History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume II Part 8

[78] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 7.

[79] April 7th. Mem. de Conde, iii. 221; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii., 9; J. de Serres, ii. 58, 59; De Thou, iii. 139. The historian of the reformed churches, as well as Beza in his letter of March 28th (Baum, ii., App., 176), complains bitterly of the slowness and parsimony of the Parisian Protestants, who seemed to be unable to understand that war was actually upon them.

[80] April 8th. "Declaration faicte par M. le prince de Conde, pour monstrer les raisons qui l'ont contraint d'entreprendre la defence de l'authorite du Roy," etc. Mem. de Conde, iii. 222-235; Jean de Serres, ii.

42-57; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 9, 10; De Thou, iii. 139-141.

[81] Traicte d'a.s.sociation, etc., April 11th. Mem. de Conde, iii. 258-262; J. Serres, ii. 31-37; De Thou, iii. 141.

[82] See Pasquier's letter to Fonssomme, already referred to, which contains a vivid picture of the confusion reigning in Paris, the surprise of the papal party, and the delight of the untrained populace at the prospect of war. OEuvres (ed. Feugere), ii. 246-250.

[83] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iii., c. 8.

[84] Ibid., liv. iii., c. 9.

[85] Even so late as May 8, 1562, the English minister resident at the court, than whom probably no other person in France felt obliged to keep himself better informed, wrote to Cecil respecting the Prince of Conde's strength: "I can a.s.sur you att thys dyspatche _he ys the strongest partie_, and in suche state his matter standeth, that _these men_ [the court] _wold fayne have a reasonable end, thoughe yt were with some dishonnour_." MSS. State Paper Office, Duc d'Aumale, Princes de Conde, Pieces justif., i. 370.

[86] It is strange that a historian at once so conscientious and generally so well-informed as M. Rosseeuw Saint-Hilaire should, in his Histoire d'Espagne, ix. 60, 61, have made the grave mistake of holding Calvin responsible for the excesses of the iconoclasts. See the Bulletin, xiv.

127, etc., for a complete refutation.

[87] Like the undeceived dupe in the old Athenian comedy, who mournfully laments that he had been led to wors.h.i.+p a bit of earthenware as a G.o.d:

Oimoi deilaios, Hote kai se chutreoun onta theon hegesamen.

(ARISTOPHANES, CLOUDS, 1473, 1474.)

On the other hand, the zealous Roman Catholic had his arguments for the preservation and wors.h.i.+p of images, some of which may strike us as sufficiently whimsical. "I confess," says one, "that G.o.d has forbidden idols and idolatry, but He has not forbidden the images (or pictures) which we hold for the veneration of the saints. For if that were so, _He would not have left us the effigy of his holy face_ painted in His likeness, on the cloth which that good lady Veronica presented Him, which yet to-day is looked upon with so much devotion in the church of St. Peter at Rome, nor the impression of His holy body represented in the 'saint suaire' which is at Chambery. Is it not found that Saint Luke thrice made with his own hand the portrait of Our Lady?... That holy evangelist ought certainly to have known the will of his Lord and Master better than you, my opponent, who wish to interpret the Scripture according to your sensuality." Discours des Guerres de Provence (Arch. curieuses, iv. 501, 502). Of course, the author never dreamed that his _facts_ might possibly be disputed.

[88] Les Recherches et Antiquitez de la ville de Caen, par Charles de Bourgueville, sieur du lieu, de Bras, et de Brucourt. a Caen, 1588. Pt.

ii. 170-172. From page 76 onward the author gives us a record of notable events in his own lifetime. So also at Clery, it is to be regretted that, not content with greatly injuring the famous church of Our Lady, the Huguenot populace, inflamed by the indiscretion of the priests, desecrated the monuments of the brave Dunois, and of Louis the Eleventh and his queen. Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 23. According to the author of the "Horribles cruautes des Huguenots en France" (Cimber et Danjou, vi. 304), they even burned the bones of Louis; nor did they respect those of the ancestors of the Prince of Conde.

[89] "Monsieur, ayez patience que j'aie abattu cette idole, et puis que je meure, s'il vous plait."

[90] "Comme etant ce fait plutot oeuvre de Dieu que des hommes." Hist.

eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 20. "L'impetuosite des peuples etait telle contre les images, qu'il n'etait possible aux hommes d'y resister." Ibid.

ii. 23.

[91] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 20-22.

[92] "Ledict moys," says Jehan de la Fosse in his journal (p. 47), "des citoyens de Sens tuerent beaucoup de huguenots, voyant que monsieur le connetable avoict faict bruler Popincourt."

[93] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 242-245; Jean de Serres, ii. 40; De Thou, iii. 144. The ma.s.sacre commenced on Sunday, April 12th (not 14th, as the Hist. eccles. states), and was continued the next day or two.

According to De Serres, the horrors of Sens seemed to efface those of Va.s.sy itself. Read the really terrible paragraph on the subject in the contemporary "Remonstrance au Roy sur le faict des Idoles abbatues et dejettees hors des Temples" (Mem. de Conde, iii. 355-364), beginning "Ou sont les meurtres, les boucheries des hommes pa.s.ses au fil de l'espee, par l'es.p.a.ce de neuf jours en la ville de Sens?" The address to the Cardinal of Guise is not less severe than the address to his brother in the famous "_Tigre_": "Te suffisoit-il pas, Cardinal, que le monde sceust que tu es Atheiste, Magicien, Necromantien, sans le publier davantage, et faire ouvrir en pleine rue les femmes grosses pour voir le siege de leurs enfans?" P. 360. White (Ma.s.s. of St. Bartholomew, 200) confounds in his account the two brother cardinals, and makes _Lorraine_ to have been Archbishop of Sens.

[94] Letter of Conde of April 19th, Mem. de Conde, iii. 300, 301; Hist.

eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 246, 247; J. de Serres, ii. 40-42.

[95] Throkmorton to Cecil, April 10, 1562. State Paper Office.

[96] I will not sully these pages even by a reference to the unnatural and beastly crimes which De Thou and other trustworthy historians ascribe to the Roman Catholic troops, especially the Italian part.

[97] So late as January, 1561, he wrote: "Quant a la religion, que sa Majeste se peult a.s.seure que je viveray et moreray en icelle." Gachard, Correspondance de Guillaume le Taciturne, ii. 6.

[98] "Et suis mervilleus.e.m.e.nt mari de veoir comme ces mechantes heresies se augmente partout," etc.

[99] "Qu'il fa.s.se tout debvoir du monde, tant par puplication, comme par force (autant qui j'en porrois la avoir) de remedier a telle desordre, qui est si domagable a tout la christiente."

[100] Letter to Card. Granvelle, Oct. 21, 1560, Gachard, i. 461-463.

[101] De Thou (whose graphic account I have princ.i.p.ally followed), iii.

226-228; J. de Serres, ii. 183, 184; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., iii.

164-167.

[102] Agrippa d'Aubigne has inserted in his history (i. 154-156) an interesting conversation which he held with the Baron des Adrets, then an old man, a dozen years later, in the city of Lyons. In answer to the question, Why he had resorted to acts of cruelty unbecoming to his great valor? the baron replied that no one commits cruelty in avenging cruelty; for, if the first measures are _cruelty_, the second are _justice_. His severities, he urged, were needed in order to show proper spirit in view of the past, and proper regard for the future. His soldiers must be forced to commit themselves beyond hope of pardon--they must, especially in a war in which their opponents cloaked themselves with the royal authority, fight without respect of persons. "The soldier cannot be taught," said he with characteristic bluntness, "to carry his sword and his hat in his hand at the same time." When asked what motive he had in subsequently leaving his old comrades in arms, he explained that it was neither fear nor avarice, but disgust at their timid policy and at seeing himself superseded. And to D'Aubigne's third question--a somewhat bold one, it must be confessed--Why success had never attended his recent undertakings, he answered "with a sigh": "_Mon enfant_, nothing is too warm for a captain who has no greater anxiety for victory than have his soldiers.

With the Huguenots I had _soldiers_; since then I have had only _hucksters_, who cared for nothing but money. The former were moved by apprehension unmingled with fear, and revenge, pa.s.sion, and honor were the wages they fought for. I could not give those Huguenot soldiers _reins_ enough; the others have worn out my _spurs_."

[103] And yet I agree with Von Polenz, Gesch. des Franz. Calvinismus (Gotha, 1859), ii. 188, 189, note, in regarding the Roman Catholic accounts of Des Adrets's cruelties and perfidy as very much exaggerated, and in insisting upon the circ.u.mstance that the barbarity practised at Orange had furnished him not only the example, but the incentive.

[104] According to Jean de Serres, this leader was the Baron des Adrets in person; according to De Thou, Montbrun commanded by the baron's appointment. So also Histoire eccles., iii. 171.

[105] So at Montbrison, the Baron des Adrets reserved thirty prisoners from the common slaughter to expiate the ma.s.sacre of Orange by a similar method. One of them was observed by Des Adrets to draw back twice before taking the fatal leap. "What!" said the chief, "do you take _two springs_ to do it?" "I will give you _ten_ to do it!" the witty soldier replied; and the laugh he evoked from those grim lips saved his life. De Thou (iii.

231, 232) and others.

[106] J. de Serres, ii. 188; Castelnau, liv., iv. c. ii. But the "Discours des Guerres de la comte de Venayscin et de la Prouence ... par le seigneur Loys de Perussiis, escuyer de Coumons, subiect ua.s.sal de sa sainctete"

(dedicated to "Fr. Fabrice de Serbellon, cousin-germain de N. S. P. et son general en la cite d'Avignon et dicte comte,") Avignon, 1563, and reprinted in Cimber (iv. 401, etc.), makes no mention of the fig-tree, and regards the preservation as almost miraculous. There is a faithful representation of the ruined Chateau of Mornas above the frightful precipice, in Count Alexander de Laborde's magnificent work, Les Monuments de la France (Paris, 1836), plate 179.

[107] Discours des Guerres de la comte de Venayscin, etc., 453; De Thou, iii. 240.

[108] Mem. de Blaise de Montluc, iii. 393 (Pet.i.tot ed.): "pouvant dire avec la verite qu'il n'y a lieutenant de Roy en France qui ait plus faict pa.s.ser d'Huguenots par le cousteau ou par la corde, que moy."

[109] "Me deliberay d'user de toutes les cruautez que je pourrois." Ib., iii. 20. "Je recouvray secrettement deux bourreaux, lesquels on appella depuis mes laquais, parce qu'ils estoient souvent apres moy." Ib., iii., 21. Consult the succeeding pages for an account of Montluc's brutality, which could scarcely be credited, but that Montluc himself vouches for it.

[110] Since the publication of the Edict of January at Toulouse (on the 6th of February), the Protestant minister had sworn to observe its provisions before the seneschal, viguier, and capitouls, and, when he preached, these last had been present to prevent disturbance. A place of wors.h.i.+p, twenty-four cannes long by sixteen in width (174 feet by 116), had been built on the spot a.s.signed by the authorities. Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., iii. 1.

[111] De Thou, iii. 294; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., iii. 1-32.

[112] Even in 1762, Voltaire remonstrated against a jubilee to "thank G.o.d for four thousand murders." Yet a century later, in 1862, Monseigneur Desprez, Archbishop of Toulouse, gave notice of the recurrence of the celebration in these words: "The Catholic Church always makes it a duty to recall, in the succession of ages, the most remarkable events of its history--particularly those which belong to it in a special manner. It is thus that we are going to celebrate this year the jubilee commemorative of a glorious act accomplished among you three hundred years ago." The archbishop was warm in his admiration of the last centennial procession, "at which were present all the persons of distinction--the religious orders, the officiating minister under his canopy, the red robes, and the members of parliament pressing behind the university, the seneschal, the _bourgeoisie_, and finally a company of soldiers." But the French government, not agreeing with the prelate in the propriety of perpetuating the reminiscence, forbade the procession and all out-door solemnities, and declared "the celebration of a jubilee of the 16th to the 23d of May next, enjoined by the Archbishop of Toulouse, to be nothing less than the commemoration of a mournful and b.l.o.o.d.y episode of our ancient religious discords." See a letter from a correspondent of the New York Evening Post, Paris, April 10, 1862.

[113] Papal brief of April 23, 1562: "Ista sunt vere catholico viro digna opera, ista haud dubie divina sunt beneficia. Agimus omnipotenti Deo gratias, qui tam praeclaram tibi mentem dedit," etc. Soldan, ii. 61.

[114] De Thou, iii. 149-151.

[115] Ibid., iii. 143, April 7th.

[116] Catharine de' Medici stated to Sir Harry Sydney, the special English envoy, in May, 1562, that her son-in-law, the King of Spain, had offered Charles thirty thousand foot and six thousand horse "payd of his owne charge," besides what the Duke of Savoy and others were ready to furnish.

Letter of Sidney and Throkmorton to Queen Elizabeth, May 8, 1562, MSS.

State Paper Office. Duc d'Aumale, Princes de Conde, Pieces justif., i.

363.

[117] Sir T. Chaloner, amba.s.sador in Spain, to Sir Nicholas Throkmorton, May 1, 1562, Haynes, State Papers, 382, 383.