Chapter XII (3)

It was not possible that peace should long be maintained under such circumstances. It could not be but that the Huguenots, conscious of their growing numbers, confident of the near approach of the day when their rights were to be formally recognized, and impatient of the fetters with which their enemies still attempted to embarrass their progress, would assert their rights from day to day with increasing boldness. The priests and the rabble, on the other hand, regarded this new courage with suspicion, and interpreted every action as springing from insufferable insolence. They were on the watch to detect fresh examples of Huguenot audacity. They complained of the numbers that flocked to hear the reformed preachers, of the arms which some carried for self-defence--a precaution not very astonishing in view of the excited feelings of the Parisians and the frequent outbursts of their fury, and still less extraordinary on the part of the "noblesse," who were accustomed to wear a sword at all times. They went so far as to assert that the Huguenot multitude usurped the entire pavement, and were become so overbearing that they were ready to pick a quarrel with any one that presumed "to look at them." A peaceable Catholic must needs, to avoid abuse and hard blows, show more skill in getting out of their way than he would in shunning a mad dog. The streets resounded with their profane psalm-singing, and ill fared it with the unlucky wight that ventured to remonstrate, or dared to find fault with their provoking use of meat on the prohibited days. He was likely to have a broken head for his pains, or be shut up in prison by judges who sympathized with the "new doctrines."[1245] The court, however, more correctly ascribing the disturbances that occurred on such occasions to the attacks made upon the Protestants by their opponents, detached the "chevalier du guet" and his archers to attend the meetings and to prevent the disturbance of the worshippers on their way to and from the places assigned for the Protestant services in the suburbs.

[Sidenote: The "tumult of Saint Medard."]

At length, on Saturday, the twenty-seventh of December, a serious commotion took place. One of the two spots where Catharine, at the chancellor's suggestion, had permitted the Huguenots of the capital to meet for worship, was a spacious building on the southern side of the Seine, outside the walls and not far from the gate of St. Marceau. It bore the enigmatical designation of "Le Patriarche," derived--so antiquarians alleged--from the circumstance that it had been built long before by a patriarch of Alexandria expelled from his see by the Moslems.[1246] Here a congregation of several thousand persons[1247] had assembled in the afternoon. The introductory services over, the pastor, Jean Malot, had been preaching for a quarter of an hour, when his sermon was noisily interrupted. Separated from the "Patriarche" by a narrow lane stood the parish church of Saint Medard. Under the pretext of summoning the people to vespers, the priests had ordered all the bells in the tower to be rung violently, and hoped by the din to put an end to the heretical worship in the vicinity. Finding it impossible to make himself heard, the minister endeavored to restrain his excited audience, and after the singing of a psalm resumed his discourse. It was all in vain: St. Medard's bells pealed out the tocsin, and the sound of the discharge of fire-arms, and the crash of stones hurled from the belfry, increased the confusion. Meanwhile two Protestants had quietly gone over to the side door of the church, to request an abatement of the interruption. Their civil request was answered with violence. One of the men barely escaped with his life; the other, a deacon of the church, was killed on the spot. Five or six royal archers, commanded by the provost, Rouge-Oreille, next summoned the party within the church to desist, but met with no better success. At length the people, now congregated around the entrance, and subjected to a storm of missiles from the windows and the tower, forced open the doors and entered the church. Here they discovered the corpse of their murdered brother. The priests and sacristans, though armed with swords and clubs, were soon driven to take refuge in the belfry. In the struggle the ecclesiastics themselves became iconoclasts, and, when their supply of less sacred implements ran low, broke in pieces the images of saints, and rained the fragments upon the Huguenot crowd. Finally a threat to set fire to the belfry put an end at once to the ringing of the tocsin and to the holy shower. Meantime the tumultous peals of St. Medard's bells had drawn to the spot the "chevalier du guet," one Gabaston, who, on learning the circumstances, promptly lent aid in quelling the disturbance, and arrested a number of the leaders in the riotous proceedings. Yielding to an injudicious impulse, the motley crowd of Huguenots and of persons who had been attracted to the scene by the noise resolved to accompany the prisoners to the "Petit Chatelet," and the march assumed the appearance of a triumphal procession. Between Gabaston's troop of over two hundred mounted and foot archers, and the detachment of Rouge-Oreille, walked a band of unarmed Protestants, followed by the Roman Catholic prisoners, many of them in their ecelesiastical dresses, and tied together two by two. It was deemed little short of a miracle that the procession, even with its escort of soldiery, should be suffered to enter the city and pass through its densely crowded streets on a public holiday, without being attacked by the intensely Roman Catholic populace.[1248]

Such was the famous "tumult of Saint Medard"--the result of a plan adopted expressly to stir up the inveterate hostility of the Parisians against the adherents of the Reformation, and to serve as the pretext for demanding the prohibition of the Protestant "assemblies."[1249] The popular explosion that had been expected instantly to follow the application of the match was deferred until the morrow, when a rabble such as the capital alone could pour forth gutted the interior of the "_Patriarche_" and would have set it on fire, had it not been repulsed by a small body of Huguenot gentlemen.[1250] The plot had proved abortive; but it was the innocent victims and the friends of good order, not the conspirators, who paid the penalty of the broken law. While the priest of Saint Medard and his accomplices were promptly discharged, without even a reprimand, Gabaston and one "Nez-d'Argent," royal officers who had interfered to restore order, were executed by command of parliament.[1251]

[Sidenote: Assembly of notables at St. Germain.]

About a week after the occurrence of the seditious disturbance just narrated, the assembly of notables was convened at St. Germain (January, 1562). To this body it was proposed to refer the religious condition of the realm, with the view of reaching some more definite and satisfactory settlement than the "Edict of July," whose provisions had become a dead letter before the ink with which they were written was dry.

[Sidenote: Chancellor L'Hospital's opening address.]

[Sidenote: Diversity of sentiment.]

[Sidenote: The nuncio's alarm and activity.]

The chancellor, who, according to custom, set forth at considerable length the circumstances constraining the king, by his mother's advice, to summon the representatives of his trusty parliaments, with the highest lords of the kingdom, to give him their counsel, dwelt upon the signal failure of all the measures of repression hitherto adopted, and upon the necessity of finding other remedies for the public ills. He disclaimed any intention on the king's part to introduce a discussion respecting the two religions in order to settle their respective merits. It was not to establish the faith, but to regulate the state, that they were assembled. Those who were in no sense Christians might yet be citizens; and, in leaving the Church, a man did not cease to be a good subject of the king. "We can live in peace," he added, "with those who do not observe the same ceremonies and usages, and we can apply to ourselves the current saying: A wife's faults ought either to be cured or to be endured."[1252] When the opinions of the members of the assembly were successively given, the apprehensions entertained by the Romish party, from the very initiation of the plan of the conference, were seen to be well grounded.[1253] The orthodoxy of the sentiments of the majority was by no means above suspicion. The nuncio, Santa Croce, chronicles with alarm the preponderance of those who openly advocated the adoption of lenient measures. It was evident that the Edict of July, with its bloody policy, could command the votes of only a small minority. The pontifical ambassador trembled lest the Protestants should, after all, obtain the largest concessions. He was, consequently, as despondent as ever his predecessor had been.[1254] But, more prudent than the Bishop of Viterbo, he took pains to conceal his fears from the eyes of the courtiers, lest he should furnish the Huguenots with fresh means of influencing the wavering government. Accordingly, instead of giving up everything as lost, he spared neither time nor money, besieging the doors of the grandees who were believed to be true friends of the Holy See, and entreating them to dismiss all intention of leaving the court, and thus abandoning the field to their enemies.[1255] He even sought an interview with Catharine de' Medici, and, in company with the Spanish ambassador, offered her the united forces of the Pope and of Philip to repress any disturbances that might arise from the adoption of a course unpalatable to the Huguenots; and he returned from the audience persuaded that "these preachers would obtain no churches, and would gain nothing from the conference."[1256]

In this conclusion, however, the nuncio was but partially correct. It is true that the small faction favoring an adherence to the old persecuting policy succeeded, by uniting with the advocates of a limited toleration, in defeating the project of the more liberal party;[1257] but, as will be seen, it was by no means true that Protestantism gained nothing by the results of the deliberations.

[Sidenote: The Edict of January.]

These results were embodied in the famous law which, from the circumstance that it was signed on the seventeenth of January. 1562, is known in history as the "_Edict of January_." It began by repealing the provisional edict of the preceding July, because, in consequence of its sweeping prohibition of all public and private assemblies, it had failed of accomplishing the objects intended, as was clear from the more aggravated seditions ensuing. It ordained that "those of the new religion" should give up all the churches they had seized, and prohibited them from building others, whether inside or outside of the cities. But the cardinal prescription was that, while all assemblages for the purpose of listening to preaching, either by day or by night, were forbidden within the walled cities, the penalties should be suspended "provisionally and until the determination of a general council" in the case of unarmed gatherings for religious worship held by day outside these limits. The Protestants, both on their way to their services and on their return, were to be exempt from molestation on the part of the royal magistrates, who were enjoined to punish all seditious persons, whatever might be their religion. The ministers were commanded to inquire carefully into the life and morals of those whom they admitted to their communion, to permit royal officers to be present at all their religious exercises, and to take a solemn oath before the local magistrates to observe this ordinance, promising, at the same time, to teach no doctrines at variance with the true word of God as contained in the Nicene Creed and in the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments. Inflammatory and insulting harangues were forbidden alike to the Romish and the Protestant preachers. All seditious combinations, the enrolment of troops, and the levy of money, were prohibited; nor could even an ecclesiastical synod or consistory be held without the previous consent of the royal officers and in their presence.[1258]

[Sidenote: The Huguenots no longer outlaws.]

Such were the most important features of a law the promulgation of which marks the termination of the first great period in the history of the Huguenots of France--the period of persecution inflicted mainly according to cruel legal ordinances and under the forms of judicial procedure. From the moment of the publication of this charter--imperfect and inadequate as it manifestly was--the Huguenots ceased to be outlaws, and became, in the eye of the law, at least, a class entitled within certain limits to the protection of the ministers of justice. Unhappily for France, the solemn recognition of Protestant rights was scarcely conceded by representatives of the entire nation before an attempt was made by a desperate faction to annul and overturn it by intrigue and violence. The next act in this remarkable drama is, therefore, the inauguration of the period of _Civil War_, or of oppression exercised in defiance of acknowledged rights and of the accepted principles of equity--a lamentable period, in which every bloody contest originated in the determination of the one party to circumscribe or destroy, and of the other to maintain in its integrity the fundamental basis of toleration laid down in the Edict of January.

END OF VOLUME I.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1108: La Place, 154; Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 230-234. To the names mentioned in the text must be added the name of Jean de l'Espine, who joined his brethren soon after their arrival at Poissy. He was a Carmelite monk of high reputation for learning, who now, for the first time, threw aside the cowl and subscribed to the reformed confession of faith. For an interesting account of his conversion caused by conversing with and witnessing the triumphant death of a Protestant, Jean Rabec, executed April 24, 1556, see Ph. Vincent, Recherches sur les commencements et premiers progres de la Ref. en la ville de la Rochelle, 1693, _apud_ Bulletin, ix. 30-32. The delegates of the churches were more numerous than the ministers; there were twenty-two, according to the Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 316; though the Abbe Bruslart (Mem. de Conde, i. 51), swells the number to twenty-eight. The names of twelve, representing twelve of the principal provinces, are given, with variations, by two MSS. of the National Library of Paris (Dupuy Coll., vols. 309 and 641), see F. Bourquelot, notes to Mem. de Claude Haton, i. 155.]

[Footnote 1109: Beza to Calvin, Sept. 12, _apud_ Baum, ii., App. 61; La Place, 158.]

[Footnote 1110: Beza, _ubi supra_. An engraving of the period, reproduced by Montfaucon, affords a pleasant view of the quaint scene.]

[Footnote 1111: La Place, 157; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 314; De Thou, iii. 65.]

[Footnote 1112: Letter of Beza to Calvin, Aug. 30, 1561, _ap._ Baum, ii., App., 59.]

[Footnote 1113: The speeches of Charles and L'Hospital seem to have been delivered before the introduction of Beza; cf. Hist. eccles. des eglises ref., i. 316. Prof. Baum, following La Place, 157, and De Thou, iii. 65-67, represents them as having been delivered subsequently. Theodor Beza, ii. 238.]

[Footnote 1114: La Place, 158; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 314, 315. I have alluded to the fact, first noticed by Prof. Soldan, that De Thou and others have placed here a speech which was in reality delivered five or six weeks earlier; while not only they, but also the accurate La Place and the author of the Histoire eccles. des egl. ref., have done the same by the king's speech, and a rejoinder of Tournon to L'Hospital's address.]

[Footnote 1115: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 316.]

[Footnote 1116: This interesting incident Prof. Baum discovered in a fragmentary MS. in the remarkable collection of the late Col. Tronchin. Theodor Beza, ii. 238. The text is thus given in the Bulletin xiii. (1864) 284: "M. de Besze, entrant dans la conference de Poissy avec un ministre de Geneve, un cardinal dit: _Voici les chiens de Geneve!_ M. de Besze, l'ayant entendu, repondit: _Il est bien necessaire que, dans la bergerie du Seigneur, il y ait des chiens pour abboyer contre les loups._"]

[Footnote 1117: "Es sind auch die Cardinael, diewyl er geredt, mit entdektem Houpt gestunden, und beede mal, diewyl sy gebaetet, hat sich die alte Kuenigin niderglassen und mit gebaetet, der Kuenig aber ist bliben still sitzen." Letter of Haller to Bullinger, Berne, Sept. 23, 1561, _ap._ Baum, ii., App., 73.]

[Footnote 1118: Baum, ii. 245.]

[Footnote 1119: La Place, 159; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref. i. 316. The current, but erroneous belief, that this confession was first composed by Theodore Beza at the Colloquy of Poissy, has already been noticed. It had been printed, as we have seen (_ante_, c. viii. p. 343), in the Geneva Liturgy as early as in 1542; and earlier still in that of Strasbourg. It was already the favorite of martyrs and confessors. Jean Vernou, in 1515, recited it at the _estrapade_. "Verum antequam mactaretur," says Jean Crespin, "preces ad Deum fudit, ita exorsus: 'Domine Deus et Pater omnipotens ego certe coram sacrosancta majestate tua ex animo et syncere agnosco me peccatorem esse miserrimum,' et caetera quae in precationum formula recitantur statim initio." The margin reads: "Initium precum solennium Geneuae." Actiones et monimenta martyrum, Genevae 1560, fol. 321.]

[Footnote 1120: La Place, 159; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 316.]

[Footnote 1121: "De Beze portant la parole pour tous les autres, commenca et continua longuement sa remonstrance en assez doux termes, se soumettant souventefois, si l'on montroit par la Sainte Escriture," etc. Letter of Catharine de' Medici to the Bishop of Rennes, Sept. 14, 1561, _apud_ Le Laboureur, Add. Castelnau, i. 733.]

[Footnote 1122: "His solumodo verbis Cardinales atque Episcopi usque adeo exasperati atque exacerbati sunt, ut in haec verba, orationem ipsius interpellates, proruperint: _blasphemavit, blasphemavit Deum_! Sed eorum adversis admurmurationibus D. Beza minime perturbatus, eodem vultu," etc. Letter of Joh.. Guil. Stuckius to Conrad Hubert, Sept. 18, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 66.]

[Footnote 1123: "Da Beza eine schoene Oration gethon, darinn er kurtz perstringiert alle strytigen Artikel, und als er letstlich kom uff den Artikel von der Gegenwirtikeit Christi im Sacrament, und under anderm gesagt das sige so veer von einander als der Himmel von der Erden, habend die Sorbonischen angfangen _klopfen_, _ruetschen_, _brummlen_, das nieman nuet mer moegen hoeren, dess die alte Koenigin uebel zufriden gsyn. Dessgleichen auch der Cardinal von Lutringen und sy gheissen in Stille losen, man werde sy doch hernach auch gutwilliklich verhoeren." Letter of Haller to Bullinger, Sept. 25, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 73. "Cela fut trouve si nouveau et estrange entre les prelats, que soubdain ils commencerent tous a murmurer et faire un grand bruict; lequel toutesfois estant aucunement appaise," etc. La Place, 167, 168. "Hic enim mussitare Cardinales et Episcopi, et tantum non vestes scindere." Letter of Martyr to the Senate of Zurich, Sept. 12, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 63.]

[Footnote 1124: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 327.]

[Footnote 1125: Letter of Haller, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1126: The admirable speech of Theodore Beza is given word for word by La Place, 159-167, and somewhat modernized by the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 316-327. Cf. De Thou, iii. 67, 68; Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 4; Abbe Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 51; Letters of Stuck, Haller, and Martyr, _ubi supra_. Summa eorum quae a die 22. Augusti usque ad 15. Septembr. in aula regis Galliae acta sunt, _apud_ F. C. Schlosser, Leben des Theodor de Beza und des Peter Martyr Vermili (Heidelberg, 1809), Appendix, 355-359. Discours des Actes de Poissy, _ubi supra_, 652-657.]

[Footnote 1127: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 327; La Place, 168; De Thou, iii. 68; Letter of Haller, _ubi supra_; Actes de Poissy, Recueil des choses mem., 657, 658.]

[Footnote 1128: The response of the queen is concisely given by La Place, the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., the Actes de Poissy, and De Thou (_ubi supra_); but the graphic account upon which the text is based is found in the letter of Haller to Bullinger, Sept. 25, 1561, which Prof. Baum discovered at Zurich, and has published in the volume of documents which figures as an appendix to the second volume of his extremely valuable biography of Beza. It is superfluous for me to acknowledge formally my obligations to this rich storehouse of original authorities, since the frequent references that I have already made, and shall doubtless have occasion for some time to make, to its separate documents, will sufficiently attest the high estimate I place upon its value. The correspondence of the reformers is always an important commentary upon the contemporaneous history. In the present instance, much of the most trustworthy information is derived from it. Prof. Baum's own narrative is admirable (Book iv., c. 5).]

[Footnote 1129: "Car d'y proceder a present par la force," writes Catharine de' Medici at this very time, "il s'y voit un si eminent peril, pour estre ce mal penetre si avant comme il est, que je n'en suis en sorte du monde conseillee par ceux qui aiment le repos de cet Estat." Letter of Sept. 14th, _apud_ Le Laboureur, i. 734.]

[Footnote 1130: The testimony of Marc' Antonio Barbaro is the more interesting from the reluctance he manifests to say any good of the reformer, whom he blames for a great part of the progress of the Huguenots in France. "E d'assai bello aspetto, _ma d'animo molto brutto_, perciocche, oltra l'eresie sue, e sedizioso e pieno di vizii e di scelerita, che non racconto per brevita. Ha vivo spirito, e ingegno acuto, ma non e prudente, ne ha ponto di giudizio. Mostra d'esser eloquente, perche parla assai con belle parole e prontamente," etc. Rel. des Amb. Ven., i. 52.]

[Footnote 1131: "Ha operato tanto con la sua lingua, che non solamente ha persuaso infiniti, massimamente dei nobili e grandi, ma e quasi adorato da molti nel regno, i quali tengono nelle camere la figura sua." Ib., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1132: So Calvin's eye saw in an instant, and he applauded Beza's boldness. "Your speech is now before us," he wrote to Beza, Sept. 24th, "in which God wonderfully directed your mind and your tongue. The testimony which stirred up the bile of the holy fathers could not but be given, unless you had been willing basely to tergiversate and to expose yourself to their taunts." "I wonder that they were thrown into agitation respecting this matter alone, since they were not less severely hit in other places. It is a stupid assertion that the conference was broken off in consequence of this ground of offence. For those who now, by rabidly laying hold of one ground, after a certain fashion subscribe to the rest of the doctrine, would have found out a hundred other grounds. This also has, therefore, turned out happily." Calvini Epistolae, Opera, ix. 157.]

[Footnote 1133: To her ambassador in Germany, instructed to defend her course in convening the conference, however, she purposely exaggerated her indignation, and gave a different coloring to the facts of the case. "Mais estant enfin (de Beze) tombe sur le fait de la Cene, il s'oublia en une comparaison si absurde et tant offensive des oreilles de l'assistance, que pen s'en fallut, que je ne luy imposasse silence, et que je ne les renvoyasse tous, sans les laisser passer plus avant." She accounts for the fact that she did not stop him, by noticing that he was evidently near the end of his speech, and by the consideration that, "as they are accustomed to take advantage of everything 'pour la confirmation et persuasion de leur doctrine,' they would rather have gained by such a command; and moreover, that those who had heard his arguments would have gone away imbued with and persuaded of his doctrine, without hearing the answer that might be made." Letter of Cath. of Sept. 14th, _ubi supra_. Prof. Baum well remarks that "the last words furnish the most irrefragable proof of the great and convincing impression which the speech in general had made." Theod. Beza, ii. 263, note.]

[Footnote 1134: It is inserted in La Place, 168, 169, and Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 328-330; De Thou, iii. (liv. 28) 69. Letter of Cath., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1135: "Would that he had been dumb, or that we had been deaf!" the Cardinal of Lorraine is said to have exclaimed in the prelatic consultation. La Place and Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., _ubi supra_; J. de Serres, i. 273.]

[Footnote 1136: La Place, 170; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 330, 331, where the protest is reproduced.]

[Footnote 1137: "Me excludere volebant adversarii, ne interessem, tanquam hominem peregrinum. Regina tamen mater per Condaeum principem eo ipso articulo, cum profisciscendum erat, evocavit et adesse voluit." Letter of Martyr to the Senate of Zurich, Sept. 19, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 67.]

[Footnote 1138: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 332.]

[Footnote 1139: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 332-348; La Place, 170-177; De Thou, iii. 70; J. de Serres, i. 273-280. The impression made by the cardinal's speech upon his Romanist and Protestant hearers differed widely. According to the Abbe Bruslart (Mem. de Conde, i. 52), he spoke "en si bons et elegans termes, et d'une si bonne grace et asseurance, que nos adversaires mesmes l'admiroient." Stuck makes him speak "admodum inepte" (_ap._ Baum, ii., App., 66); while Beza writes: "Nihil unquam audivi impudentius, nihil ineptius.... Caetera ejusmodi quae certe mihi nauseam moverunt" (Ib., 63, 64). Peter Martyr judged more leniently (Ib., 67, 68). It is, therefore, hardly likely that Beza said, as Dr. Henry White alleges without referring to his authority (Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 64); "Had I the Cardinal's eloquence I should hope to convert half France."]

[Footnote 1140: La Place, 178; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., _ubi supra_; Jean de Serres, i. 280; De Thou, iii. 71.]

[Footnote 1141: La Place, etc., _ubi supra_; J. de Serres, i. 281.]

[Footnote 1142: "Nobis certum est," says Beza in a letter of Sept. 17th, "vel mox congredi vel protestatione facta discedere, si pergant diem de die ducere." Baum, ii., App., 64.]

[Footnote 1143: "Quid novi sperare possim non video. Nempe vel ipsa necessitas aliquid extorquebit, vel, quod Deus avertat, expectanda sunt omnia belli civilis incommoda. Quotidie ex diversis regni partibus multa ad nos tristia afferuntur in utramque partem, quoniam utrinque peccatur plerisque locis." Letter of Beza, Sept. 17th, _ubi supra_. In a similar strain Stuck writes on the next day: "In Gascony and Normandy scarcely an image is any longer to be seen; masses have ceased to be said. Undoubtedly, unless the liberty of preaching and hearing the Gospel with impunity be granted, there is great reason to fear an intestine war." Baum, ii., App., 67. Cf. Summa eorum, etc., _apud_ Schlosser, Leben des Theodor de Beza, Anhang, 358, 359.]

[Footnote 1144: La Place, Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., Jean de Serres, etc., _ubi supra_, Castelnau, l. iii., c. 4.]

[Footnote 1145: No wonder; the prelates had just solemnly decreed, as Abbe Bruslart informs us (Mem. de Conde, i. 52): "Non erat congrediendum cum his qui principia et fundamentum totius nostrae fidei et religionis christianae negant." Not only so; but they had protested against the heretics being heard, and had declared that _whoever conferred with them would be excommunicated_! "Disants que ceux qui confereroient avec eux seroient excommunies." The reader, if he cannot admire their consistency, will certainly be struck with astonishment at the fortitude of the prelates who, a few hours later, could bring themselves with so little apparent trepidation under the highest censures of the Church. Bruslart goes on to tell us that it was the Cardinal of Lorraine who brought them into this dreadful condemnation, partly hoping to convert the Huguenots, _partly to please Catharine de' Medici_!]

[Footnote 1146: "Mais ce ne fut pas en si grande compagnie qu'auparavant. Car Messieurs les preslats croignoyent que le monde ne fut infecte de nos heresies, qu'ils appellent." Letter of Beza to the Elector Palatine, Oct. 3, 1861, Baum, ii., App., p. 88.]

[Footnote 1147: Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 311, 312.]

[Footnote 1148: Ib., _ubi supra_, Hist. eccles., i. 349. Letter of N. des Gallars to the Bishop of London, Sept. 29th, Baum, ii., App., 80.]

[Footnote 1149: Beza's speech is given in full by La Place, 179-189; Hist. eccl. des egl. ref., i. 350-362; and J. de Serres, i. 282-312. See also De Thou, iii. 71, and N. des Gallars, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1150: "Et hoc quidem prorsus inepte, quia neque conquesti eramus, neque quemquam poterat videri magis accusare, quam eum ipsum [sc. Cardinal Loth.] cui accesserat advocatus." Letter of Beza, Sept. 27th, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 75. It was Beza's firm belief that D'Espense had been hired by Lorraine to compose his speech of the 16th of September, as well as to defend him on the present occasion. He therefore not inappositely calls him, in this letter to Calvin, "conductitius Balaam."]

[Footnote 1151: La Place, 189, 190; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 364; Jean de Serres, i. 315; Beza, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1152: La Place, 192; Jean de Serres, i. 321-323; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 370; Beza to Calvin, Baum, ii., App., 77; N. des Gallars to the Bishop of London, ibid., 81; De Thou, iii. 73.]

[Footnote 1153: Letter of Beza to Calvin, Sept. 27th, _ubi supra_. Besides permitting the communication of this information, the break in the conferences (caused by the discovery, on Catharine's part, that the majority of the prelates had resolved to submit a proposition respecting the mass, drawn up in a strictly Romish sense--a refusal to sign which they intended to take as the signal for declining to hold any further intercourse with the Protestants) furnished an opportunity for Montluc, Bishop of Valence--a prelate suspected of Protestant proclivities--and Claude d'Espense, one of the most moderate of the theologians of the Sorbonne, to meet privately, by request of Catharine de' Medici, with Beza and Des Gallars. The result of their interview was the provisional adoption of a declaration on the subject of the eucharist, which, though undoubtedly Protestant in its natural import, was rejected by the rest of the ministers as not sufficiently explicit. Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., _ubi supra_. See a full account in Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 342-344. They rightly judged that where there is essential discrepancy of belief, little or nothing can be gained by cloaking it in ambiguous expressions.]

[Footnote 1154: Beza's address is inserted in La Place, 193-196; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 371, etc. See also De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.), 74; letters of Beza to Calvin, and N. des Gallars to the Bishop of London, _ubi supra_; Jean de Serres, i. 327, etc.]

[Footnote 1155: La Place, De Thou, letters of Beza, and des Gallars, etc., _ubi supra_. "Comme si les feu rois Francois le grand, Henry le debonnaire, Francois dernier decede, et Charles a present regnant (et faisoit sonner ces mots autant qu'il pouvoit) avoient ete tyrans et simoniacles." Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 375.]

[Footnote 1156: La Place, Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., etc., _ubi supra_. Letter of Beza to the Elector Palatine, Oct. 3d, Baum, ii., App., 88, 89.]

[Footnote 1157: Because he was not sufficiently familiar with French, according to La Place, 197 (ne scachant parler francois); and in order to make himself better understood by the queen "ut a regina intelligi posset," than he would have been had he spoken in Latin. Letter of Beza, Baum, ii., App., 79. "D'Espense," says La Place _ubi supra_, "lors donna ceste louange audict Martyr, qu'il n'y avoit eu homme de ce temps qui si amplement et avec telle erudition eust escript du faict du sacrement que luy."]

[Footnote 1158: Although Lainez spoke in Italian (see Baum, ii. 363), it is needless to say that the Cardinal of Lorraine made no objection to the use of a language which, it may be added, he understood perfectly. The reader may see some reason in the summary of Lainez's speech given in the text, for dissenting from the remark of MM. Oimber et Danjou, iv. 34, note: "Il [Lainez] fit entendre dans le colloque de Poissy, des _paroles de paix et de conciliation_."]

[Footnote 1159: "I said," writes Beza, in giving an account of his brief reply to Lainez, "that I would concede all the Spaniard's assertions when he proved them. As to his statement that we were foxes, and serpents, and apes, _we no more believed it than we believed in transubstantiation_." Letter to Calvin, Baum, ii., App., 79.]

[Footnote 1160: La Place, 198; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 377-379; Jean de Serres, i. 335-339; Letter of Beza to Calvin, Sept. 27th, Baum, ii., App., 79.]

[Footnote 1161: "Qui prae ceteris doctrina et ingenio, atque etiam moderatione praestare existimantur." Letter of N. des Gallars, _ubi supra_, 82. "Gens doctes et traictables." Letter of Beza to the Elector Palatine, ibid., 90.]

[Footnote 1162: _Ante_, p. 475.]

[Footnote 1163: "Fateor equidem (nec causa est cur id negem) _falsam istam doctrinam_, non tam fortasse aperte, quam ipsi facere soletis, confutasse: Babylonem tamen cum cuniculis, tum aperto etiam marte, ut res et tempus ferebat, ita semper oppugnavi, ut noster iste in eo genere conatus optimo cuique semper probaretur." Letter of Salignac to Calvin, Calvini Opera, ix. 163, 164. Calvin (probably, as Prof. Baum remarks, at Beza's suggestion) wrote to Salignac, about a month after the termination of the Colloquy of Poissy, a respectful but extremely frank letter, in which he urged him to espouse with decision the cause he secretly advocated. He reminded him that it was no mean honor to have been among the first fruits of the revival of truth in France. He urged him to put an end to his inordinate hesitation, by the consideration of the number of those who were still vacillating, but who would forthwith imitate his example if he forsook the enemy's camp for the fold of Christ. Letter of Calvin to Salignac, Nov. 19, 1561, Calvini Opera, ix. 163; Calvin's Letters (Bonnet), iv. 239-241. Salignac's reply, from which the extract given above is taken, is characteristic of the man--less conscious of his weakness than Gerard Roussel, but equally faint-hearted. See also Baum, ii. 387, 388.]

[Footnote 1164: See Prof. Baum's graphic account, ii. 390-392. The next day Martyr wrote out and presented a fuller statement of his belief, which is inserted among the documents of Baum, ii., App., 84, 85.]

[Footnote 1165: "En tant que la foy rend les choses promises presentes, et que la foy prent veritablement le corps et le sang de nostre Seigneur Jesus-Christ, par la vertu du Sainct-Esprit; en cest esgard nous confessons la presence du corps et du sang d'iceluy en la saincte cene, en laquelle il nous presente, donne et exhibe veritablement la substance de son corps et sang, par l'operation de son Sainct-Esprit; y recevons et mangeons spirituellement et par foy," etc. Mem. de Conde, i. 55; La Place, 199; Jean de Serres, i. 340. Letter of Des Gallars, Baum, ii., App., 83.]

[Footnote 1166: "Nous confessons que Jesus-Christ en sa cene nous presente, donne et exhibe veritablement la substance de son corps et de son sang par l'operation du Sainct-Esprist; et que nous recevons et mangeons spirituellement et par foy ce propre corps, qui est mort pour nous, pour estre os de ses os, et chair de sa chair, a fin d'en estre vivifie, et percevoir tout ce qui est requis a nostre salut. Et pour ce que la foy appuyee sur la parolle de Dieu fait et rend presentes les choses prises, et que par ceste foy nous prenons vrayement et de faict le vray et naturel corps et sang de nostre Seigneur par la vertu du Sainct-Esprit, en cest esgard nous confessons la presence du corps et sang d'iceluy en sa saincte cene." La Place, 199; J. de Serres, i. 341. Letter of des Gallars, _ubi supra_, 83, 84; Languet, Epist. secr., ii. 148; Mem. de Conde, i. 55.]

[Footnote 1167: Letter of Beza, Oct. 3d and 4th, Baum, ii., App., 93; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 382.]

[Footnote 1168: "Peutetre qu'il pensait dire vrai," shrewdly observes the author of the Hist. des eglises reformees (i. 382), "_n'ayant jamais le loisir telles gens de bien penser, s'ils croient ou non, ni a ce qu'ils pensent croire_."]

[Footnote 1169: Letter of N. des Gallars, _ubi supra_, 84: "Quum hanc formam legisset Cardinalis, mire approbavit, ac laetatus est quasi ad ejus castra transissemus."]

[Footnote 1170: "Intelligimus etiam ipsos a suis objurgari quasi sentiant nobiscum aut colludant." Letter of N. des Gallars, Oct. 6th, _ubi supra_. See also letter of Beza, Oct. 3d, Baum, ii., App., 94.]

[Footnote 1171: The most extended and accurate view of the Colloquy of Poissy is afforded by Prof. Baum, who has consecrated to it two hundred and fifty pages of the second volume of his masterly biography of Beza (pp. 168-419). The correspondence of Beza and others that were present at the colloquy, collected by Prof. Baum in the supplementary volume of documents (published in 1852), and the detailed accounts of the Histoire eccles. des egl. ref, of La Place (Commentaires de l'estat de la rel. et republique, which here terminate), and of Jean de Serres, who, in this part of his history, does little more than translate La Place, are the most important sources of authentic information. Castelnau's account of the colloquy (1. iii., c. 4) is remarkably incorrect. He makes the ten delegates confer together for _three months_, without agreeing on a single point, and finally separate on the 25th of November. Davila is brief and unsatisfactory (pp. 50, 51).]

[Footnote 1172: From what Martyr wrote to the magistrates of Zurich (Oct. 17th) respecting the conduct of the bishops in connection with the subscription to the canons, it would appear that the close of the prelatic assembly did not disgrace the amenities of the debates at its commencement (see _ante_, p. 499): "Accidit mira Dei providentia, ut repente inter episcopos, qui erant Poysiaci, tam grave dissidium ortum fuerit, ut fere ad manus venerint, imo, ut homines fide digni affirmant res _ut pugnis et unguibus_ est acta." Baum, ii., App., 107. See also the extract from Martyr's letter of the same date to Bullinger, cited by Prof. Baum, ii. 401, note.]

[Footnote 1173: Histoire eccles., i. 383-405. See Baum, ii. 399-401.]

[Footnote 1174: The vote was, according to Beza's letter of Oct. 21st, sixteen millions of francs with interest within six years (Baum, ii., App. 109); according to the Journal of Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 53, within twelve years. Prof. Soldan, Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 512, 513, gives the details of the famous "Contract of Poissy." It must be admitted that both nobles and people were ready enough with plans for paying off the national indebtedness _out of the property of the Church_. These generous economists found that, according to the ancient customs, one-third of the ecclesiastical revenues ought to be employed for the support of the clergy, one-third to be given to the poor, and the remaining third expended in keeping the sacred edifices in repair. They proposed, therefore, to relieve the clergy of the latter two-thirds of their possessions, and apply them to the extinction of the royal debt, assuming that the nation would maintain the churches in better condition, and feed the poor more effectively than had ever been done hitherto! Languet, Letter of Aug. 17th, Epist. secr., ii. 136.]

[Footnote 1175: Baum, ii. 408.]

[Footnote 1176: Oct. 20th, according to Recueil des anc. lois franc., xiv. 122.]

[Footnote 1177: Text of the edict in Mem. de Conde, ii. 520-528 (De Thou, iii. 99, following the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., erroneously gives the date as Nov. 3d); Letter of Beza, Oct. 21st, Baum, ii., App., 109; Letter of Martyr, Oct. 17th, ibid., 107.]

[Footnote 1178: Beza, _ubi supra_; Car. Joinvillaeus, Nov. 5th, Baum, ii., App., 123.]

[Footnote 1179: Oct. 19th, according to Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 59. According to La Place, the assembly of the prelates did not break up until the 30th of October, after a session of about three months: "Et le trentiesme dudict mois ... fut ainsi finie ladicte assemblee, sans apporter autre fruict, apres avoir este toutesfois assembles [les prelats] par l'espace de trois mois ou environ." (Page 201.)]

[Footnote 1180: "De fait," wrote Calvin of the Augsburg Confession, "elle est _si maigrement bastie, si molle et si obscure_, qu'on ne s'y sauroit arrester." Letter to Beza, Sept. 24, 1561. Bonnet, Lettres franc., ii. 428; Baum, ii., App., 70.]

[Footnote 1181: The account of the occasion of the mission of delegates from Germany, given in the text, is based on Soldan, Gesch. des Prot, in Frankreich, i. 531-537. He has, I think, sufficiently demonstrated the inaccuracy of the ordinary story (accepted even by Prof. Baum, Theod. Beza, ii. 370, 419, etc.), which attributes their advent chiefly, if not wholly, to the desire of Lorraine. It is said that, after hearing Beza's speech of the ninth of September, the cardinal sought to obtain, through the instrumentality of the Marshal de Vieilleville, at Metz, and his salaried spy Rascalon, at Heidelberg, some decided Lutherans, to be employed in bringing the Protestants at Poissy into contempt, through the wrangling of their theologians with those of Germany. See the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., etc. Yet it is not improbable, as La Place, Commentaires, 200, seems to hint that Navarre's project was maliciously countenanced by the Cardinal of Lorraine. But the circumstance that, of the _five_ German theologians, not less than _two_ were opposed to the Augsburg Confession, proves conclusively that they could not have been despatched with the view of helping the cardinal out in his attempt. Bossuet's admiration of the prelate's sagacity, in thus seeking to give a brilliant demonstration of the variations of doctrine among Protestants, certainly seems to be wasted.]

[Footnote 1182: _Ante_, c. xi., p. 493.]

[Footnote 1183: See the list of the twenty members of the council, in Recueil des anc. lois franc., xiv. 55, 56.]

[Footnote 1184: See Baum, ii. 215.]

[Footnote 1185: "Affulserat aliqua spes concordiae, sed Legatus Pontificius, i. e., Cardinalis Ferrariensis omnia perturbavit." Letter of Martyr to the magistrates of Zurich, Oct. 17, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 108.]

[Footnote 1186: "Quique ingenio, eloquentia, _artificio_ plurimum valebat." Prosp. Santacrucii, Comment de civil. Galliae dissen., 1461.]

[Footnote 1187: "Ne ipse exequiis, ut dicebat, illius regni interesset." Ibid., _ubi supra_. Somewhat maliciously Santa Croce suggests that Gualtieri was all the more reluctant to remain after he heard of the creation of nineteen new cardinals, and learned that his own name was not included in the list.]

[Footnote 1188: "Angebatur interea Romae gravissimis curis Pius pontifex, quod nec quae legati fecissent satis probaret, et in dies malum magis serpere, omniaque remedia minus juvare audiebat." Ib., 1462.]

[Footnote 1189: He was described to the Pope by his secretary, Prosper himself tells us, as "virum exercitatum, magni animi, multarum literarum, eloquentem, magnaeque apud Gallos auctoritatis," having obtained great familiarity with French affairs when nuncio in Henry the Second's lifetime. Ib., 1463.]

[Footnote 1190: "Non tam ut numerus legatorum, quam ut plus auctoritatis legatio haberet, si ab ipsius (ut dicunt) pontificis latere legatus discederet ... quasi aliorum legatorum creatio, quod erant jam in Gallia, neque Roma proficiscerentur, non satis diligenter curare negotium diceretur." Ib., 1462.]

[Footnote 1191: "Grande hombre de entretenimientos y de encantar." Vargas calls him. Letter to Granvelle, Nov. 15, 1561, Papiers d'etat du card. de Granvelle, vi. 416.]

[Footnote 1192: "Diess waren zwoelf gewiss maechtige Gruende," etc. Baum, ii. 302; La Place, 153; Marc' Ant. Barbaro, Rel. des Amb. Ven., ii. 86.]

[Footnote 1193: "Multum inde auri reportaturus existimetur, si ibi annum vel biennium communi omnium more transigat." Santacrucii, de civil. Galliae diss. comment., 1464.]

[Footnote 1194: That is, excepting the cardinal's hat, which his friends informed him would be the reward of his services in France. Ibid., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1195: Ibid., 1462, 1463, 1465.]

[Footnote 1196: Ibid., 1465.]

[Footnote 1197: "Lugduno hucusque omnes fere declinavit urbes in itinere, ut quae jam habeant Ministros, et ideo irrisiones extimuerit." Letter of Peter Martyr, Sept. 19th, Baum, ii., App., 68.]

[Footnote 1198: "These artifices," wrote Languet from Paris at the time, "impose upon no one; and especially from this man, who is very well known here, who heretofore has surpassed even the highest princes in the luxury and splendor of his mode of life, and of whose utter want of knowledge of letters no one is ignorant." Letter of Sept. 20, 1561, Epist. secr., ii. 140.]

[Footnote 1199: La Place, 153.]

[Footnote 1200: Ibid., _ubi supra_; Baum, ii. 305.]

[Footnote 1201: Letter of the ambassador, Hurault de Bois-Taille, July 12, 1561, Le Laboureur, Add. to Castelnau, i. 729. Hurault, however, suspected that some mischief, which time would reveal, lay concealed under this outward show of complaisance.]

[Footnote 1202: La Place, 153.]

[Footnote 1203: Ibid., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1204: Compare Baum, ii. 302, 303.]

[Footnote 1205: Santacrucii, de civil. Galliae diss. com., 1465: "Quod mirum in modum oderat episcopi Viterbensis et mores agrestes, et naturam subacerbam, semperque, ut diximus, male ominantem." Vargas, viewing the same personage from another point, was far more complimentary. Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, vi. 404, 405.]

[Footnote 1206: Marc' Antonio Barbaro, Relations des Ambassadeurs Venitiens, ii. 88; Letter of Santa Croce, Poissy, Nov. 15, 1561, Lettres anecdotes ecrites au card. Borromee par Prosper de Sainte-Croix, nonce du pape Pie IV. aupres de Catherine de Medicis, 1561-1565. (Aymon, Tous les synodes nat. (1710), i. 15.) Vargas, Spanish ambassador at the papal court, who feared that the legate might be induced to lend his influence to Navarre's scheme for procuring a restitution of his wife's domains, or an equivalent for them, besieged the pontiff with accounts of his scandalous intimacy with French heretics of rank. "Repetile lo que otras vezes le havia dicho, y con quanto escandolo y ofension de la religion se tractava en Francia, estrechandose en amistad con Vandoma y almirante Chatiglon, obispo de Valencia, y los demas principales hereges, con gran desconsuelo y desfavor de los catholicos; y de como no era hombre apto para una legacion semejante," etc. He accused him of already aiming at the pontifical see, as if it were now vacant, and urged his immediate recall. Letter of Vargas to Philip II. from Rome, Nov. 7, 1561; Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, vi. 403, 404; see also pp. 405, 406.]

[Footnote 1207: Examine the curious passage in Santacrucii, de civil. Galliae diss. comment., 1470, 1471.]

[Footnote 1208: See the correspondence of Vargas with Philip II. (letters of Sept. 30, Oct. 3 and 7, 1561), Papiers d'etat du card. Granvelle, vi. 342, 372, and 380; De Thou, iii. 78, 79; or the very full account of Prof. Soldan, i. 515-521.]

[Footnote 1209: Rel. di Marc' Antonio Barbaro, Rel. des Amb. Ven., ii. 88, 89. "E proceduto esso ambasciatore con la regina e Navarra con parole quasi sempre aspre e severe, minacciando di guerra dal canto del re suo, et dicendo in faccia alle lor maesta parole assai gagliarde e pungenti, e levando al re di Navarra del tutto la speranza della ricompensa, stando le cose in quei termini, et ponendoli inanzi l'inimicizia di Filippo."]

[Footnote 1210: "Etenim si de ilia (spe) ejiceretur dubium non erat, quin se totum ad Calvinistas converteret, et qui cum pudore ac simultatione illis favebat, perfricta fronte eorum sectam ita promoveret, ut brevissimo tempore totum Galliae regnum occuparet." Sanctacrucii, de civ. Gall. diss. comment., 1471.]

[Footnote 1211: Ibid., 1473.]

[Footnote 1212: Santacrucii, de civ. Galliae diss. com., 1472, 1473. That the whole affair was planned in deceit and treachery, is patent not only from Santa Croce's account both in his letters and in his systematic treatise, but from the whole of the Vargas correspondence. Even when the Pope--much to the ambassador's disgust--thought of complying with Antoine's request to intercede with Philip for some indemnification for the loss of the kingdom of Navarre, he took the pains to explain that his urgency would not amount to importunity, much less to a command; his aim was only to feed Antoine with false hopes while France was in so precarious a situation: "esto seria por cumplir con Vandome y entretenerle, por estar Francia en los terminos en que esta," etc. Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, vi. 344.]

[Footnote 1213: De Thou, iii. 78, 79.]

[Footnote 1214: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 419 (the author of which, however, erroneously gives the end of November as the date of their departure); Jean de Serres, Commentarii de statu relig. et reipubl., i. 345 (who makes the same mistake); De Thou, iii. 99. "Cur autem aliquid adhuc spei habeam, illud etiam in causa est quod _nudius tertius_ Guisiani omnes serio discesserunt, omnibus bonis invisi, ac plerisque etiam malis. Abiit quoque Turnonius et Conestabilis.... Probabile est aliquid simul moliri, sed tamen incerto eventu. De hoc intra paucos dies certi erimus, utinam ne nostro malo." Letter of Beza to Calvin, Oct. 21, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 110.]

[Footnote 1215: That the Huguenots were about this time as sanguine as their opponents were despondent, may be seen from the prediction of Languet (letter of October 9th), that unless the opposite party precipitated a war within two or three months, everything would be safe; so great would be the accession of strength that the reformers would actually be the strongest. At court everything tended in that direction, and the queen mother herself was not likely to try to stem the current. Martyr, it was reported, had several times brought tears to her eyes, when conversing with her. "However," dryly observes the diplomatist, "I am not over-credulous in these matters." Epist. secr., ii. 145.]

[Footnote 1216: Throkmorton to Queen Elizabeth, Paris, November 26, 1561, State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 1217: Others besides Jeanne were apprehensive. The Viscount de Gruz, in his memorial to Queen Elizabeth (Sept. 24, 1561), stated that the king's constitution was so bad that he was not likely to live long, for he ate and slept very little. His brothers were equally infirm in health. Monsieur D'Orleans had a very bad cough, and the physicians feared that he had the disease of his late brother, Francis; while Monsieur D'Anjou had been ill for more than a year, and was dying from day to day. State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 1218: Letters of Beza, Oct. 21st and Nov. 4th, _ubi supra_. "Tantum abest ut impetrarim (abeundi facultatem) ut etiam regina ipsa me accersitum expresse rogarit ut saltem ad tempus manerem."]

[Footnote 1219: "Nam ex singulis parlamentis duo huc evocantur ad diem decembris vicesimum," etc. Beza to Calvin, Oct. 30, Baum, ii., App., 117; Histoire eccles. des egl. ref., i. 418.]

[Footnote 1220: "Je ny voulu faillir de vous advertir," writes the Prince of Conde in an autograph postscript of a letter (of Oct. 10th) thanking the magistrates of Zurich for Martyr's visit to France, "des entreprinses des Seigneurs de Guyse et de Nemours, ennemys de la vraye religion, qui, voyants que soub le regne du roy de France, le regne de Jesus Christ sestoit tellement advance que facillement lon pouvoit appercepvoir que la tyrannie de Lantechrist de Romme seroit en brief totallement dechassee du dit pays, apres sestre bande du coste du Roy d'Espaigne, pour maintenir la dicte tyrannie papale delibererent de desrober et emmener en Espaigne, au Roy Phelippe, le second fils de France monsieur d'Orleans, esperans que soub le nom du dit jeusne prince frere du Roy ils auroient occasion de faire la guerre en France et contre les Evangelistes, estimans que bientost le pape donneroit le royaulme de France au premier occupant selon sa Tyrannique coustume," etc. Baum, ii., App., 102, 103. Nemours, after his conspiracy was discovered, fled from court. He wrote, however, disclaiming any ulterior object in his invitations to the young Prince of Orleans, to whom he had in jest proposed to go with him to Spain.]

[Footnote 1221: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 419-421. Cf. Beza to Calvin, Nov. 4th, Baum, ii., App., 120.]

[Footnote 1222: Letter of Beza, Nov. 4th, _ubi supra_; "Regina nescio quo modo libenter me videt, quod est apud multos testata, et re ipsa sum expertus. Ideo cupiunt nostri proceres me his manere, quasi fidei et obedientias nostrarum Ecclesiarum obsidem tantisper dum in futuro illo conventu aliquid certi constituatur, et ipsi conventui me volunt interesse."]

[Footnote 1223: Beza's letters, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 117, 121, 122; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 418.]

[Footnote 1224: "Graces a Dieu, les choses sont bien changees en peu d'heure, estant maintenant faicts guardiens des assemblees ceux-la mesme qui nous menoyent en prison." Postscript to Beza's letter of Nov. 4th, Baum, ii., App., 122.]

[Footnote 1225: "C'est merveille des auditeurs des lecons de Monsieur Calvin; jestime quils sont journellement plus de mille." Letter of De Beaulieu, Geneva, Oct. 3, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 92.]

[Footnote 1226: Letter of De Beaulieu, _ubi supra_, 91.]

[Footnote 1227: "Mais ne nous a este possible jamais recouvrer ung ministre, quelque diligence que nous avons faicte, seulement par quelqu'un de nous faisons faire des prieres ainsi que par vostre Eglise sont dressees." Lettre de l'eglise de Foix a la Venerable Compagnie (1561); Gaberel, i., Pieces justif., 165-167.]

[Footnote 1228: Lettre de Fornelet a, l'eglise de Neufchatel, Oct. 6, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 95-100, Bulletin, xii. 361-366; Letter of Fornelet to Calvin, of the same date, Bulletin, etc., xiv. 365.]

[Footnote 1229: Letter of De Beaulieu, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1230: Letter of Jacques Sorel for the "classe" of Troyes, Oct. 13, 1561, Bulletin, xii. 352-355, Baum, ii., App., 103, 104.]