585. It was in some

respects a triangular fight; for although the King and the Guises were

both ostensibly combating the Huguenots, the Leaguers, headed by Guises,

and the Loyalists, were by no means whole-hearted allies. It began

unfavourably for the Protestants, but as it progressed the skilful

generalship of the King of Navarre became more and more apparent--at

Coutras (Oct. 20th, 1587) he almost annihilated the royalist army. The

King made several ineffectual attempts to win the Protestant leader to

his side. Navarre would never consent to abjure his faith, and Henry

III. made that an absolute condition.

While the war was going on in the west and centre of France, the League

was strengthening its organisation and perfecting its plans. It had

become more and more hostile to Henry III., and had become a secret

revolutionary society. It drafted a complete programme for the immediate

future. The cities and districts of France which felt themselves

specially threatened by the Huguenots were to beseech the King to raise

levies for their protection. If he refused or procrastinated, they were

to raise the troops themselves, to be commanded by officers in whom the

League had confidence. They could then compel the King to place himself

at the head of this army of the Leaguers, or show himself to be their

open enemy by refusing. If the King died childless, the partisans of the

League were to gather at Orléans and Paris, and were there to elect the

Cardinal de Bourbon as the King of France. The Pope and the King of

Spain were to be at once informed, when it had been arranged that His

Holiness would send his benediction, and that His Majesty would assist

them with troops and supplies. A new form of oath was imposed on all the

associates of the League. They were to swear allegiance to the King so

long as he should show himself to be a good Catholic and refrained from

favouring heretics. These instructions were sent down from the

mother-society in Paris to the provinces, and the affiliated societies

were recommended to keep in constant communication with Paris. Madame de

Montpensier, sister to the Guises, at the same time directed the work of

a band of preachers whose business it was to inflame the minds of the

people in the capital and the provinces against the King and the

Huguenots. She boasted that she did more work for the cause than her

brothers were doing by the sword.

The Guises, with this force behind them, tried to force the King to make

new concessions--to publish the decisions of the Council of Trent in

France (a thing that had not been done); to establish the Inquisition in

France; to order the execution of all Huguenot prisoners who would not

promise to abjure their religion; and to remove from the armies all

officers of whom the League did not approve. The mother-society in Paris

prepared for his refusal by organising a secret revolutionary government

for the city. It was called "The Sixteen," being one for each of the

sixteen sections of Paris. This government was under the orders of

Guise, who communicated with them through an agent of his called

Mayneville. Plot after plot was made to get possession of the King's

person; and but for the activity and information of Nicholas Poulain, an

officer of police who managed to secure private information, they would

have been successful.

§ 18. _The Day of Barricades._[225]

The King redoubled his guards, and ordered four thousand Swiss troops

which he had stationed at Lagny into the suburbs of Paris. The Parisian

Leaguers in alarm sent for the Duke of Guise; and Guise, in spite of a

prohibitive order from the King, entered the city. When he was

recognised he was received with acclamations by the Parisian crowd. The

Queen-Mother induced the King to receive him, which he did rather

ungraciously. Officers and men devoted to the League crowded into Paris.

The King, having tried in vain to prevent the entry of all suspected

persons, at last ordered the Swiss into Paris (May 12th, 1588). The

citizens flew to arms, and converted Paris into a stronghold. It was

"the day of Barricades." Chains were stretched across the streets, and

behind them were piled beams, benches, carts, great barrels filled with

stones or gravel. Houses were loop-holed and windows protected. Behind

these defences men were stationed with arquebuses; and the women and

children were provided with heaps of stones. Guise had remained in his

house, but his officers were to be seen moving through the crowds and

directing the defence. The Swiss troops found themselves caught in a

trap, and helpless. Henry III. was compelled to ask Guise to interfere

in order to save his soldiers. The King had to undergo further

humiliation. The citizens proposed to attack the Louvre and seize the

King's person. Guise had to be appealed to again. He had an interview

with the King on the 13th, at which Henry III. was forced to agree to

all the demands of the League, and to leave the conduct of the war

against the Huguenots in the hands of the leader of the League. After

the interview the King was able to escape secretly from Paris.

The day of the "Barricades" had proved to Henry III. that the League was

master in his capital. The meeting of the States General at Blois (Oct.

1588) was to show him that the country had also turned against him.

The elections had been looked after by the Guises, and had taken place

while the impression produced by the revolt of Paris was at its height.

The League commanded an immense majority in all the three Estates. The

business before them was grave. The finances of the kingdom were in

disorder; favouritism had not been got rid of; and no one could trust

the King's word. Above all, the religious question was embittering every

mind. The Estates met under the influence of a religious exaltation

fanned by the priests. On the 9th of Oct. representatives of the three

Estates went to Mass together. During the communion the assistant clergy

chanted the well-known hymns,--_Pange lingua gloriosi, O salutaris

Hostia, Ave verum Corpus natum_,--and the excitement was immense. The

members of the Estates had never been so united.

Yet the King had a moment of unwonted courage. He had resolved to

denounce the League as the source of the disorders in the kingdom. He

declared that he would not allow a League to exist within the realm. He

only succeeded in making the leaders furious. His bravado soon ceased.

The Cardinal de Bourbon compelled him to omit from the published version

of his speech the objectionable expressions. The Estates forced him to

swear that he would not permit any religion within the kingdom but the

Roman. This done, he was received with cries of _Vive le Roi_, and was

accompanied to his house with acclamations. But he was compelled to see

the Duke of Guise receive the office of Lieutenant-General, which placed

the army under his command; and he felt that he would never be "master

in his own house" until that man had been removed from his path.

The news of the completeness of the destruction of the Armada had been

filtering through France; the fear of Spain was to some extent removed,

and England might help the King if he persisted in a policy of

tolerating his Protestant subjects. It is probable that he confided his

project of getting rid of Guise to some of his more intimate

councillors, and that they assured him that it would be impossible to

remove such a powerful subject by legal means. The Duke and his brother

the Cardinal of Guise were summoned to a meeting of the Council. They

had scarcely taken their seats when they were asked to see the King in

his private apartments. There Guise was assassinated, and the Cardinal

arrested, and slain the next day.[226] The Cardinal de Bourbon and the

young Prince de Joinville (now Duke of Guise by his father's death) were

arrested and imprisoned. Orders were given to arrest the Duchess of

Nemours (Guise's mother), the Duke and Duchess of Elboeuf, the Count de

Brissac, and other prominent Leaguers. The King's guards invaded the

sittings of the States General to carry out these orders. The bodies of

the two Guises were burnt, and the ashes thrown into the Loire.

The news of the assassination raised the wildest rage in Paris. The

League proclaimed itself a revolutionary society. The city organised

itself in its sections. A council was appointed for each section to

strengthen the hands of the "Sixteen." Preachers caused their audiences

to swear that they would spend the last farthing in their purses and the

last drop of blood in their bodies to avenge the slaughtered princes.

The Sorbonne in solemn conclave declared that the actions of Henry III.

had absolved his subjects from their allegiance. The "Sixteen" drove

from _Parlement_ all suspected persons; and, thus purged, the

_Parlement_ of Paris ranged itself on the side of the revolution. The

Duke of Mayenne, the sole surviving brother of Henry of Guise, was

summoned to Paris. An assembly of the citizens of the capital elected a

_Council General of the Union of Catholics_ to manage the affairs of the

State and to confer with all the Catholic towns and provinces of France.

Deputies sent by these towns and provinces were to be members of the

Council. The Duke of Mayenne was appointed by the Council the

_Lieutenant-General of the State and Crown of France_. The new

Government had its seal--_the Seal of the Kingdom of France_. The larger

number of the great towns of France adhered to this provisional and

revolutionary Government.

In the midst of these tumults Catherine de' Medici died (Jan. 5th,

1589).

§ 19. _The King takes refuge with the Huguenots._

The miserable King had no resource left but to throw himself upon the

protection of the Protestants. He hesitated at first, fearing threatened

papal excommunication. Henry of Navarre's bearing during these months of

anxiety had been admirable. After the meeting of the States General at

Blois, he had issued a stirring appeal to the nation, pleading for

peace--the one thing needed for the distracted and fevered country. He

now assured the King of his loyalty, and promised that he would never

deny to Roman Catholics that liberty of conscience and worship which he

claimed. A treaty was arranged, and the King of Navarre went to meet

Henry III. at Tours. He arrived just in time. Mayenne at the head of an

avenging army of Leaguers had started as soon as the provisional

government had been established in Paris. He had taken by assault a

suburb of the town, and was about to attack the city of Tours itself,

when he found the Protestant vanguard guarding the bridge over the

Loire, and had to retreat. He was slowly forced back towards Paris. The

battle of Senlis, in which a much smaller force of Huguenots routed the

Duke d'Aumale, who had been reinforced by the Parisian militia, opened

the way to Paris. The King of Navarre pressed on. Town after town was

taken, and the forces of the two kings, increased by fourteen thousand

Swiss and Germans, were soon able to seize the bridge of St. Cloud and

invest the capital on the south and west (July 29th, 1589). An assault

was fixed for Aug. 2nd.

Since the murder of the Guises, Paris had been a caldron of seething

excitement. The whole population, "_avec douleur et gemissements bien

grands_," had assisted at the funeral service for "the Martyrs," and the

baptism of the posthumous son of the slaughtered Duke had been a civic

ceremony. The Bull "monitory" of Pope Sixtus V., posted up in Rome on

May 24th, which directed Henry III. on pain of excommunication to

release the imprisoned prelates within ten days, and to appear either

personally or by proxy within sixty days before the Curia to answer for

the murder of a Prince of the Church, had fanned the excitement. Almost

every day the Parisians saw processions of students, of women, of

children, defiling through their streets. They marched from shrine to

shrine, with naked feet, clad only in their shirts, defying the cold of

winter. Parishioners dragged their priests out of bed to head nocturnal

processions. The hatred of Henry III. became almost a madness. The

Cordeliers decapitated his portraits. Parish priests made images of the

King in wax, placed them on their altars, and practised on them magical

incantations, in the hope of doing deadly harm to the living man. Bands

of children carried lighted candles, which they extinguished to cries

of, "_God extinguish thus the race of the Valois._"

Among the most excited members of this fevered throng was a young

Jacobin monk, Jacques Clément, by birth a peasant, of scanty

intelligence, and rough, violent manners. His excitement grew with the

perils of the city. He consulted a theologian in whom he had confidence,

and got from him a guarded answer that it might be lawful to slay a

tyrant. He prayed, fasted, went through a course of maceration of the

body. He saw visions. He believed that he heard voices, and that he

received definite orders to give his life in order to slay the King. He

confided his purpose to friends, who approved of it and helped his

preparations. He was able to leave the city, to pass through the

beleaguering lines, and to get private audience of the King. He

presented a letter, and while Henry was reading it stabbed him in the

lower part of the body. The deed done, the monk raised himself to his

full height, extended his arms to form himself into a crucifix, and

received without flinching his deathblow from La Guesle and other

attendants (Aug. 1st, 1589).[227]

The King lingered until the following morning, and then expired,

commending Henry of Navarre to his companions as his legitimate

successor.

The news of the assassination was received in Paris with wild delight.

The Duchess de Nemours, the mother of the Guises, and the Duchess de

Montpensier, their sister, went everywhere in the streets describing

"the heroic act of Jacques Clément." The former mounted the steps of the

High Altar in the church of the Cordeliers to proclaim the news to the

people. The citizens, high and low, brought out their tables into the

streets, and they drank, sang, shouted and danced in honour of the news.

They swore that they would never accept a Protestant king[228] and the

Cardinal de Bourbon, still a prisoner, was proclaimed as Charles x.

At Tours, on the other hand, the fact that the heir to the throne was a

Protestant, threw the Roman Catholic nobles into a state of perplexity.

They had no sympathy with the League, but many felt that they could not

serve a Protestant king. They pressed round the new King, beseeching him

to abjure his faith at once. Henry refused to do what would humiliate

himself, and could not be accepted as an act of sincerity. On the other

hand, the nobles of Champagne, Picardy, and the Isle of France sent

assurances of allegiance; the Duke of Montpensier, the husband of the

Leaguer Duchess, promised his support; and the Swiss mercenaries

declared that they would serve for two months without pay.

§ 20. _The Declaration of Henry IV._[229]

Thus encouraged, Henry published his famous declaration (Aug. 4th,

1589). He promised that the Roman Catholic would remain the religion of

the realm, and that he would attempt no innovations. He declared that he

was willing to be instructed in its tenets, and that within six months,

if it were possible, he would summon a National Council. The Roman

Catholics would be retained in their governments and charges; the

Protestants would keep the strongholds which were at present in their

hands; but all fortified places when reduced would be entrusted to Roman

Catholics and none other. This declaration was signed by two Princes of

the Blood, the Prince of Conti and the Duke of Montpensier; by three

Dukes and Peers, Longueville, Luxembourg-Piney, and Rohan-Montbazon; by

two Marshals of France, Biron and d'Aumont; and by several great

officers. Notwithstanding, the defections were serious; all the

_Parlements_ save that of Bordeaux thundered against the heretic King;

all the great towns save Tours, Bordeaux, Châlons, Langres, Compiègne,

and Clermont declared for the League. The greater part of the kingdom

was in revolt. The royalist troops dwindled away. It was hopeless to

think of attacking Paris, and Henry IV. marched for Normandy with

scarcely seven thousand men. He wished to be on the sea coast in hope of

succour from England.

The Duke of Mayenne followed him with an army of thirty thousand men. He

had promised to the Parisians to throw the "Bearnese" into the sea, or

to bring him in chains to Paris, But it was not so easy to catch the

"Bearnese." In the series of marches, countermarches, and skirmishes

which is known as the battle of Arques, the advantage was on the side of

the King; and when Mayenne attempted to take Dieppe by assault, he was

badly defeated (Sept. 24th, 1589). Then followed marches and

countermarches; the King now threatening Paris and then retreating,

until at last the royalist troops and the Leaguers met at Ivry. The King

had two thousand cavalry and eight thousand infantry to meet eight

thousand cavalry and twelve thousand infantry (including seventeen

hundred Spanish troops sent by the Duke of Parma) under the command of

Mayenne. The battle resulted in a surprising and decisive victory for

the King. Mayenne and his cousin d'Aumale escaped only by the swiftness

of their horses (March 14th, 1590).

It is needless to say much about the war or about the schemes of

parties. Henry invested Paris, and had almost starved it into surrender,

when it was revictualled by an army led from the Low Countries by the

Duke of Parma. Henry took town after town, and gradually isolated the

capital. In 1590 (May 10th) the old Cardinal Bourbon (Charles X.) died,

and the Leaguers lost even the semblance of a legitimate king. The more

fanatical members of the party, represented by the "Sixteen" of Paris,

would have been content to place France under the dominion of Spain

rather than see a heretic king. The Duke of Mayenne had long cherished

dreams that the crown might come to him. But the great mass of the

influential people of France who had not yet professed allegiance to

Henry IV. (and many who had) had an almost equal dread of Spanish

domination and of a heretic ruler.

§ 21. _Henry IV. becomes a Roman Catholic._

Henry at last resolved to conform to the Roman Catholic religion as the

only means of giving peace to his distracted kingdom. He informed the

loyalist Archbishop of Bourges of his intention to be instructed in the

Roman Catholic religion with a view to conversion. The Archbishop was

able to announce this at the conference of Suresnes, and the news spread

instantly over France. With his usual tact, Henry wrote with his own

hand to several of the parish priests of Paris announcing his intention,

and invited them to meet him at Mantes to give him instruction. At least

one of them had been a furious Leaguer, and was won to be an

enthusiastic loyalist.

The ceremony of the reception of Henry IV. into the Roman Catholic

Church took place at Saint Denis, about four and a half miles to the

north of Paris. The scene had all the appearance of some popular

festival. The ancient church in which the Kings of France had for

generations been buried, in which Jeanne d'Arc had hung up her arms, was

decked with splendid tapestries, and the streets leading to it festooned

with flowers. Multitudes of citizens had come from rebel Paris to swell

the throng and to shout _Vive le Roi!_ as Henry, escorted by a brilliant

procession of nobles and guards, passed slowly to the church. The

clergy, headed by the Archbishop of Bourges, met him at the door. The

King dismounted, knelt, swore to live and die in the catholic apostolic

and Roman religion, and renounced all the heresies which it condemned.

The Archbishop gave him absolution, took him by the hand and led him

into the church. There, kneeling before the High Altar, the King

repeated his oath, confessed, and communicated. France had now a Roman

Catholic as well as a legitimate King. Even if it be admitted that Henry

IV. was not a man of any depth of religious feeling, the act of

abjuration must have been a humiliation for the son of Jeanne d'Albret.

He never was a man who wore his heart on his sleeve, and his well-known

saying, that "Paris was well worth a Mass," had as much bitterness in it

as gaiety. He had paled with suppressed passion at Tours (1589) when the

Roman Catholic nobles had urged him to become a Romanist. Had the

success which followed his arms up to the battle of Ivry continued

unbroken, it is probable that the ceremony at Saint Denis would never

have taken place. But Parma's invasion of France, which compelled the

King to raise the siege of Paris, was the beginning of difficulties

which seemed insurmountable. The dissensions of parties within the

realm, and the presence of foreigners on the soil of France (Walloon,

Spanish, Neapolitan, and Savoyard), were bringing France to the verge of

dissolution. Henry believed that there was only one way to end the

strife, and he sacrificed his convictions to his patriotism.

With Henry's change of religion the condition of things changed as if by

magic. The League seemed to dissolve. Tenders of allegiance poured in

from all sides, from nobles, provinces, and towns. Rheims was still in

possession of the Guises, and the anointing and crowning took place at

Chartres (Feb. 27th, 1594). The manifestations of loyalty increased.

On the evening of the day on which Henry had been received into the

Roman Catholic Church at Saint Denis, he had recklessly ridden up to the

crest of the height of Montmartre and looked down on Paris, which was

still in the hands of the League. The feelings of the Parisians were

also changing. The League was seamed with dissensions; Mayenne had

quarrelled with the "Sixteen," and the partisans of these fanatics of

the League had street brawls with the citizens of more moderate

opinions. _Parlement_ took courage and denounced the presence of Spanish

soldiers within the capital. The loyalists opened the way for the royal

troops, Henry entered Paris (March 22nd), and marched to Notre Dame,

where the clergy chanted the _Te Deum_. From the cathedral he rode to

the Louvre through streets thronged with people, who pressed up to his

very stirrups to see their King, and made the tall houses re-echo with

their loyalist shoutings. Such a royal entry had not been seen for

generations, and took everyone by surprise. Next day the foreign troops

left the city. The King watched their departure from an open window in

the Louvre, and as their chiefs passed he called out gaily, "My

compliments to your Master. You need not come back."

With the return of Paris to fealty, almost all signs of disaffection

departed; and the King's proclamation of amnesty for all past rebellions

completed the conquest of his people. France was again united after

thirty years of civil war.

§ 22. _The Edict of Nantes._

The union of all Frenchmen to accept Henry IV. as their King had not

changed the legal position of the Protestants. The laws against them

were still in force; they had nothing but the King's word promising

protection to trust to. The war with Spain delayed matters, but when

peace was made the time came for Henry to fulfil his pledges to his

former companions. They had been chafing under the delay. At a General

Assembly held at Mantes (October 1593-January 1594), the members had

renewed their oath to live and to die true to their confession of faith,

and year by year a General Assembly met to discuss their political

disabilities as well as to conduct their ecclesiastical business. They

had divided France into nine divisions under provincial synods, and had

the appearance to men of that century of a kingdom within a kingdom.

They demanded equal civic rights with their Roman Catholic

fellow-subjects, and guarantees for their protection. At length, in

1597, four delegates were appointed with full powers to confer with the

King. Out of these negotiations came the Edict of Nantes, the Charter of

French Protestantism.

This celebrated edict was drawn up in ninety-five more general articles,

which were signed on April 13th, and in fifty-six more particular

articles which were signed on May 2nd (1598). Two _Brevets_, dated 13th

and 30th of April, were added, dealing with the treatment of Protestant

ministers, and with the strongholds given to the Protestants. The

Articles were verified and registered by _Parlements_; the _Brevets_

were guaranteed simply by the King's word.

The Edict of Nantes codified and enlarged the rights given to the

Protestants of France by the Edict of Poitiers (1577), the Convention of

Nérac (1578), the treaty of Fleix (1580), the Declaration of Saint-Cloud

(1589), the Edict of Mantes (1591), the Articles of Mantes (1593), and

the Edict of Saint-Germain (1594).

It secured complete liberty of conscience everywhere within the realm,

to the extent that no one was to be persecuted or molested in any way

because of his religion, nor be compelled to do anything contrary to its

tenets; and this carried with it the right of private or secret worship.

The full and free right of public worship was granted in all places in

which it existed during the years 1596 and 1597, or where it had been

granted by the Edict of Poitiers interpreted by the Convention of Nérac

and the treaty of Fleix (some two hundred towns); and, in addition, in

two places within every _bailliage_ and _sénéchaussée_ in the realm. It

was also permitted in the principal castles of Protestant _seigneurs

hauts justiciers_ (some three thousand), whether the proprietor was in

residence or not, and in their other castles, the proprietor being in

residence; to nobles who were not _hauts justiciers_, provided the

audience did not consist of more than thirty persons over and above

relations of the family. Even at the Court the high officers of the

Crown, the great nobles, all governors and lieutenants-general, and

captains of the guards, had the liberty of worship in their apartments

provided the doors were kept shut and there was no loud singing of

psalms, noise, or open scandal.

Protestants were granted full civil rights and protection, entry into

all universities, schools, and hospitals, and admission to all public

offices. The _Parlement_ of Paris admitted six Protestant councillors.

And Protestant ministers were granted the exemptions from military

service and such charges as the Romanist clergy enjoyed. Special

Chambers (_Chambres d'Édit_) were established in the _Parlements_ to try

cases in which Protestants were interested. In the _Parlement_ of Paris

this Chamber consisted of six specially chosen Roman Catholics and one

Protestant; in other _Parlements_, the Chambers were composed of equal

numbers of Romanists and Protestants (_mi-parties_). The Protestants

were permitted to hold their ecclesiastical assemblies--consistories,

colloquies, and synods, national and provincial; they were even allowed

to meet to discuss political questions, provided they first secured the

permission of the King.

They remained in complete control of two hundred towns, including La

Rochelle, Montauban, and Montpellier, strongholds of exceptional

strength. They were to retain these places until 1607, but the right was

prolonged for five years more. The State paid the expenses of the troops

which garrisoned these Protestant fortified places; it paid the

governors, who were always Protestants. When it is remembered that the

royal army in time of peace did not exceed ten thousand men, and that

the Huguenots could raise twenty-five thousand troops, it will be seen

that Henry IV. did his utmost to provide guarantees against a return to

a reign of intolerance.

Protected in this way, the Huguenot Church of France speedily took a

foremost place among the Protestant Churches of Europe. Theological

colleges were established at Sedan, Montauban, and Saumur. Learning and

piety flourished, and French theology was always a counterpoise to the

narrow Reformed Scholastic of Switzerland and of Holland.