Chapter XI (3)

[Footnote 993: La Place, Commentaires, 89; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.) 8-10; Hist. eccles., i. 277, 279. None of these authors give more than a very imperfect sketch of L'Ange's harangue. Beza, in the letter more than once referred to above, says: "Nobilitatem ferunt valde fortiter et libere locutam, sed plebs imprimis graviter et copiose disseruit de rerum omnium perturbatione, de intolerabili quorundam potentia, etc.... adeo ut omnes audientes valde permoverit." Baum, Theod. Beza, ii., App., 20, 21.]

[Footnote 994: "Quasi noyes de telles trop frequentes inondations des infectees lagunes de Geneve." The mention of the heretical capital requires an apology on the part of our pious orator, and he adds in Latin, after the fashion of other parts of his mongrel address: "Desplicet aures vestras et os meum foedasse vocabulo tam probroso, sed ex ecclesiarum praescripto cogor." La Place, 101.]

[Footnote 995: "Encores, Sire, vous supplierons-nous tres-humblement pour ce tant bon et tant obeissant peuple francois, duquel Dieu (vostre pere et le leur aussi) vous a faict seigneur et roy; prenez en pitie, sire, et soublevez un peu les charges que des long temps ils portent patiemment. Pour Dieu, sire, ne permettez que ce tiers pied de vostre throne soit aucunement foule, meurtry ny brise." La Place, 108.]

[Footnote 996: Quintin's speech is given in full by La Place, 93-109; Hist. eccles., i. 270-274; De Thou, iii., liv. xxvii., 11, etc. Letter of Beza to Bullinger, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 997: "Son discours, qu'il lut presque tout entier, fut long et ennuyeux.... rempli de lonanges fades, et de flatteries outrees, fit rougir, et ennuya les assistans." De Thou, iii. 11, 12. Quintin's address drew forth from the Protestants a written reply, directed to the queen, exposing his "ignorance, calumnies, and malicious omissions." It is inserted in Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 275-277.]

[Footnote 998: La Place, 109, 112; De Thou, iii. 12, 14; Hist. eccl., i. 280.]

[Footnote 999: Beza, Letter to Bullinger, Geneva, Jan. 22, 1561; Baum, Th. Beza, ii., App., 21, 22; Calvin to Ministers of Paris, Lettres franc., ii. 348.]

[Footnote 1000: "Hanc supplicationem, scribitur ad nos, Regina ex Amyraldi manu acceptam promisisse se Concilio exhibituram, et magna omnium spes est nobis omnia haec concessum iri, modo privatis locis et sine tumultu pauci simul conveniant.... Ita brevi futurum spero ut Gallia tandem Regem et nomine et re christianissimum habeat." Beza, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1001: Catharine's fears that the States would enter upon the discussion of matters affecting her regency undoubtedly had much to do with this action (Hist. eccles. des eglises ref., i. 280: "qu'on craignoit vouloir passer plus outre en d'autres affaires qu'on ne vouloit remuer"). Ostensibly in order to avoid confusion and expense, each of the thirteen principal provinces was to depute only two delegates to Pontoise.]

[Footnote 1002: Letter of Charles IX., Jan. 28, 1561, Memoires de Conde, ii. 268.]

[Footnote 1003: March 1st, "puysque la volunte du Roy est," Mem. de Conde, ii. 273. When the secretary of state, Bourdin, brought to parliament the mandates of Charles and Catharine from Fontainebleau, of Feb. 13th and 14th, ordering its registry, he stated that Charles had granted this document "at the urgent prayer of the three estates, and in order to obviate and provide against troubles and divisions, while waiting for the decision of the General Council granted by the Pope." On the 22d of February a new missive of the king was received in parliament, enjoining the publication of the letter of January 28th, with the modification that any of the liberated prisoners that would not consent to live in a Catholic fashion must leave the kingdom under pain of the halter. Mem. de Conde, ii. 271, 272.]

[Footnote 1004: Calvin, Memoire aux eglises ref. de France, Dec., 1560, Lettres franc. (Bonnet), ii. 350.]

[Footnote 1005: Letter of Calvin to brethren of Paris, Feb. 26, 1561, _ap._ Baum, ii., App., 26; Bonnet, Lettres fr. de Calvin, ii. 378, etc.]

[Footnote 1006: "E benche la piu parte fossero ignoranti, e predicasse mille pazzie, pero ogn'uno aveva il suo seguito." Michel Suriano, Commentarii del regno di Francia, Relations des Amb. Ven. (Tommaseo), i. 532. M. Tommaseo supposes this relation to belong to 1561, and mentions the somewhat remarkable opinion of others that it was somewhere between 1564 and 1568. The document itself gives the most decided indications that it was written in the early part of 1562, before the outbreak of the first civil war--indeed, before the return of the Guises to court. After stating that Charles IX. when he ascended the throne was _ten_ years old (page 542), the author says that he is now _eleven and a half_. The proximate date would, therefore, seem to be January or February, 1562. Throkmorton wrote to the queen, Paris, Nov. 14, 1561, that "the Venetians had sent Marc Antonio Barbaro to reside there, in the place of Sig. Michaeli Soriano." State Paper Office MSS.]

[Footnote 1007: Gaberel, Histoire de l'eglise de Geneve, i., pieces just., p. 201-203, from the Archives of Geneva; Soulier, Histoire des edits de pacification (Paris, 1682), 22-25.]

[Footnote 1008: Gaberel, Hist. de l'eglise de Geneve, i. (pieces justif.), 203-206. He gives the deliberation of the council, as well as the reply. Lettres franc. de Calvin, ii. 373-378. It needs scarcely to be noticed that the "Sieur Soulier, pretre," while he parades the royal letter as a convincing proof of the seditious character of the Huguenot ministers, does not deign even to allude to the satisfactory reply. No wonder; so apposite a refutation would have been sadly out of place in a book written expressly to justify the successive steps of the violation of the solemn compacts between the French crown and the Protestants--to prepare the way, in fact, for the formal revocation of the edict of Nantes (three years later) toward which the priests were fast hurrying Louis XIV.]

[Footnote 1009: La Place, Commentaires, 120; Sommaire recit de la calomnieuse accusation de Monsieur le prince de Conde, avec l'arrest de la cour contenant la declaration de son innocence, in the Mem. de Conde, ii. 383; De Thou, iii. 38.]

[Footnote 1010: The arret of parliament of June 13th is given in Histoire eccles., i. 291-293; Sommaire recit de la calomnieuse accusation de Monsieur le prince de Conde, iii. 391-394. See also La Place, 128-130; De Thou, iii. 50, 51; Journal de Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 39, 40.]

[Footnote 1011: Strange to say, the editor of the Memoires de Conde in the Collection Michaud-Poujoulat expresses his disbelief of this occurrence; but not only are the historians explicit, but an official statement was drawn up and signed by the secretaries of state, under Charles's orders. This notarial document is inserted in La Place, 139, 140, and in the Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 296, 297; De Thou, iii. 56, gives the wrong date, Aug. 28th. Beza had from the lips of Conde, that very afternoon, an account, which he transmitted the next day to Calvin. Letter of Aug. 25th, _apud_ Baum, iii., App., 47.]

[Footnote 1012: La Place, 121; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.) 40; Mem. de Conde, ii. 24, 25.]

[Footnote 1013: La Place, 121, 122; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.) 40, 41.]

[Footnote 1014: Letter of Beza to Wolf, March 25, 1561, _ap._ Baum, ii., App., 30, 31; The Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, under May, 1561 (p. 43), has this entry: "Artus Desire fist amende honorable, tout nud, la torche au poing, dedans le palais, en ung jeudy, 14^e du mois, et fut condamne a rester dedans les Chartreux cinq ans au pain et a l'eau: il y fut quatre moys; les ungs disent qu'il s'en fut, les aultres que les Chartreux le firent sortir, craignant les huguenots. Depuis il ne se cacha pas, et se promenoit a Paris."]

[Footnote 1015: "Ou il n'a rien entendu qui ne fust bon." Reg. capit. Eccles. Rothom., March 16, 1561, _apud_ Floquet, Hist. du parlement de Normandie, ii. 374, 375.]

[Footnote 1016: "Aliud est Christianum esse quatn Papistam non esse." Letter to Wolf, March 25, 1561, _ap._ Baum, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1017: This very year parliament had issued an order, at the commencement of Lent, directing the sick, "permission prealablement obtenue," to purchase the meat they needed of the butcher of the Hotel-Dieu, who alone was permitted to sell, and who was compelled to submit weekly to the court a record, not only of the permissions granted and the persons to whom he sold, but even of the _quantity_ which each applicant obtained! Registers of Parliament, Feb. 27, 1561, _apud_ Felibien, Histoire de Paris, iv., Preuves, 797.]

[Footnote 1018: Honorat de Savoie, Comte de Villars, had a private grudge to satisfy against the admiral, who had complained to the king of the cruelties which he had perpetrated in Languedoc. La Place, 122.]

[Footnote 1019: La Place, Commentaires, _ubi supra_; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.) 41-43; Hist. eccles., i. 287; Huguenot poetical libel in Le Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i. 745.]

[Footnote 1020: "Auquel (l'evesque de Valence) il dict qu'il se contentoit de ceste fois, et qu'il n'y retournerois plus." La Place, Commentaires, _ubi supra_; De Thou, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1021: La Place, Commentaires, 123, De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.) 45. How deep the disappointment felt by the Protestants at the constable's course must have been, can be gathered from the sanguine picture of the prospects of the French Reformation drawn by Languet a couple of months earlier. Arguing from the comparative mildness of Montmorency in the persecutions under Henry II., from the fact that he had allowed no one of his five sons to enter the ecclesiastical state, which offered rare opportunities of advancement, and from the influence which his sons and his three nephews--all favorably inclined to, if not open adherents of the new doctrines--would exert over the old man, he not unnaturally came to this conclusion: "I am, therefore, of opinion that, if the Guises still retain any power, the constable will join Navarre for the purpose of overwhelming them, and will make no opposition to Navarre if he sets on foot a moderate reformation of doctrine." Epist. secr., ii., p. 102.]

[Footnote 1022: La Place and De Thou, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1023: This document first appears in the Memoires de Conde, under the title "Sommaire des choses premierement accordees entre les Ducs de Montmorency Connestable, et De Guyse Grand Maistre, Pairs de France, et le Mareschal Sainct Andre, pour la Conspiration du Triumvirat, et depuis mises en deliberation a l'entree du Sacre et Sainct Concile de Trente, et arrestee entre les Parties, en leur prive Conseil faict contre les Heretiques, et contre le Roy de Navarre, en tant qu'il gouverne et conduit mal les affaires de Charles neufiesme Roy de France, Mineur; lequel est Autheur de continuel accroissement de la nouvelle Secte qui pullule en France." The principal provisions are given by De Thou, iii. (liv. xxix.) 142, 143, under date of 1562, who explicitly states his disbelief of its authenticity. Neither, indeed, does the compiler of the Mem. de Conde vouch for it. Among other objections that have been urged with force against the genuineness of the document, are the following: The improbability that the Triumvirs would mature a plan involving all the Catholic sovereigns of Europe without previously obtaining their consent, of which there is no trace; the inconsistency of the project with the well-known policy and character of the German Emperor Ferdinand; the improbability that the Council of Trent would indorse a plan aimed at the humiliation of Navarre, who, when the council actually reassembled in January, 1562, was completely won over to the Roman party. In favor of the document may be urged: First, that M. Capefigue (Histoire de la reforme, de la ligue, etc., ii. 243-245) asserts: "J'ai trouve cette piece, qu'on a crue supposee, en original et signee dans les MSS. Colbert, bibl. du roi." Prof. Soldan, who has devoted an appendix to the first volume of his Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, to a discussion of this reported agreement between the Triumvirs, was unsuccessful in finding any trace of such a paper. Secondly, that the Memoires de Guise, the manuscript of which, according to the statement of the editor, M. Aime Champollion, fils (Notice sur Francois de Lorraine, due d'Aumale et de Guise, prefixed to his Memoires, first published in the Collection Michaud-Poujoulat, 1851, p. 5), is partly in the handwriting of the duke himself, partly in that of his secretary, Millet, insert the "Sommaire" precisely as it stands in the Memoires de Conde, without any denial of its authenticity. This would appear, at first sight, to settle the question beyond cavil. But it must be borne in mind that many of the memoires of the sixteenth century are compiled on the plan of including all contemporary papers of importance, whether written by friend or by foe. Frequently the most contradictory narratives of the same event are placed side by side, with little or no comment. This is precisely the case with those of Guise, in which, for example, no less than _four_ accounts--_three_ of them from Huguenot sources--are given of the massacre of Vassy. Now we have the testimony of De Thou (_ubi supra_) that this agreement, industriously circulated by the Prince of Conde and the Huguenots, made a powerful impression not only in France, but in Germany and all Northern Europe. So important a document, even if a forgery, would naturally find a place in such a collection as the Memoires of Guise. Altogether the matter is in a singularly interesting position. Could the manuscript seen by M. Capefigue be found and re-examined critically, the truth might, perhaps, be reached. M. Henri Martin, in his excellent Histoire de France, x. 79, note, accepts the document as genuine.]

[Footnote 1024: The "plebe e populo minuto," the Venetian Michiel tell us, "e quello che si vede certo con gran fervenzia e devozione frequentar le chiese, e continuar li riti cattolici." Relations des Amb. Ven. i., 412.]

[Footnote 1025: "Aulcuns desditz ecclesiasticques," is Claude Haton's ingenuous admission respecting his fellow priests of this period, "estoient fort vicieux encores pour lors, et les plus vicieux estoient ceux qui plus resistoient auxditz huguenotz, jusques a mettre la main aux cousteaux et aux armes." Memoires, i. 129.]

[Footnote 1026: Memoires de Conde, i. 27.]

[Footnote 1027: "In viginti urbibus aut circiter trucidati fuerunt pii a furiosa plebe." Letter of Calvin to Bullinger, May 24, 1561, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 33. At Mans, on Lady-Day (March 25th), so serious a riot took place, that the bishop felt compelled to apologize in a letter to Catharine (April 23d), in which he excuses his flock by alleging that they were exasperated beyond endurance by the sight of a Huguenot "assemblee" openly held by day in the "Faubourg St. Jehan," contrary to the royal ordinances--some of the attendants, he asserts, coming out of the meeting armed. His letter is to be found in the Mem. de Conde, ii. 339.]

[Footnote 1028: And was openly denounced by his clergy from the pulpit, in Passion Week, as an "apostate," a "traitor," a "new Judas," etc. Bulletin, xxiii. 84.]

[Footnote 1029: De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 51, 52; Histoire eccles., i. 287; La Place, 124; Calvin to Bullinger, Baum, ii., App., 33; Journal de Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, ii. 27. Interesting documents from the municipal records of Beauvais, Bulletin, xxiii. (1874) 84, etc. Letter of Chantonnay, Rheims, May 10, 1561 (Mem. de Conde, ii. 11), who adds: "L'Admiral ha tant peu avec le credit qu'il ha ver Monsieur de Vendosme [Navarre], que l'on a execute deux ou trois de ceulx du peuple; lequel depuis s'est leve de nouveau, et a pendu le bourreau qui feit l'execution."]

[Footnote 1030: "Car, de toutes les choses, la plus incompatible en ung estat, ce sont deux religions contraires."]

[Footnote 1031: Journal de Bruslart, Memoires de Conde, i. 26, etc.; Registers of Parliament, ibid., ii. 341, etc., and _apud_ Felibien, Hist. de Paris, Preuves, iv. 798, Arret of April 28th and 29th. According to the information that had reached Calvin, twelve had been killed and forty wounded by Longjumeau and his friends (Calvin to Bullinger, _ubi supra_). The parliamentary registers do not give the precise number. The good curate of S. Barthelemi makes no allusion to any attack, but sets down the loss of the Roman Catholics at three killed and nine wounded. Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, 41. Hubert Languet says seven were killed. Epist. secr., ii. 117.]

[Footnote 1032: Letters patent of Fontainebleau, April 19, 1561, Mem. de Conde, ii. 334, 335; La Place; and Hist. eccles., _ubi supra_; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 52.]

[Footnote 1033: How the devoted adherents of the Roman church received this edict and its predecessor appears from the Memoires of Claude Haton. In the city of Provins, a short distance from Paris, one or two preachers reluctantly consented to read it in the churches; but "maistre Barrier," a Franciscan and curate of Sainte Croix, instead of the required proclamation, made these remarks to the people at the commencement of his sermon: "On m'a cejourd'-huy apporte ung memoire et papier escript, qu'on m'a dict estre la coppie d'un edict du roy, pour vous le publier; et _veult-on que je vous dye que les chatz et les ratz doibvent vivre en paix les ungs avec les aultres_, sans se rien faire de mal l'ung a l'autre, et que nous aultres Francoys, e'est assavoir les heretiques et les catholicques, fassions ainsi, et que le roy le veult. _Je ne suis crieur ni trompette de la ville pour faire telles publications._ Dieu veuille par sa misericorde avoir pitie de son eglise et du royaume de France, les deux ensemble sont prestz de tomber en grande ruyne; Dieu veuille bailler bon conseil a nostre jeune roy et inspirer ses gouverneurs a bien faire; ils entrent a leur gouvernement par ung pauvre commencement, mais ce est en punition de noz pechez." Memoires de Claude Haton, i. 123, 124.]

[Footnote 1034: La Place, 124-126; Histoire eccles., i. 288, etc.; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 52, 53. The remonstrance of parliament was, in point of fact, little more than an echo of the strenuous protest of the Spanish ambassador to the queen mother. See Chantonnay to Catharine de' Medici, April 22, 1561, Memoires de Conde, ii. 6-10.]

[Footnote 1035: According to Claude Haton, the edict was received with ineffable delight, especially in those cities of the kingdom where there were Huguenot judges. The Catholics were despised. The Huguenots became bold: "En toutes compagnies, assemblees et lieux publicz, ilz huguenotz avoient le hault parler." Despite the prohibition of the employment of insulting terms, they called their adversaries "papaux, idolatres, pauvres abusez." and "tisons du purgatoire du pape." Memoires, i. 122. Doubtless a smaller measure of free speech than this would have sufficed to stir up the bile of the curate of Meriot.]

[Footnote 1036: Already, on the 6th of March, Claude Boissiere had written to the Genevan reformer from Saintes: "God has so augmented His church that we number to-day by the grace of God thirty-eight pastors in this province" (Saintonge in Western France), "each of us having the care of so many towns and parishes, that, had we fifty more, we should scarcely be able to satisfy half the charges that present themselves." Geneva MSS., _apud_ Bulletin, xiv. (1855) 320, and Crottet, Hist. des egl. ref. de Pons, Gemozac, etc., 57.]

[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 Chasse, 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 friendship.]

[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 assembly 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 Chassanee, in that remarkable book, Catalogus Gloriae Mundi (edition of 1586), lib. xi., c. 5, fol. 239. Chassanee, who was himself of Autun, traces the title 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 noblest pleas for freedom of religious worship 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 incumbent, and assigning 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 petition 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 noblesse et des gens du tiers estat de ce Royaume, de faire ouir 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 constituted 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 cum 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 _snatched 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 ausgewaehlte Schriften der Vaeter und Begruender 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 document. 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 ambassador 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).]

[Footnote 1079: "Mais ceux qui sont extremement malades sont excusez d'appliquer toutes herbes a la douleur pour l'appaiser, quand elle est insupportable, attendant le bon medecin, que j'estime devoir estre un bon Concile, pour une si furieuse et dangereuse maladie." Letter of Catharine to the Bishop of Rennes, Aug. 23, 1561, _apud_ Le Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i. 727.]

[Footnote 1080: An incident, preserved for us by Languet, which happened about this time, reveals somewhat of Catharine's temper and of the doubts that pervaded the young king's mind. On Corpus Christi day, the queen mother, in conversation with her son, recommended to him that, while duly reverencing the sacrament, he should not entertain so gross a belief as that the bread which was carried around in the procession was the very body of Christ which hung from the cross. Charles replied that he had received the same warning from others, but coupled with the injunction that he should say nothing about it to any one. "Yet," responded Catharine smiling, "you must take care not to forsake your ancestral religion, lest your kingdom may be thrown into confusion, and you yourself be driven into banishment." To which Charles aptly replied: "The Queen of England has changed the religion of her kingdom, but no one gives her any trouble." Epist. secr., ii. 127.]

[Footnote 1081: De Thou (iii., liv. xxviii., pp. 60-63) gives the substance, Gerdesius (Scrinium Antiq., v. 339, _seq._) the text of this extraordinary letter. See also Jean de Serres, i. 212, etc.]

[Footnote 1082: From Hurault's letter of July 12th, to the Bishop of Rennes, we learn the date of the Cardinal of Ferrara's departure from Rome--July 2d. He travelled so slowly, however, that it was not until September 19th that he reached St. Germain.]

[Footnote 1083: "Que je n'avoys recu change depuis qu'il n'avoit voulu parler a moy de peur d'estre excommunie." Letter of Beza to Calvin, Aug. 25, 1561, Baum, ii. Appendix, 46. This long and important letter, giving a graphic account of the first days of Beza at St. Germain, was signed, for safety's sake, "T. de Chalonoy," and addressed to "Monsieur d'Espeville, a Villedieu." The Duke d'Aumale has also published this letter in his Histoire des Princes de Conde, i. 340-342. There are some striking differences in the two; none more noteworthy than the omission in Prof. Baum's copy of a sentence which very clearly marks the distrust still felt by the reformers of the upright Chancellor L'Hospital. After reference to L'Hospital's greeting, Beza originally wrote: "Force me fut de le suyvre, mais ce fut avec un tel visage qu'il congnut assez que je le congnoissois." From the later copy and from the Latin translation inserted by Beza himself in the collection of Calvin's letters, these words are omitted.]

[Footnote 1084: "Avec une troupe cent foys plus grande que je n'eusse desire." _Ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1085: Letter of Beza of Aug. 25th, _ubi supra_. Beza, to whom Conde immediately afterward gave an account of the act of reconciliation, was not altogether satisfied with it. I have spoken of it as unfortunate, because it removed all the obstacles to the more complete union of the constable and the Guises against the Huguenots. La Place, 140; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 56.]

[Footnote 1086: "Estant arrivez a la court, ilz y furent mieux accueillis que n'eust este le pape de Rome, s'il y fust venu." Mem. de Claude Haton, i. 155.]

[Footnote 1087: Letter of Beza of Aug. 25th, Baum. ii., Appendix, 47-54; La Place, 155-157; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 64; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref. i. 309-312.]

[Footnote 1088: "Nous confessons, dy-je, que panis est corpus sacramentale, et pour definir que c'est a dire _sacramentaliter_, nous disons qu'encores que le corps soit aujourd'huy au ciel et non ailleurs, et les signes soyent en la terre avec nous, toutefoys aussi veritablement nous est donne ce corps et recu par nous, moyennant la foy," etc. Baum, ii. App., 52.]

[Footnote 1089: "Je le croy ainsy, dit-il, Madame, et voila qui me contente." Ibid., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1090: "Sed illud totum ita complectebatur, ut satis ostenderet penitus se non tenere quid hoc rei esset. Agnoscebat enim se aliis studiis tempus impendisse." Beza, _ubi supra_, p. 50. The Latin version of Beza's letter of August 25th, made under the writer's own supervision, for publication with a selection of Calvin's letters (Geneva, 1576), contains a fuller account of the discussion than the French original actually despatched. See Baum, _ubi supra_, 45-54.]

[Footnote 1091: "Cardinalis testatus iterum non urgere se transubstantiationem." Latin version, _ubi supra_. "Car, disoit il, pour la transsubstantiation je ne suys poinct d'advis qu'il y ayt schisme en l'eglise." French original, _ubi supra_, 50, 51.]

[Footnote 1092: "Tum ego ad reginam conversus: 'Ecce inquam sacramentarios illos tam diu vexatos, et omnibus calumniis oppressos.' 'Escoutez vous,' dit elle, 'Monsieur le cardinal? Il dit que les sacrementaires n'out point aultre opinion que ceste-cy a laquelle vous accordez.'" Letter of Beza, _ubi supra_, 52.]

[Footnote 1093: Cf. letter of Beza, _ubi supra_, 47 and 52.]

[Footnote 1094: "Vous trouverez que je ne suis pas si noir qu'on me faict." Beza, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1095: "Bon homme pour ce soir, mays demain quoy?" Beza, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1096: "Le lendemain le bruict courut, non seulement a la cour, mais aussi a Possy, et jusques aux pays loingtains, que de Beze avoit este vaincu et reduict par le cardinal de Lorraine au premier colloque faict entr'eux." La Place, 157. So Beza himself heard the very morning he wrote: "Or est-il que tout ce matin il n'a cesse de se venter qu'il m'a convaincu et reduict a son opinion;" but he adds: "J'ay bons tesmoins et bons garants, Dieu mercy, de tout le contraire." _Ubi supra_. So also in his letter of Aug. 30th (Ib., 59): "Cardinalis fortiter jactat me primo statim congressu a se superatum, sed a gravissimis tesbibus refellitur." "Ce que le Connetable ayant dit a le Reine a son disner, comme s'en rejouissant, elle lui dict tout hautement, comme celle qui avoit assiste, qu'il estoit tres-mal informe." Histoire eccles. des egl. ref., i. 312.]

[Footnote 1097: "Duodecima hujus mensis profectos esse in aulam octo ex fratribus nostris, quibus nunc accessit noster Galasius." Letter of Beza, Aug. 22, 1561, Baum, 2 App., 44.]

[Footnote 1098: Aug. 17th. Hist. eccles., i. 308, etc., where this document is given; La Place, 154; Letter of Beza of Aug. 22d, _ubi supra_, 45.]

[Footnote 1099: La Place, 154. "Ce meme jour selon nostre requeste a este accorde que nous serons ouys et que nos parties ne seront nos juges, mais il y a encore de l'encloueure qui fait que n'avons encore eu une reponse resolutive, laquelle on diet que nous aurons solemnement et en cour pleniere." Beza, letter of Aug. 25th, Baum, ii., App., 47]

[Footnote 1100: La Place, _ubi supra_. "Nous avons entendu a ce matin qu'on avoyt mis en deliberation au conseil, si nous devions estre ouys selon nostre requeste. Mais la royne a tranche tout court, qu'elle ne vouloit point qu'on deliberat de cela, mais qu'elle vouloyt que nous fussions ouys, qu'on regardast seulement aux conditions par nous proposees. Les ecclesiastiques qui estoyent presens out dit qu'ils ne vouloyent rien respondre de ceste affaire, qu'ils n'en eussent parle a leurs compaygnons." Letter of Francois de Morel, Aug. 25, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 55.]

[Footnote 1101: On the 9th of June, 1561, Hist. eccles. des egl. ref, i. 308.]

[Footnote 1102: Letter of Beza to Calvin, Sept. 12, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 60.]

[Footnote 1103: "Eo deventum est ut necesse fuerit nos parenti Reginae testari statim discessuros nisi nobis adversus hostium audaciam caveretur." Beza, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1104: Beza to Calvin, Sept. 12, 1561, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1105: Not unreasonably did the queen mother allege--and none knew it better than she--that even written engagements derive their chief value from the good faith of those that make them: "Que il estoit malaise mesmes avec l'escripture d'empescher de decevoir celuy qui ha intention de tromper." La Place, 157.]

[Footnote 1106: "Sans rien chercher que la gloire de Dieu, de laquelle elle estimoit qu'ils fussent studieux et amateurs." La Place, 157. Compare the letter of Catharine to the Bp. of Rennes, Sept. 14, 1561, _apud_ Le Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i, 733.]

[Footnote 1107: Beza to Calvin, Sept. 12, 1561, _ubi supra_; La Place, 157; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 314.]