Chapter XIX (4)

[1179] Charles IX. to La Mothe Fenelon, Aug. 22, 1572, Corresp. dipl., vii. 322, 323.

[1180] See _ante_, chap, xviii., p. 490.

[1181] "Ni que j'y aye aucune volonte."

[1182] "C'est bien la chose que je deteste le plus."

[1183] Despatch of Aug. 24th, Corresp. diplom., vii. 324, 325.

[1184] Charles IX. to La Mothe Fenelon, Aug. 25, 1572, ibid., 325, 326.

[1185] Charles IX., Aug. 26th and 27th, Corresp. dipl., vii. 331, etc., and a justificatory "Instruction a M. de la Mothe Fenelon."

[1186] Letter of Burleigh, etc., Sept. 9th, to Walsingham, Digges, 247. The truth of the statement is called in question by M. Cooper, editor of La Mothe Fenelon's Correspondance diplomatique.

[1187] The interview is described both by La Mothe Fenelon (Corresp. diplom., v. 122-126), and by the English council, despatch of Sept. 9th to Walsingham (Digges, 247-249). Hume has a graphic account, History of England, chap. xl.

[1188] This striking, and, certainly, somewhat undiplomatic speech is reported by the ambassador himself in his despatches (Corresp. dipl., v. 127). It looks as if the honest Frenchman was not sorry to let the court know some of the severe criticisms that were uttered respecting a crime with which he had no sympathy. La Mothe Fenelon tells of the impression, proved erroneous by the king's letter, "qu'ilz avoient que ce fut ung acte projecte de longtemps, et que vous heussiez accorde avecques le Pape et le Roy d'Espaigne de faire servir les nopces de Madame, vostre seur, avec le Roy de Navarre, a une telle execution pour y atraper, a la foys, toutz les principaulx de la dicte religion assembles." La Mothe Fenelon to Charles, Sept. 2, 1572, _ubi supra_, v. 116.

[1189] La Mothe Fenelon endeavored, he says, to persuade the English that there were not over five thousand, and that Catharine and Charles were sorry that one hundred could not have answered. Corr. diplom., v. 155.

[1190] See the despondent despatch of October 2d, Corresp. diplom., v., 155-162.

[1191] La Mothe Fenelon to Catharine, ibid., v. 164.

[1192] Letter of Sept. 26th, Digges, 262.

[1193] See _ante_, chapter xviii., p. 495.

[1194] As well as by the queen mother's assurances respecting the massacre in the provinces--too heavy a draft upon the credulity of her royal sister. "Pour ce qu'ilz disent que, voyant les meurtres qui ont este faictz en plusieurs villes de ce royaume par les Catholiques contre les Huguenotz, ils ne se peuvent asseurer de l'intantion et volonte du Roy, qu'ilz n'en voyent quelque punission et justice et ses edictz mieux observes, _elle cognoistra bientost que ce qui est advenu es autres lieux que en ceste ville, a este entierement contre la volonte du Roy_, mon dict sieur et filz, lequel a delibere d'en faire faire telle pugnition et y establir bientost ung si bon ordre que ung chascun cognoistra quelle a este en cest endroit son intantion." Catharine to La Mothe Fenelon, Cor. dipl., vii. 377.

[1195] Walsingham to Sir Thomas Smith, Sept. 14th, Digges, 242.

[1196] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 150.

[1197] It is true that when their sentences were read to them, and particularly that portion which branded with infamy their innocent children, the courage of the old man of seventy, Briquemault, momentarily failed, and he condescended to offer to do great services to the king in retaking La Rochelle whose fortifications he had himself begun; and when this proposal was rejected, it is said that he made more humiliating advances. But the constancy and pious exhortations of his younger companion, who sustained his own courage by repeating many of the psalms in Latin, recalled Briquemault to himself, and from that moment "he had nothing but contempt for death." De Thou (iv. 646), a youth of nineteen, who was present in the chapel when the sentence was read, remembered the incident well. Cf. Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 32 (bk. i., c. 6). Walsingham, when he says in his letter of Nov. 1, 1572, that "Cavannes (Cavaignes) showed himself void of all magnanimity, etc.," has evidently confused the persons. Here is an instance where the later account of an eye-witness--De Thou--is entitled to far more credit than the contemporary statement of one whose means of obtaining information were not so good.

[1198] "N'ayant regret sinon que vous ayez voulu profaner le jour de sa nayssence par ung si fascheus espectacle qu'allastes voir en greve." Corresp. diplom. de la Mothe Fenelon, v. 205; Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 151, 152; Reveille-Matin, Arch, cur., vii. 206; Walsingham to Smith, Nov. 1, 1572, Digges, 278, 279.

[1199] Froude, x. 444, 445.

[1200] "Entre autres choses, il me dist qu'on luy avoit escript de Rome, n'avoit que trois semaines ou environ, sur le propos des noces du Roy de Navarre en ces propres termes: 'que a ceste heure que tous les oyseaux estoient en cage, on les pouvoit prendre tous ensemble.'" M. de Vulcob to Charles IX., Presburg, Sept. 26th, _apud_ De Noailles, Henri de Valois et la Pologne en 1572 (Paris, 1867), iii., Pieces just., 214.

[1201] See in Kluckholn, Briefe Friedrich des Frommen, ii. 482, a short letter of Charles IX. to the elector palatine, Aug. 22, 1572, referring him for details to the account which Schomberg would give him verbally; and, ibid., ii. 483, 484, the narrative signed by Charles IX. and Brulart, secretary of state, in a translation evidently made at the time for the elector's use.

[1202] "Toute ma negociation s'en estoit allee en fumee." Schomberg to M. de Limoges, Nov. 8th, De Noailles, iii. 300.

[1203] A large number of Schomberg's despatches are inserted in De Noailles, iii. 286, etc.

[1204] "Als die sonder zweifel _die welsche bibel_ 'El principe Macchiavelli' auch studirt."

[1205] Landgrave William to the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, Cassel, Sept. 5, 1572; same to Frederick, elector palatine, Sept, 6th. A. Kluckholn, Briefe Friedrich des Frommen, ii. 496-498.

[1206] Bp. of Valence to M. Brulart, Konin, Nov. 20th, Colbert MSS. _apud_ De Noailles, iii. 218.

[1207] Montluc to Charles IX., January 22, 1573, De Noailles, iii. 220. Does not the frank suggestion furnish a clue to the method which was sometimes practised in other cases?

[1208] Montluc to Brulart, Jan. 20, 1573, De Noailles, iii. 223. The worthy bishop, who was certainly at any time more at home in the cabinet than in the church, did not intermit his toil or yield to discouragement. If we may believe him, he "had not leisure so much as to say his prayers." The panegyrists of the massacre, and especially Charpentier, had done him good service by their writings, and at one time he greatly desired that the learned doctor might be sent to his assistance, particularly as (to use his own words) "all the suite of Monsieur de l'Isle and myself do not know enough of Latin to admit a deacon to orders, even at Puy in Auvergne." _Ubi supra._

[1209] Beza to Thomas Tilius, Sept. 10, 1572, Bulletin, vii. 16.

[1210] Registres de la compagnie, 1er aout, 1572, _apud_ Gaberel, Histoire de l'eglise de Geneve, ii. 320.

[1211] Reg. du conseil, 30 aout, 1572; Reg. de la compagnie, Gaberel, ii. 321.

[1212] Gaberel, ii. 321, 322.

[1213] Ibid., ii. 322.

[1214] Ibid., ii. 307. See also in the Pieces justificatives, pp. 213-217: "Liste des refugies de la St. Barthelemy dont les familles existent de nos jours a Geneve."

[1215] Gaberel, ii. 325. The author of the really able and learned article on the massacre, in the North British Review for October, 1869, conveys an altogether unfounded and cruel impression, not only with regard to Beza, but respecting his fellow Protestants, in these sentences: "The very men whose own brethren had perished in France were not hearty or unanimous in execrating the deed. There were Huguenots who thought that their party had brought ruin on itself, by provoking its enemies and following the rash counsels of ambitious men. This was the opinion of their chief, Theodore Beza, himself," etc. The belief of Beza that the French Protestants had merited even so severe a chastisement as this at the hands of God, by reason of the ambition of some and the unbelief or lack of spirituality of others, was a very different thing from failing to execrate the deed with heartiness. If the words of Bullinger to Hotman, quoted in support of the first sentence ("sunt tamen qui hoc factum et excusare et defendere tentant") really referred to Protestants at all, it can only have been to an insignificant number who took the position from a love of singularity, and who were below contempt. The execration of the deed was pre-eminently unanimous and hearty.

[1216] Gaberel, ii. 326.

[1217] Beza to T. Tilius, Dec. 3, 1572, Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., vii. 17.

[1218] Gaberel, ii. 330-333.

[1219] Nearly four years later, on the 8th of June, 1576, Monsieur de Chandieu received the news of the publication of Henry III.'s edict of peace permitting the refugees to return home. All the Protestants who had not adopted Switzerland as their future country congregated at Geneva. A solemn religious service was held in the church of Saint Pierre, where French and Genevese united in that favorite Huguenot psalm (the 118th)--

La voici l'heureuse journee
Que Dieu a faite a plein desir--

the same which the soldiers of Henry IV. set up on the field of Coutras (Agrippa d'Aubigne, iii. 53). M. de Chandieu then rendered thanks in tender and affectionate terms to all the departments of government, exclaiming: "We shall always regard the Church of Geneva as our benefactress and our mother; and from all the French reformed churches will arise, every Sunday, words of blessing, in remembrance of your admirable benefits to us." The next day the refugees started for their homes, accompanied, as far as the border, by a great crowd of citizens. Gaberel, ii. 337, 338.

[1220] Les ambassadeurs de Charles IX. aux cantons suisses protestants, Bulletin, iii. 274-276. A copy was sent by Beza to the consuls of Montauban, together with a letter, Oct. 3. 1572. Also Mem. de l'estat (Arch. cur., vii. 158-161.)

[1221] Harangue de M. de Bellievre aux Suisses a la diette tenue a Baden, Mackintosh, Hist. of England, iii., Appendix L.

[1222] Bellievre to Charles IX., Baden, Dec. 15, 1572, Mackintosh, App. L, p. 360. De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 642.

[1223] As early as September 3d the superintendent of the mint submitted specimens of two kinds of commemorative medals: the one bearing the devices, "_Virtus in Rebelles_" and "_Pietas excitavit Justitiam_;" and the other, "_Charles IX. dompteur des Rebelles, le 24 aoust 1572_." The Mem. de l'estat (Archives cur., vii. 355-357) contain the elaborate description furnished by the designer, accompanied with comments by the Protestant author. The Tresor de Numismatique, etc. (Paul Delaroche, etc.), Med. francaises, pt. 3d, plate 19, Nos. 3, 4, and 5, gives facsimiles of _three_ medals, the first two mentioned above, and a third on which Charles figures as Hercules armed with sword and torch confronting the three-headed Hydra of heresy. The motto is, "Ne ferrum temnat, simul ignibus obsto."

[1224] Smith to Walsingham, Digges, 252.

[1225] Leicester to Walsingham, Sept. 11th, Digges, 251.

[1226] Walsingham to Smith, Nov. 1, Digges, 279. The politic Montluc, Bishop of Valence, seems to allude to the same alteration in his master: "Au diable soyt la cause qui de tant de maux est cause, et qui d'ung bon roy et humain, s'il en fust jamais, l'ont contrainct de mectre la main au sang, qui est un morceau si friant, que jamais prince n'en tasta qu'il n'y voulust revenir." De Noailles, iii. 223, 224.

[1227] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 29, 30.

[1228] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 29 (liv. i., c. 6).

[1229] Letter of May 22, 1571/2, Digges, 193.

[1230] Relation of Sigismondo Cavalli. I follow the resume of Baschet, La diplomatie venitienne, 556, 562.

[1231] "Leurs butins et richesses ne leur proffitarent point, non plus qu'a plusieurs massacreurs, sacquemens, pillardz et paillards de la feste de Sainct-Barthelemy que j'ay cogneu, au moins des principaux, qui ne vesquirent guieres longtemps qu'ils ne fussent tuez au siege de la Rochelle, et autres guerres qui vindrent empres, et qui furent aussi pauvres que devant. Aussi, comme disoient les Espagnolz pillards, '_Que el diablo les avia dado, el diablo les avia llevado_.'" OEuvres, i. 277 (Ed. of Hist. Soc. of Fr., 1864). I need only refer to the fate of the famous assassin who boasted of having killed four hundred men that day with his own arm, and who afterward, having embraced a hermit's life, was finally hung for the crime of murdering travellers (Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 20); and to that of Coconnas, put to death for the part he took in the conspiracy of which I shall shortly have to speak.

[1232] Memoires de Sully, i. 28, 29.

[1233] See _ante_, p. 530-532.

[1234] Apostolicarum Pii Quinti Epistolarum libri quinque. Letter of March 26, 1568, p. 73.

[1235] Pii Quinti Epistolae, 111.

[1236] Ibid., 150.

[1237] Ibid., 152. See _ante_, chapter xvi, p. 308.

[1238] "Nullo modo, nullisque de causis, hostibus Dei parcendum est."

[1239] "Catholicae religionis hostes aperte ac libere ad internecionem usque oppugnaverit." Ibid., 155.

[1240] "Deletis omnibus," etc. Ibid., 155.

[1241] Ibid., 160, 161.

[1242] Ibid., 166.

[1243] "Nec vero, vano pietatis nomine objecto, te eo usque decipi sinas, ut condonandis divinis injuriis falsam tibi misericordiae laudem quaeras: nihil est enim ea pietate misericordiaque crudelius, quae in impios et ultima supplicia meritos confertur." Ibid., 242.

[1244] "Haereticae pravitatis inquisitores per singulas civitates constituere." Ibid., 242.

[1245] Letter of Jan. 29, 1570, ibid., 267.

[1246] Letter of April 23, 1570, ibid., 275.

[1247] Letter to Cardinal Bourbon, Sept. 23, 1570, ibid., 282, 283.

[1248] Letter to Charles IX., January 25, 1572, ibid., 443.

[1249] Saint Pius V. is, I believe, the only pope that has been canonized since Saint Celestine V., near the end of the thirteenth century.

[1250] "Qui autem a militibus captivi ducebantur, eos Pius pretio redemptos, in jusque sibi vindicatos, atque Avenionem perductos, publico supplicio afficiendos _pro ardenti suo religionis studio_ decrevit." Gabutius, Vita Pii Quinti, Acta Sanctorum Maii, Sec. 97, p. 642.

[1251] "Id Pius ubi cognovit, de Comite Sanctae Florae conquestus est, quod jussa non fecisset, dudum imperantis, _necandos protinus esse haereticos omnes quoscumque ille capere potuisset_." Ibid., Sec. 125. It must not be forgotten that, in holding these sentiments, Pius V. did not stand alone; his predecessors on the pontifical throne were of the same mind. We have seen the anger of Paul IV., in 1558, upon learning that Henry II. had spared D'Andelot (see _ante_, chapter viii., vol. i., p. 320). Paul was for instantaneous execution, and _did not believe a heretic could ever be converted_. He told the French ambassador "que c'estoit abus d'estimer que un heretique revint jamais; que ce n'estoit que toute dissimulation, et que c'estoit un mal ou il ne falloit que le feu, et soubdain!" The last expression is a clue to the attitude of the Roman See to heresy under every successive occupant of the papal throne. Letter of La Bourdaisiere to the constable, Rome, Feb. 25, 1559, MS. Nat. Lib. Paris, Bulletin, xxvii. (1878) 105.

[1252] Gabutius, _ubi supra_.