History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume I Part 58

[Footnote 1037: Letter to Bullinger, May 24, 1561, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 32, and Bonnet, Eng. tr., iv. 190.]

[Footnote 1038: Letter of Gilbert de Vaux, April 5, 1561. MS. in Nat.

Lib. of Paris, _apud_ Bulletin, xiv. 321, 322.]

[Footnote 1039: After having examined the churches, convents, etc., the lieutenant, though a Roman Catholic, reported to the Toulouse parliament "qu'il avoit trouve une telle obeissance en ceste ville que le roy demande a tous ses subjects, de sorte qu'il n'y avoit eu jamais un coup frappe, ne injure dicte aux papistes par ceux de l'Evangile."]

[Footnote 1040: Letter of Du Vignault to M. d'Espeville (Calvin), May 26, 1561, in Geneva MSS., Bulletin, xiv. (1865) 322-324.]

[Footnote 1041: "Ceux de Tholoze sont du tout enrages, car ils ne cessent de brusler les paoures fideles de jour a aultre. Le trouppeau est fort desole, et croy qu'est sans pasteur." Letter of La Cha.s.se, Montpellier, June 14, 1561, to M. d'Espeville, Geneva MSS., _ubi supra_, p. 325.]

[Footnote 1042: La Place, 127, 128; De Thou, iii., liv. xxviii. 53.]

[Footnote 1043: Memoires de Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 3. The discussion was long, and would have been tedious, had it not turned upon so important a topic. There were 140 members of parliament, and according to its regulations no one was allowed to concur simply in the views of another, but each counsellor was compelled to express his own sentiments, which were then committed to writing. As some of the high dignitaries of state also gave their opinions, there were altogether more than 150 speakers, and parliament met twice a day to listen to them. The Bishop of Paris, after harshly advocating the rekindling of the extinct fires of the estrapade, was compelled to hear in return some plain words from Admiral Coligny, who boldly accused the bishops and priests of being the cause of all the evils from which the Christian world was suffering, while at the same time they instigated a cruel persecution of those who exposed their crimes. The letters of Hubert Languet, who was in Paris at the time, are exceedingly instructive. Epist. secr., ii. 122, 125, etc.]

[Footnote 1044: Or _seven_, according to Languet, Epist. sec., ii. 130.]

[Footnote 1045: Journal de Bruslart, Memoires de Conde, i. 40, etc.; Despatches of Chantonnay, Mem. de Conde, ii. 12-15; La Place, 130; Hist.

eccles., i. 293, 294; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 54. Cf. Martin, Hist.

de France, x. 82, Baum, Theod. Beza, ii. 172, etc., and Soldan, Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 428.]

[Footnote 1046: It is styled a "_mercuriale_" in a contemporary letter of Du Pasquier (Augustin Marlorat), Rouen, July 11, 1561, Bulletin, xiv.

(1865) 364: "On dit que la mercuriale est achevee, mais la conclusion n'est pas encores publiee."]

[Footnote 1047: H. Martin, Hist. de France, x. 83.]

[Footnote 1048: The text of the Edict of July is given in Isambert, Recueil gen. des anc. lois fr., xiv. 109-111; Histoire eccles., i.

294-296; Mem. de Conde, i. 42-45. Cf. La Place, 130, 131; De Thou, iii.

54, 55; Mem. de Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 3.]

[Footnote 1049: "Que son epee ne tiendrait jamais au fourreau quand il serait question da faire sortir effet a cet arrete." Martin, x. 83.]

[Footnote 1050: Ibid., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1051: The cathedral alone persisted in holding out a day or two longer, and then made an unwilling sacrifice of its pictures, protesting at the same time that it only wanted peace and friends.h.i.+p.]

[Footnote 1052: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 530-532.]

[Footnote 1053: Letter to the church of Sauve, July, 1561, Bonnet, Lettres franc., ii. 415-418. It is instructive to note that the Provincial Synod of Sommieres took the decisive step of deposing the pastor of Sauve; nor was he pardoned until he had been convinced of his error, and had declared that he had done nothing except through righteous zeal, and in order to preclude many scandals. Geneva MS., _apud_ Bonnet, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1054: See the royal letters of prorogation of March 25th, Mem.

de Conde, ii. 281-284.]

[Footnote 1055: La Place, Commentaires, 140; De Thou, iii. 57; Mem. de Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 4.]

[Footnote 1056: The famous chateau of St. Germain-en-Laye, a favorite residence of the monarchs of the later Valois branch, is situated on the river Seine, a few miles below Paris. Poissy, where the a.s.sembly of the prelates convened, was selected on account of its proximity to the court. It is also on the Seine, which, between Poissy and St. Germain, makes a great bend toward the north; across the neck of the peninsula the distance from place to place is only about three miles. Pontoise, deriving its name from its bridge over the river Oise, a tributary of the Seine, lies about eight miles north of St. Germain.]

[Footnote 1057: The origin of the singular designation of this officer--a designation quite unique--is discussed _con amore_ by Cha.s.sanee, in that remarkable book, Catalogus Gloriae Mundi (edition of 1586), lib. xi., c. 5, fol. 239. Cha.s.sanee, who was himself of Autun, traces the t.i.tle and office of _vierg_ back to the Vergobretus of ancient Gallic times. Caesar, Bell. Gallic, i. 16.]

[Footnote 1058: The curious may find an instructive paragraph in his speech, devoted to a list of onerous taxes bearing in great part, or exclusively, on the people. La Place, 145.]

[Footnote 1059: "Le temps est une creature de Dieu a luy subjecte, de maniere que dix mille ans ne sont une minute en la puissance de nostre Dieu." The long speech of M. Bretagne, certainly one of the n.o.blest pleas for freedom of religious wors.h.i.+p to be found within the limits of the sixteenth century, is inserted in full in the Recueil des choses memorables (1565), 620-645, in La Place, liv. vi. 141-150, and in the Hist. eccles. des eglises reformees, i. 298-305. Summary in De Thou, iii. 57, 58.]

[Footnote 1060: Projects somewhat similar had been made, early in the year, in some of the provincial estates. In those of Languedoc, held at Montpellier in March, 1561, Terlon, a "capitoul" of Toulouse, speaking for the "tiers etat," advocated the sale of all the secular possessions of the clergy, reserving only a residence for the inc.u.mbent, and a.s.signing him a pension equal to his present income, to be paid by the cities of the kingdom. Chabot, a lawyer of Nismes, went further, and, when the clamor of the people had secured the hearing at first denied him, did not hesitate to say that the burdens of the province should be placed upon the shoulders of the priests and monks--whom he stigmatized as ignorant and corrupt--because of the evils they had inflicted upon the people. He even wanted a pet.i.tion to this effect, signed by thirty syndicates favorable to the reformed religion, to be inserted in the _cahier_ of Languedoc. Memoires d'Achille Gamon--advocate and consul of Annonay--_apud_ Collection de Memoires, Michaud et Poujoulat, 611. Some such wholesale confiscation seems even to have entered into the plans of the cabinet. In May, 1561, royal letters were sent to the Bishop of Paris, to the provost, and indeed, throughout France, demanding a return of the true value of all episcopal and other revenues (Memoires de Conde, i. 27). The object was plain enough. The clergy remonstrated energetically, as may be imagined (Ib., i. 29-39). The Paris clergy had especial recourse to the Cardinal of Lorraine, in a letter of June 3d.

Honest Abbe Bruslart, touched to the quick by the suggestion, notes in his quaint journal: "Voila les incommoditez de la nouvelle religion,"

etc. (Ib., i. 28).]

[Footnote 1061: "La diversite d'opinion soubstenues par vos subjects ne provient que d'ung grand zelle et affection qu'ils ont au salut de leurs ames."]

[Footnote 1062: La Place, 152; De Thou, iii. 58, 59; Hist. eccles., i.

306; Garnier, H. de France, xxix. 308, etc., who gives a very full abstract; but Ranke, v. 93-97, publishes from the MS. the hitherto inedited _cahier_.]

[Footnote 1063: Catharine's own account is given in an important letter to the Bishop of Rennes, written September 14, 1561--five days after the colloquy commenced: "Ayant este requise, y a deja quelques mois, de la pluspart de la n.o.blesse et des gens du tiers estat de ce Royaume, de faire our lea ministres, qui sont departis en plusieurs villes de cedit Royaume, sur leur Confession de Foy; je fus conseillee par mon frere le Roy de Navarre, les autres Princes du sang, et les Gens du Conseil du Roy Monsieur mon fils, de ce faire; ayant avise apres avoir longuement et meurement delibere la-dessus, que aux grands troubles ... il n'y avoit meilleur moyen ny plus fructueux pour faire abandonner les dits Ministres et retirer ceux qui leur adherent, que en faissant confondre leur doctrine et montrant et decouvrant ce qu'il y a d'erreur et d'heresie." Le Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i. 732, 733.]

[Footnote 1064: Baum, Theod. Beza, ii. 175; Martin, Hist. de France, x.

84. The restriction of the invitation to Frenchmen is referred to by Catharine in a letter of September 14 (Le Laboureur, Add., i. 733): "Ayant ... accorde a ceux desdits Ministres _qui seroient nez en France_, de comparoittre a Poissy."]

[Footnote 1065: The letters of La Riviere, Conde, Chatillon, and Antoine of Navarre, are printed in Baum, App., 34, 35. The question naturally arises, Why did not Calvin himself, who had been specially invited by the Protestant princes, receive permission from the magistrates of Geneva to go to Poissy? The truth is, that the Protestants of Paris "did not see the possibility of his being present without grave peril, in view of the rage conceived against him by the enemies of the Gospel, and the disturbances his name alone would excite in the country were he known to be in it." "In fact," they say in a letter but recently brought to light, "the Admiral by no means favors your undertaking the journey, and we have learned with certainty that the queen would not relish seeing you there, frankly saying that she cannot pledge herself for your safety in these parts, as she can for that of the rest. Meanwhile, the enemies of the Gospel, on the other hand, say that they would be glad to hear all the rest [of the reformers], but that, as for you, they could not bring themselves to listen to you or look at you. You see, sir, in what esteem you are held by these venerable prelates. I suspect that you will not be very much grieved by it, nor consider yourself dishonored by being thus regarded by such gentry!" La Riviere, in the name of all the ministers of Paris, to Calvin, July 31, 1561, Bulletin, xvi. (1867), 602-604.]

[Footnote 1066: Letter of the Syndics and Council of Geneva to the Lords of Zurich, July 21, 1561, and Charles IX.'s safe-conduct for Peter Martyr, July 30, Baum, ii., App., 36, 37.]

[Footnote 1067: Le Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i. 724; cf. letter of Card. de la Bourdaisiere to the Bishop of Rennes, Rome, August 23, 1561, ibid., and of Chantonnay to Tisnacq, September 6, Mem. de Conde, ii.

18.]

[Footnote 1068: The papal nuncio, Prospero di Santa Croce, indeed, represents the Cardinal of Lorraine as the originator of the perilous scheme. When Lorraine and Tournon, whom the Pope had const.i.tuted his legates, with the commission to put forth their most strenuous exertions to uphold the Roman Church in France, found advice, exhortation, and persuasion all in vain, Lorraine, in an evil hour, advised the holding of a colloquy: "Lotharingius audaci potius quam prudenti consilio reginae persuasit, ut Possiaci conventus haberetur episcoporum Galliae, in quo de religione ac moribus tractaretur: simulque copia fieret Hugonottorum principibus, Ministros illi vocant, si vellent, veniendi, neque iis solum qui erant in Gallia, sed ex finitimis etiam provinciis vocarentur, ut quae erant de religione controversa proponerentur; futurum sperans, ut ne respondere quidem ad sua postulata auderent. Confidebat enim Lotharingius et doctrinae et eloquentiae suae, et plurimum, ut debebat, ipsius causae bonitati." Cardinal Tournon was opposed to this course: "Non probabat hoc factum Turnonius, ut qui disputationem omnem c.u.m haereticis fugiendam noverat." P. Santacrucii de civilibus Galliae dissensionibus commentarii, Martene et Durand, tom. v. 1462.]

[Footnote 1069: Letter of La Riviere, in the name of all the ministers of Paris, Aug. 10, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 37-39.]

[Footnote 1070: The letter, now in the State archives of Geneva, is signed "_Le Roy de Navarre bien vostre, Anthoyne_," Baum, _ubi supra_, ii. 40. The character of this contemptible prince is best understood when such lines are read in the light of the intrigues he was at this very moment--as we shall have occasion to see--carrying on at Rome. When it is borne in mind that the colloquy of Poissy _preceded_ the edict of January by four months, and that Beza manifested no little _hesitation_ in coming to France, it becomes somewhat difficult to comprehend Mr.

Froude's account (Hist. of England, vii. 390): "The Cardinal of Lorraine demanded from the Parliament of Paris the revocation of the edicts (sic) of January. Confident of his power, he even challenged the Protestants to a public discussion before the court. Theodore Beza _s.n.a.t.c.hed eagerly_ at the gage; the Conference of Poissy _followed_," etc.]

[Footnote 1071: Letter of Calvin to Martyr, Aug. 17, 1561, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 40; and Bonnet, Calvin's Letters, Eng. tr., iv. 209.]

[Footnote 1072: Letter of Beza to Calvin, Aug. 22, 1561, written three hours after his arrival, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 44.]

[Footnote 1073: See the admirable biography of Beza, by Dr. H. Heppe, being the sixth volume of the Leben und ausgewahlte Schriften der Vater und Begrunder der reformirte Kirche; as well as the more extended work of Prof. Baum, frequently referred to.]

[Footnote 1074: "Les avertissant qu'il ne leur donneroit conge de se departir jusques a ce qu'ils y eussent donne ordre." Letter of the Sieur du Mortier, French amb. at Rome, to the Bp. of Rennes, Aug. 9, 1561, _apud_ Le Laboureur, Additions to Castelnau, i. 730. This authority would seem to be a positive proof that the speech which is attributed by La Place and other historians of the period to the king at the opening of the conference with the Protestants on the 9th of September, has, by a very natural error, been transposed from this place. De Thou, La Popeliniere, and others have made the more serious blunder of placing the chancellor's speech, which belongs here, at the same conference, and omitting the true address which La Place, etc., insert. Prof. Baum (Theodor Beza, ii. 242, note) first detected the inconsistencies between the two reported speeches of L'Hospital on the 9th of September, but gave preference in the text to the wrong doc.u.ment. Prof. Soldan has elucidated the whole matter with his usual skill (Geschichte des Prot.

in Frankreich, i. 440, note).]

[Footnote 1075: De Thou, iii. 63; La Place, 155.]

[Footnote 1076: "Sans venir au fait de la doctrine, ou ils ne veulent toucher non plus qu'au feu." Letter of Secretary Bourdin to his brother-in-law Bochetel, the Bishop of Rennes, French amba.s.sador in Germany, Aug. 23, 1561, _apud_ Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, i.

731. If we are to construe the language of the Histoire eccles. des egl.

ref. (i. 307) with verbal strictness, the theological discussions occasionally waxed so hot that the prelates found themselves unable to solve the knotty questions with which they were occupied, without recourse to the convincing argument of the fist!]

[Footnote 1077: Languet, letter of Aug. 6th, ii. 130.]

[Footnote 1078: Letter of Chantonnay, Aug. 31 (Mem. de Conde, ii. 16).]