History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume II Part 56

[1213] Ibid., ii. 322.

[1214] Ibid., ii. 307. See also in the Pieces justificatives, pp. 213-217: "Liste des refugies de la St. Barthelemy dont les familles existent de nos jours a Geneve."

[1215] Gaberel, ii. 325. The author of the really able and learned article on the ma.s.sacre, in the North British Review for October, 1869, conveys an altogether unfounded and cruel impression, not only with regard to Beza, but respecting his fellow Protestants, in these sentences: "The very men whose own brethren had perished in France were not hearty or unanimous in execrating the deed. There were Huguenots who thought that their party had brought ruin on itself, by provoking its enemies and following the rash counsels of ambitious men. This was the opinion of their chief, Theodore Beza, himself," etc. The belief of Beza that the French Protestants had merited even so severe a chastis.e.m.e.nt as this at the hands of G.o.d, by reason of the ambition of some and the unbelief or lack of spirituality of others, was a very different thing from failing to execrate the deed with heartiness. If the words of Bullinger to Hotman, quoted in support of the first sentence ("sunt tamen qui hoc factum et excusare et defendere tentant") really referred to Protestants at all, it can only have been to an insignificant number who took the position from a love of singularity, and who were below contempt. The execration of the deed was pre-eminently unanimous and hearty.

[1216] Gaberel, ii. 326.

[1217] Beza to T. Tilius, Dec. 3, 1572, Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., vii. 17.

[1218] Gaberel, ii. 330-333.

[1219] Nearly four years later, on the 8th of June, 1576, Monsieur de Chandieu received the news of the publication of Henry III.'s edict of peace permitting the refugees to return home. All the Protestants who had not adopted Switzerland as their future country congregated at Geneva. A solemn religious service was held in the church of Saint Pierre, where French and Genevese united in that favorite Huguenot psalm (the 118th)--

La voici l'heureuse journee Que Dieu a faite a plein desir--

the same which the soldiers of Henry IV. set up on the field of Coutras (Agrippa d'Aubigne, iii. 53). M. de Chandieu then rendered thanks in tender and affectionate terms to all the departments of government, exclaiming: "We shall always regard the Church of Geneva as our benefactress and our mother; and from all the French reformed churches will arise, every Sunday, words of blessing, in remembrance of your admirable benefits to us." The next day the refugees started for their homes, accompanied, as far as the border, by a great crowd of citizens.

Gaberel, ii. 337, 338.

[1220] Les amba.s.sadeurs de Charles IX. aux cantons suisses protestants, Bulletin, iii. 274-276. A copy was sent by Beza to the consuls of Montauban, together with a letter, Oct. 3. 1572. Also Mem. de l'estat (Arch. cur., vii. 158-161.)

[1221] Harangue de M. de Bellievre aux Suisses a la diette tenue a Baden, Mackintosh, Hist. of England, iii., Appendix L.

[1222] Bellievre to Charles IX., Baden, Dec. 15, 1572, Mackintosh, App. L, p. 360. De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 642.

[1223] As early as September 3d the superintendent of the mint submitted specimens of two kinds of commemorative medals: the one bearing the devices, "_Virtus in Rebelles_" and "_Pietas excitavit Just.i.tiam_;" and the other, "_Charles IX. dompteur des Rebelles, le 24 aoust 1572_." The Mem. de l'estat (Archives cur., vii. 355-357) contain the elaborate description furnished by the designer, accompanied with comments by the Protestant author. The Tresor de Numismatique, etc. (Paul Delaroche, etc.), Med. francaises, pt. 3d, plate 19, Nos. 3, 4, and 5, gives facsimiles of _three_ medals, the first two mentioned above, and a third on which Charles figures as Hercules armed with sword and torch confronting the three-headed Hydra of heresy. The motto is, "Ne ferrum temnat, simul ignibus obsto."

[1224] Smith to Walsingham, Digges, 252.

[1225] Leicester to Walsingham, Sept. 11th, Digges, 251.

[1226] Walsingham to Smith, Nov. 1, Digges, 279. The politic Montluc, Bishop of Valence, seems to allude to the same alteration in his master: "Au diable soyt la cause qui de tant de maux est cause, et qui d'ung bon roy et humain, s'il en fust jamais, l'ont contrainct de mectre la main au sang, qui est un morceau si friant, que jamais prince n'en tasta qu'il n'y voul.u.s.t revenir." De Noailles, iii. 223, 224.

[1227] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 29, 30.

[1228] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 29 (liv. i., c. 6).

[1229] Letter of May 22, 1571/2, Digges, 193.

[1230] Relation of Sigismondo Cavalli. I follow the resume of Baschet, La diplomatie venitienne, 556, 562.

[1231] "Leurs butins et richesses ne leur proffitarent point, non plus qu'a plusieurs ma.s.sacreurs, sacquemens, pillardz et paillards de la feste de Sainct-Barthelemy que j'ay cogneu, au moins des princ.i.p.aux, qui ne vesquirent guieres longtemps qu'ils ne fussent tuez au siege de la Roch.e.l.le, et autres guerres qui vindrent empres, et qui furent aussi pauvres que devant. Aussi, comme disoient les Espagnolz pillards, '_Que el diablo les avia dado, el diablo les avia llevado_.'" OEuvres, i. 277 (Ed.

of Hist. Soc. of Fr., 1864). I need only refer to the fate of the famous a.s.sa.s.sin who boasted of having killed four hundred men that day with his own arm, and who afterward, having embraced a hermit's life, was finally hung for the crime of murdering travellers (Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 20); and to that of Coconnas, put to death for the part he took in the conspiracy of which I shall shortly have to speak.

[1232] Memoires de Sully, i. 28, 29.

[1233] See _ante_, p. 530-532.

[1234] Apostolicarum Pii Quinti Epistolarum libri quinque. Letter of March 26, 1568, p. 73.

[1235] Pii Quinti Epistolae, 111.

[1236] Ibid., 150.

[1237] Ibid., 152. See _ante_, chapter xvi, p. 308.

[1238] "Nullo modo, nullisque de causis, hostibus Dei parcendum est."

[1239] "Catholicae religionis hostes aperte ac libere ad internecionem usque oppugnaverit." Ibid., 155.

[1240] "Deletis omnibus," etc. Ibid., 155.

[1241] Ibid., 160, 161.

[1242] Ibid., 166.

[1243] "Nec vero, vano pietatis nomine objecto, te eo usque decipi sinas, ut condonandis divinis injuriis falsam tibi misericordiae laudem quaeras: nihil est enim ea pietate misericordiaque crudelius, quae in impios et ultima supplicia meritos confertur." Ibid., 242.

[1244] "Haereticae pravitatis inquisitores per singulas civitates const.i.tuere." Ibid., 242.

[1245] Letter of Jan. 29, 1570, ibid., 267.

[1246] Letter of April 23, 1570, ibid., 275.

[1247] Letter to Cardinal Bourbon, Sept. 23, 1570, ibid., 282, 283.

[1248] Letter to Charles IX., January 25, 1572, ibid., 443.

[1249] Saint Pius V. is, I believe, the only pope that has been canonized since Saint Celestine V., near the end of the thirteenth century.

[1250] "Qui autem a militibus captivi ducebantur, eos Pius pretio redemptos, in jusque sibi vindicatos, atque Avenionem perductos, publico supplicio afficiendos _pro ardenti suo religionis studio_ decrevit."

Gabutius, Vita Pii Quinti, Acta Sanctorum Maii, -- 97, p. 642.

[1251] "Id Pius ubi cognovit, de Comite Sanctae Florae conquestus est, quod jussa non fecisset, dudum imperantis, _necandos protinus esse haereticos omnes quosc.u.mque ille capere potuisset_." Ibid., -- 125. It must not be forgotten that, in holding these sentiments, Pius V. did not stand alone; his predecessors on the pontifical throne were of the same mind. We have seen the anger of Paul IV., in 1558, upon learning that Henry II. had spared D'Andelot (see _ante_, chapter viii., vol. i., p. 320). Paul was for instantaneous execution, and _did not believe a heretic could ever be converted_. He told the French amba.s.sador "que c'estoit abus d'estimer que un heretique revint jamais; que ce n'estoit que toute dissimulation, et que c'estoit un mal ou il ne falloit que le feu, et soubdain!" The last expression is a clue to the att.i.tude of the Roman See to heresy under every successive occupant of the papal throne. Letter of La Bourdaisiere to the constable, Rome, Feb. 25, 1559, MS. Nat. Lib. Paris, Bulletin, xxvii. (1878) 105.

[1252] Gabutius, _ubi supra_.

CHAPTER XX.

THE SEQUEL OF THE Ma.s.sACRE, TO THE DEATH OF CHARLES THE NINTH.

[Sidenote: Widespread terror.]

The blow had been struck by which the Huguenots were to be exterminated.

If a single adherent of the reformed faith still lived in Paris, he dared not show his face. France had, as usual, copied the example of the capital, and there were few districts to which the fratricidal plot had not extended. Enough blood had been shed, it would seem, to satisfy the most sanguinary appet.i.te. After the ma.s.sacre in which the admiral and all the most noted leaders had perished--after the defection of Henry of Navarre and his more courageous cousin, it was confidently expected that the feeble remnants of the Huguenots, deprived of their head, could easily be reduced to submission. The stipulation of Charles the Ninth, when yielding a reluctant consent to the infamous project, would be fulfilled: not one of the hated sect would remain to reproach him with his crime.

And, in point of fact, throughout the greater number of the cities of France, even where there had been no actual ma.s.sacre, so widespread was the terror, that every Protestant had either fled from the country or sought safety in concealment, if he had not actually apostatized from the faith.[1253]