Chapter XII (4)

[Footnote 1231: Otherwise, 15,000 or 20,000 Huguenots, of whom 2,000 or 3,000 were armed horsemen, would doubtless have come together, and possibly seized some church edifices. The prince issued a very severe order against future assailants. Letter of Languet, Oct. 17, 1561. Epist. secr., ii. 149, 150. Ordonnance de M. le Prince de La Roche-sur-Yon, lieutenant-general de sa Majeste en la ville de Paris, publie le 16 Octobre 1561, Mem. de Conde, i. 57-59. Bruslart, as usual, misrepresents the whole affair, i. 56. Languet was present with the Protestants.]

[Footnote 1232: Languet, ii. 155.]

[Footnote 1233: Memoires de Philippi (Collection Michaud et Poujoulat), 624, 625: "Le populaire des fideles continuoit de mettre en pieces les sepulchres, deterrer les morts, et faire mille follies.... Le peuple porta sa haine jusqu'aux bennets quarres, et les gens de justice furent obliges de prendre des chapeaux ou bonnets ronds."]

[Footnote 1234: As a single instance out of many, I cite a passage from a letter of Pierre Viret to Calvin (Nismes, Oct. 31, 1561), illustrative of the relation of the Huguenot ministers to the acts of mistaken zeal with which this period abounded: "Hic apud nos omnia sunt pacatissima, Dei beneficio. Ego, quoad possum, studeo in officio continere non solum nostros Nemausenses [inhabitants of Nismes], sed etiam vicinos omnes: sed interea multis in locis et templa occupantur, et idola dejiciuntur sine nostro consilio. Ego omnia Domino committo, qui pro sua bona voluntate cuncta moderabitur." Baum, ii., App., 120.]

[Footnote 1235: Letter from St. Germain, Nov. 4, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 121. "Denique nostros potius quam adversaries metuo."]

[Footnote 1236: Mem. de Conde, i. 67, etc.; Letter of Santa Croce (Nov. 15, 1561), in Cimber et Danjou, vi. 5, 6, and Aymon, i. 5.]

[Footnote 1237: Santa Croce, _ubi supra_. Of the Cardinal of Ferrara's apprehensions and the grounds for them, Shakerley, the legate's own organist, and a spy of the English ambassador, secretly wrote to Throkmorton from the French court at St. Germain: "Here is new fire, here is new green wood reeking; new smoke and much contrary wind blowing against Mr. Holy Pope; for in all haste the King of Navarre with his tribe will have another council, and the Cardinal [of Ferrara] stamps and takes on like a madman, and goeth up and down here to the Queen, there to the Cardinal of Tournon, with such unquieting of himself as all the house marvels at it." Shakerley to Throkmorton, Dec. 16, 1561, State Paper Office. Printed in Froude, vii. 391. When a "holy friar" was preaching before the court, his sermon "being without salt," the hearers laughed, the king played with his dog, Catharine went to sleep, and Ferrara "plucked down his cap." Same to same, Dec. 14, 1561, "two o'clock after midnight." This industrious correspondent, who employed the small hours of the night in transmitting to the English ambassador his master's secrets, confessed to Throkmorton that he had no belief in the depth of Ferrara's assumed concern, having "so marked the living of priests" that he believed that "whensoever they are sure to have the same livings that they have without being troubled, they care not an the Pope were hanged, with all his indulgences," Letter of Dec. 16, 1561. State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 1238: Journal de Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 60, etc.]

[Footnote 1239: Ibid., i. 65; a highly colored, partisan, and consequently inaccurate account is given by Claude Haton, i. 214-221. T. Shakerley, in his letter of Dec. 16th, relates the friar's interview with Catharine, who, on seeing the fellow's boldness and the strength of his popularity among the merchants of Paris (at least sixty of whom escorted him), easily accepted his disclaimers, told him "she was much content to hear that his preaching was good, without giving trouble to the people," and bade him "go his way and preach and fear no harm, for it should always please her son and her that the people should be taught as in old time they had been preached unto." The intercession of the Parisians, accompanied "by offers of forty thousand crowns pledge of his forthcoming," Shakerley affirms, "has given _such a blow to the preachers of the other side_ [the Huguenots] that there is _wonderful change_." State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 1240: "Y quando leyo aquel passo de la letra (que si la reyna madre no quisiesse el ayuda que se le offrescia, la darie V. M. a quien se la pidiesse para favorescer la religion y conservarle en la verdad) reparo un rato _y hecho a V. M. muchas bendiciones, diziendo que aquello era un principe veramente catholico y defensor de la religion, y que no esperava menos de V. M._" Vargas to Philip II., Nov. 7, 1561, Papiers d'etat du card. de Granvelle, vi. 399. The Pope had agreed to assist the orthodox party with sixty galleys (Ibid., vi. 437), and he cared little if the French knew that he was in league with Philip (Ibid., vi. 401)--their fears might serve as a check upon their insolence.]

[Footnote 1241: "Qui premier voulsist monstrer les dens audist Sieur de Vendosme et ses adherens."]

[Footnote 1242: "Rapport secret du secretaire Courtewille, et fondement de son envoy devers Madame la duchesse de Parma es Pays-Bas en Decembre, 1561." Papiers d'etat du card. de Granvelle, vi. 433, etc. Letter of Margaret of Parma to Philip II., Dec. 13, 1561, Ibid., vi. 444, seq.]

[Footnote 1243: "E s'avesse quello spirito che aveva il padre, o il padre avesse avuto la presente fortuna, la Francia non saria piu Francia."]

[Footnote 1244: Michel Suriano, Rel. des Amb. Ven., i. 558-562.]

[Footnote 1245: Discours sur le Saceagement des Eglises Catholiques ... en l'an 1562. Par F. Claude de Sainctes, 1563. Reprinted in Cimber et Danjou, iv. 371. Claude Haton, i. 177, 178. I need not stop to refute these partial statements. They are not surprising, coming as they do from writers who accept all the vile stories of Huguenot midnight orgies with unquestioning faith.]

[Footnote 1246: It is described in an "arret" of parliament as "une maison size au fauxbourg S. Marcel, rue de Mouffetard, vulgairement dicte la maison du Patriarche, pour ce que un patriarche d'Alexandrie dechasse par les barbares la fit anciennement bastir, ayant entree sur la grande rue dudict S. Marcel." Felibien, Hist. de Paris, iv., Preuves, 806.]

[Footnote 1247: De Thou (iii. 100) is much below the mark in stating the number at about two thousand; the author of the "Histoire veritable de la mutinerie" does not seem to exaggerate when he estimates it at twelve thousand to thirteen thousand. The congregation was unusually large, the day being the festival of St. John, and a holiday. The day before, the Protestants had for the first time been permitted to assemble on a feast-day, and Beza himself had preached without interruption to crowded audiences at Popincourt and at the Patriarche. He had again preached on the morning of St. John's Day. Letter of Beza to Calvin, Dec, 30, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 148.]

[Footnote 1248: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 422.]

[Footnote 1249: That the disturbance was premeditated is proved by the fact, attested by the Histoire veritable, p. 60, that the precious possessions of the church had been removed from St. Medard a few hours before its occurrence. Its object was clearly revealed by the haste with which the parliament despatched a messenger to St. Germain, to solicit the king in council to revoke the permission heretofore granted the Protestants to meet in the suburbs of Paris. Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 422.]

[Footnote 1250: With this scene the connection of the "Patriarche" with the reformed services disappears from history. It had been let to the Protestants by a merchant of Lucca, who was himself only a tenant. In the ensuing summer the owner, moved by displeasure for the impiety of the religious services it had witnessed, made a gift of the "Patriarche" to the parliament, asking that it might be employed for the relief of the poor and other charitable purposes. Arret of parliament, Aug. 18, 1562, Felibien, iv., Preuves, 806. Of course, Saint Medard was suitably propitiated by solemn expiatory processions and pageantry.]

[Footnote 1251: And with every indignity on the part of the people. See extracts from "Journal de 1562," in Baum, ii. 480, 481. The authorities I have made use of in the account of the St. Medard riot given in the text are: "Histoire veritable de la mutinerie, tumulte et sedition, faite par les Prestres Sainct Medard contre les Fideles, le Samedy xxvii iour de Decembre, 1561" (in Recueil des choses memorables, 822, etc.; Mem. de Conde, ii. 541, etc.; Cimber et Danjou, iv. 49, etc.), a contemporaneous pamphlet written by an eye-witness; other documents inserted in Mem. de Conde, among them the Journal de Bruslart, i. 68; Letter of Beza, who was present, to Calvin, Dec. 30, 1561, _apud_ Baum, ii. App., 148-150; Hist. eccles., i. 421; De Thou, iii. 100; Claude Haton, i. 179, etc.; Castelnau, l. iii., c. 5; J. de Serres, i. 346; Claude de Sainctes, Saccagement (in Cimber et Danjou). It is almost superfluous to add that the Roman Catholic and Protestant authorities differ widely in the coloring given to the event. If any reader should be inclined to think that I have given undue weight to the Huguenot representations, let him examine the Roman Catholic De Thou--here, as everywhere, candid and impartial.]

[Footnote 1252: De Thou, iii. (liv. xxix.) 118-123; Eecueil des choses mem., 686-695; Memoires de Conde, ii. 606, etc.]

[Footnote 1253: Abbe Bruslart accuses Chancellor L'Hospital of packing the convention with delegates of the parliaments who were his creatures; "La pluspart desquels avoient este eleus et choisis par monsieur le Chancelier De l'Hospital, _qui n'estoit sans grande suspition_." Journal de Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 70.]

[Footnote 1254: Strange to say, Santa Croce employs, in his letters to Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, the very same despairing expressions as those for the use of which in his Latin commentaries he condemns Gualtieri. He wishes to be recalled; he declares: "Che questo regno e nell' estrema ruina, che non vi e speranza alcuna, che si vede cascar a occhiate, che tutto e infetto, in capite et in membris," and that he does not want to be present at the funeral of this wretched kingdom. Letter of January 7, 1562, Aymon, i. 21, 22; Cimber et Danjou, vi. 16,17.]

[Footnote 1255: Ibid., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1256: Letter of Santa Croce, Jan. 15, 1562, Aymon, i. 35-40.]

[Footnote 1257: Of _forty-nine_ opinions, _twenty-two_ were given in favor of an unconditional grant of the Protestant demand for churches, _sixteen_ for a simple toleration of their religious assemblies and worship, such as had been informally practised for the last two months, while _eleven_ stood out boldly for the continued hanging and burning of heretics. Among the most determined of these last were the Constable and Cardinal Tournon. Much to their regret, they saw themselves compelled to acquiesce in a liberal policy which they detested, in order to avoid opening the doors wide to the establishment of Protestantism in France. See Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 499. Compare, on the course of the proceedings, Beza's letters and those of Santa Croce, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1258: See the text of the Edict of January, in Du Mont, Corps diplomatique, v. 89-91; Mem. de Conde, iii. 8-15; Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. ii., t. i. 124-128; J. de Serres, etc.]