A
HISTORY OF THE HUGUENOTS.
BY
W.) CARLOS MARTYN,
AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN MILTON,"
AND "THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MARTIN LUTHER."
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,
150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK.




ENTERED accorlcng to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
the AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, in the Clerk's Office of the District
Court of the Southern District of the State of New York.




CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
iLesson of French Protestantism-The sixteenth century-Forerunu
ners of the Reformation-Christianity ascends the throne of the
Roman empire - Constantine and the "flaming cross "-St.
Paul's church under the shadow of the throne of the CsesarsIts gradual and mighty usurpations under successive bishops —
Finally crystalizes into the stupendous structure of the Papal
despotism-Fearful corruptions of Christianity-The saturnalia
of the church -A few true hearts revolt, and strive to reinaugurate primitive Christianity —Rome labels the preachers of the
reform "heretics," and persecutes-The dissent spreads-Infects Southern France-The Paulicians-Their Manichean and
Gnostic errors —Various names by which they were knownTheir mission —Ecclesiastical din-The Vaudois-They clasp
hands with St. Paul and bring in the epoch of Luther —-   27
CHAPTER II.
Ancient political divisions-The Count of Toulouse —Languedoc
and Provence-The garden of mediseval Europe-LEgyptian
darkness covers Western Europe through the feudal ages-The
southern provinces of France an exception-Intellectual character of the Provengels-Their elegant language-Fostered letters-The exiled arts quit for their schools the old Hesperides-Their republicanism —The Moriscoes-Culture of these
descendants of the Magi and the Chaldeans-The Mahometan principle of conquest surrendered —Civilization and tolerance enthroned in the Spanish peninsula-Commercial intercourse with the Moriscoes brings civilization into Southern
France-The early Spaniards —Their tolerant character-The
Troubadours -The minstrels level their satirical verses at the
widespread abuses of the Papal see-The epigram of Pierre
Cardinal-The Proventals hold the church of Rome in contempt —This preexisting prejudice prepares them to receive
the primitive faith-The apostolic altar in the valleys of Piedment —Peter of Bruys, Henry, and Arnold of Brescia light their




r4                    CONTENTS.
torches at the pure Piedmontese altar, and carry tne primitive
light of Christianity into the Provenoal territories —The reformedl congregation at Orleans, in France —Its fate-Peter WaldoIs converted, commences to teach, and translates the Latin BPible
into the vernacular of Gaul-Rlomanlism and Christianity contrasted-The Vaudois creed-Its pure Protestantism —lIapid
spread of the Vaudois tenets —------------------------  36
CHAPTER III.
Rome begins to move-Innocent III.-His haughty character —
Determines to exterminate the Provengal Vaudois-His wily
programme-Places Languedoc and Provence under an interdict-Confiscates the property of the reformers-Gives it to the
faithful, and anathematizes all who refuse to seize on the usurped estates-Ecclesiastical commissions-St. Dominic-Inception of the Inquisition-Sketch of its rise and progress-Arhi..
trary proceedings of the Inquisitors in Languedoc-IRaymond
VI. count of Toulouse-Raymond Roger, viscount of AlbyPierre de Castelnovo, the papal legate-Dictates a dishonorable
policy to Count Raymond —The count withholds his assentThe legate excommunicates him-Innocent supports Castelnovo's audacity-The Papal letter —Raymond compelled to
submit to Rome-Assassination of the Legate-Fury of the
pontiff-His savage bull-Origin of the Papal dogma, that "no
faith is to be kept with heretics"-The word "crusade" extended to cover the atrocity of sectarian persecution -...- 50
CHAPTER IV.
Innocent III. dispatches indulgence letters into France, and summons the faithful to take the cross against the Vaudois-The
monks of Citeaux preach the crusade-Enthusiastic response
to their fanatical appeals-The great nobles assume the crossLanguedoc filled with terror-The Count of Toulouse and the
Viscount of Alby endeavor to avert the storm-Supercilious
conduct of the Papal legate-Count Raymond's timidity-He
yields every thing, and offers to head the crusade-Heroism of
the Viscount of Alby-He counsels resistance, and refuses to
give his subjects over to the merciless harry of the crusaders —
Retires into his states and prepares for their defence —Count
Raymond applies to Philip Augustus and to Otho of Germany
for assistance-His deputation to the pope-:Equivocating
morality of the pontiff-Raymond Roger refuses to be hoodwinked-The crusaders put themselves in motion in the spring
of 1209-Their strength-The rendezvous —Count tRaymond'o




CONTENTS.                          5
protest-Innocent appoints Muilon, his secretary, legate —A notable admission-Servility of the Count of T-oulouse-Submits
to be disciplined before the altar-Assumes the cross against
his subjects and against his nephew ------------------- 63
CHAPTER V.:he crusaders wind into the valleys of the Rhone-Count Raymond meets them at Valence, and conducts them to Montpellier-The Viscount of Alby makes a last effort for peace —
Avows himself a true servant of the church, but refuses to
yield the principle of toleration-Imperturbability of the legate-He does not desire an accommodation, his object is extermination-The viscount quits Montpellier sad but resoluteThrows himself into his strong-holdc of Beziers, and awaits the
onset-His noble conduct-The crusaders advance and burn
Villemur-The siege of Chasseneuil-Its vigorous defence and
final capitulation-A  ghastly carnival-The crusaders press
forward to the siege of Beziers —Like Attila, they leave no
living thing behind them-Beziers-It is summoned to surrender-Wily harangue of the bishop of the city —The citizens are
advised to save themselves by yielding their Vaudois fellowtownsmen to the avengers of the faith-Their noble reply —
Unexpected capture of Beziers-Scenes of horror-The unglutted crusaders leave Beziers a s-moking tomb, and lay siege to the
viscount's strong-hold and capital of Carcassonne-Situation of
the city-Courage of its defenders-The king of Aragon acts
as mediator-His visit to Raymond Roger-The admission of
that prince-The crusaders are apprized of the desperate condition of the besieged-Terms offered by the abbot of CiteauxThe viscount's heroic response-Departure of Don Pedro-A
general assault-The crusaders are unsuccessful —The chiefs
of the war resort to diplomacy —The viscount's visit under a
safe-conduct-Practical application of the Jesuit doctrine, that
"no faith is to be kept with heretics"-Raymond Roger a
prisoner in the clutches of Simon de Montfor  ---  74
CHAPTER VI.
Effect of the perfidy of the crusaders upon the inhabitants of Carcassonne-The yawning cavern-A midnight march through
the oozy bowels of the earth-Safety at last-Amazement of
the crusaders —A great city deserted-W-Vhere are the citizens?-The abbot of Citeaux's lying proclamation-He will not
be cheated of a holocaust —The states of the Viscount of Alby
I*




6                    (:CONTENTS.
subdued-The clusaders begin to separate-The inquisitors, the
legate, and the abbot of Citeaux not satisfied-The Vaudois are
conquered, but not exterminated-The work of the Incluisitors
not accomplished-They desire to obliterate the tracks of civilization-Until they do this, reform will flourish despite the sacrifica oif hecatombs of victims-The legate's council-Who will
accept the conquered territories? —The duke of Burgundy's
reply-The great lords refuse the gift-Simon de Montfort is
summoned to accept them —The comedy of refusal-The butcher of the Vaudois finally succumbs to the abbot's eloquence —
Greedy and fanatical ambition rewarded-The bar sinister no
impediment to a foremost rank among the great feuditoriesDe Montfort enters upon his usurped dominions —Fears the
legitimate sovereign, whom he holds in his dungeon-The poison rids him of a rival, and quiets his conscience-The close of
Paymond Roger's earthly career-Count Raymond again —A
recreant troubadour - Fouquet de Marseille made bishop of
Toulouse-Count Raymond's foes-Their intrigues to prevent
his reconciliation with the church-The council of St. GillesThe count is again excommunicated, and his states are given
up to pillage and devastation —The preaching of a new crusade-Alice de Montmorency- De Montfort's new army of
crutaders-Renewed atrocities-Heroism of the Vaudois-The
castle of Minerva-The assembly of martyrs-How God's children could die-The ecstacy of religious devotion-The martyr heroism of devoted womanhood —In the flames-The
siege of Termes-An attempted escape —De Moontfort's orgyThe Provengal territories completely surrendered to the domination of demoniacs ----------------------------------  87
CHAPTER VII.
The hunted stag at bay-The alliance-De Montfort is readySiege of Lavaur-A frightful massacre-The Vaudois "burned
alive with the utmost joy "-De Montfort before Toulouse-The
White and Black Companies-The monster baffled-The hunter hunted-De Montfort's cry for aid —New swarms of fanatics swoop upon Languedoc —De Montfort's ferocious activityDeath of Count Ratymond's ally, Don Pedro of Aragon —Death of
Innocer.t III-IIis character-Count R;aymond in the fieldReenters Toulouse-De Montfort once more besieges it-The
struggle before the city-The "Cat" —The sally-De Montfort
at mass-His last charge-Death smites him in the hour of victory-Consternation of the crusaders, and end of the siege of
Toulouse -------------------------------     -----  102




CONTENTS.                           7
CHAPTER VIII.
A momentary respite-The gathering of another tempest-Death
of Count Raymond VI. -Iis character —An instance of Rome's
spiteful vengeance-Accession of Count Raymond VII. -Death
of Philip Augustus-Fouqllet, bishop of Toulouse, at Rheims
at the coronation of St. Lonis-He instigates the young king
to proclaim a new crusade-Louis assents-The vulture on the
wing once more-He swoops upon the defenceless prey-The
cruelties of Deo Montfort's regime are re6nacted-The crusaders
spare neither man in their wrath nor woman in their lustThe Inquisition established in France as a permanent institution by the Council of Toulouse in 1229-The tests of heresyTwo canons of the Council of Toulouse-The bribe-The philosophy of Rome-The Vaudois refuse to deny their Saviour —The storm still rages-The conflict has a political phase-The
final catastrophe-The Vaudois exterminated, or driven into
exile-They continue steadfast in the faith to the last, and earn
a right to clasp hands with St. Paul, their elder brother in
Christ Jesus ----------------------------------------- 112
CHAPTER IX.
The crime against the Vaudois not the separate wickedness of a single nationality, but a mosaic of infamy-Postponement of the
Reformation for three centuries —Even then some of the Romanio races do not accept it-The Vaudois born out of time-Christendom not prepared to receive their truth — "'From the sixth hour
there was darkness over the land until the ninth hour "-The Vatican congratulates itself-Rome imagines that she has strangled
the Reformation-The interregnum means postponement, not
conquest-The Vaudois are scattered, not exterminated-" Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor
any other creature," can separate them from the love of God
which is in Jesus Christ-They become the missionaries of
medie-val Europe-They leaven Bohemia through Huss-They
leaven England through Wickliffe- A historical episode - The
Vaudois and Louis XII.-The Piednmontese Vaudois-The rival
factions in Italy-The Guelphs and the Ghibelines-Europe's
last effort to clutch the Holy Sepulchre from the Saracen-The
Yaudois keep aglow the dying embers of the gospel through
these dismal ages-The darkness which precedes the day-The
profligacy of the Romish Babylon-A baptism of suffering lpe.
pares the way to a glorious reformation-The agents of re.




8                    CONTENTS.
form —The revival of learning —The invention of printing —
Vaudoisism and humanism the twin laboratories of the Reformation of the sixteenth century ----- 122
CHAPTER X.'The resurrection of reform-Rome sets herself to subdue the new
rebellion against her politics and theology, using old weaponsLeo X. intones his creed from the balcony of the Vatican-The
responsive voice from the heights of Wittemberg-Salvation by
faith in Christ the soul of the Reformationl-The struggle of that
epoch was not a movement towards materialism, as some claim,
or towards the abolition of Christianity, as the papists chargeIts primary object was the reformation of the abuses which corrupted and deformed the Christian fait'h-It simply called on man
to ground his faith, not on the word of a usurping priest, but on
the infallible word of God-The Sorbonne denounces the reform-Leo anathematizes it from the pontifical throne-Rapid
spread of Protestantism-Melancthon and Bucer in FranceFavorable omens-The reign of Francis I. —The Reformation
grounds itself in France-The court and the prelates alarmedMotives of the French bishops for opposing the ReformationThey persuade the king to issue an edict against heresy —A
reformed congregation dispersed at Meaux-William Brigonnet-Lef6vre of Estaples-Francis I. -vacillates —The shuttlecock king goes wholly over to Rome-An auto da fe-Louis de
Berquin —The jeer of a Jesuit-Unconquerable vitality of
faith-                                       ---- 133
CHAPTER XL
Opening phases of the Reformation —Renee of Ferrara —Margaret
de Valois —The sister of the king becomes a disciple of the
reformed theology-Her life at the court-Devotes her life to
literature and divinity-Her political talents-Her beautyHer benefactions to the dissenters-The constable Anne of
Montmorenci's advice to the king-Francis' reply-Margaret
the mother of French reform-Her influence-Kings are dangerous missionaries-Conscience the palladium of Protestantism-Margaret marries Henry d'Albret, king of Navarre-Writes
toleration on the first line of the first page of her code of lawvsThe "Evangelicals " have now an asylum-The persecution rages
with increased vehemence-Francis personally attends at an
(auto da f —The cardinal of Tournon becomes the king's adviser after Margaret's departure for Navarre-His pride and




CONTENTS                            9
bigotry-Holds the king firm in his determination to exterminate heresy-Two anecdotes-The gloomy prospects of reformThe ascendency of women at the court-Virtue and honor bartered for station and influence - The ingredients of a, gallant
court-The rival factions-The Duchess D'Etampes-Diana -e
Poitiers-The court soil not productive of the growth of Christian principle-The saying of Diana of Poitiers-The court
must spin through its giddy dance-The orgies at the capital
do not stay the merciless steps of the inquisitors-" France
scents burning bodies in every breeze" -----------------  146
CHAPTER XII.
Apostles of the faith-Count Sigismond of Haute Flamme-His
conversion — Connection with Margaret of Navarre-Devotion
to evangelical truth-His frank courage-A grand idea-Sigismond's labors with the surrounding priests and nobles-Lambert's witticism-Pierre Toussaint-Toussaint in the abbot of
St. Antoine's dungeon-Liberty at last-Repairs to ParisMargaret offers him  an asylum- The queen of Navarre is
surrounded by a troop of hypocrites —WVho will expose their
wiles?-Toussaint's conversation with Lef6vre and RousselThe timid scholars - Their optimism — Toussaint's griefQuits the court-His prayer-Williaim Farel-His character —
His life as eloquent as his sermons —Farel's visit to Gap —An
incident in his apostolic career-Over the walls —-The reformation constantly gains strength-It lacks unity and symmetryWho shall organize the Reformation?-Sigismond, Farel, and
f(colampadius are in doubt-John Calvin appears ------- 157
CHAPTER XIII.
Calvin's birth-Family-He is a man of the people-Calvin at the
college of La Marehe —Mathurine Cordier-Master and pupilCalvin belongs to the strictest sect of the Roman communionThe saying at the college-The Noyon boy's devotion to study —
The red hat and scarlet gown of a cardinal glitter before the
eyes of his father-The visit home-A breeze of the gospel in the
air —-Does Calvin heed it? -Opposes the Reformation at the
outset, in the college wrangles-Is won to examine the reformed
theology-A terrible struggle-Examination means emancipation-Calvin's conversion —His prayer-Breaks with'RomeCalvin at Orleans-At Bourges-He "wonderfully advances the




10                   CONTENTS.
kingdom of God "-A life of vicissitudes-Calvin a fugitive —
Repairs to Geneva, en route for Germany-His journey sum.
mamrily arrested-Geneva — Beauty of its situation — Its early
history —The three strata —Liberties of the citizens -The
counts of Geneva-The bishops - Their worldliness and political ambition-The conflicting jurisdictions of the counts and the
bishops-Fierce and prolonged internecine conflicts —Pierre
de Savoy-The paladin sails by moonlight on lake LemanThe dukes of Savoy-They hunger for Geneva-Apply to the
pope for the secular authority-Alarm of the citizels —They
determine to resist —"Rolme ought not to lay its paw upon
kingdoms" —"No alienation of the city, or of its territories;
this we swear" —The duke withdraws his petition —Pope
Martin V.-His tarry at Geneva-His dislike of the firanchises
of the citizens —"The license of popular government" inconmpatible with the papal rule-The pontiffs usurpation-Insfaiment of a bishop prince —The Genevese acquiesce for a time
in sullen discontent —The revolt-Apply to the Helvetic confederacy for aid-The struggle, though at first a political one,
soon assumes a religious phase-The Genevese converted to the
Reformation-Farel at Geneva- His influence there e-Farel
constrains Calvin to stay —Calvin's unwilling acquiescenceThe two preachers are exiled on account of the strictness of
their discipline- Calvin a wanderer once more- Correspondence with Melancthon-With Bucer-With Capito-Calvin recalled to Geneva —Condition of his returnl —Coimes back as a
conqueror-Sets to work —New-models the civil code-Education-Calvin organizes the Refornmation-The "Christian Institutes" —Calviin  completes the temple of God —Geneva the
school of the Reformation —Influence of its disciples-Guy de
Bres, and the Netherlands-John Knox and Scotlancl —England.
and France inoculatedc with Calvinisi -John Calvin's influence in moulding the religious character of America ------ 168
CHAPITER XIV.
A parliamentary edict —Two martyrs-Mairgaret of Navarre.-The
"mirror of a sinful soul" —The Sorbonne in council-The syndic's harangue- "This is deadly heresy" —A raid on the booksellers' shops-The faculty deliberate-What shall be Margaret's
punishment?-A monk's advice —A comedy-The king's anger-He quells the Sorbonne-A tragedy-The end of the Vaudois-The testimony of the abbe Anqunetil and of De ThouI"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church" - - - - 182




CONTENTS.                        11
CHAPTER XV.
Death of Francis I.-Succession of Henry II.-Condition of the
kingdom-French politics-The four court factions-Anne de
Montmorenci-Diana de Poitiers-Catharine de' Medici-The
Guises —Inception of the house of Lorraine-Claude de GuiseHis six sons-The rage of faction-The coalition-The selfishness of cabals-Francis duke of Guise-His character —-Montmorenci versus the confederacy-The constable persuades the
princes of the blood to join his party-Anthony de Bourbon-Prince de Cond —The house of Chatillon-Odcft, Cardinal
de Chatillon-Gaspard Chatillon de Coligny —Fralncis Chatillon
D'Andelot-D'Andelot joins the Reformation-The colonelgeneral before the king-A noble avowal-In the dungeon of
Melan-Popularity of the reformed doctrines-The meeting at
the Pr6-aux Cleves-D'Andelot at liberty-Paul IV. is chagrinedl-Character of the Admiral de Coligny-The two.brothers ----------- -- 196
CHAPTER XVI.
HIenry's double mission-The dishonorable truce-Abdication of
Charles V.-An anecdote —The persecution renewed —ing
Henry and the old domestic-The tumult at Paris-The edict
of Chateaubriand —The cardinal's scheme-The king's assent —
The Parliament an veto —Sequier's speech —The Jesuits —
Ignatius Loyola-Character of the "Society of Jesus"-Endeavor to obtain legal recognition —The bishop's reply —Opinion of the Sorbonne-Momentary failure-Military affairsPolitical changes-Treaty of Chateau Cambrisis-The cardinal's
counsel-.,kn atrocious plot-Henry and the Parliament-The
debate —Louis IV. -Anne Iu Bourg-H-enry's rage —The
arrest-The tournament-Death and character of Henry II.Rise of the name' HUGUENOTS - - - - ------------------ 208
CHAPTER XVII.
The erd of a historic rivalry-The court revolutionized-The
Guises in power —Francis II. and Mary Stuart-The king in
duress-The cabal-An auto dea fe-Trial and execution of
Anne Du Bourg-Incorporation of the "Company of Jesus"
Alarm of the' Huguenots-Discontent of the nobility-The conspiracy-The castle La Ferte —-Condcl the chief, La Renaudio
the nominal head of the confederates - The ruined chateau in
the outskirts of Nantes —The conspirators at the rendezvousLa, Renaudie's harangue-The oath-The court at Blois-The




12                   CONTENTS.
kIing and queen —An indiscreet admission-The attorney'a
perfidy-The Guises in possession of the plot-A hunting gallop from Blois to Amboise —Francis and the duke of GuiseSuspicions-Coligny and D'Andelot summoned to Amlboise —
Coligny's appeal for religious enfranchisement-He is support.
ed by the moderates of the Council —The edict-Conde at Amboise-The hour at hand-Forewarned is forearmed-The at
tack —The death of La Renaudie-Rout of the conspirators —.
The Duke Nemours and Castelnau —A cavalier's idea of honor-.
The Guises triumph-R-evocation of Coligny's edict-Conde
arrested —Sanguinary course of the government —Conde and
the duke of Guise-The conspiracy ends with a liberation-A
page from contemporaneous history ------------------— 225
CHAPTER XVIII.
Assembly of the notables-Death of Olivier —L'HIpital succeeds
to the chancellorship- Coligny's appeal —Guise and the admiral-Progress of the wORD-Conversations —The plot -Apprehension of the Bourbon princes-The citation —Navarre and
Conde at Orleans-Conde's arrest-The trial-The condemnation-The soldier and the confessor —Conde's firmness-The
wife's petition-Navarre's exertions- A projected assassination-A lawyer's stratagemn-Death of Francis II. -------- 242
CHAPTER XIX.
Accession of Charles IX.-Regency of Catharine de' Mledici-Libh
eration of Conde —The new-modelled cabinet-First measures
of the new administration —Convention of the states-general —
Effort to exile the princes of Lorraine-l a,varre's motion-The
Triumvirate-The Spanish anmbassador-Condition of partiesThe edict of July-A mock reconciliation —Colloquy of PoissyThe leading disputants-UL'HIpital's address-Beza's plea —
The response of Tournon —The cardinal of Lorraine's harangue-Results of the colloquy —Catharine's letter to the
pope-The pontiff's alarm-The attempt to suborne the king
of Navarre-His final fall-Dismay of Jane D'Albret-The two
queens-Characteristic speeches-Renewed assembly of the
states-general at St. Germain-The new decree —-------- 255
CHAPTER XX.
The intercepted letter —Condd's confession of faith-Navarre's
intrigues —The double banishment-The results of a compro.
mise-The scene at Vassy —Atrocities — Guise's cout d'taet



CONTENTS.                         13
Movements of the Triumvirate-Concld's manifestoes —Enthusiasm of the Huguenots —An anecdote-Character of the Huguenot leaders —Conde attempts to play Machiavelli —-The faux
pas-Foreign alliances-iMarches and counter-marches-France
rent by demoniacs-The twin demons --                272
CHAPTER XXI.
Military operations-Siege of Rouen-Death of Navarre - His
character-The advance on Paris-The battle of Dreux-Capture of Conde and the constable-Guise's elation-Siege of
Orleans-Assassination of the duke of Guise —The charge
against Coligny-The halt of civil war before the bier of Francis Guise —------------------------------------------ 28
CHAPTER XXII.
The queen mother regains her supremacy-Conde signs a peaceConsternation in Coligny's camp-Provisions of the treatyThe admiral grounds arms-His precautions-Catharine's chagrin-Condl's reply-Expulsion of the English —Anger of
queen Elizabeth —  Wasted hours — Encroachments upon the
edict of pacification-The Reformation compromised by its
political chiefs-The rctionalle of reform-Politics of the Vatican —The pontiffs audacity —Anger of Charles IX. - Sine die
adjournment of the Council of Trent-History of its sessionsArrest of Du MoRnlin-Coligny's intercession-The king proclaimed of age-The royal journey-Catharine de' Medici and
the duke of Alva —The queen mother and the Papal nuncio —
First murmurs of St. Bartholomew-Alva's epigram —Assembly
of notables at Moulins-Intrignes to entrap the HuguenotsThe new edict-Charles IX. and the admiral ----------- 297
CHAPTER XXIII.
Unpopularity of the edict of pacification-The cardinal of Lorraine at court-Projects of the king of Spain-The plotters at
Paris-Augmentation of the army-Secret council of the HIu.
guenot chiefs at Chatillon-sur-Loing-The counterplot-Con.
de before the capital-Negotiations-Battle of St. DenisDeath of Montmorenci-A leaf from Brantome-The German
auxiliaries-An instance of the influence of religious enthusi-..
asm —lenewed pacification-Dissatisfaction of the Huguenot
leaders - Insidious assaults upon the reformers —Conduct oi
the Romish clergy —"No faith need be kept with heretics' —
2




g4                   CONTENTS.
nmezeucs of the ccaaille-Catharine's perfidyl-The plot to seize
Cond6 and Coligny-Their narrow escape-Consequent postponement of the St. Bartholomew-The rendezvous at Rochelle-Charles IX. and the duke of Alljou —enewed hostilities-The battle of Jarnac-Defeat of the Huguenots, and heroic
death of Conde —Conds's   character —Coligny sa-ves the armyJealousies and intrigues of the court-Death of the duke of
Deux-Ponts —Death of D'Andelot-The admiral's grief-Dissaesions in the IHuguenot ranks-Noble conduct of ColignyJane D'Albrdt in the camp —Her appeal for union-Young
Condcl and the prince of Bearn-I-lenry of Navarre proclaimed
generalissimo of the Huguenots-Coligny the real chief-Popularity of the adimiral-B-attle of Mincontour and rout of the
Huguenots-Coligny's genius and energy repairs the defeatThe admiral's victory at Arnay-le-Duc-Alarm of the courtCatharine dissembles-The tragic comedy of reconciliationPacification-The guarantees —------------------------ 313
CHAPTER XXIV.
The court changes front —The age of craft-The Awily queen
mother caresses the Huguenots-Jane D'AlbrCt and the admiral fix their residence at Rochelle-Artifices to draw them
to the capital-Catharine's consummate hypocrisy-She instructs the king to use every art to gain the confidence of the
Hluguenots-Marriace of Charles IX.-The reformers are deceived-Numbers repair to Pnaris and join in the courtyiJtesA new scheme-Projected marriage of Margaret de Valois and
the prince of Bearl —Sketch of the early life of Henry of Navarre —iteluctance of Jane D'Albret to accede to the matchA mother's instinct-Duplicity of the king-The wary admiral
is hoodwinked —Journey of Charles IX. to Lonvaine-Meeting
of the two courts —Charles IX. and Coligny-tHypocrisy of the
young king-Definitive arrangements are made for the nuptials
of Navarre and Margaret-The time appointed-Catharine's
sardonic satisfaction —The treacherous call —Jane D'Albret at
the Louvre-Her sudden death-Infatuation of Coligny-The
warning-The admiral's project-The French court listens to
the recital of his plans with courteous but perfidious attention-The ripening holocaust -------------------------- 336
CHAPTER XXV.
A catastrophe predicted-The bloody nuptials —The wedding on
the scaffold-Attempt to assassinate the admiral-The old soldier'ts sa-,.gfroid-Elxclamation of the king —Efforts of the court




CONTENTS.                        15
to allay suspicion-Energy of the conspirators-Proposition to
quit the capital-Coligny and the Vidame of Chartres-A diabolical ruse-The cordon of masked executioners-The midnight signal-The frenzied populace —"Blood! blood!"-Tavannes' witticism —Pezon the butcher —The queen-mother's
perfumer —Cruce's boast-Guise flies to the admiral —The
entrance of the bravos-Coligny's awakening-Question and
answer —Coligny's composure —He prays —"Art thou Coligny?"-The admiral's reply-The martyrdom-Petrucci's announcement-Incredulity of Guise-Coligny's corpse is flung
from the window-Brutality of Guise-Awful treatment of the
aclmiral's remains-Charles IX. at the gibbet of Montfau- onThe king quotes the atrocious Latin of Vitellius-The final
sepulchre-Scenes of horror-The king's ferocity-The window
of the Louvre — Charles amuses himself- Fanaticism  of the
abandoned beauties of the court-The courtesans transmuted
into harpies-Barbarous conduct of the brazen wantons-Appalling spectacle of Paris by daylight —The massacre spreads
through France-Isolated instances of humanity-Noble conduct of the Count de Tende-Of the Count de Charny-Of the
governor of Auvergne —Of the commander of Bayonne —A
ghastly re'su'me —Shall Conde and Navarre be spared?-A page
from the memoirs of the royal bride-The princes and the
king-Conde's candor-The decision-" The mass, death, or
the bastile" —The king's demoniacal glee- The well-learned
lesson-The trophies of the mnassacre-Pibrae's query-The
proclamation-Mingled atrocity and dissimulation of the kingRenewal of the "Paris matins"-Wild fantasies-Navarre's
prodigy-The clotted drops of blood upon the table-An hour
at midnight by the bed-side of Charles IX.-Wail of the phantom voices-The king's agony-" Conscience does make cowards  of us  all"   --  ---------------------------------  348
CHAPTER XXVI.
European effect of the massacre of St. Bartholomew-The news
in England-Opinion of Germany-The pleas in justificationRome greets the news with acclamations, bonfires, an illumination, and a high mass celebrated by the sovereign pontiff
in person-The honorary medal —Equivocal morality-The
Amen of Madrid-Ferocious joy of Philip II. —Witticism of the
admiral of Castile-Results of the massacre in France-Firmness and energy of the Huguenots-The confederation-The
appeal to arms-ThG siege of Rochelle decided on-Sketch of
the history of Rochelle-Preparations for the defence —-The




16                  CONTENTS.
solitary sentinel-La Noue's mission-The interview-Noble
conduct of the Rochellois —Disaffection in the camp of the
besiegers-Anjou's ennui —Rochelle triumphant-The pacification of 1573 —Terms of the treaty-Election of Anjou to the
throne of Poland-He quits France for Warsaw —Last hours of
Charles IX. —The confession to Ambrose Pare —The dying
monarch and Henry of Navarre —The whispered caution —An
awful death-bed-                                   368
CHAPTER XXVII.
The Polish courier-Regency of Catharine de' Medici-Effects of
despotism-The new coalition-Policy of the queen-motherHIenry III. receives intelligence of his brother's death-The
clandestine departure-The arrival —Catharine's flattery -
Death of the Cardinal of Gonaive-Meeting of the insurgents
at Millandc-The pledge —The king before Livron-Henry is
hooted-Disaffection of Alenpon-Battle of Dormans-Navarre's
protestation- Peace — Brantome's epigram —Davila's statement-Catharine's subtlety ---------------------------- 384
CHAPTER XXVIII.
General dissatisfaction —Character of Henry II.-Precautions of
the Huguenots-Action of the Ultramontane party-Rise of the
League-The cabinet at Joinville -The covenant-Influence of
Spain-Activity of the League-Meeting of the States-general at
Blois-Henry's alarm —lResolution of the king —Guise's demand-The deputation-Navarre's reply — Answer of Conde
and D'Anmville-Recommencement of the war —Edict of Poitiers-The "'Lovers' war`"-Renewed pacification -------- 393
CHAPTER XXIX.
Death of AlenGon —Energy of the League-Rendezvous of the
conspirators-The decision-The traitorous treaty —Fears of
the king —The League startled-Epernon and Navarre-The
manifesto of the' Holy Union "-Henry's counter dleclaration —
Success of Guise-The ignominious treaty-Navarre's astonishment - His whiskers turn white in a night -Activity of the
Huguenots-The proposition-Commencement of hostilitiesDeath of Gregory XIII. —The new pope-The brutum fihnenEffect on the League-Moral effect-Action of the Swiss cantons-The bull in Germany-Navarre takes the field-Battle
of Coutras —Rout of the royalists, and death of the duke of
Joyeuse-Navarre's criminal conduct - He plays the carpetknight       -------------------                   403




CONTENTENTS.                     17
CHAPTER XXX.
Guise's laurels-Envy of the king-Guise's popularity-The fainily meeting at Nancy —Real object of the house of LorraineThe masked policy-An insolent petition —Half measures —
Guise at Paris-Mob enthusiasm-The duke and the queenmother- Guise and the king —" Vive la Hypocrisie "- Paris
in the olden times-Catherine's ruse-Escape of the kingMemville's announcement-Negotiations-Convention of the
States-general- Guise's manceuvres- Muddled condition of
French politics-The advice of a soldier-A lawyer's counselAssassination of Henry de Guise —" The king of Paris is dead "Unwonted vigor of the king-News of the tragedy at ParisFrenzy of the capital-Death of Catharine doe' Medici-IHenry's
embarrassment-A pontiffs influence —The enraged League
will not negotiate-The king appeals to the Huguenots-Meeting of Navarre and Henry III. —The advance on ParisMayenne's retreat —Siege of Paris-Famine chokes the capital-The power of fanaticism-Jacques Clement-How he was
heated —Assassination of Henry III. ------------------— 416
CHAPTER XXXI.
The enthronement of a Huguenot-Joy of Ultramontane FranceThe Pontiff's blasphemy over the murder of Henry III.-Activity of the new king-Difficulties of the succession-Condition
of the League-Military successes of Henri Quatre-Battle of
Ivry —" The white plume of Navarre"-The advance upon the
capital-The starving metropolis-Manceuvres of the duke of
Parma-Death of a phantom king-The decision of the League —
Henry's alarm —The struggle of a human soul-The king determines to abjure Protestantism —The sad scene at St. DenisEffect in the Huguenot ranks —Mornay's letter-The deputies-General acquiescence in the new regime-Course of the
Jesuits-Their regicidal doctrines-The attempted assassination of the king-Indictment of the "Society of Jesus"-Arnauld's plea-The address of Louis Dolle —Intense popular
feeling against the Jesuits-The thwarted knife of ChatelBanishment of the Jesuits-D'Aubigne's epigram-A warning
and a prophecy-                    ---------------- 438
CHAPTER XXXII.
Disordered condition of the kingdom-The king devotes himself
to the amelioration of internal affairs-Signature of the edict
2*




18                   CONTENTS.
of Nantes-Its provisions-Feeling of the papists-The king
and the murmurers-Sully's resdume-Henry's marriage —Reentrance of the Jesuits into France-Catharine of Bourbon-She
becomes the chief court pillar of the Huguenots-Mornay's
letter to the princess-The reply-Catharine's influence with
her brother —The Huguenot reunion at the Louvre-The
snubbed delegates-Attempt at reconciliation —Catharine's
marriag — I-er persistent faith —Her death — Henry's griefThe holy father's insinuation-The king's spirited answerThe royal tour-Anecdotes-Repose of the Huguenots-The
reputed plot-A Jesuit bubble —Henry's last years-The mysterious project-Mary de' Medici —The coronation-The king's
buoyancy-An after chill —The ride-The narrow street-The
assassination-Seizure of Ravaillac —Precautions-The queen's
terror- Consternation —An awful comedy-The rack brings
forth no confession -Singular conduct of the judiciary —
L'Etoil's solution of the enigma —Per6fixe's witticism -..- 459
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Henry's fasmily-Succession of Louis XIII.-D'Epernon's boldness
secures the regency for Mary de' Medici-The queen's apartments resound with songs and laughter-Mirth on one side,
the murdered dead upon the other-The Concinis —The
change-Alarm of the Huguenots-Their chiefs-Bigotry and
court cabal-The regency ends in a tragedy-The new favorite.-Conduct of the Huguenots-The descent on Bearn-Clamors of the Romish clergy-The arret —The king at Paun —Celebration of the Mass in the ancient citadel of the lReformationRecommencement of hostilities-Diversified nature of the con.test-Pacification on the basis of the edict of Nantes-Richelieu enters the cabinet-His threefold object-The duke of
Buckingham-His plans-Richelieu's opportunity-His sagacious programme-Wily diplomacy-Siege of Rochelle-The
gallant defence-Capture of Rochelle-Peace again —P~aens to
Richelien —The Huguenots stripped of all political importance-Momentary cessation of persecution-The cause-The
synod at Charenton-The deputation-The demand ------ 475
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The Huguenots enjoy twenty years of peace-Death of RichelieuRegency of Anne of Austria —Mlazarin-His policy-Rise of
the English commlonwealth-Cromwell's intercession-Model
behavior of the Iluguenots-Mlazarin's testimony —D'Harcourt




CONTENTS.                         19
and the deputies of Montauban-Louis' declaration —Death
of MIazarin- Louis XIV. assumes the direction of'affairsThe reign of courtesans and Jesuits —The policy of corruption —Steadfastness of the middle classes-Satanic ingenuity
exercised in enforcing proselytism-The infinite hard spiritual
fights of God's suffering children-The enemies of the faithSteady progress of the government from one tyranny to another-The commencement of emigration-The prohibitory decree-Persistence of the Huguenots —"Not principalities nor
powers can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus "-The rage of persecution-Malignity of the government,
priest-ridden and corrupt-P-lre la Chaise, the king's confessor-The incitement-A Jesuit's weapons-The congenial trinity-The dragonades-The army of soldiers, and the army of
priests-RIecommencement of emigration-Macauley's estimate
of Louis XIV. ---------------------------------------- 491
CHAPTER XXXV.
The "'booted missionaries" extend their efforts into all the IFuguenot provinces-Pellisson's fund-The lies of the Gazette-Exultation of the court-M-eeting of the Huguenot deputies at
Toulouse-The determination-R-age of the king-The flutter
in the courtier dove-cote-A leaf from Soulier-The testimony
of Rulhiere-The alternatives-The demoralization of FranceThe greed for proselytes-Louvois' letter-Noailes' announcement —Revocation of the edict of Nantes-The lying preamble - Feature of the revocation-Its, effect-The enforcement
of the decree- Letellier's N~unc dimittis-Grammont's witticism —The Huguenot pastors -Claude-Conduct of the Huguenots -Instances of devotion-The heroism of despair-The
flood-tide of emigration-Frightful depopulation of the king.
dom —The victims-What it cost to suppress the truth in
France-Atrocious punishments-Mioral results of the proscription-The economic aspect-The compensation ---------- 503
CHAPTER XXXVI.
The number of Huguenots who remained in France after the revo.
cation —Their faithfulness-The liberalization of public opinion-The law unchanged-The Camisard war —A wholesale
massacre-The reign of Louis XV.-Increasing humanity of
the bar-Judges obey justice in disobeying the law-The rise
of infidelity-Coldness of the philosophical school towards the
oppressed Huguenots-No points of resemblance between bas.




20                   CONTENTS.
tard philosophy and Christianity-The synod at Nismes-The
yoke grows lighter-The edict of toleration-The four things
which it granted-Jubilee of the congregations of the wilderness-The yawning abyss of the Revolution-The "Goddess
of Reason "-The necessity of religious faith-Napoleon's usurpation-The empire decrees limited toleration-Toleration under the restoration-Under the second empire-Present condition of French Protestantism-Refiections -- 517




PREFACE.
THERE is no page of history which is at once so
fascinating in the dramatic interest of its scenes,
and so momentous as that which records the story
of the Huguenots-none more worthy of the careful
study of thoughtful men. Whether judged by its
motive, its influence, or its episodes, it is equally
grand. Sublimer than any epic, it depicts a struggle to renovate the individual, the church, and society at large.
Isolated phases of the history of the Huguenots
have been often and vividly portrayed in our English letters: poets have celebrated many thrilling
episodes; romancists have given full play to the
imagination; biographers have recited the lives of
many illustrious men; historians have dwelt upon
numerous stirring scenes: but these are the mosaics
of history-broken voices, telling half the tale.
Nearly all of the English histories which bear
upon this subject, deal with particular periods-with
the epoch of the Yaudois, with the age of Calvin,
with the era of Coligny, with the times of IHenri
Quatre, and with collateral reformatory movements.
This volume covers five of the most eventful centuries since Christ: it traces the story up through the




22               PREFACE.
ages from the first murmur of dissent from uRome to
the revocation of the edict of Nantes; and the sketch
of the Vaudois, those early but much neglected
teachers, is especially full. The story of the sixteenth century, distinctively the era of the Reformation, is not as minute in this volume as in some
others, but an effort has been made to give an authoritative and succinct detail of all essential incidents.
The materials for the compilation of such a work
are vast, but ill-digested; to collect and glean them
has been no slight task.  Most of the standard
authorities have been consulted, and in addition to
these, a thousand pages of subsidiary matter, personal narratives, diaries, memoirs, from the graphic
pens of contemporaneous actors in the drama, have
been liberally used. It is not necessary to recapitulate their titles, these will be found scattered through
the body of the book; and numerous notes have
been added, where they seemed likely to enhance
the interest or to elucidate the text.
The series of which this volume is one has not
been written for the instruction of mere scholars;
no effort is umade to pour light culled from pedantic
lore upon mooted and nice points of history; they
are plain tales of momentous eras.  They are
sketched for the edification of the masses; written
with attempted care and accuracy, but compiled
from every available and authoritative source, and
with no especial claim to originality. Whatever
seemed vivid and important and interesting, wile re



PREFACE.                  23
ever it rested, has been seized andc grouped into
this picture of " times that tried men's souls."
Of course a volume which covers so broad a
field must be, in some sense, a summary of events,
and the problem which the historian has to solve is
this: How shall an epitome be made graphic, be
vivified, be made to speak- to tell its own story?
How shall this summary be made to reflect an accurate likeness of the past, and appear not to be a
summary?  "The reproduction of contemporary
documents," remarks a writer whose pages have become classic, "is not the only business of the historian. He must do more than exhume from the
sepulchre in which they are sleeping, the relics of
men and things of times past, that he may exhibit
them in the light of day. Men value highly such a
work, and those who perform it, for it is a necessary one; yet it is not sufficient. Dry bones do not
faithfully represent the men of other days. They
did not live as skeletons, but as beings full of life
and activity. The historian is not simply a resurrectionist; he needs-strange but necessary ambition-a power that can restore the dead to life.
"When a historian comes across a speech of
one of the actors in the great drama of human affairs, he ought to lay hold of it as a pearl; he
should weave it into his tapestry in order to relieve
the duller colors, and give more solidity and brilliancy.  Whether the speech be met with in the
wMritings of the actor himself, or in those of the
chroniclers, is a matter of no importance; he should




24                PREFACE.
take it wherever he finds it. The history which exlibits men thinking, feeling, and acting as they did
in their lifetime, is of far higher value than those
purely intellectual compositions in which the actors
are deprived of speech and even of life."
It is a favorite sophism of the Romanist philosophers, that Protestantism is a mushroom growthan upstart of yesterday, without antiquity or patristical authority. But epigrammatic sneers do not
overthrow  plain historic facts.  The lineage of
Christian dissent from the tenets of the papacy is
as venerable and as well ascertained as that of the
Roman hierarchy. This antique dissent is essentially that form of belief which is now denominated
Protestantism.
"Nothing," says Brook, "has so much obstructed the progress of Christianity in the world as
the absurd and selfish doctrines, the superstitious
and slavish practices, which have been blended with
it by the wicked wit of man. As the religion of
Jesus Christ was for nzany centuries almost buried
under so great a mass of rubbish that it could
scarcely be distinguished from the foulest paganism; so to free Christianity from these heterogeneous mixtures, and to fix it on its only foundation-faith in Christ-unclouded and unencumberedl
by human appendages, is the noblest work of man,
and the greatest benefit to society."
This was the effort of the Huguenots. They
found the Bible silent, covered with the dust of
ancient libraries, in some places secured by an iron




PR~EFACE.                   25
chain.-a sad image of the interdict under which it
was placed in the Christian world.  The Reformation was an enfranchisement; these words of Chl:ist
were its motto: " THE TRUTH SHALL I&AKE YOU FREE."
One of the chief lessons of the history of the
HIuguenots, is the sinfulness and the uselessness of
persecution for religious opinion. It inculcates with
persuasive eloquence the sacredness of conscience;
it is at once an inspiration and an admonition; descanting upon the virtuous actions of the heroes of
the past who fought the "good fight " for God and
liberty, it repeats the scriptural command, "Go
thou and do likewise;" depicting the vicious diplomacy of the Vatican, whose motto was then, as it
is now, " The end justifies the means," and that other
twin imaxim, that " no faith is to be kcept with heretics,"
it warns the present and the future to shun the vices
of Babylonish Rome; as Seneca has hymned it:
"Consulere patrite; parcere afflictis; ferA
CGede abstinere; tempus atque irse dare;
Orbi quietem; sseculo pacem sue:
HMec summa virtus; petitur hte ccelum via."
Liberty of thought, liberty of faith, liberty of
worship-this was the aspiration of the Huguenots.
It is singular what an inevitable tendency there
was in the movement towards republicanism-as
if the democracy of Christianity necessitated the
democracy of politics. But the Christ they taught
was not simply the apostle of political liberty.
"The greatest and imost dangerous of despotisms,"
says D'Aubign6, "is that beneath which the de1ugunenote.            2




26               PREFACE.
praved inclination of human nature, the deadly in.
fluence of the world, sin, miserably subjects the
human conscience. In order to become free outwardly, men must first succeed in being free inwardly. In the human heart there is a vast country
to be delivered from slavery-abysses which man
cannot cross alone, heights which he cannot climb
unaided, fortresses he cannot take, armies he cannot put to flight. In order to conquer in this
moral battle, man must unite with One stronger than
himself —the Son of God."




THE HIUGUENOTS.
CHAP TER I.
THE VAUD OIS.
THE venerable muse of history recites many
lessons which are full of tears, but upon no occasion does her voice sink into deeper pathos than
when she relates the story of French Protestantism.
From its inception in the grey dawn of the Christian era, down through the dismal centuries to the
crowning disaster of the revocation of the edict of
Nantes, it is one prolonged tragedy. The night of
persecution is only illuminated by the marvellous
constancy, the patient meekness, the Christian heroism, and the deep devotion of these earliest Protestants, who were called the YAUDOIS at the outset,
and afterwards the HUGUENOTS.
God seems to have designed their moving story
to be the convincing proof not only of the vitality of
Christianity, but also of the woful cost at which it
has been planted and preserved. Such a consideration adds new grandeur to a chapter of history
which is indeed intrinsically momentous, and makes
it still more worthy of the attentive study of thoughtful minds.




28           THiE IHUGUENOTS.
History attests that the sixteenth century was
the epoch of the Reformation. But revolutions are
not made-they grow. "First the blade, then the
ear, then the full corn in the ear."*  The Reformation had its forerunner in the wilderness-its John
the Baptist. It is not an isolated fact, a picture
standing out upon the historic canvas without a
background. There were preceding intellectual
insurrections, which, however unhappy in their separate denouement, yet led inevitably to that triumphant movement which finally, by the aid of Faust's
type and Luther's luminous eloquence, enfranchised
Christendom.
Anterior to Luther, anterior to that Bradclwardine who, in the cloister of the Oxford University,
taught Wickliffe ethics,t apostles were found wvho
held tenaciously, and who zealously inculcated,
both by their precepts and by their blameless lives,
the essential tenets of the Reformation. And though
the feudal system, which banished uniformity of
laws and customs, and made each petty lord a despot in his own pocket-handkerchief territory, the
obstacles to free intercourse between the nations,
the prevailing ignorance, the absence of those
mighty magicians, steam  and the printing-press,
which have conjured modern civilization into existence, and above all, the fanaticism of a priestly oligarchy, united their powerful hands to throttle the
infant reform of these early teachers, we ought not
* St. Mark 4:28.
t D'Aubigne's Hist. of Ref. in Eng., p. 84.




THE VAUDOIS.                    29
for these reasons to withhold our grateful recognition of their faithful service and martyrdom; nor
ought we to remain in ignorance of the momentous
influence which these voices, raised in the dim twilight of Christianity, exerted upon mediaeval life
and thought, long before Europe was animated by
a murmur from  the grave of Wickliffe, from  the
ashes of Huss, or from the vigils of Calvin.
In the fourth century,* after enduring a persecution of remorseless severity with that patient,
unfaltering heroism which is one of its most marked
characteristics, Christianity, in the person of that
Constantine who fought under the " flaming cross"
which his heated imagination had descried in the
heavens beneath the sun, with the inscription, " In
hoc signo vinces "-By this sign thou shalt conquer --
ascended the Roman throne, and thenceforward, covered by the imperial purple, secured protection and
controlled the government; so that the successive
bishops of that feeble church which St. Paul had
planted under the shadow of the throne of the Cesars, gradually arrogated to themselves the supreme
authority both in spiritual and in temporal affairs.
Under Constantine, and indeed so late as Charlemagne, these bishops or popes were elected by the
priests, nobles, and people of Rome, and this election
could be voided by the veto of the emperor.j  But
* Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. XX.
Mosheim's Eccl. Hist., (Murdock's translation,) etc.
+ Eusebins' "ita Constantini," Lib. L., chap. XXVIII. Waddington's Hist. of the Chh., Pt. II., p. 82. Gibbon, chap. XX.
W Vaddington's Hist. of the Chh., p. 205.




30            THE HUGUENOTS.
the death of Charlemagne was the signal for the
most determined and unscrupulous effort on the
part of the Roman bishops, not only to free themselves from the imperial trammels by securing the
independence of papal election, but also to usurp
dominion over the Western empire, and to subdue
to unquestioning vassalage the entire. ecclesiastical,
and lay bodies.*  Unhappily this utter departure
from the primitive simplicity and humility was acquiesced in very generally, until, under Hildebrand
in the eleventh century, the stupendous structure
of the papal despotism gloomed upon the misty
horizon, awful and irresistible.
Then for five centuries the most atrocious vices,
the most unchecked wickedness, the most unbridled
sacerdotal ambition, and the most meaningless ceremonies corrupted and disgraced religion. It was
the saturnalia of the church. Nominal Christianity ruled Europe and some portions of the African
territory which fringed the Mediterranean sea, but
vital piety lay torpid; stat nzominis umbra. A priestcaste anchored itself in the prejudices and superstitions of the people; an oligarchy was built up, whose
right hand was usurped authority linked with spiritual pride, and whose left hand was dogmatism
and bigotry fiercer than the pagan.
Then a few true hearts revolted;t they yearned
to reinaugurate the primitive practice of apostolic
days, and this was the first dissent. But from the
* Waddington's Ch. Hist., Pt. III., p. 205.
t Bossuet's Eistoire des Variations&




THE VAUJDOIS.                   31
germ of that feeble protest has grown the full flower
of modern civilization and Christianity.
It was not until the eleventh century that Rome
fully awoke to the danger which menaced her unity
from the new "heresy,"* though from the fourth
century she had persecuted those isolated individuals who, through rashness or regardless zeal, had
overstepped that prudence which necessitated secrecy, and ventured openly to proclaim the apostolic
tenets.t: But now acting with her accustomed energy, and greatly startled by the spread of the dissent, and by the increasing boldness of its advocates, she summoned those mailed crusaders whom
she had just hurled upon the Saracen, and bade
them tread out the reform under their iron heels.
The whole south of Europe was more or less
infected with the dissenting tenets, but their chief
seat was in Southern France, that beautiful country
which extends around the mouth of the lRhone, and
stretches westward to the city of Toulouse, and
southward to the Pyrenees-a territory which comprised the old governments of Avignon, Provence,
and Languedoc.":
Christian liberty is indebted to a sect of eastern
extraction, called, from their professed imitation of
St. Paul, the Paulicians,~ for the impulse given in
these early centuries to religious inquiry. By the
la Introduc. to the Eng. trans. of Sismondi's list. of the Crusades against the Albigenses, p. 1.       t Ibid.
I Bossuet's Histoire des Variations, Liv. IX.
~ Sismondi's Hist. of the Crus. against the Albig., p. 23. Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the R. Empire, Chap. LIV.




32              THE IHUGUENOTS.
various chances of war, of trade, of persecution, and
of missionary enterprise-for they were indefatigable proselyters-the Paulicians spread from  their
Asiatic cradle throughout Southern Europe with
singular rapidity; and the suddenness with which
they sprang into existence, their simultaneous appearance  in  widely  separated  sections, and  the
secrecy with which they taught, gave them  an imposing air of mystery, while it magnified their power
and resources in the popular estimation.
Though the Paulicians were certainly, notwithstanding  their vehement  disclaimers, somewhat
tainted with the Manichean* errors, and with the
principles of Gnosticism,t and though  they held
0 The MANIGHEES were an ancient Persian sect who held to
the tenets of Zoroaster, a man of whom little is known ontside of
his theological code, whose age is problematical, though he flourished many centuries before the Christian era, and whose history
is shrouded in the most misty tradition. The leading idea of his
creed was, that the world derived its present form from two primary principles, the one good, the other evil. The former was
described as the parent of light, and of our rational nature; the
latter as the parent of darkness, and of the material system. These
rival powers were viewed as not only the creators, but the governors of this mixed order of affairs. Hence the perpetual conflict
between good and evil in the natural and moral worlds. But
above these two powers sat enthroned a supreme deity, Mithra,
whose emblem was the sun, or in its absence the sacred fire which
was never extinguished. The heavenly bodies, matter, the souls
of men-all things were possessed of a species of intelligence, and
were happy in proportion to their closeness to Mithra, who was
evarntually to refine and restore all intelligences to the great source
from which they were said to have proceeded.  See Vaughan's
"Causes of the Corruption of Christianity," Lec. V., p. 170.
t The extravagant theory which, in the age of the apostles or
soon afterwards, became known under the designation of GNos



THE VAUDOIS.                         33
some doctrines which could not but render them
odious to the apostolic church: as that all matter
was intrinsically depraved and the source of moral
evil; that the universe was shaped from chaos by a
secondary being, by whom  the Mosaic dispensation
was given, and by whom  the Old Testament was
inspired; and that the body in which Christ appeared upon earth, and his crucifixion, were apparent, not real;* yet they had not been debauched by
the enormous corruptions of the Roman see, and
they abhorred and incessantly inveighed against thile
worship of saints, the use of images, relics, pompous ceremonies, and ecclesiastical domination.t
In different countries the Paulicians twere known
by different names. When they crossed the channel
TICISr._, and which played an important part in the early history
of Christianity, was derived in part from the cabalistic dogmas of
the Alexandrian Jews, in part from the leadcing doctrines of Platonism, butt still more from the Oriental or Manichean theology.
G.NosTIcISM is chiefly distinguished from the Oriental doctrines
by its adoption of the fanciful conceits of Plato, by its more visionary details with regard to celestial bodies, and by its admission of
many of the gospel articles of belief. The " Christian Gnostics,"
as they were called, not only held to the two principles of good
and evil described by Zoroaster, but they thought that Mithra, or
Bythus, the supreme deity, had dispatched Christ to the earth as
his instrument, that he might remedy the evil inflicted on the
souls of men by Deminrgos, the former of the material world, and
deliver mankind from their connection with matter, while at the
same time he procured for them the gift of perfection in divine
knowledge.. From the assumption that the path in which they
trod could alone lead to this valuable possession, these errorists
were named Gnostics, which signifies the cknowing, the enlightenaL
See Vaughan, Lecture V., p. 204.
C Intro. to Eng. trans. of Sismondi.
t Mlatter's "Histoire du- Gnosticisme."
2"




34            THE HUGUENOTS.
into Englancl they were called Publicans, a probable,corruption of the original designation. In
Germany they were termed, from the blamelessness
of their lives, Cathari, or the Pure.  In France they
were named Bos Homos, good men; while in Italy,
and on the Alpine frontier, they were styled Paterins.*
The mission of the Paulicians appears to have
been to awaken a spirit of inquiry, to accustom men
to hear the haughty and fraudulent pretensions of
the Roman diocese denied, and thus to prepare the
way for a higher and holier ecclesiastical development.  Meantime upon these bold dissenters was
launched the awful malediction of the church of
Rome. Nor did that merciless hierarchy content
itself with simply placing them under the ban; it
used every weapon which wit could suggest or
which a Satanic ingenuity could devise to exterminate the heresy.
While the din of this ecclesiastical strife still
resounded throughout Europe, in the middle of the
twelfth century a sect which wrapped itself in the
apostolic mantle, which carried in its hand the
primitive taper, and which is venerated by the later
Protestants, and respected even by the Romanists,
reared its head and began to teach with authoritative mildness.  The Vaudois't commenced to prop.
* Gibbon, chap. 54.
t Authorities differ concerning the origin of the names Vaudois, TcTaldenses, and Albigenses, for by afll three of them were
these reformers indiscriminately called. Perhaps the most com.
petent writers have decided that Vaudois was derived from those




THE VAUDOIS.                      385
agate their tenets in the territories of the Aragones3
and in Southern France.?
Standing midway between two mighty revolutions, the epoch of the Vaudois stretches forth a
hand to both. It leans upon the period of the
establishment of Christianity as its precursor, and
brings forward the Reformation of the sixteenth
century as its direct descendant.  What then were
its salient characteristics?  Of what a warp and
what a woof was the garment of its Christianrity
woven?
Piedmontese valleys whence the sect received their creed, and
which were called in the Piedmontese patois, Vaux; that TValdense is a derivitive of Waldo, the name of a famous teacher among
the Vaudois; and that Albigense is derived from the ancient duchy
of Alby, where large nimmbers of the Vaudois resided. See Venema, Sismondi, and others.
* Bossuet, Hist. des VYaiations.




36           THE HUGUENOTS.
CHAPTER II.
THE PRO VEN9ALS.
FIRANCE during the feudal period did not form a
nnited monarchy. It was ruled by four independent kings; so that the north of France was Walloon, a name afterwards confined to the French
Flemings, and which was then given to the language
spoken by Philip Augustus; towards the west was
an English France; to the east a German France;
and in the south a Spanish or Aragonese France.*
Spain also was somewhat similarly divided.
The MIoors, an exotic race, held most of the peninsula; Castile and Aragon were still separate ancl
often inimical kingdloms.t'  Although Catalonia,
Provence, and Languedoc had originally formed
portions of the swollen and clumsy empire of Charlemagne, yet when, no longer shaped by his plastic
hand, the heterogeneous mass crumbled to pieces,
these territories more or less completely allied
themselves to the Aragonese throne; so that it was
with difficulty that even the powerful Count of Touloase, the hereditary lord of Provence and of Forcalquier, surrounded as he was by a brilliant retinue
of vassals and loyal states, could maintain his independence of the Spanish king.$
* Sismondi, Histoire des Frangais, p. 28.
it Prescott, Ferdinand and Isabella, Vol. I., passim.
4 Sismondi, Hist. des Franeais, p. 30.




THE PROVEN9ALS.                    37
These territories were then the garden of the
world, bright and sunny as that Goshen of old.*
They were the home of the exiled arts, of poetry, of
painting, of music, of sculpture.  The Proven~al
slopes bore up an industrious and intellectual race,
who, more familiar with the Greek text than with
the Greek phalanx, abjured war, garnered wealth in
commerce, and found culture in study.  The whole
Pyrenean country offered the strongest contrast to
the rest of Europe, which was wrapped in a darkness
to be felt and seen, like that of Egypt.
During the feudal ages, the whole intellectual
horizon of northern Europe was singularly clouded.
Poetry was unknown.  [Philosophy was proscribed,
as a rebellion against religion.  A barbarous jargon
of provincial dialects had supplanted that sounding
Latin which had preserved so many trophies of
thought and taste.  Commerce was unknown. A
library of a  hundred  manuscript volumes was
esteemed a magnificent endowment for the wealthiest monastery. " Not a priest south of the Thames,"
in king Alfred's phrase, " could translate Latin or
Greek into his mother-tongue."t  Not a philosopher could be met with in Italy, according to Tiriboschi.  Europe was
"rent asunder —
The rich men despots, and the poor banditti;
Sloth in the mart, and schism within the temple;
Brawls festering to rebellion; and weak laws
Rotting away with rust in antique sheaths."I
*-Genesis, chaps. 45 —47, passim.
t H1allam, Hist. of the Middle Ages.
t Bulwer Lytton's "itichelien."




38             THE HUGUENOTS.
fButt these dismal shadows grow  fainter and
fainter as we advance towards the south, until, in
Lang-uedoc, in Provence, in Catalonia, the twilight
reddened and broadened into day.  "Knowledge,"
saidt Lord Bacon, " is spread over the surface of a
country in proportion to the facilities of education,
to the free circulation of books, to the endowments
and distinctions which  literary  attainments are
found to produce, and above all, to the reward which
they meet in the general respect and approbation
of society."*  The Proven~als understood this law
which the great Englishman so finely states.  The
corner-stone of their prosperity was laid in fostered
letters.  "From  Ganges to the Icebergs" there
could be found no more civilized society.
"The arts
Quit for their schools, the old Hesperides,
The golden Italy! while throughout the veins
Of their whole empire flowed in strengthening tides
Trade, the calm health of nations; and from the ashes
Of the old feudal and decrepit carcass,
Civilization, on her luminous wings,
Soared, phcenix-like, to heaven."t
This singular people had elaborated a language
of remarkable beauty from  the old French patois.
It was distinguished from. all the medieval dialects
by its rich vocabulary, its picturesque phrases, andl
its flexibility.j
The Provengal tongue, studied by all the genius
of the age, consecrated to the innumneratle songs
* Bacon's Advancement of Learning.
t Bulwer Lytton's "rlichelieu.": Sisre, Hist. des Franqais, p. 30.




THE PROVENC(ALS.               89
of love and war, and to the stirring psalms of praise,
appeared certain to become the most elegant of
modern languages.
The various courts of the smaller princes among
whom these arcadian provinces were divided, aspired to be models of taste, politeness, and purity.
Like all commercial communities, the Provengals
were more addicted to the arts of peace than to the
stern science of war. Their cities were numerous
and flourishing, their governments were framed on
the ancient democratic models, and consuls, chosen
by a popular vote, possessed the privilege of forming communes, as did those Italian republics, Venice, Genoa, Florence, with which they traded.*
To the south of the Provencals lay the dominions
of the Spanish Moors, a remarkably refined and
civilized people. They were already masters of a
great portion of the east, of the country of the
Magi and the Chaldeans, whence the first light of
knowledge had shomie upon the world; of that fertile Egypt, the storehouse of human science; of
Asia Minor, the smiling land where poetry and the
fine arts had their birth; and of burning Africa,
the country of impetuous eloquence and subtle intellect. Yet, pushed by a territorial greed which
knows no parallel, the Moriscoes had recently, by
a series of victories as brilliant as the Arabian conquests of Syria and Egypt, added the Spanish. peninsula to their enormous eastern domain. They
had even attempted to carry the fiery creed of their
* Sism. Hist. des Fransais, p. 31.




40           THE HUGUENOTS.
prophet from the Levant by way of the Danube to
the Arctic ocean Upon one side, and from the rock
of Gibraltar to the English channel upon the other.
Confined, however, within the limits of the Pyrenees by the prowess of Charles Martel at Tours, the
Mloors gave up the ]Mahommedan principle of conquest, and sought, by planting numerous schools
and by patronizing learning, to conquer Europe by
the Oriental philosophy, if they could not by Mahomet's sword; at the same time, by an admirable
code of liberal laws, they strove to establish a peaceful and permanent dominion in the Spanish peninsula.*
An active and profitable commercial intercourse
with these polished infidels, and also with the Jews,
had enlarged the capacity of the Provenals, and
convinced them of the folly of the prevalent bigotry. Thus their land became the asylum of all
dissenters from Ronme. They respected the sacred
rights of conscience at a time when the peoples to
the north of the Loire not only rattled their secular
chains, but when they lay lassoed at the feet of their
priests, under the complete dominion of fanaticism.
At this period, the Spaniards also, afterwards
the most bigoted of modern races, the unhesitating
)butchers of the Inquisition, the volunteer executers
of the wildest caprices of the papacy, emulated the
toleration of their Provengal cousins, for they still
remembered the time when they had themselves
been compelled to sue for religious freedom under
- Prebcott's Ferdinand and Isabella, Vol. I,, passim.




THE PROVEN9ALS.                 41
the Moorish yoke. Indeed, a century before the
Sicilian Vespers, the kings of Aragon were the declared protectors of all who were persecuted by tile
papal despotism. In imitation of the Castilian sovereigns, they were upon one occasion the mediators
for the Vaudois at the court of Rome, and upon
another, their mailed defenders in the field.*
Even before the first mutter of the Vaudois dissent, the arrogant pretensions of the papal see had
not imposed upon the enlightened Provencals, who
despised the licentiousness of the priesthood, the
credulity of the Romish believers, and the pompous
ceremonies of the church.t
The Troubadours, as those minstrel-poets were
called who were formed in the Moorish schools of
Grenada, Cordova, and Seville, and who went from
castle to castle keeping aglow the embers of literature by reciting their tales and chanting their madrigals, had very early launched their satirical verses
at the abuses of the papacy.
One of the most celebrated of the troubadours,
Pierre Cardinal, who sang in the twelfth century,
levelled this sirvente-t at the Roman vices:
"Indulgences and pardons, God and the devil,
the priests put them all in requisition. Upon these
they bestow paradise by their pardons; upon those,
perdition by their excommunications. They inflict
blows which cannot be parried. ]No one is so skil-' Sism., Literature'of the South of Europe, Vol. I., p. 115.
f Lampe, Eccles. Hist.
S Sirvente is the provemnal French for the English word, satire




42            THE HUGUENOTS.
ful in imposition, that they cannot impose upon
him. There are no crimes for which the monks
cannot give absolution. To live at ease, to buy the
whitest bread, the best fish, the finest wine-this is
their object the whole year round.  God willing, I
too would be of this same order, if I but thought
that I could purchase my salvation at that price."*
It will be seen from this recital how well the
Catalonians and the Provengals were prepared by
their simplicity of manners, by their tolerant principles, by their studious habits, by their active intelligence, by their commercial customs, and by their
preexisting prejudice against the lRoman usurpations, for the reception of that mild and primitive
Christianity which was about to flood their valleys
with its light.
Towards the middle of the fourth century, while
the newly converted emperor, Constantine, was inscribing the bastard legends of a paganized Christianity upon those banners which had before been
surmounted by the hungry eagles of the early empire, and cementing the foundations of the papacy,
a few sincere Italian ecclesiastics of Milan, dissatisfied with the increasing corruptions of the grandly
simple faith which they so dearly loved, withdrew
from Italy, and erected their Ebenezer in the beautiful, secluded, and labyrinthine valleys of Piedmont.t
* Sism., Literature of Southern Europe, Vol. I., p. 103.
t D. Vaissete, Hist. de Languedoc, Vol. III., p. 129. Browning, Hist. of the Huguenots, p. 14. Huguenots in France and
America, Intro. chap., p. 18.




THE PROVEN9ALS.                  43
Here, kneeling at their primitive altars, and shut
out as well from the temptations of the world as
from  its honors, the simple invocation, "Our Father, who art in heaven," diffused light, liberty, and
happiness around them, as it did around those first
Christians, who were ever found, in mountain desert and in the open air, in dungeons and in fetters,
yes, even in the awful Golgotha of the catacombs,
with the same sublime prayer upon their lips.
Though these inoffensive pilgrims were taunted by
their enemies with the epithet, lianicheans, yet it
has been conclusively shown, by unimpeachable
historians, that their confession of faith, like that
of their disciples, the Vaudois, was pure Protestantism, and would have obtained the approbation of
Calvin or of Beza.*
In 1124, three men, whose names ecclesiastical
history loves to take upon its lips, Peter of Bruys,
Henry, and Arnold of Brescia, and who are doubly
dear on account of the martyrdom which they suffered for their sacred cause, lighted their torches
at the pure altar of the Piedmontese, and carried
the light of reformation from those obscure vales
into the Provencal territories.t
The first discovery of a congregation of this
kind was at Orleans, in France, where several of
the regular clergy, and numbers of the most re* Browning, Hist. of the Huguenots, p. 14. Lampe, -Iist.
Eccl., p. 246-249.
t D. Vaissette, list. de IXanguedoc, Vol. II., p. 98. tHuguo
nots in France and America, Intro. chap., p. 18.




44            TTHE HUGUENOTS.
spectable citizens were open adherents of the Piedmontese tenets.*  A council was immediately convened, which, after laboring in vain to reclaim the
"Protestants," had recourse to the final argument
of the:Roman church, and burned them  all at the
stake.t
Some time after this event, the conversion of
Peter TWaldo, one of the finest names in history,
and the chief promoter of the Vaudois, as tho dissenters were now called,$ occurred.
This medimeval teacher was, in 1150, a wealthy
citizen-merchllant of Lyons.~  Amid the toils and
bustle of mercantile life, he had found leisure to
study the betles-lettres of the epoch; he had also
looked into the Scriptures.
Wfhile engaged in consultation with several other of the principal citizens, Waldo beheld one of
the group stricken with sudden death. This occurrence is said to have so impressed him with a sense
of human- frailty and of the divine wrath, that he
renounced all worldly pursuits, and ever after devoted his immense riches, as well as his rare eloquence, to the promulgation of the gospel.11
He began with his own family; ltnd then, as his
fame spread, he admitted to his hearthstone and
instruction a few others, until, by the year 1165, he
* Sismoncli, Hist. des Frangais. Mosheim, Ins. of Eccl. Hist.
WVaddington's Hist. of the Church.
t Intro. to Eng. trans. of Sism. I-st. of the Albigenses, p. 23.
$ Chap. I., p. 32.
~ D. Yaissette, Hist. Languedoc, Vol. II., p. 54.
11 Venema, Eccl. Hist., t. VI., p. 115, 116.




THE PROVENCALS.                 45
had quitted his elegant home, and fully embarked
upon an active apostolic career.*
The Roman clergy, not only of Lyons, but of
the whole neighborhood, set themselves to choke
aWaldo's expositions of primitive Christianity, and
they even opposed and prohibited his domestic instructions, but without avail; for the resolute reformer was led, by the obstacles which priestly
malice threw in his path, to examine the more diligently into the opinions of the clergy, into the
rites and customs of the papal regime; and then,
since in his case as in that of the latter reformers
examination meant emancipation from the thraldom of Rome, to oppose their antichristian usurpations the more decidedly.
That Peter Waldo was not destitute of erudition, Flacius Illyricus proves from evidence derived
from  the ancient writings; t and perceiving,  as
Wickliffe did in England not many years later, and
as Luther did four centuries afterwards, that since
the luminous tenets of his dissent from Rome were
based upon the Scriptures, it was momentously
important to unlock the treasure-house of biblical
knowledge to the comprehension of the proveneal
people, and to prove his doctrine from the inspirecl
pages, he translated the Latin Bible into the vernacular language of Gaul..:
The irreconcilable difference between primitive
Christianity, with its later manifestations, called
* Venema, Eccl. Hist., t. VI., pp. 115, 116.
t Ibid., p. 115.                        Ibid.




46           THE HUGUENOTS.
Protestantism, and the Roman heresy-for Rome
is indeed the crowned and ermined heresiarch of
the ages-is in no one instance more grandly shown
than in the treatment of the Bible by the respective advocates of the two systems. The priests, like
the juggling augurs of pagan Rome, and like their
prototypes, the mutterers of the heathen legends of
Egyptian Isis and Osiris, made a mystery of their
religion, carefully concealed the sources of their
divinity, padlocked that Bible which the apostle
commanded mankind to search," and then, having
hidden the evidences of their faith, preached a bastard Christianity of forms, of images, and of human
merit and omnipotence.
Protestantism, on the contrary, has nothing to
hide; believes in the popularization of knowledge;
is democratic in its creed; knows no caste; asks
nothing but, with the ancient cynic, that inimical
systems "get out of its sunlight;" makes no secret
of its tenets; proclaims the worthlessness of human
merit; preaches the sole reliance of the human race,
"By one man's disobedience lost,"t
upon the gracious mercy of "Christ crucified" for
a "recovered paradise;" and teaches justification
by faith alone::t and since it culls these precious
truths from the sacred oracles, it marches down
through the centuries with faith aglow in its heart,
and an open Bible in its hands. This was why
* St. John 5:39.
t Milton's Paradise Regained, (Mitford's ed.,) p. 1.
St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, 3:28; Heb. 10:38.




THEE  PROVENCALS.                47
Luther in Germany, Wickliffe in England, and, earliest of all, Waldo of Languedoc, translated the
gospels into their respective mother-tongues.
It is interesting to notice how singularly this
venerable Taudois creed agrees with the essential
articles of that Protestantism which we of to-day
bury in our heart of hearts.
These were the chief articles of their faith, as
recited by competent historians, both friendly and
inimical:
I. The Vaudois held the holy Scriptures to be
the source of faith and religion, without regard to
the authority of the fathers or to tradition; and
though they principally used the New Testament,
yet, as Usher proves from Reinier and others, they
regarded the Old also as canonical scripture. From
their greater use of the New Testament, their adversaries charged them however with despising the
Old Testament.*
iI. They held the entire faith according to all
the articles of the apostles' creed.'t
III. They rejected all the external rites of the
dominant church, excepting baptism and the sacrament of the Lord's supper, as, for instance, temples, vestures, images, crosses, pilgrimages, the
religious worship of the holy relies, and the rest of
the Roman sacraments; these they considered as
Y Venerna, quoted in the Appen. of Sisrm. Hist. of Albig., Eng.
trans.
t Ibid. Perrin, b. I., chap. XII. Blair, Hist. Walder.s, vol
I., pp. 503, 505.




48             TITE IHUGUENOTS.
inventions of Satan and of the flesh, full of super.
stition.*
IV. They rejected the papal doctrine of purgatory, with masses, or prayers for the dead, acknowledging only two terminations of the earthly stateheaven and lhell.t
V. They admitted no indulgences nor confessions of sin, with any of their consequences, excepting mutual confessions of the faithful for instruction
and consolation.4
VI. They held the sacraments of baptism and of
the eucharist to be only symbols, denying the real
presence of Christ in the bread and wine, as we find
in the authoritative book of the sect concerning
antichrist, and as Ebrard de Betllhunia accuses them
in his book Antihzcresios.~
VII. They held only three ecclesiastical orders:
bishops, priests, and deacons; other systems they
esteemed mere human figments; that monasticism,
then in great vogue, was a putrid carcass, and vows
the invention of men; and that the marriage of the
clergy was lawful and necessary.l
VIII. Finally, they  denounced IRome as the
whore of Babylon, denied obedience to the papal
* Lampe, Iidst. Eccles., pp. 246-249.  t Venema.
$ Venema. This confession of faith is also borne out by a singular theological poem which was written in the early part of the
twelfth century, and'alled "The Noble Lesson." In this, not
only great purity of faith is claimed for the Vaudois, but great
antiquity, even an apostolic descent. Blair, vol. I., pp. 473, 484,
gives the poem entire.
~ Venema.                                11 Ibid.




THE PROVEN9ALS.                    49
domination, and vehemently repudiated the notions
that the pope had any authority over other churches, and that he had the power either of the civil or
the ecclesiastical sword.*
Such was the remarkably enlightened and pure
Protestantism  of these early teachers; such were
the tenets proclaimed by Waldo and the Yaudois,
in the middle of the twelfth century, upon the rich
provencal plains, and upon the listening and willing
slopes of the French and Spanish Pyrenees.
Is it strange that when an abused and neglected
populace, disgusted by the palpable avarice, despotism, and mummery of the Roman see, beheld
a brotherhood of Christians enthusiastic in their
religion, blameless in their lives,t humble in their
demeanor, honest in their dealings, and disclaiming all tyranny over the consciences of men, propagating  their tenets by the eloquence  of their
actions, many were won to embrace the salvation
so sweetly taught, and that all generous souls were
stirred at least to admire, if not to sympathize with
a religion dear to God, but which Rome's unhallowed bulls denominated "heresy?"
I;' Venema.'
t "That their morals were good, we have the unwilling testimony of Gretzer, a Jesuit, who laments that the regular clergy
should give such examples of pride, avarice, incontinence, anger,
envy, and drunkenness, because it made the Vaudois place more
faith in their heresiarchs, who gave them good examples of humility, charity, chastity, sobriety, peace, brotherly love, and other
virtues." Lampe, quoted in Browning's "History of the Huguenote," p. 14.
X u-g llcnots.         3




50          THE HEUGUENOTS
CHAPTER  III.
THIE PREACHING OF THE CRUSADE.
AT length Rome began to move. Innocent III.,
who in 1198 ascended the pontifical throne in the
vigor of his life, was the first who appeared to be
fully impressed with the importance of crushing
remorselessly that independent and inquiring spirit
which was rapidly assuming the character of a universal revolt from the Roman communion.
His predecessors, engaged in a tedious and perilous struggle with the secular power, with the two
gHenrys, and with Frederick Barbarossa, thought
their entire force not too great to defend them
against the emperors; and in those times they ha(d
themselves accepted the name of the paterizs, or
sufferers.*
But Innocent III., one of the haughtiest and
most flagitious of the pontiffs, whose genius aspired to govern the universe, was as incapable
of temporizing as he was of feeling pity. At the
same time that he destroyecl the political balance
of Italy and Germany; that he menaced by turns
the1 kings of Spain, France, and England; that he
affected the tone of a master to the sovereigns of
Bohemia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Norway, and Armenia; in a word, that he directed or repressed at his
* Si~n. Hist. des Francais p. 36.




PREACHING  OF THE CRIUSADE.   51
will the crusaders who were occupied in overturning the Greek empire, and in establishing the Latin
rule and the Roman theology at Constantinople —
Innocent III., as if he had no other occupation,
searched for, attacked, and punished all opinions
different from his own, all independence of mind,
every exercise of the faculty of thinking in the
august domain of religion.
Though it was in the countries where the provenial language was spoken, and especially in Languedoc, that the Yaundois reformation counted the
majority of its disciples, yet it had also spread into
other portions of Christendom, into Italy, into Flanders, into Germany, and into Spain.*
Innocent III., both from  character and policy,
judged that the church ought to keep no faith with
heretics.  He thought that if it did not ainihilate them, if it did not, in his phrase, " exterminate
the whole pestilential race," and strike Christendom with horror, their example would be speedily
followed, and that the fermentation of mind would
be productive of a consuming conflagration throughout the Roman world.
Instead therefore of making converts, he charged
his satellites to burn the chiefs of the Yaunlois, to:
disperse their flocks, to confiscate their property,
and to consign to perdition every soul who ventured
to think otherwise than as he directed.t
- Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, tom. II., liv. XXII., ch. CXXIV.,
p. 199. Hist. de Languedoc, liv. XXI., p. 130.
t Sism., Hist. des Fransais, p. 31.




52            THE   UIJGUENOTS.
At first the wily priest required those provinces
where the Reformation had made but small progress to set the example of persecution, thus feeling
his way gradually towards a vider cruelty. In this
way many leaders of the reformed church perished
in the flames at Nevers, in 1198, and in the succeeding years.*
Innocent next requested Otho IV., his imperial
puppet, who danced as his master pulled the strings,
to grant him  an edict for the destruction of the
Italian Vaudois, who were also called Gazacri.t
The Rolman vulture then paused a moment and
plumed his wings for a higher flight. Innocent determined that the lovely provenyal territory should
be delivered over in the midst of its growing prosperity to the fury of countless hordes of armed
fanatics, its cities razed, its population butchered,
its commerce destroyed, its arts thrown back into
barbarism, and its dialect degraded frora the rank
of a poetic language to the condition of a vulgar
jargon.$
There were a number of lords and high barons
in Southern France who had themselves adopted
the reformed opinions, and who, instead of persecuting, protected the Yaudois.  Others saw in them
only enlightened and industrious vassals, whom
they could not destroy without affecting prejudi" Hist. de Languedoc.
t Edictunm Ferrarim pronmulgatum, 1210; Apud Muratorii An.
tiq. Ital., dissert. LX., pp. 89, 90.
t Sism., li.st. of Crusades against the Albigenses, p. 31,




PREACHING OF THE CRUSADE.   63
cially their own revenues and military strength. But
when did Rome permit her cherished plans to be
baffled by the intervention of human rights or
weighty obstacles?   Innocent instantly armed a
present interest and a brutal avarice against the
calculating economy of the barons. He abandoned
to them the confiscated property of all heretics,
exhorting them to take possession of it, after banishing or murdering those whom  they had plundered.  At the same time this flagitious pontiff
anathematized all who refused to seize upon the
estates thus confiscated by his usurped power, and
placed their dominions under an interdict.*
In 1198, Innocent had dispatched two legates,
monks of Citeaux, brother Guy and brother Regnier,
into Languedoc, and the other heretical districts;
but rather, as it should seem, for the purpose of exploring and menacing than actually to commence
the contest.t  These legates were armed with full
power, and it was enjoined upon the faithful to
execute scrupulously their orders. Regnier having
fallen sick, Innocent joined with him Pierre de Castelnovo, whose zeal, more furious than that of any
of his predecessors, is worthy of those sentiments
which the very name of the Inquisition inspires.:
Presently afterwards a more numerous commnission, the advance of the martial array, invaded the
* Sism., Hist. of Crusades against the Albigenses, p. 38. Innocentii III. Epistol, lib. I., epist. 81, 82, etc.
t Wadclington, Hist. Chh., p. 292.
I Iiest. Gen. de Languecloc, IV., XXI., p. 131.




54            THE HUGUENOTS.
haunts of heresy, and brought the subtleties of the
schools to the support of intimidation.  This body
received great additional efficiency from the accession of a young Spanish monk named Dominic, the
founder of the most bigoted and servile of ecclesiastical orders, and who was afterwards canonized as
a reward for his diabolical cruelty in Ihe ensuing
Yaudois crusades.  These itinerant spiritual missionaries were generally known by the title of In
quisitors, a name not indeed honorable or innocent
even in its origin, but not then associated with
horror and infamy.*
These inquisitors were at the outset empowered
by the pope to discover, to convert, or to arraign
before the ecclesiastical courts all guilty or suspected of heresy. But this was the limit of their
commission.  They did not at first constitute an
independent, irresponsible tribunal, nor were they
clothed with any judicial power. The process was
still carried on according to the practice then prevailing, before the bishop of the diocese, and the
secular arm was invited when necessary to enforce
the sentence.t
But this form of procedure was not found to be
sufficiently rapid or arbitrary to satisfy the eagerness of the pope and his missionaries.  The work
of extirpation was sometimes retarded by the compunctions of a merciful prelate, sometimes by the
reluctance of the civil authorities to execute a baro Waddington, Iist. Chh., p. 292.
t Limboch, Hist. of the Inqlnisition, lib. I., Cap. XVI.




PREACHING OF THE CR-USADE.   55
barous or an unpopular sentence. In order to remove these impediments to the free course of destruction, there was no recourse but to institute in
the infected provinces, with the direct cooperation
of the ruling powers, a separate, independent tribunal for the trial of heresy.* This was rendered
more easy by the spread of the Franciscan and
Dominican orders. As they were the faithful, unquestioning myrmidons of the Roman see, more
devoted in their allegiance than either the secular
or the regular clergy, they were invested with the
separate jurisdiction.t
Such was the origin in the gloomy and heated
brain of a fanatic pope of that ghastly court of inquisition, whose mere remembrance causes civilization to shudder.
Innocent's Languedocian inquisitors speedily
offended all classes of society by their arrogance.
Some bishops they accused of simony, others of
negligence in the fulfilment of their duties. Under
such pretences they deposed the archbishop of Narbonne, and the bishops of Toulouse and Viviers.:
Indeed they branded most of the regular clergy as
heretics, and at the same time tormented the count
of Toulouse and all the lords of the country by aczusations continually renewed. Thus they deprived
themselves of the means of kindling so many fires
as they could have desired. However, to gain a
* Limboch, Hist. of the Inquisition.
t Waddington, list. Chh., p. 358.
$ Sism,. Hist. Albigenses, p. 41.




56           THE HUGUENOTS.
little popularity, they took the utmost pains to confound the heretics with the'outiers, or' hireling
soldiers, afterwards so celebrated throughout Europe as the "Free Lances."
The companies of these, generally composed in,
great measure of strangers, were still known in the
south by the name of Catalans, as they were in
the north by that of Brabavnons.* The routiers
were lawless banditti, who pillaged the churches
andc the priests for purposes of plunder, but having
no connection with the Vaudois, nor indeed taking
any interest in theological paradoxes and doctrinal
disputations. This ruse of the legates did not meet
with much success. The result was, that the Catalans also were offended at the denunciations levelled
at them, and in their turn they avenged themselves
by plundering the ecclesiastics with heartier zest.t
At the commencement of the thirteenth century,
Raymond YI., count of Toulouse, was the sovereign
of Languedoc and Provence, though his rule seems
to have been shared to some degree by his nephew
Raymond Roger, viscount of Alby, Beziers, Carcassonne, and Limoux, in IRasiz. Although Raymond of Toulouse, of whose history before the
crusade little is known, had won some fame as a
soldier, he was possessed of but little strength of
intellect or vigor of purpose. He had succeeded to
his father, Raymond V., in 1194, in the thirty-eighth
year of his age, and had already, at the head of the
* Sism., Hist. Albigenses.
t Hist. Gen. de Languedoc, LIV., LXXI., p. 138.




PREACHING OF THE CRUSADE.   57
routiers, of whom he had made himself captain,
made war upon many of his neighbors.*
He had disputed with some of the barons of
Baux, and with the lords of Languedoc and Provence, his own vassals. This was apparently the
reason why he had sought the alliance of Peter II.
of Aragon, while his ancestors had constantly endeavored to repress the encroaching ambition of
that house. Raymond VI. married his fourth wife,
Eleanor, sister of the Aragonese king, in the year
1]200; and five years later he promised his son,
afterwards Raymond VII., to Sancha, the infant
daughter of this same sovereign.'t
The Viscount of Alby, Count Raymond's nephew,
was made of sterner stuff. Now in his twenty-fifth
year, generous, lofty, and enthusiastic, this prince
was not of a temper to submit tamely to insult, nor
would he stand quietly by and see his states mercilessly harried. He had like his uncle succeeded,to
his father in 1194, and during his minority his dominions had been governed by guardians inclined
to the Vaudois doctrines.$
In the spring of 1207 these two princes were
upon the borders of the Rhone, busied in quelling
an insurrection of the barons of Baux, when the
papal legate, Pierre de Castelnovo, ordered them to
furl their banners and declare peace with the insurgents.
The legate had first visited the barons and ob..
* Sism., Hist. of the Albigenses, pp. 41, 42.
t Ibid., p. 43.                 X Ibid., p. 51.




58           TIHE HUGUENOTS.
tained from them a promise that, if Count Raymond
would acquiesce in their pretensions, they would
employ their:united forces in the extermination of
heresy-in Castelnovo's mind, "a consummation devoutly to be wished."  After agreeing with the in
upon the form of the treaty, the legate returned to
the count of Toulouse, and required him to sign it.*
But IRaymoncl was nowise inclined to purchase,
by the renunciation of his rights, the entrance into
his states of a hostile army who were to pillage and
kill those of his subjects whom the priests should
indicate.  IHe therefore refused his signature
Pierre de Castelnovo, in his wrath, excommunicated
him, laid his country under an interdict, and wrote
a hot letter to the pope, to obtain the pontifical
confirmation of his sentence.t
Audacious as was the conduct of his legate,
Innocent III. meant to uphold him. He sought for
an opportunity to commence hostilities.  He was
desirous to adjourn the contest from the arena of
argument, where his success was worse than dubious, to the arbitrament of arms. Tired of the subtleties of the schools, he invoked the subtleties of war.
He was persuaded that, after the progress which it
had made in public opinion, the heresy could only
be destroyed by the swords of his crusaders. Accordingly he made no effort to medicine the wound,
but, like a bungling surgeon, he applied an irritant.
a Petri Vallis Cernai, Hist. Albigens., cap. III., p. 559. Inno.
centii III., lib. X., ep. LXIX. Hist. de Languedoc, LTIV., XXI
ch. XXVII, p. 150.                       t Ibid.




PREACIIIN G OF THE CRUSADE.   59
On the 29th of Mfay, 1207, he wrote personally
to Count Raymond a letter confirming the interdiction, and beginning thus: "If we could open your
heart, we should find, and would point out to you,
the detestable abominations that you have committed; but as it is harder than the rock, it is in vain
tc strike it with the words of salvation; we cannot
penetrate it. Pestilential man, what pride has
seized your heart, and what is your folly, to refuse
peace with your neighbors, and to brave the divine
laws by protecting the enemies of the faith? If you
do not fear eternal flames, ought you not to dread
the temporal chastisements which you have merited
by your so many crimes?"*
So insulting a letter addressed to a sovereign
prince must have been revolting to his pride. Nevertheless, the monk Pierre de Vaux Cernai informs
us that "the wars which the barons of Baux, ancd
others of the faithful, carried on against him
through the industry of that man of God, Pierre de
Castelnovo, together with the excommunication
which he published in every place against the count,
compelled him, at last, to accept the original terms
of peace, and to engage himself by oath to their
observance; but as often as he swore to observe
them, so often he perjured himself."t
The legate soon judged that the count did not
proceed with adequate zeal. He sought Raymond,
* Innocentii III., lib. X., ep. LXIX. Hist. Gen. de Lang.,
LIV., XXI., ch. XXXIII., p. 150.
1 Petri Vallis Cernai, Hist. Albig., LIV., III., p. 159.




60           TIHE HUGUENOTS.
reproached him to his face with his tolerance, which
he termedl baseness, treated him as perjured, and
again let fall upon him the bolt of excommunication.
This violent scene occurred in January, 1208, at
St. Gilles, where Count R.aymond had granted De
Castelnovo an interview."
The count of Toulouse was naturally -very much
provoked at the insolence of this upstart churchman, an, and he uttered some vague threats. The legate,
disregarding his words, quitted the ProvenEal court
without a reconciliation, and came to sleep, on the
night of the 14th of January, 1208, in a little inn on
the banks of the tRhone, which river hle intended to
cross on the morrow.
Meantime one of the count's gentlemen chanced
to meet him there, or perhaps had followed him.
In the morning this gentleman entered into a dispute with Castelnovo respecting heresy and its punishment. The legate had never spared the most
insulting epithets to the advocates of toleration;
and at. length the noble, already heated by the
Roman's insolence to his sovereign, now feeling
himself personally insu!red, drew his poig'nard, and
striking Castelnovo in the side, killed him. t
This unhappy event furnished Innocent with the
desired pretext for instant war. Although  traymend YI. hlad by no means so direct a part in Castelnovo's death as Henry II. of England had in
Thomas a Becket's, his punishment was far more
* Sismondi, History of the Albigenses, p. 46.
t Ibid, p. 46.




PREACHING OF THE CRUSADE.   61
terrible; for Innocent III. was more haughty and
implacable than Alexander III.
Neither knowing nor desiring any better preachers of his creed than war, murder, fire, and incest,
the excited pontiff began to preach a crusade
against the Vaudois. In the commencement of
1208, Innocent addressed a bull to all the counts,
barons, knights, and yeomen of Southern Gaul,
in which he affirmed that it was Satan who had instigated his prime minister, Raymond of Toulouse,
against the sacred person of his legate. He laid
under an interdict all places which should afford a
refuge to the slayer of De Castelnovo; and demlanded that the count of Toulouse should be publicly
anathematized in all the churches.  This furious
bull closed with this remarkable declaration:
"As, following the canonical sanctions of the
holy fathers, we must not observe faith towards
those who do not keep faith towards God, ofr w7ho
acre sepcrated from the communion qf the.fait/ful, we
discharge, by apostolic authority, all those who believe themselves bound towards this count by any
oath either of alliance or of fidelity. We permit
any man to pursue his person, to occupy and to
retain his territories."~
From this it should seem that the famous Jesuit
phrase, "No faith is to be kept with heretics," though
often attributed, with similar enormities, to Ignatius
Loyola, is of far older origin. The fanatic Spaniard
* Petri Vallis Cernai, Cap. VIII., p. 564. Sism., Hist. Albig.,
pp. 46, 47.




62          THE HUGUENOTS.
merely stole the atrocious sentiment from the deeretals of Pope Innocent III., when he incorporated it
in the constitution of his protean propaganda.
Having now reduced these dissenting Christians
of Southern France to the same level, in a religious
estimation, with the Turk and the Saracen, Innocent
next let loose an infuriated multitude of fanatics
against them; and the word " crusade," which had
hitherto signified only religious madness, was extended to the more deliberate atrocity of sectarian
persecution.




THE "SACRED WAR."               63
CHAPTER IV.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE "SACRED WAR."
INNOCENT III. had in November, 1207, exhorted
Philip Augustus, the duke of Burgundy, the counts
of Bar, of Nevers, of Dreux, and others of the old
crusaders who had fleshed their swords on the
-plains of Palestine, and gathered barren laurels on
the Syrian shore, to marshal their hosts against the
Vaudois.'
But early in 12(8 the flames of his hatred were
fanned into increased fury by the bloody catastrophe of Castelnovo's death. The pontiff fulminated
a series of epistles from the Vatican, which summoned all the faithful to the holocaust in Languedoc.t
Galono, cardinal deacon of San _Maria dello
Portico, was dispatched into France by the crafty
pontiff with these letters. He did not receive much
consideration from Philip Augustus, who was now
more occupied by his rivalry with the English king
and with Otho of Germany than with obtaining the
barren honor of heading another crusade in a sacred
war.$: But notwithstanding the king's polite indifference, the monks of Citeaux,~ who had received
full powers from Rome, began to preach the cru* Innocentii III. Epistolke, lib. X., ep. CXLIX.
t Ibid.:         Sism., Hist. Albig., p. 47.
~ Chap. III., p. 51




64           THE HIUGUENOTS.
sade among the nobility and the yeomen of France
with a perseverance and enthusiasm which had not
been surpassed by Fouldques de Neuilly, or by the
fanatical eloquence of Peter the Hermit.*
Innocent III. offered to those who should take
the cross against the Vaudois the utmost extent of
indulgence which his predecessors had ever grantecl
to those who fought for the deliverance of the Holy
Land and the sepulchre of Christ. As soon as these
new crusaders had assumed the sacred sign of the
cross —which, to distinguish themselves from those
of the East, they wore on the breast, instead of upon
the shoulder-they were instantly placed under the
protection of the holy see, freed from the payment
of the interest of their debts, and exempted from
the jurisdiction of all the tribunals; while the war
which they were to wage at their doors, almost
without danger or expense, was to expiate all the
vices of a whole life-was warranted, by the impious usurper of the apostolic name at Rome, to
efface the crimes of threescore years and ten from
the heavenly records. t
The belief in the efficacy of these indulgences,
which in the sunlight of the nineteenth century we
can scarcely comprehend, was then in its full flush,
The barons of the feudal ages never doubted that,
while fighting in the Holy Land, they had the full
assurance of paradise.
But those distant expeditions had been attended
with so many disasters; so many hundreds of thou.
e Sism., Hist. Albig., p. 48.       t Ibid.




THEE "SACRED WAR."              65
sands had perished on the scorching sands of Asia,
succumbing either to the heat or to the Saracenic
scimitars, or else had fallen by the way from hunger, misery, sickness, "and the thousand ills that
flesh is heir to," that the boldest and most knightly
hearts now wanted courage to essay the fight.
It was then with transports of joy that the faithful received these indulgences. War was their passion. The discipline of the holy wars was much
less severe than that of the political, while the fruits
of victory were much more alluring. In them they
might without remorse, since no.faith was to be kept
with 7heretics, and without restraint from their oflicers, pillage and appropriate all the property, violate the women, and massacre the men of the interdicted territories.
The crusaders of the East well knew that the
distance was so great as to afford them but small
chance of bringing home the booty gained by their
swords. ]But now, instead of riches which were to
be sought at a distance amid great perils, and which
must be torn from the resolute grasp of barbarians
whose language they could not understand, the
French knights were exhorted, nay, commanded,
by an authoritative voice from the shekinah at
Rome, to reap the bloody harvest of a neighboring
field, to appropriate the spoils of a house which
they might hope to carry to their own, while captives were abandoned to their desires who spoke
the same language with themselves.*
Sism., Iist. Albig., p. 49.




66            THE HUGUENOTS.
Never therefore had the cross been assumed
amid greater enthusiasm or with a more unanimous consent. The first to engage in this atrocious harry, which was baptized with the name of
a sacroed rwar, were Eudes III., duke of Burgundy,
Simon de Miontfort, count of Leicester-a bloody
monster who glooms yet upon the historic horizon,
pilloried to the scornful horror of the ages-and
the counts of Nevers, of St. Paul, of Auxerre, of
Gen6ve, ancl of For6z.*
Meantime, though the crusaders were not ready
to march in 1208, the din of their immense preparations resounded through Europe, and filled Languedoc with terror. Count Raymond, learning that
Arnold, abbot of Citeaux, leader of the crusade, had
been appointed by the pope his legate in those
provinces from which he designed to eradicate heresy, and that Arnold had convened a council of the
chiefs of the sacred war at Aubenaz, in the Yivarais,
" To advise how war may beat upheld
More by her two main nerves, iron and gold,
In all her equipage,"t
repaired thither in company with his nephew, to
see if haply the storm might be averted.
The legate received them  with great haughtiness; and though they both protested that they
* RIigordus de Gestis Philippi Augusti, p. 62 et finis. Historia
de las Grans Faicts d'Armas, p. 4. Hist. Gen. de Languedoc, liv.
XXI., chap. XLI., p. 156.
t Milton's "Sonnet on Sir Henry Vane the Younger." Mit'
ford's ed., vol. II., p. 356.




THE "SACRED WAR."               67
were personally strangers to the heresy, that they
were innocent of the death of Pierre de Castelnovo,
and that they ought not to be judged and condemned unheard, yet the insolent prelate upbraided
them with stinging emphasis, declared that he couldl
do nothing for them, and informing them that if
they wished to obtain any mitigation of the measures adopted against themn, they must apply to the
pope, he motioned them from  the council-chamber.
Then the differing characters of uncle and
nephew were fully developed.  Count Raymond,
overwhelmed with terror, declared himself ready to
submit to any terms, even to be himself the executer of the unhallowed violence of the ecclesiastics
upon his best subjects, whose sole offence was their
heroic devotion to primitive Christianity. The craven noble even stooped so low as to affirm his readiness to make war upon his own family, if thereby
he might obtain the pontifical absolution.t
Not so the heroic nephew, noblest of a noble
band of martyrs. Perceiving from the legate's language that nothing was to be expected from negotiation, and determined never peacefully to admit
the crusaders into his states to ravage his clients,
he boldly urged upon his uncle to place strong garrisons in the larger towns, to prepare valiantly for
the defence of their country, and to take the initiative by at once commencing the campaign before: Sismoncli's History of the Albigenses, p. 51.
t Ibid, pp. 51, 52.




68            THE HUGUENOTS.
the invading host could don its mail or draw its
sword.*
But the two relatives were unable to agree upon
their policy, and they separated with reproaches
and menaces.
Raymond VI., after assembling his most faith~ful
servants at Ariles, engaged the archbishop of Auch,
the abbot of Condom, the prior of the Hospitallers
of St. Gilles, and Bernard, lord of Rabasteens in
Bigorre, to proceed to Rouen, in order to offer his
complete submission to Innocent III., and to receive
his indulgence.t
The frightened count at the same time applied
to his cousin, Philip Augustus king of France, and
to Otho of Germany, for their protection. Philip
at the outset received him with fair words, but
afterwards refused him all assistance, on the pretext of his solicitations to his rival Otho.l: The
German emperor did not deign even to notice his
prayer.
The ambassadors of Raymond to the pontiff
were, on the contrary, received with apparent cordiality.  But it was required of them  that their
master should make common cause with the crusaders; that he should personally assist them in
exterminating his subjects and in desolating his
own territories; and that he should surrender seven
* Sismondi's History of the Albigenses, p. 52.
t Petri ~allis Cern. Hist. Albig., oh. IX., p. 566.
$ Hist. de las Armas, pp. 4-6. Hist. de Lang., liv. XXL, ch.
XLII., p. 157.




THE "SACRED  WAR."                  69
of his best castles in the heart of his dominions, as
a pledge of his fidelity. Upon these conditions,
Innocent bade Raymond hsope that he might eventually absolve him for the heinous crime of respecting the rights of conscience, anld attempting to protect his subjects from slaughter.*
But notwithstanding Raymond's servile submission and his own fair words, the implacable pontiff
was far from having forgiven him in the bottom of
his heart. His assurances of favor were, voex et preterea nihilB-went no lower than his throat.  For
while he was amusing the count's ambassadors
with pacific declarations and paternal mandates,
he wrote this real expose' of his sentiments to the
bishops of Riez and Cansevans and to the abbot of
Citeaux: "We counsel you, with the apostle Paul,
to employ guile with regard to this same count; for
in this case it ought to be called prudence.  We
attack separately those who are separated from our
unity. Leave then the count of Toulouse for a
time, employing towards him a wise dissimulation,
that thus the other heretics may be more easily defeated, and that afterwards we may crush him when
he shall be left alone."t
Such was the equivocating morality, such the
perfidious policy of a pontiff who claimed to sit as
God, in the temple of God.
* Histori' de las Faicts d'Armas, p. 6. Cernai, Hist. Albig.,
chap. XI., p. 567..  Iunocentii III. Epist., lib. XI., ep. 232. Hist. Gen. de Lan.
guedoc. liv. XXI., p. 160.




70            THE HUGUENOTS.
" We cannot but remark," says Sismondi, "that
whenever ambitious and perfidious priests had any
disgraceful orders to communicate, they never failed
to pervert for this purpose some passage of the holy
Scriptures. One would say that they had only
studied the Bible to make sacrilegious applications of it."*Meantime the gallant young viscount of Alby,
undeceived by the cunning politics of the Roman
count, able
" To unfold
The drift of hollow states, hard to be spelled,"
preserving his honor and his governmental oath
untarnished, retired to his states, labored like a
Hercules to put them in a defensive condition, and
at length, having done all that enthusiasm and devotion could do to protect his territories and to save
the "lives, the fortunes, and the sacred honor" of
a people in whose faith he did not share, the noble
prince threw himself into the city of ]3eziers with a
body of his armed retainers, and announced his purpose to hold it to the last for "Christ and liberty."t
In the spring of 1209, the swarms of fanatics
whom the harangues of the monks of Citeaux and
the pope's indulgence letters had persuaded to devote themselves to the sacred war, began to move.t
Different historians have variously estimated
Sism., Hist. of Albig., p. 53.
t Historia de las Faicts d'Armas de Tolosa, p. 7. Hist. Lan
guedoc, liv. XXI., ch. XLII., p. 157.
t Hist. de las Faicts cl'Armas de Tolosa, p. 10.




THE "SACRED WAR."                  71
the numbers of these crusaders. They have been
computed to have been three, and even five hundred
thousand strong.* But a very competent authority
reckons but fifty thousand in this first campaign.t
This calculation, however, did not include tho
ignorant and infuriated multitude which, following
each preacher, armed with scythes and clubs, and
sweeping through the country with a more desolating tread than the crusaders themselves, though in
no condition to combat the chivalrous knights of
Languedoc, undertook at least to murder the women and children of the heretics.t
Several places had been assigned for the rendezvous of these demoniac hosts. Arnold Amalric,
abbot of Citeaux, legate of the pope, and chief director of the crusade, collected the greater number
of combatants, principally those who had taken
arms in the kingdom of Arles, and who were vassals of Otho IV., at Lyons: the archbishop of Bordeaux had assembled a second body in the Agenois; these were the subjects of the king of England: the bishop of Puy commanded a third body
in the Yalai, who were the subjects of Philip Augustus.~
When Count Raymond learned that these terrible bands were about to be let loose, the naked
sword in one hand and the blazing torch in the
*' Hist. de las Faicts d'Armas de Tolosa, p. 10.
t Petri Vallis Cernai, Hist. Albigens., cap. XXII., p. 584.
4 Sism., Hist. Albig., p. 54.
~ Petri Vallis Cernai, Hist. Albigens., cap. XVI., p. 571. Hist
Gren. de Languedoc, liv. XXI., ch. LIII., pp. 167, 168.




72           THIE HUGUENOTS.
other, upon his beautiful states and those of his
nephew, he represented to the pope that the legate
Arnold, who conducted them, was his personal enemy. "It would be unjust," said he, "to profit by
my submission, to deliver me up to the mercy of a
man who would listen only to his resentment against
me."
Then occurred another notable instance of the
profound duplicity of the sovereign pontiff. In
order, in alppecarance, to take from the count of Toulouse this motive for complaint, Innocent III. namned
a new legate, his secretary Mtilon. But far from
endeavoring to alleviate the woes of the Provencals
by this means, or to restrain the hatred of the abbot
of Citeaux, we are assured by the monkish historian
Yaux Cernai, that the only aim was to deceive the
count. He adds exultingly, "For the lord pope
expressly said to this new legate,'Let the abbot of
Citeaux do every thing, and be only his organ; for
in fact, the count of Toulouse has suspicions concerning him, while he does not suspect thee.' "*
The nearer the crusaders approached, the more
the count of Toulouse gave himself up to terror.
On the one hand, he endeavored to gain the affections of his subjects by granting new privileges to
some, and pardoning the offences of others who had
incurred his resentment;t on the other hand, he
consented to purchase his absolution by the most
* Petri Vallis Cernai, cap. X., p. 566.
t Remissio Consulibus et HIabilatoribus Nemonsi; Preuves de
Languedoc, p. 211.




THE "SACRED WAR.                 73:
humiliating concessions. He consigned to the pontifical notary seven of his finest castles. He permitted the consuls of his best cities to engage theumselves to abandon him if he should depart from the
conditions imposed upon him. He submitted beforehand to any sentence which the legate should
be pleased to pronounce upon fifteen unproved accusations laid against him by the inquisitors; and to
crown all, he suffered himself, on the 18th of June,
1209, to be conducted into the church of St. Gilles
with a cord about his neck; and there he received
the discipline before the altar upon his naked shoulders. He was then, upon promising to become the
guide of the invaders, allowed to take the cross
against his own subjects, and against that gallant
nephew who stood tranquilly awaiting the assault.*
* Acta inter Innocentii Epistolas, tomrn. II., p. 347, et seq. OCnr
list. des Albigeois, cap. XII., p. 568.




74:          THE HIJUGUENOTS.
CHAPTER V.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE TRAGEDY.
THE jubilant host of the crusaders, in the summer of 1209, wound slowly down into the smiling
valley of the Rhone, through the friendly cities of
Lyons, Valence, Montelimart, and Avignon, afterwards so celebrated as the seat of one of the two
pontiffs between whom the immaculate and seamless
robe of Roman unity was divided. The entrapped
count of Toulouse repaired to Valence to meet these
ferocious forces; from which city he conducted them
to Montpellier, where they rested for several days.*
The viscount of Alby, though hopeless of success, still determined to make one more effort to
still the tempest conjured up against his innocent
subjects by the cruel necromancy of the arch-juggler at Rome. To this end he went to Montpellier,
and seeking the legate, told him, according to the
ancient chronicle of Toulouse, that "he had done
the church no wrong; that he but walked in the
well-defined footsteps of his ancestors in granting
toleration in his states; that as for himself he was a
servant of the church, wishing to live and die so."tk
But the legate was imperturbable. Taking his
cue from the master-priest of the holy see, he told
o Hist. Gen. de Languecloc, liv. 21, p. 175.
t Historia de las Faicts d'Armas de Tolosa, p. 7.




BEGINNING OF THE TRAGEDY.   75
young Raymond Roger that what he had to do was
to defend himself as best he might, for he should
show him no mercy.'
The viscount quitted the ancient walls of Miontpellier sad but resolute. He had done his utmoststepped to the verge of honor to avert the impending avalanche by diplomacy.  Now nothing remained but to draw the sword and fling away the
scabbard.
He immediately summoned to him all his vassals, friends, and allies; laid before them the,.representations which he had made to the legate; informed them of the manner in which he had been
received; and upon calling on them for advice,
found the whole body of his retainers as resolutely
determined to defend their hearth-stones as he was
himself.t
Nor were all those who took arms with him
heretics.:$ Let it be written for the honor of human nature, that even in that sullen and ferocious
age, there were not wanting gallant spirits ready
and eager to die for the toleration of a creed in
whose tenets they did not share.
The knightly gentlemen of those days resided
in castles which were more or less strongly fortified,
while their vassals lived in little cots scattered over
the estates at various distances fromn the fortilace.
Languedoc was spotted with these chateaues; and:iow, upon the approach of the crusaders, the yeoa
o Historia de las Faicts d'Armas de Tolosa, p. 7. i Ibid., p. 8
t Ibid. Sism., Hist. Mlbig., (Eng. trans.,) p. 57.




.76          THE HIIUGUENOTS.
men rushed in vast numbers to the protection of
these fortified walls; while the nobles, provisioning
their larders for a siege, shut themselves up in their
keeps with that nonclalance which is the offspring
of long habit and danger often braved.
Some castles, as Servian and Puy-la-rouque,
were abandoned ere the Roman banditti reached
them.  Others, among which the old historians
mention Caussadi and St. Antonia, where it was not
supposed that any heretics lurked, ransomed themselves by heavy contributions. Still others nobly
met a sterner fate. Villeum was burned. Chasseneuil, after a vigorous defence, capitulated. The
garrison, who were rouztiers, or "free lances," obtained permission to retire with what they could
carry; but the inhabitants, who were Vauclois, were
abandoned to the mercy of the legate. The ghastly
carnival now began. The town was fired; men,
women, and children were precipitated into the
hungry flames, amnid the acclamations of their
fiendish conquerors, and night only closed the frightful orgies.*
From this sad opening scene even the pages of
the monkish historians of the foray are blotted with
pitying tears. The crusaders, rendered still more
ferocious by this taste of blood, pressed fiercely on
towards the viscount's capital, B3eziers, leasving, as
was charged upon that Attilla of old, no blade ol
grass nor any living thing behind them."t: His&t Gen. de Languedoc, liv. XXI.,. p. 168. IList. de las
Faicts, etc., p. 18.                     * Ibid




BEGINNING OF THE TRAGEDY.   77
In July, 1209,* they arrived under the walls of
Beziers, and formnally summoned it to surrender.
Raympond Roger had chiefly calculated upon the
defence of his two great cities, Beziers and Carcassonne, He had divided between them  his most
valiant knights, and the Xroztiers who were attached
to his fortune. He had at first thrown himself into
Beziers; but after assuring himself that the city
was provided with every thing in his power to bestow, lie quitted its walls for those of Carcassonne,
a town built upon a rock, partly surrounded by a
river, the Aude, and whose suburbs were environed
by walls and ditches.t
The citizens of Beziers felt themselves intimidated, when they knew that their young lord had
left them for the stronger protectionof Carcassonne,
and their inquietude was redoubled when they beheld the three grand divisions of the Roman army,
under the legate, the archbishop of [Bourdeaux, and
the bishop of Puy,4. arrive and unite before their
city.
Just before the crusaders reached Beziers, they
had been visited by the bishop of that city, Reginald de MIontpeyroux, who delivered to the legate
a list of those in the city who were accounted Vaudois, and whom he desired to see thrown into the
flames. He then returned to Beziers, assembled
tLe inhabitants in the cathedral of St. Nicaise, and
after representing td them with vivid eloquence the
* Fleury, I[ist. Eccles., liv. LXXVI.
t Hist. de las Faicts, etc., p. 19.  $ Chap. IV., p. 69.




73            THE HUGUENOTS.
vast numbers of the crusaders, and the impossibility
of resisting their onset, exhorted them not to draw
clown upon themselves, their wives, and their children the wrath of heaven and of the church by protecting their Yaudois fellow-townsmen, but to yield
them up to the avengers of the faith.
"Tell the legate," replied the citizens, "that our
city is good and strong, that our dear Lord God
will not fail to succor us in great necessities, and
that rather than commit the baseness demanded of
us, we will eat our own children."*
But though equal in courage and infinitely superior in generosity and Christian purpose to their
savage foes, the unhappy citizens of Beziers were
not equal to them in military skill or in the discipline of trained arms.
W~hile the crusaders were occupied in tracing
their camp, the citizens made a sortie, hoping thus
to take their enemies by surprise. But instantly
the united battalions of the besiegers precipitated
themselves upon the disconcerted trainbands of
the city, and forcing them to retire, pursued them
so hotly that both parties entered the open gates
together, and Beziers was captured before the crusaders had even formed their plan of attack.tl
Then the bloody orgies of Chasseneuil were reenacted on a broader theatre.  Arnold Anmalric,
* lIist. de las Faicts, etc., p. 20. Petri Vail. Cern., Hist. Albig.,
cap. XV., p. 570.
t Raynaldi, Annal Eccles., 1209, sec. XXII., p. 186. Hist. de
Lang., liv. XXI., -ch. LVII., p. 169. De Thou, liv. VI.




BEGINNING OF THE TRAGEDY.'79
abbot of Citeaux, upon learning that he had triumphed almost without a struggle, and determined
not to be baulked of the expected feast of blood,
upon being asked by some of his companions in
arms how the tRomanist citizens were to be distinguished from the Vaudois, made that famous reply,
worthy of Nero or Caligula: " IILL THEMI ALL; GOD
WILL WELL KNOW HIS OWN! *
The fixed population of Beziers did not perhaps
exceed fifteen thousand persons; but all the inhabitants of the country, of the open villages, of the
plains, and of the castles which had not been judgedl
capable of safe defence, had taken refuge in Beziers,
which was regarded as exceedingly strong. Even
those who had remained to guard the strong chcateaus, had, for the most part, sent their wives, their
children, and their helpless ones to the city.
At the moment when the crusaders became masters of the gates, the whole multitude thronged to
the churches. The great cathedral of Nicaise contained the larger number. The canons, clothed in
their choral habits, surrounded the altar and sounded the bells, as if to express their prayers to their
furious assailants. But these supplications of brass
were as little heeded as were those of the human
voice. Still the bells ceased not to sound until, of
that immense multitude, not one remainedl alive.
The massacre spread equally to the other churches;
seven thousand dead bodies were counted in that
* Coesar ieister bachiensis, lib. V., cap. XXI. Sism., Liter. of
South of Europe, vol. I., p. 116, note. Sism., Hist. Albig., p. 60.




80            THE HUGUENOTS.
of Magdalene alone.  Thus even the benefit of
sanctuary, respected at that period for the vilest
malefactors, was not awarded to the Taudois.*
An old Provengal historian has, by the simplicity of his language, augmented the terrors of
this scene: "They entered the city of Beziers,
where they murdered more people than was ever
before known in the world; for they spared neither
young nor old, nor infants at the breast. They
killed and murdered them all, which being seen by
the said people of the city, they that were able did
retreat into the great church of St. ]Nazarius, both
men and women.  The chaplains thereof, when
they had so retreated, caused the bells to be rung
until everybody was dead. But neither the sound
of the bells, nor the clhaplains in their priestly habits, nor the clerks, could hinder them  from being
put to the sword. One only escaped, for all the
rest were slain and died. Nothing so pitiable was
ever heard of or done before."t[
WVhen the crusaders had completely pillaged it,
and massacred every living creature, the city was
fired in every part at once, and reduced to a vast
funeral pile.$
Historians differ as to the number of victims
sacrificed on this awful occasion to the greed of the
insatiable demon of persecution.  The abbot of
C Sism., Hist. Albigen., pp. 60, 61.
t Preuves de'l'istoire de Languedoc, tom. III., p. 2; also
quoted in Sism., Lit. of the South of Europe, at p. 117, vol I
$ Ibid.




BEipGINNING OF THE TRAGEDY.    81
Citeaux, feeling some shame for the butchery which
he had ordered, in the account which he transmitted to Innocent III., reduces the number to fifteen
thousand.  Other and more reliable contemporary
chroniclers reckon it at from forty to sixty thousand.*
Having "supped full of horrors" at Beziers, yet
without being satiated, the crusaders pressed on
through a deserted country-for the inhabitants
preferred taking refuge in eaves, woods, mountains,
to waiting for such enemies within the enclosure of
walls which might serve as a prison-towards Carcassonne.  They reached this Vaudois citadel on
the Ist of August, 1209, and pitching their tents,
invested it in due form.tl
Although the generous heart of Raymond Roger
had been terribly wrung by the massacre of his
loyal subjects of Beziers, and by the destruction of
his capital, he "bated no jot of heart or hope;"
while the brave inhabitants of Carcassonne renewed
their oath of allegiance to him, and of fidelity to
eachl other.T
Carcassonne was accounted almost impregnable.
Built upon one side of the river Aude, in whose
waters it bathed upon the right, it had been strongly fortified by the skill of the young viscount upon
* 13ernard Ilier of Limages, a contemporary, makes the num.
ber slain 38,000; Abberic, a monk, 60,000. See Sism., Hist. Al.
Lig., p. 61, note.
t I-Iist. Albig., p. 62.
4 Sisrn., Liter. of South. Europe, vol.I., p. 117.
4*




82           THE H UGUENOTS.
the more exposed angles. It was besides defended
by a numerous and devoted garrison.
The attack conmmenced upon one of the suburbs
without the city walls. Here the combat raged
fiercely for two hours, during which time Raymoncl
Roger on one side, and Simon de Maontfort upon
the other, gave evidence of extraordinary personal
prowess.  Eventually the suburb was taken by
mere stress of numbers. The besieged retreated
into the second suburb, which the assailants pressed
on to attack. For eight days the viscount defended
this redoubt with success, but on the ninth cay he
evacuated it, and, having fired it, retired slowly and
sullenly into the city, clanging the ponderous gates
in the faces of the outwitted foe.MIeantime Raymond Roger had found means to
communicate with his uncle, Don Pedro II. king of
Aragon. The Aragonese sovereign had witnessed
the oppression and outrage inflicted upon his relative with chagrin. lHe therefore quitted his kingdom, and hastening to the camp of the crusaders
endeavored to negotiate a peace.t
Having obtained permission of the legate to
visit his nephew, the king entered Carcassonne to
confer with the viscount. "My dear uncle," said
the frank young soldier, " if you wish to arrange for
mne any honorable adjustment, I freely leave with
you its form and manner, and I will ratify it without hesitation; for I see clearly that we cannot long
maintain ourselves here, owing to the multitude of
* Hist. de las Faictsede Tolosa, p. 12  t Ibid.




BEGINNING OF THE TRAGEDY.   83
countrymen, women, and children who have taken
refuge with us. We cannot reckon them, but they
die, alas, in great numbers every day. But were
there only myself and my soldiers here, I swear to
you that I would rather die of that ghastly famine
which now stares us in the face than surrender to
this same cruel legate."*,
The king of Aragon very injudiciously related
this discourse to the wily legate, who, thus familiar
with the precise condition of the viscount, was
thereby enabled to offer, with some assurance of
success, propositions much less generous than he
would otherwise have ventured to make; for be it
remembered, it was no part of this atrocious monk's
purpose to accommodate affairs. He wished to
glut the vengeance of a cruel faith. Still he did.
not dare absolutely to repel such a mediator as the
king of Aragon. But knowing well the high and
chivalric character of the viscount, he achieved his
object by proposing terms which it would be impossible for a gallant and knightly spirit to accept.
"Tell your nephew, sire," said the abbot of
Citeaux, "that he himself, with any twelve others
whom he may choose, may freely quit the city.
But the remainder of the citizens and soldiers must
be abandoned to our good pleasure." The king
carried the message. "lNow, out upon the priestly
catiff," was the noble reply: " rather than submit to
* Hist. de las Faicts, p. 13. Hist. de Languedoc, liv. XXI., ch.
LXXIX., p. 171. Petri Vallis Celuai, Hist. Albig., cap. XV;I.,
p. 571.




84           THE HUGUENOTS.
these disgraceful terms, I would suffer myself to be
flayed alive. No, he shall not have the meanest of
my people at his mercy; for it is on my account
that they are now in danger."*
The chivalric king approved the generous purpose of his nephew, and turning towards the assembled citizens and knights of Carcassonne, he informed them of the legate's conditions, and added, " You
now know what you have to expect; mind and defend yourselves well, for he who acts the part of a
brave man always finds good mercy at last."t
Don Pedro of Aragon with his retinue had
scarcely quitted the city ere the impatient crusaders hurled themselves upon its walls, but in vain;
the gallant viscount fought as nobly as he talked.
Streams of boiling water, blazing oil, immense
stones, projectiles of every kind then known to the
cruel skill of war-all were put in requisition; and
at length, maimed, bleeding, and balked, the crusaders fell back within the entrenchments of their
camp.
The greater part of the crusaders had taken the
cross but for forty days. The time now approached
for their service to end. General and sullen discontent reigned in the pontifical camp. The soldiers had been promised the intervention of a
miracle in their favor. Yet after two prolonged and
bloody assaults, they still stood without the walls of
Carcassonne, while
"Many a corpse lay ghastly pale beneath the setting sun."
* Hist. de las Faicts, etc., p. 15.  t Ibid.




BEGINNING OF THE TRAGEDY.   85
The legate remarking these symptoms of demoralization, and true to the perfidious maxims of
the church whose livery he wore, now determined to
have recourse to stratagem, if haply he might accomplish by his arts what had been denied his
sword.
Accordingly he renewed the negotiations. The
viscount, ignorant of what was passing in the camp
of the crusaders, and profoundly anxious for an
honorable accommodation, received the legate's
messenger with the utmost cordiality. Fully conscious of the rectitude of his own intentions and
proceedings, he could not but believe that, when
the injustice of which his country had been the
victim should be known, it would excite the commiseration of the great barons and ecclesiastics
- arrayed against him, and stay the devastation.
Filled with this Quixotic idea, and as incapable of
suspecting deliberate treachery in others as he was
of himself performing a perfidious deed, young
Raymondcl  offered to accompany the envoy to the
camp of the crusaders, for the purpose of having a
personal interview with the chiefs of the sacred
war, provided his personal safety and return should
be solemnly guaranteed.*
The envoy flew to acquaint the legate withl this
offer. Arniold Amalric rubbed his hands gleefully
when he heard this recital, and though he deliberately perjured himself by doing so, for he had ilnstantly decided upon the confiding viscount's arrest,
* Historia de las Faicts d'Armas de Tolosa, p. 18.




G6            T THE HUGUENOTS.
he yet sent the desired safe-conduct, to which he
attached the seal of Rome.
The viscount soon made his appearance, accompaniecd by three hundred of his choicest chivalry.
Repairing tc the legate's tent, where the chiefs of
the crusade were assembled, he nobly and powerfully vindicated his conduct and the policy of his
ancestors, and again affirmed, that though the fast
friend of religious toleration, he was still a true servant of the Roman church.'
Then Rome gave another proof of the pitiless,
unhalloiwed, and abandoned wickedness of her politics. Not only the legate, but the great lords who
accompanied him, were penetrated with the diabolical maxim  of Innocent III.: " To kceep faithi'with
heretlics is an %oence agyainst the fait7h."  Accordingly
watching for a propitious moment, the crusaders
threw themselves upon the surprised and insignificant retinue of the Provencal prince, all of whom,
after a brief struggle, were disarmed, and together
with their young lord consigned to the care of Simon
de M{ontfort.tk
* Sism., Hist. Albig.; Eng. transl., p. 65.
t Petri Vall. Cern., Hist. Albigens., cap. XXI., p. 571. Hist. de
Lang., liv. XXIL, ch. LVIII., p. 160. Sism., is.,. Albig., pp.
6, 66.




THE REIGN OF TERROR.               87
CH APTER VYI.
THE REIGN OF TERROR.
THE crusaders thought that the flagitious perfidy exhibited by their chiefs towards the beloved
prince of Alby would strike terror, like a dagger,
into the hearts of the inhabitants of Carcassonne. It
did indeed chill them with horror, but it also withdrew the entire population from the clutches of these
bloodhounds of the Roman church.*
There was an immense cavern, dark, freezing,
and awful, which yawned in the bowels of the earth,
and stretched away from the river-gate of Carcassonne three leagues, to the towers of Cabardes. ~ To
the protection of this gloomy sanctuary-for to their
despair it was indeed a temple-the citizens rushed;
and on, on, through the ooze of the dreadful cavern,
which in happier times the boldest had slhrunk from
approaching, esteeming it haunted by hobgoblins,
they tramped, willing to face the spirits of the yawning depth, if only they might escape the fiends who
raged before their city walls.
Meantime, when the curtain of the night was
lifted, and the light of day began to dazzle in the
grey eastern horizon, the crusaders were astonished
at not beholding the accustomed Vaudois sentries
* Wistoria de las Faicts dl'Armas de Tolosa, p. 21. Sism., Hist.
Albig., p. 66.




83          THE I UGUENOTS.
pacing the city walls. "Conscience does make cowards of us all," and remembering their own treachcry of the clay before, they feared that some stupendous mischief underlay the silence and desertion;
for those of them who had grown greyest in the
wars had nevwLt before seen a large population rmelt
into nothing in a night.
At length however they entered Carcassonne,
and the legate took possession of the spoil in the
name of the church, excon1mmunicating those of the
crusaders who should have appropriated any part
of it. But it long remained a mystery what had
become of the teeming population which had vanished under cover of that August night.*
The abbot of Citeaux thought himself obliged to
dissemble the villany to which he had had recourse,
and which had succeeded so badly. Accordingly on
the 15th of August, 1209, the day of the occupation
of the city, he issued a proclamation, in which he
unblushingly announced that he had signed a capitulation by which he had permitted all the citizens to
quit Carcassonne with their lives only.t And then,
deeming it essential to the honor of the holy church
that all the heretics should not escape him, he
caused a number of  aundois whom he had picked
rip upon his march, together with the knights who
had accompanied the viscount of Alby and Beziers
to his camp, to be collected in a group four hundred and fifty large. Then this wanton butcher
* Sismondi, ITist. Crusades against the Albigenses, p. 66.
t Ibid.




THE REIGN OF TERROR.               89
selected out of that number fifty to be hanged,
and the remaining four hundred were burned alive,
to propitiate the malignant futry of his vengeful
church.*
All was now esteemed to have been acconplishedcl, The count of Toulouse had submitted to
the most degrading conditions ever before offered
to or accepted by a sovereign prince. The beautiful and virgin Proven9al plains had been rudely violated and soaked in blood. The gallant viscount
of Alby and Beziers was a hopeless prisoner in the
iron grasp of Miontfort. The other Provenzal nobles had published in their jurisdictions laws against
the Vaudois even more severe, if that were possible, than Rome demanded.
The French lords who, to gain the indulgence
of the church, had marched to the crusade, thou ght
that they had clone enough to effect the salvation
of their souls; and weary of blood and ashamed of
the violation of their plighted faith, they chafed to
return to their castles.
All seemed satisfied, save the monks-save Dominic Guzman, and Francis d'Assise his companion
in infamy, the founder of the despicable order of
St.: Francis, and at their head the abbot of Citeaux.
The Vaudois were frozen with terror, but these
fanatics thirsted for their blood.  The heretics,
leaving their homes to the pillage of the avaricious
and to the incendiary torch of the marauder, had
hidden in the mountains, and were outwardly silent;
* Sismondi, Hist. Crusades against the Albigenses, p. 66.




93           THE HUGUENOTS.
but these bigots knew that inwardly they prayed to
that dear Jesus who for them had been nailed upon
the tree, that the torch of primitive Christianity
still smoked, if it did not blaze, and this thought
would not let them rest.
The Yaudois were not exterminated. Their opinions would still secretly circulate. Resentment for
outrages already suffered would alienate them yet
more irreconcilably from the Roman communion.
Their suffering would attach them still more devotedly to the tenets of their dissent, and the reformation would break out afresh. " To turn back the
march of civilization, to obliterate the traces of a
mighty progress of the human mind, to efface the
foot-prints of the primitive and pure apostolic faith,
it was not sufficient to sacrifice, as an example,
hecatombs of victims; the nation mInst be destroyed.
All who had participated in this grand development of evangelical knowledge, of Christian thought,
of luminous science, must perish. None must be
spared, save the most boorish rustics, whose intelligence was scarcely superior to the beasts whose
labor they shared."'
Such was the fiagitious rationale of the Roman
see-such the avowed policy of the abbot of Citeaux,
and his twin jackals, Dominic and Francis d'Assise.
At the conclusion of the first crusade, just before
the great lords separated, the legate assembled a
council, and desired them to award the states of
Raymond Roger, forfeit to the church, to some
* Sism., Hist. of the Albig., Eng. transl., p. 68.




THE REIGN  OF TERROR.                 91
lord who would engage to extirpate the remnant of
the Vaudois. The conquered territories were first
offered to Eudes III., duke of Burgundy; but he
refused them, saying that "he had plenty of domains and lordships without taking that, to disinherit this unhappy viscount; and that it appeared
to him that they had done him evil enough, without
despoiling him of his ancestral states."*
This refusal, couched in such words, touched
the honor of all the barons; and the counts of Ne —
vers and of St. Paul, to each of whom the proffer
was made, held the same language.  Then the sovereignties were offered to Simon de lIontfort, the
most greedy and ferocious of the vengeful band.
This infamous noble, then lord of but a single castle, Montfort Amaury, situated some ten leagues
from Paris, though he was of an illustrious house,
said to have been descended from king Robert by a
natural son, t after some feigned reluctance, finally
accepted the bloody and usurped gift, thus by his
ambition raising himself to the rank of the grand
feudatories.
De MIontfort had held the rightful sovereign of
(he states of which he had just taken possession a
close prisoner in his donjon-keep ever since his
capture. It now became necessary to sweep this
* Sism., Hist. of the Albig., Eng. transl., p. 68.
t Prmtfatio Camaratii Tricassini in Petrum Yallis Cernai. This
historian of the crusade, so often quoted in these pages, was a
BEernardin monk; his convent was situated near Montfort Amailry;
and he was a vassal of Simon de Montfort, whom he followed to
the war.




92           THE HUGUEN OTS.
obstacle completely from his path; for even in
chains the young viscount haunted him, presaging
evil to himself and to his house. Raymond Roger
was a rare character. His neighbors loved him.
His people idolized him, and prayed for him daily.
The Yandois especially enshrined him in their heart
of hearts. Possibly his powerful and kingly relative of Aragon would be disposed to throw his royal
ermine over his hapless nephew's defenceless form.
Clearly it was Montfort's policy to get rid of his
prisoner, too strong even in irons. With this ferocious and sullen fanatic, to decide was to act. Accordingly MIontfort gave the necessary order for his
death, at the same time spreading a report that the
viscount had died of dysentery. But the fraud was
too transparent. The public voice and conscience
openly accused De MIontffrt of having poisoned his
princely captive; and even Innocent III. acknowledged that the viscount perished by violence.*
Thus, in the flower of his age, ended the mortal
career of Raymond Roger, viscount Alby and Beziers, chivalric as any Paladin of them all; a knight,
like Bayard, sans r2eur et sans r'proche,' worthy to
be a martyr in the grandest of all causes; a heroic
soldier in the " good fight " which Bunyan has described; another victim added to the swollen catalogue of Roman intolerance and depravity. History
takes his name from the Roman rubric of heretical
malefactors, and placing it among her jewels, writes
* Hist. de las Faicts, etc., p. 20. Innocentii III. Epist., lib.
XV., ep. 212.




THE REIGN OF TERROR.              93
proudly, RAY1OND ROGER, THE- DEFENDER OF TIIE
VAUDOIS.
Upon the conclusion of the campaign of 1.209,
Count Raymond of Toulouse, having submitted in
every thing to the pontifical requisition, thought
himself sure of reconciliation with the church; but
he was surrounded by men whose interest it was to
prolong his punishment, if not to perpetuate it.
The bishop of Toulouse, a recreant troubadour,
Foulqu6t de Marseille, who had in other days gainedl some fame by his amatory verses, but who, disgusted with the world, had retired to a cloister,
where he had fostered the passions of fanaticism
and persecution,* was Count Raymond's open foe.
The two jackal inquisitors, Dominic and Francis,
hated him because he hadl once tolerated the  aundois. The abbot of Citeaux was his declared enemy; while Simon de MIontfort, looking from his
usurped viscountal palace at Carcassonne across
upon Raymond's contiguous territories, thought
how goodly his heritage would be if only the countship of Toulouse could be added to it. He was
urged on therefore by the double motive of religious fanaticism and political ambition. These worthies, working tirelessly and secretly, defeated every
measure which Raymond of Toulouse could elaborate for the procuration of his pardon. In the early
part of 1210, the count had visited Rome, and in an
interview with Innocent, had learned that the consideration of his case had been confided to an
* Sism., Literature of the South of Europe, vol, I., p. 115.




94           THE HUGUENOTS.
ecclesiastical council about to be convened at St.
Gilles.*
Raymond hastened home to meet the council.
]Meantime the abbot of Citeaux had harangued its
members, and so prejudicecl them against the count,
that, without granting him an opportunity to clear
1himself of the charges laid against him, the council
again fulminated an excommunication against him
in the name of the church.lSimon de Montfort, with a powerful army-for
though most of the great barons had retired, many,
influenced either by that fanaticism which led them
to take the cross, by the hope of securing a permanent establishment in a conquered country, or by
the promise of plunder and adventure, still adhered
to the banner of the crusade which the new viscount
carried —had now the desired pretext for entering
and ravaging Count Raymond's dominions. At the
same time crowds of monks beaded by Guy and Arnold Amalric of Citeaux, issued fyom their convents,
and recommenced preaching the crusade. Gathering about them troops of ferocious and superstitious
warriors, they proclaimed that there was no vice so
deeply rooted, no crime so black, that a gala campaign of forty days in the south of France would
not obliterate. Paradise with all its glories was
opened to them, without the necessity of the slight.
est reformation of their conduct.$
* Innocentii III. Epistolke, lib. XII., pp. 159, 169.
t Petri Yall. Cern., cap. XXXIX., p. 586, Hist. Albig.
$ Sism., Hist. of the Albig., p. 83.




THIE REIGN OF TERROR.               95
Accustomed to confide their consciences to their
priests, to listen to the voice of Rome as to the
thunders of the dread God of Sinai, never to submit
what appertained to the faith to the arbitrament of
reason, these besotted crowds really regarded those
beloved children of God's right hand, the Yaudois,
as a nest of heretics who bred contagion.
So the roads were once more blocked with the
advancing enthusiasts. Alice of Montmorency, D)e
Mtontfort's wife, assumed the control of the forces
raised by the exhortations of the monks.*
At the commencement of Lent, 1210, her husband
camle to meet her at Pezenas. HIe no sooner found
himself at the head of a large and well-appointed
army, than he gave full sway to his evil passions.
A few lords still ventured to defend either the
independence of their jurisdiction, or that of their
conscience. De Mlontfort now essayed to crush
this opposition by new judicial massacres. His
fresh horde of fanatics swept through the country
with desolating fury. The feudal state of independence had multiplied the isolated fortresses which
served at once for residences and strong-holds.
The smallest provinces were covered with citadels.
These castles then received IDe MIontfort's first
attention. MIany of them were abandoned on his
approach. Others which ventured to resist, were
razed, while their heroic defenders were either hanged upon gibbets, or roasted alive for the honor of
the mother churich. The castle of Brom being cap* Tist. de Languedoc., liv. XXI., p. 197. Fleury, Hist. Eccles.




96           THE HUGUJE NOTS.
tured by the crusaders on the third day of the siege,
De nMontfort selected a hundred of its wretched inhabitants, Vaucdois who had been denounced by the
priestly spies who sped before the men-at-arims to
procure lists of heretics, and having torn out theiia
eyes and cut off their noses, sent them in this state,
under the guidance of a one-eyed man, to the neighboring Yaudois castle of Cabaret, to announce to
that garrison the fate which awaited them.*
When IDe Montfort foundL the citadels deserted,
not being able to reach human beings, he wreaked
his vengeance upon the twining vines, the olivetrees, and the blooming gardens which lent rare
beauty to the landscape, and made Provence the
queen of nations, the idyl of territories.t
The pen of history falters when it follows this
rude butcher upon his devastating marauds, nor is
it necessary to detail with absolute minuteness the
harrowing scenes of this frightful war, which yet
possesses strange interest.
The siege of the castle of Minerva was one of
the most remarkable of the war, and is detailed at
length by the ancient chroniclers. This citadel was
built upon a steep and almost inaccessible rock,
surrounded by precipices, and was regarded as one
of the most impregnable strong-holds in the Gauls.
It belonged to Guiraud de Ainerva, a Yandois
nobleman, and one of the best knights in Southern
- Histoire de Languecloc, liv. XXI., ch. LXXXIX., p. 191.
t Petri Val. Cer., Hist. Albig., cap. XXXIV. et V., pp. 58L
582.




THE RIEIGN OF TERIROR.             97
France.  The crusaders brought against it their
finest men-at-arms, De Montfort and the abbot of
Citeaux being present in person.*
The Vaudois defended themselves for seven
weeks with a valor which extorted the admiration
even of De Mlontfort. But when, on account of the
heat of summer-it was under the fierce sun of
July-the water in their wells and cisterns failed,
they demanded a capitulation. Terms were finally
agreed upon; but when they were read in the council of war, one article, which provided that those
Vaudois who were converted to the Roman faith
might quit the castle alive, was violently opposed.
"Robert de MIauvoisin," says the monk Vaux Cernai,
" a nobleman entirely devoted to the papal see, cried
that'the pilgrims would never submit to this; since
it was not to convert heretics, or to sh1ow mercy to
them, but to kill them, that they had taken the
cross.' The abbot Arnold, better acquainted with
the obstinate devotion of the heretics, replied,'Fear
not, for I believe that very few will be converted.' "'t
Shortly after, the crusaders entered the castle
chanting the Te Deumr, and preceded by the cross
and by the standards of Montfort.
God's children had assembled in two Vaudois
churches, the men in one, the women in the other,
alnd while the fanatical bands of Rome began to sing
the T'e Deum, they calmly responded by chanting
one of their simple hymns of praise, pausing beo Petri Vall. Cornl., ist. Albig., cap. XXXV., p. 586%
I [bid. p. 588.
Lbgtnelnlts.         5




98           THITE HUGUENOTS.
tween each sob of the music to encourage each
other by a mute caress, or to seek new strength in
fervent prayer. Not one flinched; not one made
the slightest effort to escape the awful doom which
each knew awaited him. The honor of becoming a
martyr for the holy cause of that sweet Jesus who
was himself a man of sorrow, gave unwonted dignity to the rudest carriage. It was the ecstacy of
religious faith, one of the grandest sermons to which
that brutal band of heated zealots, smeared with
martyr-blood, ever listened.
The abbot, Guy de Vaux Cernai, to fulfil the
articles of capitulation, came to these Vaudois, and
began to preach the Roman faith to them. lie was
instantly interrupted. " Sir priest,," was the unanimous cry, "we want not your exhortations. We
have renounced the church of Rome; we have become the children of a purer light; we draw our consolation from a higher source, even from our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for
evermore, Amen. Your labor is vain; desist. For
neither life nor death can make us renounce that
precious Bible whose truths we have emnbraced."?The abbot, surprised and strangely moved, next
visited the assembly of Vaudois women. Hee found
them as resolute, and still more enthusiastic in their
d eclarations.t
The ferocious De Montfort, in his turn, visited
the VauCdois. Already he bad piled up enormous
* Petri Vail. Cern., Hist. Albig., cap. XXXVII., p. 583.
f Ibid.




THE REIGN OF TERROR.                   99
masses of dry wood.  The executioners, in their
black gowns, stood ready.  The impatient soldiery
clamored hoarsely for the fete to begin.  "Be onverted to the Roman facith," said the ruthless crusader, "or ascend this Spile."  None were shaken.
The wood was fired; the whole square was enveloped in a tremendous conflagration. The greedy
tongues of the lurid flame licked the crackling wood
as if hungry and impatient for their human prey.
The Vaudois were conducted to their funeral pyre,
but no violence was necessary to compelthemn to
enter the blazing, torturing fire; they voluntarily
precipitated themselves into it, their sweet Proveneal hymns quivering upon their lips, or else repeating that grandest of the beatitudes: " Blessed are ye
Wvhen men, shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall
say acl manner Qf evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceedilng glad:for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you."*   High above the fierce
crackling of the flames, high above the hoarse roar
of the fanatic multitude, rose the pathetic wail of
the Vaudlois supplication, until God came to their
deliverance, and through the open and thrice welcome door of death their unfettered souls winged
* St. Matthew 5:11, 12. Petri Cern., cap. XXXVII., p. 584.
We are indebted to this monk, the panegyrist both of his abbot
Guy de Vaux Cernai and Simon de Montfort, a bigoted Romanist,
who narrates gleefully the most hideous details of the Vaudois persecution, for the account given above of the conduct of the Minerva "heretics." His account is more summarily confirmed by
the "Historia de las Faicts de Tolosa."




100         THE HUGUENOTS.
their way to that bourne where "the wicked cease
from troubling, and the weary be at rest."
The capture of Minerva was quickly followed by
the siege of Termes, a strong castle upon the bor-,
ders of Roussilon, which was cornmmanded by its
lord, a valiant captain named Raymond of Termes.
This gallant soldier mace a grand defence for
"Christ and liberty."  The patience of the crusaders was sorely tried, and De Montfort beheld his
army terribly thinned by sickness and the Vaudois
sword. He,made a fresh appeal to the fanaticism
of the French provinces, each of which, in response,
dispatched in its turn a numerous contingent to his
camp. MIeantime, after four weary months of incessant combat, gaunt famine stared the Vaudois in
the face, and thirst parched their throats.  An
attempt was made to escape from the castle into
the surrounding mountains.
The Vaudlois did indeed pass the first line of
De MTontfort's intrenchments, and dispersing in the
shadowy recesses of the country, shaped their flight
towards Catalonia. But soon their escape became
known in the camp of the crusaders. The knights
mounted in hot haste and scoured the roads; the
men-at-arms, impressing peasants to guide them,
searched the innermost recesses of the mountains.
Iach one exhorted the other not to let those who
had cost the host so much sweat and blood escape
their vengeance.
The unhappy Vaudois, encumbered by aged men
by women, by children, were speedily overtaken ar




THE REIGN OF TEIRROR.             101
remorselessly slaughtered where they stood. A few
were conducted alive to the presence of Simon de
MIontfort, among the number the gallant Raymond
of Termes. These, with the exception of their lord,
were publicly burned alive for the edification of the
crusaders.  But De Montfort reserved Raymond
of Termes for a more hapless lot. He confined him
at the bottom of a tower in Carcassonne, in a damp
dungeon whose walls were coated with ice, where,
with exquisite cruelty, he suffered him to languish
for many years,* a prototype of the wretched prisoners of the Inquisition, or perhaps of that mysterious "iron mask," whose lineage is enshrouded
with such gloomy interest in French history.
The miserable inhabitants of this unhappiest
of countries found no asylum which could protect
them. Neither woodland dell nor mountain cavern
could screen themn from the keen sight of the hunters of the Romish Babylon.  Provence shivered
in mute sympathy with the agony of her children.
The pagan cruelty of the most monstrous of the
Roman emperors was white when set against the
blackness of D)e Montfort's infamy. Torquemada
himself might have learned fiom him new lessons
in the cruel skill of torture. Horror was heaped
upon horror, until the benumbed and decimated
Yaudois began to creep with languid footsteps
across the borders of a territory surrendered to
the ravage of demoniacs into happier lands.
o Petri Vall. Cern., Ilist. Albig., cap. XLII., p. 592. Hist. de
las Faicts, etc., p. 29. Ber. Guidonis, Vita Innocentii III., p. 482.




102          TtIE HUGUENOTS.
C IHAP T E    VII.
THE REVOLT.
AT length even the timid patience of Count Baymond of Toulouse was exhausted. He had surrendered every thing, promised every thing, submitted
to every thing, in his efforts to court a reconciliation
with the church. But cozened and maltreated by
the perfidious minions of the pontifical see, he was
now goaded to desperation, and like the hunted
stag, turned at bay. Well would it have been for
his knightly fame and for his Christian honor if,
instead of faltering so long, he had at the outset
united with his nephew in the defence of their
mutual states.
He now formed a close alliance with the counts
of Corniges and of Foix, with Gaston, viscount of
Bearn, Savary de Mauldon, seneschal of Aquitaine,
and the other lords of those provinces who were
accused of heresy or of tolerance, and whose interests were united with his own.*
Count Raymond also negotiated a treaty of
offence and defence with Don Pedro of Aragon;
and gathering his forces well in hand, dashed with
gallant purpose against the invaders of his country.f
0 Sism., Hist. of Albig., p. 95.    t Ibid.




THE REVOLT.                 103
De M;:ntfort also was at the head of a fine
army, iDure(d to danger, well disciplined, and accustomed to victory.
HIe first advanced to Lavaur, a strong castle
five leagues distant from Toulouse. This strong.
hold, afterwards raised to the rank of an episcopal
see, was then the property of a widow named Guiraude, whom her brother Aimery de Montreal had
recently joined, with eighty other knights like himself despoiled by the crusaders of their fiefs. Aimery, Guiraude, and most of their defenders, were all
open believers in the  taudois creed.  They had
opened an asylum to those of the reformed who
were persecuted in the various adcjacent villages; so
that their fortress, which was kept well stored and
well manned, and which was surrounded with strong
walls and girded with deep ditches, was esteemed
one of the principal seats of the heresy."
The defence of Lavaur was long and stubborn.
But at length the fanaticism, the numbers, and the
pernicious skill of the crusaders triumphed; the
city was taken by assault, and De Montfort, beholding his too ardent soldiers already busied in the
work of indiscriminate massacre, besought them
rather to make prisoners, that the priests of the
living God might not be deprived of their promised
joys.t "Very soon" —we here quote from the narrative of the monk of Vaux Cernai, himself an eyewitness of the scene-" they dragged out of the
O Petri Vail. Cern., Hist. Albigens, cap. XLIX., p. >596.
t Ibid.




104           THE HUGIUENOTS.
castle Aimery de Montreal and other knights to
the number of eighty. The noble count of lMontfort immediately ordered these to be hanged; but
as Aimnery, the stoutest of them, was strung up, the
gallows fell, for in their haste the executioners hlad
not well fixed it in the ground. The count, seeing
that this would cause great delay, ordered the rest
to be massacred; and the pilgrims receiving the
command with the greatest avidity, very soon slew
them on the spot. The lady of the castle, who was
a sister of Aimery and an execrable heretic, was,
by the count's order, thrown alive into a pit, which
was slowly filled up with stones. Afterwards our
pilgrims collected the innumerable heretics who
had fled to this citadel, and burned them alive with
the utmost joy."*
Such is the gloating recital of an unblushing
monk who was at once the witness and the panegyrist of these freezing horrors.
The crusaders quitted the ruins of Lavaur to
hasten forward to the siege of Toulouse, Count
Raymond's capital.
" This city," says Sismondci, "was far from having been completely converted to the reformation
of the Vaudois; the Romanists still composed the
greater number of the inhabitants, though the Vandois were numerous and counted their disciples
Q Petri Vall. Cern., Hist. Albigens, cap. LIII., pp. 598, 599.
This account is confirmed by Bernardi Guidonis in the Vita Innocenti III, p. 482, where we are informed that four hundred of the
Vaudois M ere burned at Lavanu'.




THE REVOLT.                105
among the most enlightened citizens. The magistrates, when asked why they did not drive out the
heretics, replied,'We cannot; we have been brought
up among them, we have relations among them, and
we daily witness the goodness of their lives.' The
Romanism of Toulouse was therefore very different
from that of Northern France. The proverbial imprecation,' I would rather be a priest, tihan have done
such7t a thing,' was as common in Roman as in Yaudois mouths. Indeed the Romanism of Toulouse
was so unnaturally liberal, owing to the leaven of
the Reformation, as quite to justify the indignant
affirmation of the most ancient historian of the crusade, that Toulouse ought rather to be called Tota
dolosa."'
Still the bishop Fouqu6t had imbued a number
of the most ignorant citizens with his own fanaticism.  These formed themselves into a society
called TIPe White Coinan2y, five thousand of whom
had joined De IMontfort beneath the walls of Lavaur.t  This society had erected a tribunal by its
own authority, before which it dragged those who
were accused by its spies of being  taudois. The
partisans of the IReformation, reinforced by tLhe
friends of toleration, formed a counter association
called Thle Black Company, whose object it was to
resist and punish the lawless outrages of the fanatics. These two troops met often in the streets,
armed, and with ensigns displayed; and many
* Sismondi, History of the Albigenses, p. 99.
t Ibid.
5*




106          THE HUGUENOTS.
towns, which belonged to one side or the other,
were alternately besieged.*  "Thus," says William
Puy Laurens, a contemporaneous chronicler, "did
our Lord, by the ministry of his servant the bishop,
instead of a bad peace, excite among them a good
war." t
But while Fouqu6t was striving to kindle a war
among his flock, Count lRaymond was busied in
restoring peace among his subjects. He succeeded
so well that, when De M3ontfort appeared before
the city and summoned it to surrender, the united'oice of the city spoke in the tone of the consul,
who said that Toulouse refused either to renounce
its fidelity to its count, notwithstanding his excommunication, or to deliver up to punishment those of
its citizens who were suspected of cherishing the
Vaudois tenets.t
Fouqu6t, bitterly angered at this refusal, instantly called in his priests, assembled them in a
body at the cathedral, excommunicated all the Toulousians, and then quitted the city barefoot at the
head of his monks, who carried the holy sacrament
in the procession andcl chanted litanies as they
marched.~
However, Toulouse did not suffer the fate to
which its charitable bishop had deserted it. On' Guill. de Podie Laur., cap. XV., p. 675.
t Ibid, p. 675
T Sism., Hist. Albigen., p. 100. Fleury, Hist. Eccles. de lae
Faicts de Tolosa, p. 30.
~ Petri Vall. Cern., cap. LV., p. 600.




THE REVOLT.                    107
the contrary, Count Raylmond  assisted  by the
counts of Foix and of Comliges, so pressed De
Montfort, that he was not only compelled to raise
the siege of Toulouse, but to retreat in his turn
before the victorious Provenlal  squadrons to the
shelter of one of his strong-holds, Castelnaudory.*
But De Montfort's cry for aid soon brought
another swarm of fanatics to his assistance. Count
Raymond was repulsed. The country which, in his
hour of misfortune, had vented its hate against him
by rising in universal insurrection and spewing
forth his garrisons, was again furiously harried;
while Count Raymond retired into Aragon to recruit his forces and to form a junction with his
royal ally and kinsman.t
3Marked by these and similar vicissitudes, several years passed sadly by.  In the autumn of 1213
the disastrous battle of Murdt was fought, in which
king Pedro of Aragon, who had generously advanced to reinstate his brother in his dignities, lost
his life,:~ and Count Raymond's star, with that of
religious toleration, seemed for ever sunk below
the angry horizon.
The ferocious activity of De Montfort was not
decreased by the victory of Mur6t, or by the voluntary exile of Count Raynmond in the Aragonese ter* Petri Vall. Corn., cap. 55, p. 601.
t Preuves de l'Iistoire de Languedoc, p. 232. Iist. de Ias
Faicts, etc., p. 38. Lettre des Habitants de Toulouse a Pierre,
Roi d'Aragon.
t Raynaldi, Annal. Eccl., 1213, p. 249. Joan Marianme, Iiest.
Hlisp., cap. 2, p. 558.




108          THE HUGUENOTS.
ritories. Entering upon that unhappy nobleman's
vacant countship, he ravaged it for the third time
from corner to corner, and himself assuming the
reins of government, with the congenial Fouquet as
his adviser, gave full sway to his bigotry and insatiable ambition.
In 1216, Pope Innocent III. died.*  His pontificate had been one of the most stormy and arbitrary in the papal annals. Possessed of remarkable
executive talent, and of an ambition as far reaching
as that of Lucifer,'no one of the popes, excepting
perhaps Hildebrand, had done so much to consolidate the Roman despotism. He was merciless in
the execution of his ecclesiastical projects, steeled
against the presumptuous wretch who ventured to
reject his creed, impious in his profanation of G:od's
name and of the cross of Christ, and his memory is
burdened with the inception of the Inquisition, with
the incorporation of the most perfidious maxims
into the canons of his church, and with the curses
of those innocent children of the Most High, the
Vanudois, whom  his stentorian voice, echoing over
Europe, first taught the nations to persecute.
3Meantime Count Raymond was not idle. Secretly informed of all that was passing in Provence,
he learned with joy that the barbarous and iron
rule of Simon de M3ontfort was felt to be intolerable by the most tolerant people on the face of the
globe. The inhabitants of Toulouse dispatched an
embassy to invite him to return to them, and pledg.
* Bernardi Guidonis, Vita Innocentii III.




THE REV OLT.                109
ing themselves to support him with the heartiest
and most loving zeal.*
Encouraged by these attestations of attachment,
the count raised an army in Aragon and Catalonia,
at the head of which, after some reverses, he finally
marched, in 1217, into Provence, entering once more
his ancient capital amid the joyous acclamations of
the populace.De Montfort's mingled fanaticism and ambition
made him  equal to the occasion. Instantly dispatching Fouquet, bishop of Toulouse, with James
de Yitry, the historian of the last combats of the
HIoly Land, into France, to preach a new crusade,
he summoned his brother Guy de Montfort and
his son Amanury to his side, and hastening towards
Toulouse, hoped to attack it before the citizens
could rebuild their levelled walls, and while, haunted] by the meimory of former chastisements, they
yet hesitated between affection and fear.%:
Appearing before the capital early in September, the crusaders at once m1ade a vigorous assault.
They were as vigorously hurled back into the surrounding ditches; while Sinmon's brother Guy, together with his nephew the count of B3igorre, fell
dangerously wounded.
De Montfort then commenced a regular siege,
at the same time sending his wife Alice of 3Montmlorency to the court of Phllilip Augustus, to solicit
* Histoire de las Faicts de Tolosa, p. 45.
t Hist. Albigenses, cap. LXXXIV., LXXXV., p. 662. Sism,
Eist. Albig., p. 143.        t Fleury, tHist. Eccles.




110           THE HIUGUENOTS.
his aid.* Meantime the siege proved tedious. Prolonged through the winter, it dragged ineffectually
into the ensuing spring and summer. Daily darting from their citadels, the Toulousians stung their
besiegers with constantly increasing venom.
At length, on the 25th of June, 1218, Count R.ayinond made a sally, and pushing resolutely towards
one of De Montfort's most destructive engines,
called a "cat," because with its ponderous paw it
beat breaches in the wall, captured it.
The butcher of the Vaudois was at mass when
the news of the sortie was brought to him. Instantly arming himself, he headed his men-at-arms,
and charged fiercely to the rescue of his favorite
engine.  He was successful.  The Vaudois were
repulsed. But while De Mioontfort stood with his
battalion before the unwieldy paw of his strange
machine, an enormous stone, cast with Titanic
power and with vengeful certainty fron a catapulta
upon the city walls, struck the redoubted monster
full upon the head, and hurled him  maimed and
lifeless to the ground, while his countenance was
still distorted with a grin of sardonic satisfaction
on account of his latest and last success.t
Amaury de Montfort, the dead fanatic's son and
heir, collected his scattered and affrighted soldiers,
l- Hist. de las Faicts d'Armas de Tolosa, p. 93.
t Petri Valli Cernai, Hist. Albigen., cap. LXXXVI., p. 664.
Guil. de Podie, cap. XXX., p. 684. Hist. de las Faicts de folosa,
p. 94. Hist. de Languedoc, liv. XXIII., chap. XXVIII-, p. 303,
Sismr., Hist. Albigenses, p. 150.




THE REVOLT.                       111
and receiving their homage and oath of fidelity as
his father's successor in the usurped countship of
Toulouse, for a little longer persisted in the siege
of the jubilant city.
But in vain.  In the latter days of July, 1218, he
retired with his shattered cohorts into Carcassonne,
-where De lMontfort was buried with great pomp.*
* Petri Vallis Cern., Hist. Albig., cap. XXXVI., p. 664. Guil.
de Podie, cap. XXX., p. 684. Hist. de las Faicts de Tolosa, p.
94. Hist. de Languedoc, liv. XXIII., ch. XXVIII., p. 303. Sismondi, Hist. Albig., p. 150.




112         THE HUGUENOTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FINAL MASSACRE.
FoR a few brief years Provence enjoyed comparative repose. Its singular fertility, which the
Vandal hoof of war was unable to tread out, soon
made Languedoc begin once more to smile. After
De 3Iontfort's death, the demon of fanaticism fle-l
with a shriek. Count Raymond, old and broken,
delegated his government to his son Raymond VII.,
already rendered illustrious by high exploits, and
who, possessed of a more experienced constancy
and of a loftier character, seemed destined for a
happier reign.*
Rome, torn by internecine broils, and ruled by
the irresolute sceptre of Honorius III., who had
succeeded the grasping Innocent, appeared to relax
its vigilance.  Northern -Europe, engaged in preparing for another crusade against the Saracens,
was for a moment oblivious of Provence, where her
knights considered that they had drowned the Vaudois church in the blood of its martyrs. Philip
Augustus, busied in the west in wrenching English
France from the craven grasp of king John, was
inclined to temporize with the Provengals. The
Vaudois nobles had united and driven out Amanry
de Mlontfort from the viscounty of Alby and Be* Sism., Hist. Crusade against the Albigenses, p. 144.




THE FINAL MASSACRE.                113
ziers, installing the son and heir of the murdered
prince, Raymond Roger, in his rightful states. The
horizon was lit up with a deceptive brilliancy-too
soon, alas, followed by the devastating storm — and1
the Vaudois church, rising from  the sea of gore,
enjoyed an apparent resurrection, and with unshaken constancy relumed the lamp of the ancient
aitlh.*
After the extinction of a fire, some sparks will
still lie concealed under the ashes. These, fanned
by the gale, may kindle a new flame, which, after
devouring all the combustible matter within its
reach, will in its turn be quenched.  So the momentary toleration in Provence recalled the preachers of the crusades, reattracted the attention of Europe, reawoke the napping fanaticism of the faithful, and launched a new horde of brutal enthusiasts
upon the Vaudois, so that those of them who had
escaped the first massacre were mostly involved in
the searching destruction of the second.
In 1222, while the gathering tempest soughed
ominously in the scowling heavens, but before the
fell fury of the storm burst, Raymond YI. died suddenly at Toulouse.t Though this prince had shown
neither distinguished talents nor force of character;
though he had been early induced to assent to what
he disapproved, and to inscribe his name among
a, On the renewed progress of the Vaudois, not only in Provenea, ult, in Leon and Galicia, see Jo. Mariana de rebus Hispan.,
lib. II., cap. V., p. 556.
t Sismondi's History of the Albigenses, p. 165.




114          THE HUGUENOTS.
those who came to ravish his country, and who
cherished the secret purpose of depriving him of
his heritage; though he had submitted with patient
feebleness to all the ecclesiastical censures, to all
the personal outrages which the legates, the pope,
and the council of the Lateran could heap upon
him, yet he died regretted and loved by his Vaudois
subjects, who did not forget that he had incurred
all this contumely by his indulgence towards them;
that he had abhorred the bloodshed and racking
tortures inflicted upon his states by the crusaders;
and that, spite of the persuasion with which the
crusaders had succeeded in inspiring him, that his
religious duty as well as his temporal interest
demanded these persecutions, he had always done
his utmost to check the barbarous zeal of the executioners.
His administration had been gentle.  Public
liberty in the cities, commerce, manufactures, science, poetry-all had made rapid progress under
his fostering care. But he was accused of feeling
compassion for heretics. For this reason he was
not only persecuted through life, but the spiteful
vengeance of Rome followed him even for ages after
death. His son could never obtain the honors of
sepulture for his body. His coffin was deposited
near the burial-ground of St. John of Toulouse,
waiting the permission of the holy see for its interment. It was still there in the middle of the fourteenth century; but as it was only of wood, and as
no one took care for its preservation, it was broken,




THE FINAL MASSACRE.                115
and his bones were dispersed in the sixteenth century. The skull alone of the hapless count was
long preserved in the c7hateau of the Hospitallers of
St. John of Toulouse, to which order iRaymond VI.
had once belonged.*
In the year following the death of thile count of
Toulouse, 1223, Philip Augustus breathed his last.t
One of the ablest kings since the weighty sceptre
of Charlemagne swayed Europe, he aspired to consolidate an empire as vast as that of his great predecessor. He did indeed add materially to the grandeur of medieval France, leaving to his successor
an enlarged kingdom whose resources were carefully husbanded.
The ferocious bishop Fouqu.t, who was at
Rheims on the accession of Louis YIII., better
known in history as Saint Louis, eagerly seized that
opportunity to enlist the superstitious young king
in a new crusade against the Yaudois. Louis listened approvingly to the seductive eloquence of the
renegade troubadour, ordered the sacred war to be
preached throughout France, persuaded Honorius
III. to kindle the zeal of Europe at large, and then,
arming with avidity, swept like a vulture to the
banquet of blood.$
Then the cruelties of De Montfort's regime were
* Sism., Hist. Albigenses, Eng. transl., p. 166.
f Chronique St. Denys, p. 416. Raynaldi, Annal. Eccles.
Fleury, Hist. Eccles.
J Preuves de l'Hist. de Languedoc. Bernarcli Guiclonis, Vita
Ionorii III., p. 570. Matthew of Paris, p. 267, et Hist. de France,
p. 758.




116          THE HUGUENOTS.
reenacted. The crusaders had returned with seven
other devils worse than the first. Hell was once
more in. full chorus, while all good Romanists joined in the tune. Monks marched from city to city
preaching ferocity, and then facilitating by perfidy
the execution of their counsels. The fanatics pillaged towns and villages and castles; outraged
women, and even little girls; and then forming in
circles around the blazing stakes at which the Yaudois were burning, with an impious affectation of
devotion, chanted in unison the hymn Feni Creator,
while the wail of their tortured victims ascended to
the pitying heavens.@
No human calculation can ascertain with any
precision the dissipation of wealth, or the wanton
destruction of innocent life, which were the consequences of these crusades against a people whose
only crime was that their lives bloomed with the
beatitudes. Scarcely a peasant but reckoned some
member of his family cut short in the flower of his
days by fanatical violence; not one but had repeatedly seen his property ravaged and his household
insulted by the crusaders. Mliore than three quarters of the knights and landed proprietors of the
proscribed' territories had been despoiled of their
fiefs.t
Yet the sanguinary fury of fanaticism was not
glutted. In 1229, the council of Toulouse established the Inquisition in Provence as a permanent
* Sismondi, History of the Albigenses, p. 129.
t Ibid., p. 145.




THE FINAL MASSACRE.                117
institution.' The military power was reinforced by
the subtlety of the monks. A code of procedure,
framed for the express purpose of entrapping overcautious heretics into unsafe admissions, was publicly circulated among the inquisitors.t'
The Yaudois supported their doctrines by the
authority of the holy Scriptures-the most unlearned among them could repeat large portions of
the Bible by heart.  Therefore the first indication
of heresy was considered to be the citation either
of the epistles or of the gospels; the second was
any exhortation against the vices of the day, or any
assertion of the necessity of a change of spirit ill
order to be saved; and the third was to show any
compassion to the prisoners of the Inquisition.:
The Council of Toulouse decided that the reading of the sacred Scriptures should not be permitted.  "We prohibit," says the fourth canon of that
memorable council, "the laity from  having the
books of the Old and New Testaments, unless it be,
at the most, that any one wishes to have, from devotion, a psalter, a breviary, or the hours of the
blessed i~Mary; but we forbid them, even then, to
have these translated into the vulgar tongue."~
Another article read thus: "We command that
whosoever shall be accused of the  audclois -heresy,
or be noted with suspicion, shall be deprived in
* Lambock, Hist. Incqui. Matthew of Paris, etc.
t Hist. de Languecloc. Sism., pp. 233-235.  $ Ibid.
~ Labbei, Concil. Tolosau, 1. 11, p. 427, et seq. Fleury, HIist
Eceles., liv. 79, p. 58.




118           THE IIUGUENOTS.
sickness of the assistance of a physician.  Like.
wise, when a sick person shall hlave receivecl the
holy communion of his priest, it is our will that he
be watched with the greatest care to the day of
death or convalescence, that no heretic, nor any one
suspected of heresy, may have access to such a
one.
A little later, when executions became less frequent because it was more difficult to procure Vaudois for their autos da fe, it was decreed, that the
scent of the human hounds might be rendered
keener by a bribe, that the confiscated property of
a heretic should be shared between the spy who
denounced and the judge who condemned him.'t
The philosophy of Rome in these measures is
evident.  The reform had arisen from the first advancement in literature, and from  the application
of judicious reason to religious instruction.  By
thickening the darkness, by striking the developing
nmind and conscience of Christendom with a blight,
this fermentation could be arrested, and mankind
would bow once more in blind submission to their
hereditary belief. "I can never admit," wrote Pasquier to the IDominican president, Brulart, " that
the material arms of De Montfort would have overcome the Vaudois without the holy exhortations
and the inquisitorial compulsions of St. Dominic
and St. Francis."T:
Labbei, Concil. Tolosau, 1. 11, p. 427, et seq. Fleury, Iist,
Eccles., liv. 79, p. 58.
t IRaynaldi, Annal. Eccles., A. 1231, 16 et 17.
$ Q-r  d ill Browning, Hist. Hiuguenots, p. 17




THE FINAL MASSAChE.              119
The Vaudois met their fate with the meek heroism of the earliest Christians. Very few renounced
their faith.*  Blood never ceased to flow, nor the
flames to devour their victims in these provinces,
now completely abandoned to the dark fanaticism
of the inquisitors. Tranquillity was never restored,
persecution was never suspended, even by the death
of its victims. The Provencals lived in a protracted
agony.
Still the war raged. The French king had another motive besides the extirpation of heresy for
its prosecution. The struggle had a political phase.
The French court desired to round the empire into
symmetrical form by adding to it these provinces,
which bathed their feet in the blue waters of the
MIediterranean.t  As this object was not definitively accomplished until the year 1243,: the "sacred war" continued to devastate those fields which
should have been covered by the richest harvests of
the south, those cities which had been animated by
commerce, industry, and intelligence, and to butcher
that noble population whose devotion to their faith
is the grandest legacy which the history of that time
has bequeathed to posterity.
Beneath the accumulated tortures to w-hich they
were subjected the Vaudois melted slowly away.
Their opinions ceased to influence society. The
ProvenSal faith was no longer moulded on the
primitive apostolic model. By the middle of the
* Fleury, Hist. Eccles.
t Sism., Hist. Albigen., p. 242.    t Ibid., pp. 926, 2727




120          THE HUGUENOTS.
thirteenth cenitury the Vaudois had apparently dis.
appeared. Terror was still extreme, suspicion universal. Though the teaching of the proscribed
doctrine had seemingly ceased, yet the sight of a
book caused a slucldder, and ignorance was a salutary guarantee of safety.*
The Vaudois died as grandly as they lived. No
refinement of torture could rack from their suffering lips a disavowal of their belief.  Often they
scorned to stoop even to concealment. Entering
voluntarily the lurid fires of the Inquisition, they
showed how  martyrs could die for "Christ and
liberty." Gaining strength from the devotional
rapture of St. Paul, they earned a right to repeat
\With him,
"What shall we then say to these things?  If
God be for us, who can be against us? He that
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for
us all, how shall he not with him also freely give
us all things?
" Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's
elect?  It is God that justifieth. Who is he that
condemneth?  It is Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written,
For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are
accounted as sheep for the, slaughter. Nay, in all
* Sism., Hist. Albigenses, p. 238.




TIHE FINAL MASSACRE.             121
these things we are more than conquerors, through
him that loved us.
"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord."*
* Romans 8: 31-39.




1.22        THE HE1U GUENOTSo
CHAPTER IX.
THE INTE RRE GNUM.
THE crime against the Vaudois was not the
separate wickedness of a single nation. It was a
mosaic of infamy, the legitimate, inevitable offspring of an ecclesiasticism which had employed
every art to pervert the understanding and to corrupt the heart.
The Italian, Innocent III., first gave the signal
for this outrage upon human nature; and he also
bestowed the recompense. He continually sharpened the swords of the murderers, blunted in
slaughter. When the fanaticism of Europe drooped, weary in its madness, he aroused it once more
to raving fury by his clamorous appeals.
The two Spaniards, the bishop of Ozma and
St. Dominic, the founders of the Inquisition, first
taught the perfidious art of seeking out in the villages those whom the priests were afterwards to tie
to their stakes.  The Germans, invited by their
monks, flocked from the extremities of Austria to
glut their faith in massacre. And the English
Mlatthew Paris renders zealous testimony to the
activity of his countrymen in the same abandoned
cause, and to their triumphant joy at the miracle —




THE INTERREGN UM.              123
for so lie called the treachery of Beziers* —.which
had avenged the Lord.t
But the crime from which individual nationalities are to be absolved, is to be laid upon the conscience of Europe at large, and especially upon the
pernicious counsels of the lRoman church, which
incited it, and juggled mankind into believing that
the elect could be saved by a baptism of innocent
and Christian blood.
Thus the reformation, of which the church had
so much need, the light which was to illuminate
the mind, to restore to morals their purity, to reason its empire, and to religion its pristine flavor
and omnipotence, was repelled for three whole centuries, and even much longer with regard to those
Italian and Spanish provinces which spoke the
Romanesque languages.
The Vaudois taught too soon. Spreading their
pure instructions through all the countries of the
western empire in the superstitious infancy of Europe; called to combat with an established and
arrogant ecclesiasticism-while the intellect of the
Sclavonic, the Latin, the Anglo-Saxon, and the Germanic nations was not yet sufficiently awake to
perceive the light, but saw men as trees walkingthey had no fulcrum upon which to rest their lever.
Their truth was throttled by the mailed hand of
R-tome.
As in the impious days of the crucifixion, "from
e See Chapter 5, p. 75, anid onwards.
t Matthew of Paris, London edition, p. 203.




124          THE HIUGUENOTS.
the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land
unto the ninth hour,"* so now, when Christ was
crucified again in the person of his gospel, an awful darkness intervened. A frightful interregnum
-rawned through three hundred years.
The Vatican smiled happily. It flattered itself
that it had for ever fettered the human mind, that
it had for ever choked the wail of outraged conscience, that it had for ever crushed the insurrection of the soul. The Vatican was mistaken. The
interregnum meant postpozement, not conquest. For
two hundlred years the fires had been kindled, yet
still at intervals Romanists abandoned the faith of
their fathers to embrace that which must lead them
to the flames. In vain did the Inquisition essay to
compel the unfetterable mind to submission, and
to establish an invariable rule of faith.  It saw
in the midst of the darkness which it had created somne luminous points loom up on the horizon.  It saw those sparks which: it thought that
it had for ever quenched, but scattered by its
folly, to light the universe once more. It had no
sooner conquered, than it was obliged to renew
the combat.
The Vaudois were not exterminatedcl, they were
only dispersed. Proscribed, far from their country, now no more theirs, alas, they wandered from
the shores of the Mediterranean to the borders of
the frozen sea, from the Carpathian mountains to
the Orkney islands. ~Many also found their way
0 St. Matthew 27:45.




THE INTERREGN U1A.              125
into those obscure Piedmontese valleys which had
been the cradle of their reform.*
Finding an asylum in the cottages of the peasants or poor artisans, whose labors they shared in
profound secrecy, they taught their hosts to read
the gospel in common, to pray in their native tongue
without the ministry of priests, while they themselves continued to praise God and to submit gratefully to the chastisements which his hand had inflicted as the means of their sanctification.
The sufferings which they had endured for their
sake made them cherish their tenets with the most
reverential awe, and hand them down from generation to generation unaltered, uncorrupted, embalmed in the traditions of the Languedocian massacre.
Unable under the jealous eye of Rtome to enjoy
the external consolations of religion, they were shut
up still more to internal communion. They ceased
to care for the visible world. They placed their
hands in God's, and sobbed their griefs away upon
His heart who is the great Consoler. They believed
that heaven was the substantial world, that its joys
were the real joys, even for the body and the sense,
and that there was no delight except as it fiowed
from God into heaven, and as it descended from
heaven into time.
Though robed in rags, they esteemed themselves
clothed more richly than the earth is when she
makes herself gay with flowers for her summer
* Sism., Hist. Albig. Bossuet, list. des Variations. Calvin's
Letters, etc.




126          THE HUGUENIOTS.
bridegroom; more richly than the firmament is
when it wraps round itself the jewelled mantle of
the stars, puts constellations beneath its feet and,
sunlight galaxies upon its head. For the joy of.
God is woven into garments more splendid than
those which wrap the flaming spheres.
The truths of salvation which Christ had taught,
which he had embalmed for ever by his sacred sufferings, by the bloody sweat, and by the death on
Calvary, were to them august beyond all pictured
magnificence, radiant beyond all starry and all solar splendors, sweeter than the embodied essences
of all odors which the spring pours in her jewelled
cup before God, more musical than the harmonies
that swell in grand cathedrals, that echo from hill
and vale in summer woods, that come borne in soft
sweetness in the happy talk of lovers, in the song
of storied saints, in voices of rapture pulsing by
moonlight over time's dim sea. Before the supernal vision of God's judgment they could only kneel
in speechless adoration; if they tried to sing, the
hymn wailed out but brokenly through the imperfect human instrument.
After their dispersion, the Yandois seemed to
vanish from the sullen history of the time. Seeking safety in obscurity, they no longer, to the superficial observer, appeared to impress their creed
upon the human mind.  Yet a deeper view discloses that they were the scatterers of God's seed
in the furrows of these centuries, that they carried
the unflickering taper of the gospel from which the




THE INTERREGNUM5.             127
later reformers were enabled to light their torches.
They were the bridge which spanned the black
abyss which yawned between the overthrow of the
Y audois church in Languedoc and the birth of
Luther.
Though it is not clear that any of the Provenral
Christians established themselves in England, it
can hardly be doubted that Wickliffe acquired his
first evangelical conceptions from their preachers.
Wickliffe was a profound politician before he became a luminous teacher of divinity. A favorite at
the court of St. James, he was dispatched in early
life by Edward III. on several diplomatic missions
to the popes at Rome and Avignon. Travelling
therefore through the south of France at a time
when the Vaudois were hunted and burned with
patient vindictiveness, his acute and inquiring mind
could not but occupy itself with investigating the
grounds of their dissent.* A little later, Wickliffe
held and publicly taught precisely the same tenets
which he had seen men roasted alive for holding in
Provence.
It may therefore be legitimately concluded that
the Yaudois convinced the great Englishman that
the church of Rome itself was wallowing in heresy.
Mlany of the Yaucdois took refuge in Germany
and in Bohemia, where Peter Waldo, their most
celebrated teacher, had found an asylum when driven by priestly spite from his native Lyons, from. Browning, Hist. Huguenots, p. 16. Life of Wickliffe, London, 1783, p. 63,




128          THE HUGUENOTS.
Dauphiny, from Picardy, from Saxony; and where
he had died surrounded by the Bohemian mountaineers, the ancestors of Huss and Jerome.*  Thus
it was that God inoculated Bohemia with the truths
of primitive Christianity. When Wickliffe's writings became known, the Bohemian  audclois rallied,
and resumed existence as an independent evangelical church.t
An interesting historical episode proves that
there were still some Yaudois remaining in Southern France in the middle of the fifteen'th century.
It is recorded that the  aucdois of the towns of Cabrieres and  erincldole, upon being menaced by the
inquisitors-always busy, always ubiquitous through
these sad years —dispatched deputies to Louis XII.
to plead their cause before that able and just king.
Although the priests strove to prevent it, they
secured an audience.  The Vaudois ambassadors
declared that they received and taught the plenary inspiration of the holy Scriptures, the apostles'
creed, the decalogue, and the Christian sacraments;
but that they did not acknowledge the authority of
the pope, nor adopt the antichristian dogmas of the
Romish Babylon. Louis, surprised at the intelligence, moderation, and Christian appearance of the
deputies, sent an envoy to inquire on the spot if
their assertions were indeed correct. The commissioner, on his return, reported " that in those parts
* Waddington, Hist. Chh. previous to the Reformation, p. 292.
t L'Enfant, Hist. de la Guerre des Hussites, et du Concile de
Bale.




THE IN'TERREGNUMI.               129
baptism was administered; that the articles of faith
and the ten commandments were taught; that the
Sabbath was solemnly observed; that the word of
God was intelligently expounded, while portions of
it were familiar to the most unlettered rustics; and
that as to the fornications and poisonings of which
they were accused, no instance of either could be,
found."  "W Tonderful!" ejaculated Louis; "these
people are much better Christians than myself and
all the rest of my orthodox subjects; let them remain undisturbed."  And thisfiat of the king was
respected scrupulously throughout his life.*
For some generations the Piedmontese Vaudois,
although known to exist, were suffered to remain in
despised security.tJ  But this may have been owing
to the fact that the latter part of the thirteenth century and the commencement of the fourteenth were
occupied with the fierce struggles between the rival
factions in Italy of the Guelphs and Ghibelines. It
is also possible that the preaching of another crusade in the East,4: Europe's last mighty effort to
wring the IHoly Sepulchre from the Saracen, left
their persecution to abate.
But the Vaudois barely sufficed to keep aglow
the sinking embers of the gospel in these dismal
ages. Huss with his Bohemians, Wickliffe with his
Lollards, were in too fearful a minority to inaugurate any thing but feeble local reforms, trodden
* Lampe, [Hist. Eccl., p. 291. Browning, IHist. Huguenots, p. 1GC
Turretin, Hist. Eccl.  t Wadcldington, lfist. Chh., p. 292.
I Hallam, Hist. Middle Ages.




130           THE HUGUENOTS.
down, with those who launched them, as soon as
the Roman sentinels descried them from the Vatican. They were powerless to reshape the character
of their epoch; their opinions did not mould society
at large.  They could only wait and suffer and
pray, floating down the centuries faith personified.
As proverbially it is darkest just before the
mlorning smiles, so now the gloom  wrapped the universe, thick, impenetrable, ominous. Then came
those days never to be remembered without a blush,
the age of dwarfish virtues and gigantic vices; the
epoch of unreasoning superstition and unbridled
wrong; the paradise of bigots.  Swarms of licentious priests swept through Europe, sparing neither
man in their wrath nor woman in their lust. The
misshapen carcass of nominal Christianity lay huge
and drunken across Christendom.  Grown lazy with
wicked prosperity, Rome was almost too indolent
to persecute.
Decked out in her gaudy rags, gay with silk
and velvet and satin, the gilded and painted strumpet of the papacy thought only of ietes, of feasts, of
dances, of pantomimes; the very services of the
altar -were turned into a carouse.*  The church
traded, like a Jewish huckster, in the relics of saints,
and bartered her usurped rights for gold with which
to fill her coffers, emptied in debauchery.t Pontiffs, like Alexander YI., bloated with wine, with
murder, with adultery, with incest, sat as God, in
* D'Aubigne, Hist..Ref., vol. 1, passim.. ]icdiel6t, Life of Martin Luther, p. 20.




THE INTERREGINUM.                  131
the temple of God, with horrible profanity cursing
the saints, and bestowing the apostolic benediction
upon sinners with  drunken gravity.*  Indecent
orgies were daily held in the Vatican, which were
openly attended by the pontifical mistresses.  Europe was surrendered to the domination of demons,
while pandemoniuml held wild jubilee.
"Thus all did turn degenerate, all depraved,
Justice andl temperance, truth andl faith forgot."t
But God had long been preparing the way to
a glorious reformation by a baptism  of suffering.
This reformation was to be the result of two distinct forces, the revival of learning and the resurrection of the -gospel.  The latter was the great
motor power, but the former was necessary as a
means.:  The ignorance of Europe had enabled
Rome to stifle the cry of the Vaudois preachers.
There was no public opinion to which they could
appeal.  There existed but two classes in society,
lawless despots and breadless serfs.
The invention of printing insured the triumph
of nascent Protestantism. By emancipating Europe
from the thraldom of ignorance, it secured its deliverance from the harder slavery of Roman eccIesiasticism.  Faust, under God, dug Christendom out of
medieval Jesuitism.  Henceforth truth could not
be throttled.  Its  voice animated ten thousand
* Ranlke, list. of the Popes-Alexander VI.
Paradise Lost, book 11, p. 34, Mitford's edition.
t D'Aubigne, Hist. Ref. in Eng., p. 113.




132           TIE HIUGUENOTS.
never-weary witnesses.  It spoke trumpet-toned
and everlasting through the press.
Then came Luther.  He set before mankind
"The paths of righteousness, hcw much more safe
And full of peace, denouncing wrath to come
On their impenitence."
Thus Yaudoisism and learning, the study of the
classics, of Greek, of Hebrew, the dawn of an eager
and discriminating intelligence through the cultivation of letters, were the two laboratories of reform.  A few earnest souls had discovered the light
in lowly valleys; mankind were soon to discern it
upon the lofty mountain tops.




BESURRECTION OF REFORM.   133
C  APTERP  X.
THE RESURRECTION OF REFORM.
THE sixteenth century witnessed the resurrection of reform. The infant form of civil and religious liberty had been rocked in the cradle of an
earlier epoch, only to die in its bright youth. Now
the veil of the tomb was rent, and it came forth
armed with new strength. That era, like a first
conqueror, founded a new realm, the realm of opinion. Instantly the customary, the medieval, received a check. The scholastic methods of the universities began to recede before the progressive
spirit of emancipated philosophy.  The further
usurpations of paganized Christianity were vetoed
by the authoritative voice of primitive faith.
The new instinct was so full and active, that it
bubbled over into secondary spheres. It showed
itself even in architecture; and the Gothic towers
of the old royal keeps were replaced by creations
formed on the models of chaste ancient art.  It
showed itself in war, and the mailed, mounted chivalry went down before the infantry and the artillery
of innovating science.
MIoral and political Europe, equally rotten, began to be revolutionized. Now, as always before,
Rome set herself to subdue the rebellion against
her theology and her politics, using her old weap



134          THE HUGUENOTS.
ons, thumb-screws, racks, unearthly dungeons, and
slow fires, invoking the grim horrors of the Inquisition to aid her in chilling the rising lava-like enthusiasm for the truth.
But God was not mocked. IHe sat serenely in
the blue heavens, making the wrath of man to praise
himA. It had been decreed in His councils who is
from everlasting to everlasting, that the spiteful
drama in which Rome played the part of Sir Omnipotent should not be lengthened into further acts
without a vigorous and successful protest.
When the pontiffs condescended to recite the
articles of their belief to mediaeval Europe, the
Amen of Christendom was fiercely fervent. But at
length Leo X. stepped out upon the balcony of the
Vatican, and commenced to intone his creed: We
believe in the observance of the minutest trifles of
the ceremonial law;* we believe that human nature
is neither hereditarily corrupt nor intrinsically depiavyed;c;    we believe that the saints and martyrs
had a superfluity of merit, which they delegated to
the churcll, and which, placed in the huge tureen of
Rtome, may be ladled out to those hungry souls who
are willing to buy heaven with a price;T we believe
in the theoretical celibacy of the clergy;~ we believe in the dogma of monachism;1i we believe that
there exists in the priesthood of the holy see a me* Fleury, Eccl. Hist.
f Pelagius, in Aug. de Gratia Dei, cap. 4.
W Wvaddington, Hist. Chh.
~ Ibid., Pontificate of Hildebrand.
11 Ibid., p. 297.




RESURRECTION OF REFORM.  135
diatorial caste between God and man;* we believe
that the pope, sittinzy as God, in the temple of God,
cannot err;t  we believe that salvation is to be obtained by good works, by ave lJcia.rias, by penances,
and by gold..
And  when  the courtly  Medici's last cadence
died quite away, as he ended his impious recital,
while Europe stood ominously silent, a clear, resonant voice, echoing from  the heights of the obscure
town of Wittemberg, in semi-barbarous Germany,
replied, "Oh  nations, ye  have listened  to  Pope
Leo's Babylonian heresies: hark ye now  to  the
Christian truth; for thus saith the Lord God:'By
one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin; and so death passed upon all mien, for that all
* Bossuet, Institutes.
t D'Aubigne, Hist. Itef., vol. I., p. 50.      4 Ibid.
The ludicrous yet heated assertion of the papal infallibility,
made by all the RoIman philosophers and polemics, cannot but
excite a smile from the historical student. If it be true, the doctrine covers and makes right the lechery and the murders of Alexantder VI., the martial madness of Julius II., and the palpable errors of Leo X. It is also difficult to reconcile this claim with the
fact that for seventy-one years, from 1305 until 1376, there were
two infallible heads of the Roman church, one at Rtome, the other
at Avignon, each hating the other with mortal hatred, fulminating
decrees of excommunication against each other, and filling' the
universe with the noise of their dissensions. Pray, which of these
popes uttered the voice of God? which breathed forth idle wind?
Pope John XXII. was formally impeached in the early part of
the fourteenth century, by order of two faithful emperors, backed
by several prelates, before an ecclesiastical council held at Milan;
and his accusers endeavored to convict this infallible pontiff, this
vicar of Christ, of heretical depravity. And John was forced to
make a lame apology. Not only the heel, but the whole body of
this Achilles is vulnerable. See Waddington, Hist. Chh., p. 386.




136          THE HUGUENOTS.
have sinned. But not as the offence, so also is the
free gift. For if by one man's offence death reigned
by one; much more they which receive abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by one, Jesus Christ.' "'
By these words Luther launched the Reformation, whose soul was, salvation by faith in Jesus
Christ.
Then the mutterers of the mass. and the children
of the Bible joined battle to decide which should
shape the future.
That struggle was the epic of the isixteenth century.  The Roman publicists have affirmed, and
certain rationalistic philosophers on both sides of
the water have claimed, that it meant emancipation
from the dominion of the religious principle-that
it meant, not a reformataion, but an abolition of Christianity.
But the choral song of the Reformation was not
materialism.  The movement which Luther inaugurated, and which Calvin organized, did indeed clasp
hands with liberty and strike off chains; but only
as a logical result, not as its chief purjpose. The
object of the IReformation was, to reopen the path
by which God and man unite. This path, whichl
Christ had opened, had been blocked up in ages of
superstition by the worship paid the Yirgin, the
sa.ints, the host, by meritorious, magical, supererog..
atory works, by ecclesiastical formalities.t Mlen
* Romans 5, passinm.
t D'Aubigne, Ref. in the time of Calvin, vol. 1, p. 318.




RESURPRECTION OF REFORM.   137
awoke to protest; Protestantism arose from the
inner impulses of European life.
Religion was long the terror of the world. It
wvas attempted to'dissipate it by amusing nations,
or to pile it over with strata of society-a layer of
soldiers, over that a layer of lords, and a king on
top, with clamps of priests and hoops of castles.
But the religious sentiment would penetrate this
motley mountain which lay piled huge and unshapely upon the human conscience; it would burst
the hoops, and rive the earthy matter laid on top
of it.
"'The ethereal mould,
Incapable of stain, would soon expel
Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire,
Victorious. "
The reformers recognized the cheat, believed in
a real unity, heard the cry of smothered conscience
beneath the mountain of priest-caste which Rome
had reared with the patient labor of ages, involked
God's earthquake to topple it over; and as layer
after layer fell, while society grouped itself on the
level of faith in God, not in men, the angels themselves sang preans. The overthrow of an ecclesiastical oligarchy, God and man brought face to face
through faith in Christ, this was the yrand wor/k of
the Reformation, whjatever other beneficent results
might follow in its train.
So far was Protestantism from involving a principle contradictory to religion: it simply sought
to comprehend it, and to secure to mankind the lib* Paradise Lost, book 2.




138          THE HUGUENOTS.
erty to understand it, in a more spiritual and unselfish disposition, in opposition to a worldly priest.
hood;* it called on man to ground his faith, not on
the word of a priest, but on the infallible word of
God.
In 1519, two years after Luther had openly denied the infallibility of the church of Rome, the college of the Sorbonne, the most famous in medhieval
Europe, where Reuchlin had studied, where ErasInus had been graduated, but always the champion
of Latin orthodoxy, denounced the new opinions.
Twenty-four months later, the Parisian faculty of
theology published their memorable condemnation
of the Lutheran heresy.t
At the same time Leo X. was launching the
thunderbolts of the Vatican upon the Reformation
in Germany. Attracted by the universal hubbub,
scholars paused in the first flush of their enthusiasm for resuscitated learning, to look up from their
Greek text and inquire into the meaning of the din.
The fascination of ancient letters was forgotten for
a moment. Persons of the highest stations and of
the lowest became curious to examine and weigh
the merits of a controversy to which so much importance seemed attached. France especially was
in a fever of excitement. Authentic records show
that so early as 1523 there were in several of the
provinces of that realm, and particularly in Southern France, Languedoc, Provence, the ancient seats
* Ranke's Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, p. 131.
t Duncan, Religious Wars of France, Introduction.




BESURRECTION  OF REFORMt.    139
of the Vaudois creed, great numbers both of the
gentry and the commons who had embraced the
reformed tenets; and even some of the episcopal
order were tainted with Lutheranism.?
In 1519, two of Luther's ablest and nmost eloqulent disciples, M]artin Bucer, all fire and energy,
and clelancthon, the personification of calm, persuasive Christian philosophy, had visited France
and created a desire for reform.t
At the outset, the omens were favorable to the
reception of the new theology in France.  As the
abuses of Rome were wide-spread, ripe, and pregnant, the dissenters made many and rapid converts.
Francis I., who ruled the realm at the commencement of the Reformation, was the puppet of his own
vanity, inordinately fond of gayety, pomp, and dissipation.  Without fixed principles of religion, he
regarded questions of faith with indifference, so long
as they did not trench upon the domain of policy.
The historical rival of Charles V. of Spain, when
that cunning emperor temporized with the German dissenters, he also tolerated their brothers in
France.
Thus it was that the Reformation secured time
to ground itself in that kingdom; and this comparative immunity from  persecution, this portentous
stillness which ushered in a frightful storm, was so' Mosheim, Eccl. Hist.; vol. 4, p. 87.
t Brantome, Vie de Margaret, vol. 1, p. 384.  Maimbonrg,
Hist du Calvinisme, liv. 1, p. 10. Maimbourg complains of the
liberty which these insolent doctors took in venturing to interpret
tllhe Bible differently from Rome.




140           THE HUGUENOTS.
well employed that when the trial hour came, it was
found that half of France, headed by some of the
most historic names in her annals, were the clevo ted
disciples of the reformed theology?,
The numbers and influence of these disciples of
a pure faith soon made them loom up into importance. It began to be thought that they might
subvert the established religion.  Influenced by
this fear, and pushed on by the incessant solicitation of the churchmen resident at his cour't, as well
as by the active example of Charles V. in the Nethorlands, Francis I. was persuaded to persecute the
teformers, timidly at first, but finally with Titanic
energy.t
The French prelates, though immersed in the
lewd pleasures of the court, were too clear-sighted
not to see with alarm  the precipice upon which
their order stood. They had sanctioned the aid
furnished by Francis to foment the rebellion of the
German Protestants, in order that internecine broils
might weaken and perplex the political power of
Charles Y. [But they were not disposed to tolerate
the new opinions in France, lest their ascendency
should despoil them  of their revenues, as it had
already despoiled the Germanic bishops.  It was
the dread of pecuniary loss, rather than care for
religious unity, that urged these w6rldly and foppish prelates, lapped in luxury, bloated with pride,
and swollen with license, to desert for an instant
0 Davilla, Hist. des Guerres Civiles de la France, p. 20, folic
edition.   t Duncan, Religious Wars of France, Introduc.




RESURRECTION OF REFORM.    141
the arms of their mistresses, to button-hole the
king, and insist upon the adoption of sanguinary
measures for the extirpation of heresy; it was this
which impelled them to admonish Francis that the
maintenance of the old faith in its integrity would
be a full atonement for all the sins he had committed or might commit-would be a passport to paradise.
The effects of this policy of the courtier prelates
were soon experienced. On the 9th of June, 1523,
a severe edict against the heretics was published.*
Then, in the autumn of the middle ages, the reapers
of intolerant Rome went out into the field to glean
once more a bloody harvest.
The first step of the victorious priests, under the
king's decree, was to disperse an influential and
numerous congregation of reformers at MIeaux.'t
This city was in the episcopal see of William Brivonnlt, an earnest and devout churchman, who had
studied the canons of the Scripture as well as the
canons of the church, and who, animated by the
words of Luther, had himself ascended the pulpit,
proclaimed the doctrine of salvation by faith, and
conducted himself as a bishop should, by striving
to instruct his flock, by identifying his interests
with theirs, instead of neglecting them to immerse
himself, as most of his order did, in the unhallowed
dissipations of the gayest capital in Christendom.:
>: Maimbourg, Iist. du Calvinisme, liv. 1. Browning, Iist
Huguenots, p. 21.                     t Davilla.: Ratke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, pp. 133, 134.




142          THE HUGUENOTS.
But the platforms of the Sorbonne echoed with
denunciation. The "novelties" of BriSonndt were
placed under the ban, as the deviations of Wickliffe, of Huss, of Jerome, of Luther, had already
been, and the good bishop's instructive eloquence
died away in a stifled groan.*
Lefevre of Estaples was the friend and mentor
of Brigonn&t. This patriarch of the Reformation
had ventured to study the original records of the
faith, while Europe yet shivered in the chilly gloom
of superstition. He drew from the Pauline epistles
certain maxims concerning justification and faith,
which a little later formed the soul of the reformed
theology; and this indefatigable student, at the
advanced age of eighty, preserving his vivacity and
intellectual strength untouched by time, commenced
a translation of the Bible, which forms the basis of
the French version of the Scriptures.t
lFor a time Francis I. wavered in his determination. The fickle monarch, influenced by Erasmus,
then the learned idol of lettered Europe, befriended
Lefevre, and even established- a college for the cultivation of the ancient languages, in opposition to
the Sorbonne.;t The deep religious spirit of the
age touched for a moment the callous, selfish heart
of the knight-errant king.  With his mother and
sister he frequently read the Scriptures, and they
were heard to remark that the divine truth-which
seemed to them to be there-ought not to be de.
l Ranke, Civil Wars, etc., p. 133, 134.
t Ibid., pp. 132, 133.; Ibid., 137.




REtgSURRtIECTION OF REFORM.   143
nominated heresy. Luther was frequently lauded
at the court, while the Sorbonne sullenly lamented
that the persecution of the followers of the heretic
and the destruction of his writings, despite the
king's decree of the 9th of June, met with obstructions from the Louvre.
But Francis remained for a little under the
influence of his sister and the scholars of the empire. He even spoke of nullifying his edict, and
was heard to regret the dispersion of the M1eaux
assembly;* affirming at the same time that he saw
no reason why Roussel and Aranda-two celebrated orators of the Reformation- should not.
preach at the court.t
The shuttlecock king soon had a relapse. When
Erasmus nudged his elbow, he was tolerant; when
the prelates pointed to the rising tide of the reform,
and bade him beware lest it swamp his throne, he
grew alarmed.
The first symptom of the change was an audto
da fe.
In the initial days of the Reformation, Louis de
Berquin, one of the earliest opponents of the Sorbonne, an eminent scholar, an enthusiastic Christian, enjoyed the special favor of Francis, who, like
all pedants, loved to surround himself with titerati,
with artists, with sculptors, and who petted Leonardo da Vinci with one. hand, while he patted
French scholarship upon the shoulder with the
other.
ot I)avilla.      t Ranke, Civil Wars, etc., p, 136.




141          THE HIUGUENOTS.
Berquin's boldness soon impelled him to cross
swords with the Sorbonne. The consequence was,
that while his royal master, captured by Charles V.
at Pavia, languished in a Spanish prison, he lay in
the dungeons of the Inquisition. Francis, on his
return to France, liberated the incarcerated scholar,
who was no sooner out however, than, making it a
point of honor not to retire before his persecutors,
he recommenced the combat, undertaking to convict Beda, the syndic of the Sorbonne, of himself
holding heretical opinions.*
Berquin relied upon the monarch's support.
But meantime Francis, *who had hurled himself
upon Italy like an avalanche, was once more foiled
by the calm tactics of the wily emperor, and returned into his kingdom with shattered health, a
decimated army, and weakened authority; for, as
Eraszmus remarked in a warning to Berquin, the
king's defeat had weakened his domestic power.
The Sorbonne saw the opportunity, seized it,
actually secured the consent of the king to their
programme of procedure, and taking Berquin, in
1529, publicly burned him on the Place de Gr6ve.
The Parisian populace, over whom the preachers
of the Sorbonne exercised unlimited influence, are
said to have shown less sympathy for this hapless
victim than they ordinarily exhibited for the most
abandoned criminals.t
* Erasmus ad Carolurn Ulenhofium; cal. Jul., 1529.
t Ibid. "Sic omnium animos in illum excittirunt qui.....
nihil non possunt apud simplices et imperitos." Benoit, Ilist. de
FEdit de Nantes, vol. 1, p. 8.




RESURRECTION OF REFORM.  145
Francis I. never afterwards paused. The demon
of persecution took full possession of him. To the
end of his life he continued to slaughter his subjects with an indiscriminate malignity which bordered on frenzy.
To this chapter of persecution, the Jesuit Fleury
refers with an unfeeling jeer: "From time to time
some false prophet appeared upon the scene, to
publish his fanaticism or to sound the disposition
of the court. But repression was prompt: it cost
dear to one Berquin of Arras, to Jean Leclerc, a
wool-carder of Meaux, and to Jaques Parane, a clothier of Boulogne. They were all burned alive, and
a dread of the fire silenced the spirit of several oracles.  History doubtless mentions these despicable
names to perpetuate the reproach of their birth or
their impiety, rather than to celebrate these vile
founders of the Calvinistic church."*
IEail on, proud mocker, at God's lowly poor.
But these despised and scattered members of a
torn body were made one again in Jesus Christ;
while from  their ashes they spoke with grander,
more persuasive eloquenice than that with which
antique art endowed him who
" Fulmined over Greece
To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne."
* Hist. du Cardinal de Tournon, par le P. Charles Fleury, de
la Compagnie de Jesus, p. 215; Paris, 1728. This violent writer
must not be confounded with Claude Fleury, author of the:iat.
Eccles.
luluellt.           7




146          THE HUGUENOTS.
CHAPTER XI.
THE COURT OF FRANCIS I.
TnE opening phases of the Reformation bear
the impress of two illustrious women.
The first of these was Ren6e, duchess of Ferrara, and daughter of Louis XII. This lady had
been early won to adopt the resurrected tenets of
the gospel. Under the beautiful sky of fatal Italy
she listened to the hurried words of the flitting
reformers who ventured -to mutter their opinions in
an undertone even beneath the very throne of Leo
X. The situation of her husband's estates in the
near vicinity of Rome, made him fearful of exciting
either the temporal or spiritual wrath of the pontiff, lest that arbiter both of this world and the next
should pounce upon him and despoil him of his
heritage.
Therefore Renue concealed her sentiments during the duke of Ferrara's life. But a little later,
become a widow, she quitted the stifling atmosphere
of Italy, and taking possession of the castle of 3Montargis, an hour's ride from Paris, openly avowed
her adherence to the reformed theology, and gave
the warmest of welcomes to the evangelical preachers, besides offering to the persecuted the safest of
asylums.*
0 Brantome, vol. 1, page 328. Gibbon, Antiquities of the)




COURT OF FRANCIS I.                147
-The other of these ladies was Margaret de Yalois, queen of Navarre, the daughter, the sister, the
wife, the mother of kings, the greatest woman  of
lier age.
MIargaret, like Ren6e, had given her cordial
assent to the teachings of the "evangelicals,":t as
the French reformers were sometimes called.
The sister of Francis I. lived much at the court,
figured in state ceremonies and in the councils at
the Lonvre, at St. Germaine, at Fontainebleau; yet
she preserved her sweet simplicity, Iher religious
zeal, her calm faith, amid the wicked fascinations
of her brother's court, giving her heart to the three
things she loved best-the king, France, and the
gospel of her Christ.t
Margaret went wrapped in the respectful veneration of Europe. The scholars of Christendom
were especially proud of one who had devoted her
May of life to literature and divinity, who wrote and
spoke with equal grace and eloquence, who was
familiar with Latin, with Greek, with Hebrew;t.
they enthroned her as their princess, they hailed
hler as their Msecenas.
She had also been early initiated into politics.  The diplomats counted her one of the best
heads in Europe; and IDandolo, the Venetian amilouse of Brunswick. Browning, History of the Huguenots,
p. 20.,'  D'Aubigne, History of the Reformation in the time of Cal.
vin, vol. 1, book 2, passim         t Ibid., p. 326.
t Ibid.




148           THE HUGUENOTS.
bassador, affirmed her to be the ablest politician in
France.*
Margaret is said to have been beautiful and
stately in her person;t and thus accomplished,
influential, politic, and courageous in her Christian
belief, she walked through the kingdom binding up
the wounds of the hunted dissenters, succoring the
needy, befriending the outlawed professors of the
hated truth, earning the benediction of the sixth
beatitude: "Blessed are the pure in heart; for they
shall see God."l
"A perfect woman, nobly planned
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a spirit pure and bright,
With something of an angel's light."~
After Francis had decided to fight heresy under
the banners of the Sorbonne, Brantome relates that
the constable, Anne of Montmorelnci, when conversing with him upon the most effectual mode of
extirpating heresy, did not scruple to say that "his
majesty should begin with his court and his own
relations," naming Margaret as one of the most
dangerous of the heretics.  Francis replied, " Nay,
speak no more of her; she loves me too well not to
believe what I believe,"ll with which equivocating
phrase he turned off his overzealous counsellor.
X Questa credo sii la pin sana, non dico delle donne de Franza
jaa forse anche delli huomini, etc. Dandolo, 1542.
t Brantome, Vie de Margaret.   t St. Matthew 5: 8.
~ Wordsworth, Lines on his Wife.
11 Brantome, Vie de Margaret.




COURT OF FRANCIS I.            149
Margaret has been finely called the mother of
French reform. She did indeed by her life, by her
precepts, by her station, by her enthusiasm, attract
many to the gospel. Her influence in the upper
tiers of society was especially marked. But thero
is always danger when princes turn missionaries.
When the Bible spoke through the eloquent lips of
the most beautiful woman of the day, there were
some who yielded an apparent assent, not because
they were penetrated by the truth, but because
they were fascinated by the bewitching speaker;
for when Margaret exhorted, who so stout as not
to bow his head, and at least simulate conviction?
But such Christianity was of course but superficial
at the best; and when dclanger lowered, these fairweather disciples skulked away. Others yielded an
intellectual assent to the truths of Protestantism,
but preserved the heart icy and untouched-a sad
error, decomposing to the religious life of a church,
destructive of the existence of nationalities.
Thus from one cause or another it chanced that
there were many enlightened consciences in the
upper ranks of French society, but there were few
consciences which were smitten by the word of God.
This weakened even the apparent strength of the
Reformation in Latin Europe. For as Merle D'Aubign6 has well said, " Conscience is the palladium of
Protestantism, far more than the statue of Pallas
was the pledge of the preservation of Troy in the
heroic fable of the Odyssy."
Whenx, a little later, Margaret, who had been




150          THE HUGUENOTS.
already wed to the duke of Alenon- a prince of the
blood, but a man without courage, amiability, or
understanding, chief cause of the disaster at Pavia,
frUom which field he had fled in disgrace, and eventually died of shame —married again Henry d'Albrdt,, king of Navarre, the companion in arms of
Francis, a prince brave, gay, accomplished, handsome, witty, learned, and eloquent, the young queen
wrote religious toleration upon the first line of the
first page of her code of laws, and opened an asylum for the persecuted "evangelicals," which even
kings long hesitated to violate.*
Meantime the persecution continued with increased severity.  The reform  saw her children
around her, some already dead, some in chains, all
threatened with a fatal blow. Martyrdom followed
martyrclom.  Such havoc was made among the
" evangelicals," that an annual procession was instituted to render thanks to the Almighty that they
had been permitted to spill so much heretical
blood.t VWhen Dymond Leroy, with five others,
suffered in 1528, Francis went personally to witness
the execution, and stood bareheaded while the fires
were kindled. When thefete was over, the monarch
marched away from the scene at the head of a procession of monks and priests.T
Of course the encouragement thus given by the
king's personal attendance at an auto da fe coulcl' Brantome, Vie. de Margaret. Crespin, Martyrologue.
t Browning, Hist. Huguenots, p. 21.
I M]aimbourg, Rist de Calvanisme, liv. 1.




COURT OF FR>ANCIS I.             151
not but be productive of increased enthusiasm in
persecution.  France bled from  every pore.  To
record these sufferings would convert these pages
into a martyrology.
Francois, archbishop of Lyons and cardinal of
Tournon, was the chief instigator of these massacres. This haughty and intolerant prelate was the
representative of an ancient family. He had entered the church at an early age, and had risen
rapidly through the various ecclesiastical gradesmonk, abb6, bishop, archbishop-until, in 1530, in
his forty-second year, he received the red hat of a
cardinal.*
Tournon was celebrated as a negotiator and
as a statesman, but it is as a persecutor that he
achieved his widest fame.t-  To use his panegyrist's
expression, " He made it as dangerous to converse
in secret as to discuss in public. Nothing escaped
this great man, who seemed to multiply himself in
order to discover artifice or punish temerity; so
that foreign princes were accustomed to say that
he alone was equal to an inquisition in France.".
The overweening pride and bigotry of this inflated prelate had been sharply curbed by M1argaret while she resided at the court. But upon her
departure for her kingdom of Navarre, the emancipated cardinal became the confidant and adviser of
thb  king. He was thus enabled to give loose rein
tf his atrocities.
1 Hist. du Cardinal de Tournon, par Charles Fleury.
t Fleury, ut antea.:          Ibid., p. 214.




152         THE IJGUENOTS.
Under the iron hand of Tournon, the vacillating
monarch was kept sternly immovable in the policy
of blood.  On one occasion when Margaret had
persuaded her brother to listen to a sermon by one
of her -favorite preachers, Iecoq, curate of St. Eustache, who ventured "to preach the doctrines of
Zwingle," as we are assured by Maimbourg, "though
the king could not at first discern the venom concealed under his fine phrases," the cardinal compelled Lecoq publicly to retract, and imposed a
penance on Francis for listening to his sermon.*
At another time the queen of Navarre so highly
extolled the piety and genius of MIelancthon, that
Francis consented to invite him to a conference
with the French divines upon the best means of
restoring harmony to the divided church.
The clergy were in consternation. The prospect of contending with the learned and eloquent
St. John of the Reformation alarmed them  as
greatly as it elaLed the evangelicals. Francis had
already dispatched the invitation; but Tournon
undertook even at the last moment to prevent the
visit. His scheme for changing the king's opinion
is described by Maimbourg as worthy of immortality.
He entered the royal apartment apparently absorbedcl in the pages of a book which he held in his
hand. Francis, noticing his abstraction, inquired
the name of the volume which interested him so
deeply. The prelate paused in his measured walk,
Q Maimbourg, Hist. du Calvinisme, liv. 1, p. 26.




COURT OF FRANCIS I.             153
looked up with a well-affected start, and replied,
"Sire, it is a work by St. Irenoeus."  He then instantly directed the monarch's attention to a passage where Irenmus had given full scope to his
feelings against heretics, showing that the apostles
would not even frequent any public place where
they were admitted. The wily cardinal then expressed his grief that, with such examples before
him, the eldest son of the church should have sent
for a heresiarch who was the most subtle and celebrated of Luther's disciples. Francis, surprised
and shocked, instantly sent to revoke his invitation,
protested by all the saints in the calendar that he
would never renounce his hereditary faith, and, to
give emphasis to the declaration, issued orders for
the persecution of the heretics with additional vigor.
"This sudden and yenelrous resolution," moralizes
the Jesuit who chronicles the episode, "fell like a
thunderbolt upon the Protestants, who felt secure
from such a reverse under the protection of the
queen of Navarre."*
The prospects of reform  grew gloomier every
day. The provinces were abandoned to the cruelty of the prelates.  The capital was governed
by the court.  The court was controlled by two
harlots.
It was during the reign of Francis I. that women
acquired that ascendency at court which enabled
them, under the two or three succeeding sovereigns,
to nominate and to depose ministers, marshals, and
O Miaimbourg, Hist. du Cal-vinisme, liv. 1, p. 29.
7*




154          TIHE HUGUENOTS.
judges —to dictate the policy of France. Francis,
fond of gallantry and intrigue, thought that the
charms of the softer sex would smooth the rough
manners of his courtiers into becoming gentleness.
From that idea sprang the new regirme.  The age of
iron was succeeded by the age of debauchery. Ladies flocked to the court, each anxious to secure
credit and influence, and careless of the means by
which that object was gained. Chastity soon ceased
to be a virtue-it became prudery; female honor
was bartered for the privilege of bestowing pensions, or for the e'lat of station. The authority of
the ministers was merely nominal; the wives and
daughters of the- nobles swayed the sceptre, each
one retaining it so long as her beauty, talents, and
intrigues enabled her to command an ascendency.*
Hence originated the excessive luxury, the super-refinement, the loose morality of the higher
circles of French society.  Men of letters, wits,
poets, flitted through the galleries of the Louvre,
each one attracted thither by avarice, by pleasure,
by ambition, or by all.
The servility of these mocking letters increased
the corruption of the age. The wits and poets who
thronged the halls of the palace lowered the moral
tone of the court circles by their nauseating flatteries, by their unchaste songs, by their profane
epigrams.
They soon made themselves of use to the ladies
by chanting hymns to the beauty of some favorite,
0 Miss Pardoe, Court of Francis I.




COURT OF FRANCIS I.             155
and by satirizing her rivals. They held their talents to be a marketable commodity, to be knocked
down to the highest bidder. Their verses conferred
taste and genius upon their patrons, though nature
might have denied them common-sense.
This mixture of lewd women, atheistic bishops,
servile wits, and scheming courtiers, formed what
was deemed a brilliant and gallant court.
The courtiers were divided into two rival factions, each of which obeyed one or the other of
two beautiful but abandoned women, the Duchess
d'Estarmpes, mistress of Francis I., and the famous
Diana of Poitiers, mistress of the king's eldest son
Henry, the dauphin.*
Atheism might be bred by such an atmosphere;
bigotry might be made to grow in such a soil; persecution might thrive in such ground; but the austere precepts of the Reformation were too rare an
exotic to be fostered there. The self-denial, the
pure morality, the indifference to unlawful worldly
pleasure, which characterized the "evangelicals,"
awoke no responsive chord in the breast of a court
surrendered to dissolute levities. Nay, the courtiers soon came to hate their reproving Nathan.
"We are weary," pouted Diana of Poitiers, "of the
declamation of the reformed preachers against the
vices of the court and of the church."t
And so the guilty court spun out its wild dance,
unmindful, as it quaffed its brimming bowl, as it' Duncan, Rteligious Wars in France, pp. 4, 5.
t Miss Pardoe, Court of Francis I.




156          THIE HUGUENOTS.
reeled and joked and laughed, of the earthquake
which growled beneath its feet.
But the orgies at the capital did not stay the
devastating tread of persecution. The inquisitors
swalked across France, from the English channel to
the Pyrenees, hunting heretics and kindling autos
da.fd, until, to borrow the striking expression of a
writer who has painted that epoch for the instruction of shuddering Christendom,'' France scented
burning bodies in every breeze."*
Q Crespin, Martyrologue, folio p. 138.




APOSTLES OF THE FAITH.             157
CHAPTER XII.
TIE APOSTLES OF THE FAITH.
REFERENCE has been already made to several of
the worthies who aided in the resurrection of the
gospel in France-to RIen6e of Ferrara, to the beautiful Margaret of Navarre, to Lefevre, to that Berquin who suffered in the Place de Greve, and who,
with his Testament in hand, had traversed the
neighborhood of Abbeville, the banks of the Sommne,
the towns, manors, and fields of Artois and Picardy,
filling them with love for the word of God.
But there were other apostles of the faith besides these.
A nobleman of the German city of Strasburg,
Count Sigismund of Haute-Flamme, a friend and
ally of queen Margaret, who called him her gooCd
cousin, had been touched by Luther's heroism and
the preaching of Zell. His conscience once aroused,
he endeavored to live according to the will of God.
Sigismund was not one of those nobles, rather numerous then, who spoke in secret of the Saviour,
but before the world seemed not to know him. The
reformers all bore loving testimony to his frankness
and courage.*
Although a dignitary of the church, and dean of
- " Videmns quosdam tui ordinis qui abscondite Christo ad.
herunt, publice autem  negant." Lambert to tHohoniohe.




158          THE HUGUENOTS.
a celebrated theological chapter, the count labored
to spread the evangelical truth around him; and
one day, while busied in revolving the best means
of doing so, he conceived a grand idea.
Finding himself placed between Germany and
France, and himself speaking fluently the languages
of both, he resolved to undertake the task of leavening France with the precepts of Christ.
HZe instantly commenced his self-imposed labor.
As soon as he received any new work from Luther,
he had it translated into French and forwarded to
Margaret.*
He did more. Esteeming the queen of Navarre
to be the door through which the principles of the
IReformlation were to enter France, he wrote Luther,
urging him to pen a letter to MIargaret, or to compose some pamphlet calculated to encourage her in
her zealous labors.tf
Count Sigismund's labors with the priests and
nobles who surrounded him were not crowned with
success. Some few gentlemen indeed spoke brave
words, but they were only lip deep. But the monks
looked at him with genuine amazement. Their
dreams were disturbed, their licentiousness was
reproached, the dolce.far niente of their lives was to
be broken up.  "Ah -ha! the Reformation then
means that we must change our easy life, give up
our naps, quit our cloisters, surrender our illicit
amours;"''twas thus they reasoned. The keen eye
I D'Aubign6, Hist. Ref. in the time of Calvin, vol. 1, p. 340.
+ Ibid.




APOSTLES OF THE FA1'tH.               159
of Lambert of Avignon, one of the ablest of the
reformers, detected this commotion in the monkish
dove-cotes, and turning to the count, he said with
a smile, "You will not succeed here; these folks
are afraid of damaging their wallets, their kitchens,
their stables, and their bellies." *
Sigismund  succeeded  better with  Margaret.
Soon after the defeat at Pavia, he wrote her a sympathetic letter; and again, when her sisterly affection drove her to seek Francis, when he languished
in his Spanish prison, Margaret was strengthened
and comforted by her good cozsinl's kind words.t-i
Pierre Toussaint, prebendary of Metz, Roussel,
one of queen Margaret's favorite preachers, and
Farel, were also active servants in the vineyard
during these initial years.  They all endured great
sufferings for the sake of that gospel which they
loved. Still, nothing could shake their faith. They
continued to tune their voices into harmony with
the celestial chorus.
On one occasion, when Toussaint chanced to
pass through the diocese of the abbot of St. Antoine, that violent and merciless priest seized the
young evangelist, and despite his candor, sweetness, and the broken health under which he rested,
plunged his fragile victim into a frightful dungeon
full of stagnant water and other filth.T  Toussaint:- D'Aubignd, p. 340.
t Letters de la Reine de Navarre, 1, p. 211. Boston city Library.
$ "In carcere pleno aqua et sordibus." Herzog CEcolampade,
Pi6ces Justificatives.




160          THE HUGUENOTS.
could hardly stand erect in this hideous den. With
his back against the wall, and his feet on the only
spot which the water did not reach, stifled by the
poisonous vapors emitted around him, the young
preacher recalled the cheerful house of his uncle
the dean of Metz, and the magnificent palace of the
cardinal of Lorraine, where he had been so kindly
received ere he became a heretic. What a contrast!
His health declined, his mind sank, his tottering
limbs could scarcely support him.*
_Meantime poor Toussaint's friends had  acquainted Margaret with his condition, and the
indignant queen hastened by post to Paris, threw
herself at the feet of her brother, and finally rescued this lamb from the fangs of the wild beast.
When the young evangelist came out of this
fearful den, he was thin, weak, and pale as a faded
flower. He stood bewildered. No one offered to
receive this heretic who had just cheated the scaffold. But at length he went boldly to Paris, sought
lMargaret, and found an asylum with her.t
Toussaint found the young queen surrounded
by distinguished personages, all eager to present
their homage. "Side by side with nobles and ambassadors dressed in the most costly garments,
and soldiers with their glittering arms, were cardinals robed in scarlet and ermine, bishops with their
satin copes, ecclesiastics of every order with long
gowns and tonsured heads."T: These, desirous of
0 D'Aubigne, p. 359.           t Ibid., p. 364.
$ Toussanus (Ecolampadio. Quoted in D'Akubig., vol. 1, p. 366,




APOSTLES OF THIE FAITH.    161
enlisting the influence of MIargaret in their favor,
spoke to her of the gospel and of reform. Toussaint,
a stranger to the chicaneries of politics, listened
with profound astonishment to this strange court
language. At the outset he was deceived, and took
the religious prattle of this troop. of flatterers for
sound piety. It was not long, however, before his
eyes were opened. When he saw the drift of their
artful harangues, he burned to expose them.
Learning that Lefivre and Roussel had arrived
in Paris from ]3lois, Toussaint, full of respect for
them, hastened to their apartments, and with impetuous eloquence urged them to assist him in
unnmasking the hypocrites, and in boldly preaching
the whole gospel in the midst of the giddy court.
"Patience, Toussaint," replied the two scholars,
both timid by nature, and whom the debilitating
air of the court had perhaps still further weakened;
" patience; do n't spoil every thing; the time is not
yet come."*  Then Toussaint, ardent, generous,
upright, burst into tears. "Yes," he said, "be wise
after your fashion; wait, put off, dissemble: you
will acknowledge however at last that it is impossible to preach the gospel without bearing the cross.
The banner of divine mercy is now raised; the gate
of the kingdom of heaven stands wide open. God
calls us. He does not mean us to receive his summons with supineness. We must hasten, lest the
opportunity should escape us, and the door be
closed."t
o Toussainus CEcolampadio.           - Ibid.




162          THE HUGUENOTS.
But the timid scholars could not be moved.
Then he wrote CEcolampadius, "Roussel is weak;
Lefevre lacks courage; God strengthen and support them."
For himself, he was stifled at the court; the air
was closer to hiim than in the den of the abbot of
St. Antoine. Disgusted by the lewd revels of the
capital, he resolved to quit it. "Farewell to the
court," said he; "it is the most dangerous and
seductive of harlots."-*
Then the young Metzer, putting behind his back
certain "magnificent offers" which had been made
to him if he would stay and connect himself with the
mystical and timidly progressive wing of the Roman
church, which Bri9onn6t then represented, quitted
the kingdom. But foreseeing that a terrible struggle was approaching, he left with a prayer that
God would enable France to show herself worthy
of the Reformiation.t
William Farel, another of those men upon whom
God set the seal of his apostleship, was one whose
simple, serious, earnest tones carry away the masses.
"His voice of thunder made his hearers tremble.
The strength of his convictions created faith in
their souls; the fervor of his prayers raised them
to heaven. When they listened to him,'they felt,'
as Calvin once said,'not merely a few light pricks
and stings, but were wounded to the heart, pierccd
with the truth; hypocrisy was dragged from those' Aula, meretrix periculosissima." Touss. (Ecolaumpadio.
t Neufohatel MS., cited by D'Aubigne, vol. 1, p. 368.




APOSTLES OF THE FAITH.    163
wonderful and more than tortuous hiding-places
which lie deep in the heart of man.'
"IH'e pulled clown and built up with equal energy. Even his life, an apostleship full of self-sacrifice and danger and triumph, was as effectual as
his sermons. He was not only a minister, he was a
bishop.  He was able to discern the young men
best fitted to wield the weapons of the gospel, and
to direct them in the great war of the age; for Farel
never attacked a place, however difficult of access,
which he did not take."*
Farel's native place was Gap, a little village in
Dauphiny.t  Desirous of preaching the gospel to
his relatives there, on one occasion he took up his
quarters in a corn-mill hard by the gates of the
hamlet, where he explained a French Bible to the
villagers who crowded about him.
Ere long he ventured to preach in the very heart
of Gap; "desecrating," as the Capuchins phrased
it, "a chapel dedicated to St. Colombe."  "The
magistrate forbade his preaching, and the parliament of Grenoble desired to have him burned;" so
runs the record of the monks.
Farel replied by a, formal refusal of obedience;
upon which Benedict Olier, a zealous papist, and
vice-bailiff, escorted by a posse comitcatus, marched
to St. Colombe. The doors were shut, and doublebarred.  The officers knocked.  All were silent.
* D'Aubigle, vol. 1, pp. 374, 375.
t Charronnet, Les Guerres de la Religion dans les Hautes Alpes,
Gap, 1861, p. 17.




164           THE HUGUENOTS.
They broke in. A large audience were assembled,
but not a head was turned; all were drinking in
greedily the eloquent words of the dauntless preacher. The officers went to the pulpit, seized Farel,
and "with the crime in his hand," as the forcible
expression of the Capuchins put it, referring to the
Bible which he held, he was led through the crowd
and imprisoned.
But the followers of the new doctrine were already to be found in every class-in the workman's
garret, in the tradesman's shop, in the fortified chateau of the noble, and sometimes even in the bishop's palace. During the night the reformers rallied, and either by force or stratagem  took the
brave old man from  prison, hurried him  to the
ramparts, let him down into the plain in a basket,
oand " accomplices " who awaited him sped with him
to a place of safety.*'
Although the larger part of Farel's apostleship
was spent in foreign countries, for he was an exile
from his dear France, yet he exercised a very marked
influence upon the formation of the Gallican church.t
Under the distant inspiration of Luther's eloquence, under the zealous labors of Toussaint, Sigismond, Farel, and Margaret, supported by an active host of less distinguished representatives, the
reform continued to spread, despite Tournon's exertionsi: and the denunciations of the Sorbonne. But
* Charronnet, ut antea.   t Bossuet, Hist. des Variations.
I "Notwithstanding Tournon's ubiquity, the heresy spread
rapidly." Fleury, Hist. du Cardinal de Tournon.




APOSTLES OF THE FAITH.           165
the dissenters were scattered, often ill-informed on
vital points of faith, and lacked uniformity of effort
and belief. Who shall organize the Reformation?
Who shall mould this heterogeneous mass of dissent into a grand unit?  This loose-jointed body
of reform, whose plastic hand shall reshape it into
strength and symmetry? Such were the questions
which Farel, (Ecolampadius, Sigismond, and the
other chiefs of Latin reform began to put to each
other with anxious emphasis.
Then the brain of French Protestantism began
its work: John Calvin appeared.




i6G          THE HUGUENOTS.
CHIAPTER XIII.
JOHN CALVIN.
JOHN CALVIN was born on the lO0th of July, 1509,
at Noyon, in Picardy,* which was also Lefvre's native province.t He was emphatically a man of the
people. His family was not one of marked importance.  His grandfather was a cooper at Pont
l'Eve&que; his father was secretary to a bishop, and
in the days of his greatest prosperity, apprenticed
his brother Antony Calvin to a bookbinder. Simple, frugal, poor, intelligent, such were John Calvin's immediate progenitors.
His father valued letters, and he determined
that his son should be liberally educated.  The
boy was therefore sent in his fifteenth year to the
college of La Marche,-at Paris.
There, pale, diffident to a painful degree, but
with a look of striking intelligence, the bashful and
studious boy of Noyon speedily shot to the head of
his class. It was at the university that the famous
friendship between Calvin and Mathurin Cordier
began. Cordier, in 1523, when Calvin came to town,
was a professor at La Marche. One of those men
* Beza, Life of Calvin.
t Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, p. 147.




JOHN CALVIN.                167
of ancient mould, who prefer the public good to
their own advancement, he had neglected a brilliant
career which had opened its alluring arms to welcome him, and devoted himself to the instruction of
children.* The professor was instantly attracted
towards his singular pupil.  Calvin's purity, his
quickness, his thoroughness, his genius captivated
him, and he lavished his instructions upon the
thoughtful boy with unstinted hand. He taught
him Latin and Greek and Hebrew. He initiated
him into the temple of medioeval culture. He imparted to him a certain knowledge of antiquity and
of ancient chivalry. Indeed he inspired his pupil
with his own ardor, and walked with him, arm in
arm, in the "true path" of science.
In after years, when both master and scholar
had been driven from France, and had taken up
their abode in that little city at the foot of the
Swiss Alps, whose mouth was to speak great th7ings,t
Calvin, then expanded into the most celebrated doctor in Europe, loved to recall these days of his student life, and publicly announcing his indebtedness
to Cordier, he said, " Oh, Master Mathurin, Oh man
gifted with learning and great fear of God, when
my father sent me to Paris, while still a child and
possessing only a few rtudiments of' the Latin language, it was God's will that I should have you for
my teacher, in order that I might be directed in the
true path and right mode of learning; and having
first commenced the course of study under your
* D'Aubigne, vol. 1, p. 382.     fDaniel 7:8.




163           THE HUGUENOTS.
guidance, I have advanced so far that I can now in
some degree profit the church of God."*
But in those days both Cordier and Calvin were
strangers to the evangelical doctrine, and devoutly
followed the papal ritual.
"Calvin," says one of his biographers and disciples, "was at first a strict observer of the practices of the church. He never missed a fast, a retreat, a mass, or a procession."t " It is a long time
since Sorbonne or Montaigne had so pious a seminarist," was the common expression.
Thus Calvin, like Luther, while in the papal
church, belonged to its strictest sect. "The austere
exercises of a devotee's life were the schoolmaster
that brought these men to Christ."
His application surprised his tutors. Absorbed
in his books, he often forgot the hours for his meals,
and even for sleep.:: The people who resided in the
neighborhood were accustomed to point out to each
other as they returned home late at night, a tiny,
solitary gleam, a window lit up till the starry tapers
of the sky were quenched in the grey of the morning. There sat John Calvin, elaborating in his
august reveries thoughts which a little later were
to convulse the universe.
Calvin's father, familiar with his son's genius,
had marked out for him a brilliant ecclesiastical
career: an abbot's mitre, a bishop's cope, the red
* A Mathurin Cordier, Dedicace du Commen-tire de La Ire Ep,
aux Thess., par Calvin.
t Beza, Vita Calvini.   $ D'Aubigne, vol. 1, p. 386.




JOHN CALVIN.                169
hat and the scarlet gown of a cardinal glittered before his eyes. Therefore when he heard from time
to time of young Calvin's rapid advancement in
grammar, in philosophy, in scholastic theology, he
would smooth his beard and say, " Ah ha! we shall
see brave things yet."
Ill 1527, two years after leaving home, he went
back to Noyon at vacation time, and " although he
had not yet taken orders, he delivered several sermons before the people."*  At eighteen he had a
parish.t
Then it was that a new light, which had but little resemblance to the false radiance of scholasticism, began to shine around him. At that time
there was a breath of the gospel in the murky air,
and the reviving breeze reached the scholar within
the walls of his college, the priest in the recesses of
his convent; no one was protected from its influence. Calvin heard people talk about the Bible,
Luther, Lefbvre, Melancthon, Farel, and of what
was passing in Germany.
When the rays of the sun rise in the Alps, it is
the highest peaks that catch them first. In the
sunrise of the Reformation, the most eminent minds
were first enlightened. In the colleges there were
sharp and frequent altercations. Calvin was at first
among the most inflexible opponents of the evangelical doctrine; but soon he was won to study.
Thoroughness was his mania. WTith him, as with
so many others, examination meant emancipation,
o Beza, Life of Calvin.               t Ibid.
H ugueneta          8




170           THE HUGUENOTS.
And at length, after a terrible struggle, he experienced that "joy and peace in believing" which had
solaced Luther's torn soul in the Erfurth cloister.
His conversion was hastened by witnessing several
uartyrdoms.* He opened his Bible. Everywhere
he found Christ. Instantly the scales fell from his
eyes.  "Oh Father," he cried, "IHis sacrifice has
appeased thy wrath; his blood has washed away
my impurities; his cross has borne my curse; his
death has atoned for me. We had devised for ourselves many useless follies, but thou hast placed thy
word before me like a torch, and thou hast touched
my heart, in order that I may hold in abomination
all other merits save those of Jesus."te
Calvin then, at nineteen, broke with Rome, and
quitting Paris repaired to Orleans, and later to
Bourges, where he "wonderfully advanced the kinglomi of God."T
After a life of vicissitudes, extending from the
year 1527 until 1535, frequently smitten by the
bolts of excommunication, a fugitive at Angouleme,
at Nevac, at Poitiers,~ yet preaching at Paris,ll and
haunting the scenes of his greatest danger, Calvin
repaired to Geneva en route to Germany, where,
unexpectedly to himself, his journey was summarily arrested; while his name became ever after
uniited with that of the brave Alpine city which,
Q D'Aubigne, vol. 1, pp. 393, 394.
t "IUt pro merito abominarer, animam meam pupugisti." Cal.
xini Opuse. Latin, p. 123.
$ Beza, Hist. des Egl. Ref., pp. 6, 7.  ~ Ibid., p. 98
1i D'Aubign6.




JOHN CALVIN.                171
under his sway became the Rome of the IReformation.
And here, at the name of Geneva, it becomes
not only interesting and instructive, but germain to
this history, to sketch the more salient outlines of
the gallant and romantic story of that immortal
city, as magnificent in the beauty of its landscape,
clasped to the snowy bosom of the Alps, bathing its
feet in the waters of lake Leman, as in the grandeur of its moving history.
Geneva was at first simply a rural township, and
as a part of Gaul it became an appendage of the
Roman empire when the emperors leashed the European provinces to their car of conquest. In the
fourth century, under Honorius, it became a city,
receiving this title after Caracalla had extended the
franchise of citizenship to all the Gauls.*
Fronm the earliest times, either before or after
Charlemagne, Geneva possessed rights and liberties
which guaranteed the citizens against the despotism
of their feudal lords. The Genevese claimed to have
been free so long that the memory qf man ~runneth,
not to the contrary;t and it is certain that the precise date of the birth of their freedom is shrouded
in the mist of remote antiquity.
The Genevese soil was composed of three strata:
tlhe political lords, the counts of Geneva, who even
so early as the eleventh century had extended their
rule over an immense and magunificent territory;
Merm. d'Archlologie; quoted in D'Aubign6, vol. 1, p. 11.
t Ibid.




172          THE HUGUENOTS.
the bishops, who, gifted with superior intelligence,
respected by the barbarians as the high-priests of
Rome, and knowing how to acquire vast possessions
by slow degrees, finally confiscated for a time the
independence of the citizens without much ceremony, and united the quality of prince with that of
bishop;* and the burghers, not very numerous, but
always intelligent, and resolute to maintain their
parchment guarantees.
When the counts of Geneva had been hoodwinked by the cunning of the bishops into ceding
the city to them, they had reserved the old palace,
and part of the criminal jurisprudence, and continued to hold the secondary towns and the rural
district of their countship.t
But in process of time dissensions arose. The
conflicting jurisdictions of the bishop-princes and
the counts clashed.
Prelates who had already turned their croziers
into swords, their flocks into serfs, and their pastoral dwellings into fortified castles, hungered for
more power. The battered walls of Geneva yet
bear the marks of the fierce struggle which ensued,
and which continued through the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries.
In the middle of the thirteenth century, Pierire
de Savoy, a soldier and a politician, made a herculean effort to recover the city of his ancestors. The
conflict lasted long; but eventually he was obliged
to surrender his claims. Disgusted with his failure,' D'Aubigne, vol. 1, p. 13.          t Ibid.




JOHN CALVIN.               173
and exhausted by his unceasing activity, Pierre
finally retired to his castle of Chillon, where every
day he used to sail upon the beautiful lake, luxuriously enjoying the charms of nature lavished around;
while the melodious voice of his minstrel, mingling
with the rippling of the waters, celebrated the lofty
deeds of this illustrious paladin.*
In the fifteenth century the counts of Savoy,
having added several other provinces to Genevois,
and become dukes, more eagerly desired the acquisition of Geneva than ever. They changed their
tactics. Sheathing the ineffectual sword, they resorted to wily diplomacy. The new campaign was
opened with spirit, and pope Mi{artin V. was petitioned to confer upon the dukes of Savoy the full
secular authority in Geneva.
But the citizens, who in the lapse of ages had
engrossed the civil government of the city, became
alarmed at the news of this mnanceuvre; and knowing that " Rome ought not to lay its patw upon kingdoms," good papists as they then were, they determined to resist the pope himself, if necessary, in the
defence of their liberties. Placing their hands upon
the gospels, they exclaimed, "No alienation of the
city or of its territory; this we swear."-t
The sovereign of Savoy, balked in his best
scheme, withdrew his petition.  But lMnartin V.,
while staying three months at Geneva, on his return
in 1418 from the Council of Constance, ran a muck
* Monumenta Hist. Patriae, vol. 3, p. 74.
+ D'Iubigne, vol. 1, p. 18.




174          THE HUGUENOTS.
with the ancient city. There was something in the
pontiff which told him that liberty did not accord
with the papal rule. He was alarmed at witnessing
the franchises of the Genevese. "' He feared those
general councils that spoil every thing," says a
manuscript chronicle in the Turii library;* " he felt
uneasy about those turbulent folk, imbued with the
ideas of the Swiss, who were always wbispering in
the ears of the Genevese the license qf porular government."
" The pope," says D'Aubign6, " resolved to remedy this, but not in the way the dukes of Savoy
proposed. These princes desired to secure Geneva
in order to increase their own power.  Martin
thought it better to confiscate it to his benefit. At
the Council of Constance it had just been decreed
that episcopal elections should take place according to the canonical laws, by the chapter, unless for
some reasonable and manifest cause the pontiff
should think fit to name a person more useful to
the church. Martin thought that the necessity of
curbing republicanism was a reasonable motive; and
accordingly, as soon as he reached Turin, he translated the bishop of Geneva to the archiepiscopal see
of the Tarentoise, and heedless alike of the anger
of the Savoy dukes, and of the rights of the canons
and the citizens, he nominated Jean de IRochetaillee,
patriarch in lpartibus of Constantinople, bishop and
prince of Geneva."t
* D'Aubigne, vol. 1, p. 19, 20.
* D'Aubigne, Ref. in Calvin's Time, vol. 1, p. 20.




JOHN CALVIN.                175
The Genevese, surprised and overawed, acquiesced in sullen discontent. Seventy odd years rolled away, and still the faithful citizens remembered
their broken charters, and hugged the memory of
their ancient franchises. At tile commencement of
the sixteenth century, driven to desperation by the
tyranny of their bishop-prince, they determined to
revolt, and turning towards Switzerland, whose
" Hills, rock-ribbed, and ancient as the sun,"
had always borne up a hardy race of freemen, they
invite.d the powerful Helvetic confederacy to assist
them in expelling the usurper.*
In its earlier stages the contest was a political
one, but ere long it assumed a religious phase. The
Reformation was preached. Its spirit took invincible hold of German Switzerland. The towns of the
Hielvetic confederacy had often come into collision
with the grasping dukles of Savoy.  Cherishing
republicanism as their palladium  of safety, they
also hated the bishop-prince of Geneva, who had
despoiled their Genevese cousins of their birthright, besides planting an inimical state upon their
borders. Switzerland therefore lent a willing ear
to the Genevan ambassadors, who came to solicit
the assistance of the confederation. And when, a
little later, the Helvetic cities had the additional
motive of wishing to clutch Geneva as a trophy
won to the reformed faith which they professed,
they threw themselves into the contest with re* Bonivard, Chroniq., 2, p. 290.




176          THE HUGUENOTS.
doubled ardor. Precisely as the house of Savoy,
backed by the pope, wished to extend its limits in
a monarchical and Romanist sense, Switzerlandcl
desired to extend hers in a popular and Protestant
sense.*
The Genevese did not at once accept the Reformation. ]Numberless fierce quarrels followed its
entrance within their walls.t  But gradurally the
citizens, remembering the tyranny under which
they had groaned when the bishop-prince swayed
the sceptre of Geneva, recalling the mischief which
pope Martin had worked them, and perceiving that
the liberality of the reform contrasted strongly with
the intolerant despotism of Latin orthodoxy, came
over and ranged themselves under the Protestant
banners, adjudging their franchises safer under the
Reformation than under Rome.
William Farel of Gap had joined the Protestant
missionaries when they undertook to extend their
creed into the Romanic border lands,t and by his
boldness, eloquence, and unceasing energy, he gave
brave help in proselyting Geneva. Instigated by
him, the city council had publicly proclaimed that
Geneva adhered to the Reformation; and so wonderful was the spell of his preaching, that priests
were seen to throw off their vestments before the
altar, and confess the Protestant creed.~
Such was the posture of affairs when John Calvin entered Geneva in the year 1535. His intenO Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in rFrance, p. 142.
t Ibid., p. 144.    $ Ibid., p. 142.    ~ Ibid., p. 145.




JOHN CALVIN.               177
tion was merely to visit Farel for a few clays, and
then seek in Germany an asylum where he might
devote himself to tranquil meditation.* Farel, however, perceiving his vast ability, was resolved not to
permit him to depart; and when Calvin refused to
remain in Geneva, he announced the wrath of Almighty God upon him should he shirk his duty, for
heaven, he said, would make the quietness of study
a curse to him.t
Calvin afterwards said that it appeared to him
as if he had seen the hand of God stretched forth
from above to hold him back; he dared not resist
Calvin and Farel clasped hands, and immediately began to preach.
It seems that there were in Geneva certain persons who had adopted the reformed faith because
they thought that it would bring them increased
personal license. These latitudinarians were soon
offended at the strict discipline which the two orators of the Reformation proclaimed. They intrigued
so effectually that Farel and Calvin were exiled.~
Calvin was far from caring too anxiously for his
person. He had been obliged to endure opposition,
combined withl agony of conscience, which he declared were more bitter than death-the mere
remembrance of which made him  tremble.  Ho
began now again to wander and to learn; in particular he commenced a correspondence w-ith the
9 Beza, Vita Calvini.        t Ran-:j, e. 147.
I Calvini, Opusc., Latin.     ~ Raniat, p. 148,
o.*




1'78         THE IIUGUENOTS.
German reformers, with Milelancthon, with Bucer,
with Capito, and formed a closer acquaintance with
them at the Diet.*
It soon appeared that he could not be dispensed
with at Geneva. The independence of the city was
menaced in two directions: one party, which was
inclined to the Vatican, were disposed to reinaugurate the old regime; the other showed a spirit of
compliance with foreign dictation which imperilled
the freedom of the town.
Both these factions were subdued, after long and
sanguinary domestic contests, and those remained
triumphant who regarded the maintenance of the
strict Protestant discipline as the salvation of the
city.
Deeply penetrated with this conviction, they
looked upon all they had suffered as a punishment
for the expulsion of their preachers. It was resolved to recall them. Although Calvin was extremely reluctant to return, yet Farel's solemn
adjurations impelled him to accede to the call; and
while Farel departed for Neufchatel, whither he
had engaged to go, the great French divine reentered Geneva as a conqueror in 1541.t
The condition of his return, though not distinctly stated, was still tacitly understood to be
the adoption of his system of ecclesiastical discipline.:
Calvin instantly went to work.  He planted
c Ranke, pp. 148, 149.  i         Ibid., p. 149.
$ Ibid.




JOHN CALVIN.                 179
education as the basis of his state.*  He new-modelled the civil code, and shaped it to strict republicanism, sealing his renovation with these words of
Christ: " THE TRUTJH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE."t  He
next organized the Reformation.  The Genevese
reformers shaped their divinity on the model of his
"Christian Institutes," which were written in 1536,
and dedicated to Francis I., before the final return
to Geneva.4  Ere long this work was scattered
broadcast through Latin Europe. The Reformation lost its heterogeneous character. The conflicting sects were melted into unity, and France at last
accepted the essential tenets of the despised VAuDOIS when she permitted the plastic hand of her
great Genevan doctor to mould her into PROTESTANTISiM.
The abb6 Anqu6til, an old chronicler whose
words at one time were in wide favor with the papists, considers the "Christian Institutes" to have
been the chief support of the "heresy;" "for they
systematized the Protestant doctrines, and enabled
their assemblies to keep together even when their
ministers were torn fronl them."~
God, by giving in the sixteenth century a man
who to the lively faith of Luther andl the scriptural
understanding of Zwingle joined an organizing faculty and a creative mind of rare genius, furnished
the complete reformer. If Luther laid the founda* Calvini, Opusc.             t St. John 8:32.
I Duncan, Religious Wars of France, p. 8.
~ Anquetil, Esprit. de la Ligue.




183         THE HUGUENOTS.
tion, if Zwingle and others built the walls, Calvin
completed the temple of Godl
Then Geneva became the school of the Latin
and Anglo-Saxon, as Wittemberg was of the German and Sclavonic Reformation.
As soon as Guy de Bras and many other fiery
scholars returnecd from Geneva to the Low Countries, the momentous contest between the rights of
the people and the revolutionary and bloody despotism of Philip II. of Spain began; heroic struggles took place, and the creation of the republic of
the United Netherlands was their glorious termination.
John Knox returned to his native Scotland
from Geneva, where he studied several years; then
popery, arbitrary power, and the exotic immorality
of the French court, imported by queen Mary Stuart,
made way on the north of the Tweed for the pure
enthusiasm which bred Christian liberty and civil.
ization.
Those Englishmen who sought an asylum in
Geneva during the bitter persecutions of "Bloody
Mary," imbibed there a love of the gospel and of
civil liberty; and when they returned to Great
Britain, these fountains gushed out beneath their
footsteps.
Numberless disciples of Calvin carried with
them every year into France the august principles
of the Genevese school.t
Even the Pilgrim  Fathers of New England,
a D'Aubigne, vol. I., p. 321.  t Ibid., pp. 4, 5.




JOHN CALVIN.              181
who, quitting their inhospitable country in the
reign of that royal pedant James I., planted on
this continent their populous and mighty colonies,
may in no improper sense claim Geneva as their
mother. Calvin, looming through the centuries,
may stretch his hand across the water from Mlont
Blanc, and placing it upon the head of the American Republic, murmur a proud benediction, and
say, "You too are mine; I created you."




182          THE HUGUEN OTS.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH.
IT will be remembered that the French king's
first edict against heresy had been issued on the 9th
of June, 1523.*  Nearly three years later, February
5, 1526, government issued another fiat. In those
days all proclamations were made by a herald who
travelled from city to city, trumpet in hand, and
sounding his trumpet in the public squares to collect
an audience, cried out his message in a loud voice.
On the morning of the 5th of February there
was an unwonted stir in the streets of Paris.
Crowds of excited people thronged the pavements,
and with vehement gesticulation and voluble tongue
harangued one another upon some question of exciting import.  The great rush was towards the
Louvre. There, at ten in the morning, a herald
took his stand upon the palace steps, and after the
customary flourish of the trumpet, cried, by order
of Parliament, "All persons are forbidden to put
up to sale, or translate from the Latin into French,
the epistles of St. Paul, the Apocalypse, and oWller
boo7,,s. Henceforward no printer shall print any of
the writings of Luther. No one shall speak of the
ordinances of the church or of images otherwise
tlan as holy church ordains.  All books of the
0 See Chapter 10, p. 139.




THE SHADOW  OF DEATH.               183
Holy Bible, translated into French, shall be given
up by those who possess them, and carried within
a week to the clerks of the court. All prelates,
priests, and their curates, shall forbid their parishioners to have the least douzbt of the IRomish faith."*
When the herald paused, the vast crowd began
to disperse. The comments were various. "Heresy should be choked in blood," said some. "The
Sorbonne fear Faust's type," said others. The majority turned away with the peculiar French shrug,
and said quietly, "Patience; we shall see."
The prior of the Carthusians, the abbot of the
Celestines, monks of all colors, "imps of antichrist,"
says an old chronicler, openly rejoiced in this brilliant triumph over heresy. " They gave help to the
band of the Sorbonne," and cried, Amen, at the
end of every sentence of the proclamation.
A little later the new edict was cried in Sens,
Orleans, MIeaux, and "in all the bailiwicks, seneschallies, provostries, viscounties, and estates of
the realm."tl-  And now Cardinal Tournon's inquisitors, taking one edict in the right hand and the
other in the left, walked on their mission of destruction hedged about with the sanctity of public
law.
France bled at every pore.
History teaches best by individual instances.
Descriptions of collective cruelties lose their graphic
power through the breadth of the delineation.
{ Journal d'un Bourgeois dce Paris sons Francois I., p. 27G
Quoted in D'Aubign6e, vol. 1, p. 342.    t Ibid.




184          TIHE HUGUENOTS.
There was a young man about twenty-eight
years of age, a licentiate of laws, William Joubert,
who had been sent by his father, king's advocate at
La Rochelle, to Paris to study the practice of the
metropolitan courts. Notwithstanding the prohibition of the Parliament, young Joubert, who was
of a thoughtful disposition, ventured to inquire into
the validity of the papal faith. Conceiving doubts,
he said in the presence of some friends, that "not
Genevieve nor even M3ary could save him, but the
Son of God alone."
For these words the unhappy licentiate was
thrown into prison under the proclamation. His
frightened father hastened to Paris by post; his
son, his hope, a heretic, and on the point of being
burned!
He gave himself no rest. Never before had he
so exerted himself to save a client. He went to the
Sorbonne; he visited the court; he besieged the
Parliamient. " Ask what you please," said the miserable father; " I am ready to give any sum to save
my boy's life."
-Vainly did the tireless advocate struggle. On
Saturday, February 17, 1526, the inquisitor came
for young Joubert, helped him into the tumbril,
and carried him to the front of Notre Dame: "Beg
our Lady's pardon for your infidelity," he said.
Joubert was silent. He drove on to the front of
St. Genevieve's church: "Ask pardcn of St. Genevieve."  The Rocheller was firm in his new faith.
He was then taken to the Place lMaubert, where




THE SHADOW OF DEATH.             185
the people, seeing his youth and handsome appearance, deeply commiserated his fate. "Do not pity
him," said the inquisitorial guard; "he has spoken
ill of our Lady and of the saints in paradise; he
holds to the doctrine of Luther." The executioner
then approached Joubert, pierced his tongue with
a red-hot iron, strangled him, and then burned the
body.*
A young student who already held a living faith,
though not yet in priest's orders, had boldly declared that there was no other Saviour but Jesus
Christ, and that the Virgin MIary had no more
power than the other saints. This youthful cleric
of Th6ronanne, in Picardy, had been imprisoned in
1525, the year preceding the last edict. Terrified
by that punishment, he went on Christmas eve, with
a lighted torch in his hand, and stripped to his shirt,
and " asked pardon of God and of ~Mary" before
the church of Notre Dame. In consideration of
this "very great penitence," it was thought sufficient to confine him for seven years on bread and
water in the prison of St. MIartin-des-Chalps!
Alone in his dungeon, the recusant scholar
heard once more the voice of God in the depths of
his heart; his conscience beat loud beneath the
silent porch of his prison. He began to weep hot
tears at the remembrance of his denial of the faith;
"and forthwith," says the chronicler, "he returned
to his folly."  Whenever a monk entered his cell,
the young cleric proclaimed the gospel to him. The' Journal d'un Bourgeois, p. 251.




186          THE HUGUENOTS.
monks were astonished; the convent was in a fer.
ment. Merlin, the grand penitentiary, went to him,
and advised and entreated and stormed and menaced, all without effect. Finally, by order of the
court, he was taken into the Place de Grive, where
poor Berquin suffered, and burned alive.*
Such were the methods employed by the rPoman
commission to force the abhorrent doctrines of their
chnrch back into the unwilling hearts of those who
rejected them. They made use of scourges to beat
them, of cords to strangle them, and of fires to roast
them alive.
But the ultramontanists did not confine themselves to hawking at untitled prey. In the year
1533 they flew at a higher quarry. Margaret of
Navarre, herself a queen, and sister to the king,
was venomously assailed.
Margaret, sighing after the time when a pure
and spiritual religion should displace the barren
ceremonials of popery, had published, first at Alencon, in 1531, and then in Paris, in 1533, a poem,
entitled, " The Mi'rror of a Sinfu'l Soul, in which slhe
discovers her Facults and Sins, as also the Grace and
Blessinigs bestowed on her by Jesus Christ her Spouse.""t
The poem was mild, spiritual, and inoffensive;
but it was written by a queen, and it made a great
sensation. ~Many persons read it with interest, antd
admired AMartgaret's piety and genius.
But not so the Sorbonne. Beda, the fiery syn.
c Journal d'un Bourgeois, p. 291; cited in D'Aubign6, voL 1,
p. 350.                t Du Bellay, Memoires, p. 189.




THE SHADOW OF DEATH.   187
die, absolutely devoured the little book; he had
never been so charmed with any reading, for at
last he had proof that the king's sister was a heretic.  A diabolical plot had been laid by the ultramontane party to ruin Margaret a little before, alnd
her household were steeped to the lips in the plot.*
But there was no occasion now to invoke the " Scythian ingratitude" of the queen's dependents.  " Understand me well," cried the exultant syndic, holding up the volume, " this is not a dumb proof, nor a
half proof, but a literal, clear, complete proof."t
The Sorbonne assembled.  "Listen," said Beda.
The attentive doctors fixed their eyes upon the syndic.  Beda read:
"Jesus, true Fisher thou of souls,
My only Saviour, only Advocate."
"Point against the accused," said Beda.  He continued:
"Pain or death no more I fear,
While Jesus Christ is with me here."
"Confirmation,"  growled  the  syndic.   "Listen
again," said Beda:
"Not hell's black depth, nor heaven's vast height,
Nor sin, with which I wage continual fight,
Me for a single day can move,
Oh, holy Father, from thy perfect love."
The doctors were scandalized.   "No  one," said
they, "can promise himself any thing certain as'::' Miss Pardoe, Court of Francis I. D'Aubigne, vol. 2, p. 164.
t Theod. B3eze, Hist. des Eglises IBefolrmees, 1, p. 8. Freer,
Life of Marguerite cl'Angouleme, 2, p. 112. See Les MBarguerites
de la Marguerite, 1, pp. 63, 65, etc., for the extracts quoted.




188           THE HUGUENOTS.
regards his own salvation unless he has learned it
by special revelation from God."*
"Let us proceed," said Beda, overflowing with
delight:
"How beautiful is death,
That brings to weary me the hour of rest.
Oh, hear my cry, and hasten, Lord, to me,
And put an end to all my misery."
"Deadly heresy," said Beda; " what insolence!"
He made his report.  "Of a truth," said his colleagues, "that is enough to bring anybody to the
stake."
The Sorbonne instantly prohibited the M1irror
of a Siz/ul Soul, and put it in the Index Librormn
Prohibitorusm.t
The faculty decided that the first thing to be
done was, to search every bookseller's shop in the
city, and seize all the copies found.j  A  priest
named Leclery made the search.  Accompanied by
the university beadles, he went to every bookstore,
seized 3Margaret's poem  wherever the tradesmen
had put it out of sight, and returned to the Sorbonne laden with the spoil.
Then the faculty deliberated upon the measures
to be taken against the queen.
Meantime insinuations and accusations against
the king's sister were uttered from  every pulpit.~
* The Council of Trent made this precise declaration an arti.
cle of faith.
t D'Aubignd, 2, p. 173., Calvini, Epp., p. 2.
~ Lettres de la Reine de Navarre, 1, p. 280. Freer's Life, 2,
p. 118.




THE SHADOW OF DEATH.    189
Margaret was even lampooned in a college comedy
which Calvin reportedcl.
But still the faculty hesitated. They knew that
Francis loved his sister, and they dreaded punishment. The monks were everywhere exasperated.
"Let us have less ceremony," cried one of them,
the superior of the Grey Friars; "put the queen of
Navarre into a sack, and throw her into the Seine."t
Margaret supported these insults with admirable mlildness.  But when Francis heard of them,
his rage knew no bounds.  The constable MIontmorenci, who had caballed against the queen of Navarre, was publicly snubbed.$  The insolent prior
who had proposed to sew Margaret into a bag and
throw her into the river was next dealt with. " Let
himn suffer the punishment which he desired to inflict
upon the queen," said Francis. But Margaret interceded for the wretch, and his life was spared.
Stripped of his ecclesiastical dignities, he was sent
to the galleys for two years.~  The collegians who
had satirized the queen were imprisoned,ll and the
Sorbonne was severely rated; Beda was exiled, and
the faculty were advised " not to mix themselves up
in such dangerous matters, or to beware of the terrible anger of the king."~
Thus auspiciously to }Margaret and to the reform
ended this tilt with the Sorbonne doctors.
* Calvini, Epp., p. 1.  t Lettres de la Reine, etc., 1, p. 282.: Brantome, Vie de Marguerite.
~ Castaigne, Notice sur Mlarguerite. Freer, Vie de Miarguerite,
11 Calvini, Epp., 1.                  I Ibid.




190          THIE HUGUENOTS.
But a terrible tragedy was about to be enacted,
which compensated the faithful for the mortification
of this defeat. The unhappy  taudois appear once
more upon the historic stage; now, as always before, agonized as martyrs.
Some of the Vaudois remained in France even
after the cessation of the atrocious harries of De
Montfort and St. Louis in the thirteenth century;
and reference has been made to those of Cabrieres
and Merindole, who were protected by the noble
flat of Louis XII.e  After their transitory appeararnce in that reign, the Vauclois had disappeared
from  the excited history of the succeeding ages,
and wrapped in the mountain fastnesses of the
French Alps, they procured the means of subsistence by pastoral industry. Thus they lived in peace
with man and serving their fathers' God until the
Reformation began to stir the world. Then Calvin,
from his seat in Geneva, offered them his alliance.te
He was familiar with the hoary tenets of their ancient faith, and he endorsed them.
Then the tranquil rest of the Vaucdois mountaineers was broken. Their confession of faith was reported at Paris. Eighteen of their principal teachers were cited to appear before the Parliament.:I
But ere the summons could be obeyed, a decree of
extermination was pronounced upon them witbhout
a hearing.
* See chap. 9, p. 126.
t Du Bellay, Memoires. Calvini, Opuse. Duncan, p. 9.
$ Ibid.




THE SHADOW OF DEATHI.             191
WTilliam du Bellay was then governor of Provence. This gentleman was appointed by Francis
to execute the sanguinary edict. With a humanity
rare in those cruel times, the governor determined
to see the king, and if possible to turn him from
his purpose. Francis, who had previously appointed Du Bellay his envoy to the conference of Smalcald,* held him in high favor, and condescended to
hear his representations.
"I have come, sire," said he, "to inform your
majesty of the actual character of the Vaudois,
which, in my official capacity, I have taken great
pains to investigate. They do certainly differ fromn
our communion in many respects; but they are a
simple, irreproachable people, benevolent, temperate, humane, and of unshaken loyalty. Agriculture
is their sole occupation; they have no legal conten.tions or party strife. Hospitality is one of their
cardinal virtues; and they have no beggars among
them. No one is tempted to steal, for his wants
are freely supplied by asking."t
"But they are heretics," responded Francis
sternly.
"C I acknowledge, sire," said the governor, "that
they rarely enter our churches; and if they do, that
they pray with their eyes fixed on the ground. They
pay no homage to saints and images; they do not
use holy water; they do not acknowledge the benefit to be derived from pilgrimages, nor do they say
mass either for the living or the dead."
* Du Bellay, Memoires.               t Ibid.




192          THE HUGUENOTS.
"And is it for such men as these," said the king,
"that you ask clemency?  Go, go, Du Bellay; for
your sake they shall receive pardon, if within three
months they present themselves before the archbishop of Aix, renounce their heresies, and become
reconciled with the mother church. If they are still
rebellious, they must expect the utmost severity.
Meantime the edict stands unrepealed. Think you
that we burn heretics in France only that they may
be nourished in the Alps.?"*
The Vaudois cherished their patriarchal opinions too faithfully, they were embalmed in the tradition of too much suffering, to enable them even to
think of submitting to the king's conditions. They
therefore awaited their doom in frozen despair.
But it happened that the Provencal Parliament
had for its president an advocate of unrivalled legal
skill, M. Chassan6e, and his noble heart prompted
him to use every wile known to his profession to
defeat the decree; and he did indeed succeed in'postponing the execution of the edict until after his
death.t
But Chassan6e was succeeded by a fierce bigot
named D'Oppede, who had no scruples to overcome. That we may not be accused of overcoloring
the woful catastrophe which followed, we extract
the account from the unfriendly pages of a IRomish
chronicler, the abb6 Anqu6ltil:
* Du Bellay, Memoires.
t Browning, Hist. Huguenots, p. 23. Abbe Anquebil, Esprit
de la Ligne, vol. I, p. 13. Maimbourg, Hist. du Calvinism, liv. 2.




THE SHADOOW OF DEATH.            193
-" In 1545, Francis I. gave permission to employ
the aid of arms against the Vaudois mountaineers.
It was granted at the solicitation of the Baron
d'Oppede, president of the Parliament of Aix, a
violent and sanguinary man, who revived against
those heretics assembled in the valleys of the Alps
on the side of Provence a parliamentary decree
given five years before."
" Every thing was horrible and cruel," says the
historian De Thou, "in the sentence denounced
against them; and every thing was still more horrible and cruel in its execution. Twenty-two villages were plundered and burned, with an inhuinanity of which the history of the most barbarous
people scarcely affords an example. The unfortunate inhabitants, surprised during the night, and
pursued from rock to rock by the lurid light of the
fires which consumed their dwellings, only avoided
one ambuscade to fall into another. The piteous
cries of old men, of women, and of children, far from
softening the hearts of the soldiery, as mad with
rage as their chiefs, only served to indicate the
track of the fugitives and mark their hiding-places,
to which the assassins carried their fury.
"Voluntary surrender did not exempt the men
from slaughter or the women from excesses of brutality which human nature blushes to record. It
was forbidden, under penalty of death, to afford
them any refuge. At Cabrieres, the principal town
of the canton, seven hundred men were murdered
in cold blood; and the women who had remained
Iluguenots.         9




194          THE3 HUGUENOTS.
in their houses were shut up in a barn, which was
filled with straw and then fired. Those who attempted to escape from the window were hacked
back by swords or impaled on pikes. At the last,
according to the tenor of the sentence, the houses
were razed, the woods cut down, the fruit-trees
plucked up by the roots, and this country, so fertile
and so populous, became an uninhabited desolation."'
Such is the ghastly picture of this massacre, as
painted by the reluctant pens of two inimical historians, De Thou and the abb6 Anqu6til.
Maimbourg, in describing the scene, says that
more than three thousand persons were slain, saud
that nine hundred houses were plundered and then
burned.t
Thus with a quivering wail passed this last remn
nant of the ancient Vaudois from the inhospitable
and persecuting shores of time, to join their martyred ancestors in eternity.
But the Vaudois had accomplished their mission
They had dropped the seed which sprang up and
bore a hundred-fold. Severity, far from checking
the progress of the Reformation, only inspired its
professors with sublimer energy. They died, on
the scaffold or amid the flames, with the steadfast
devotion of martyrs.
Hitherto the reformers had only ventured to* Abbe Anquetil, Esprit de la Ligue, vol. 1, p. 14. De Thou,
tom. 1.
t Maimbourg, Hist. du Calvinisme, liv. 2.




THE SHADOW  OF DEATH.             195
assemble at night, and in the unknown byways and
slums of France. Now they met openly in the light
of day. They even erected a church in the heart of
scoffing Paris, while the chief cities in the provinces
hastened to imitate the example of the capital.*
Thus was fulfilled the later saying of John Calvin, that "the kingdom of Christ is strengthened
and established more by the blood of martyrs than
by force of arms."t
* Duncan, Religious Wars in France, p. 10.
t Calvin, Comm. sur S. Jean 17 -36.




196         THE HUGUENOTS.
CHAPTER XV.
FRENCH POLITICS.
ON the 31st of March, 1547, Francis I. died.'Vacillating in his temper, arbitrary in his rule, selfish in his policy, yet generous in his private relations, he was the Don Quixote of a vicious chivalry.
By his death, one more link was broken which
bound France to feudalism.
Francis was succeeded by his son Henry II.,
a prince who inherited many of the qualities, and
who adopted the essential policy of the paladin
king; but he did not sway an unvexed sceptre.
Schism, dangerous and ever growing, was within
the temple; the court was fretted by hostile cabals;
the Commons were turbulent; France bristled with
rebellion; while from without, the pope had his
clutch upon Henry's dominion, England fomented
discord, and Spain, under Charles V.,
" Forging the prodigal gold of either Ind
To armed thunderbolts,"
was a perpetual menace.
Let us glance for a moment at the politics of
the court at this critical epoch, and form the acquaintance of some of the grand historic figures who
were destined to sway France, and to mould her
future-some by their wicked ambition, others by
the healthful play of their noble aspirations.




FRIENCH POLITICS.               197
The reign of Henry IT. was emphatically an
embryo period. It contained the roots of "many
and tall trees of mischief," which afterwards covered
France with an accursecl shade.
Initiation into the vile mysteries of the temple
of court intrigue-this is essential.
Four rival factions formed the substratum  of
the state.
Anne de Montmorenci, constable of France, the
minister and favorite of Henry II., headed one
clique. Montmorenci was able in the cabinet, and
had won wide fame in the wars of the age; but his
character was stained by bigotry and fierce rancor.*
The leader of a second party was Diana de Poitiers, duchess of Valentinois, the king's mistress,
who, through her wit and beauty, possessed boundless influence with her royal paramour.t
Catharine de Medici, a daughter of the illustrious Florentine house which had given two popes
to Christendom, the consort of the impetuous king
Henry II., led a third faction in this scramble for
power.  Catharine's character had barely shown
itself during the lifetime of Francis I.; but now she
began to emerge from her former obscurity, and
during the successive reigns of her three sons, she
possessed supreme influence in the government.4
The wily queen surpassed Machiavelli himsell
in tortuous statescraft.  By constantly adjusting
* Davila, liv. 1. De Thou, liv. 3. Brantome, Vie de Henri'S., vol. 7, p. 11.
t Ibid. Vielleville, vol. 1, p. 203, et seq.  ) Ibid.




198          THRE HUGUENOTS.
and readjusting the equilibrium of the contending
factions, she prevented each from overwhelming the
other; played one off against another; and by prolonging this contest, she extended the duration of
her own power.*
The fourth faction of the court was that of the
princes of Lorraine, better known in history as the
Guises.t These were the greediest and most unscrupulous jackals of this courtly pack. The Guises
were looked on as foreigners, and their power in
France was a mushroom growth.
Rend de Lorraine, who fought with Charles the
Bold of Burgundy, and who more than once brought
the claims of his house upon Provence, Naples, and
Jerusalem to remembrance, ordained in his last will
that Antoine, his eldest son, should succeed him in
Lorraine and Bar, and that the other, Claude, should
inherit his possessions lying in France; these were
estates scattered throughout Normandy, Picardy,
Flanders, and the Isle of France, with the baronies
of Joinville, 3fayenne, Elboeuf, and the counties of
Aumale and Guise,j: all destined a little later to
give names to distinguished warriors and prelates.
Among the chivalric leaders of Francis I., this
Claude, who styled himself " Guise," whose domain
had been raised from a county into a dukedom,~
made a brilliant figure. His bravery and miraculous preservation at the battle of Marignano, the
* Browning, p. 25.             t Davila, liv. 1.::Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy of France, p. 168.
F Brantome, Vie de Henri II., vol. 7.




FRENCiH  POLITICS.                199
central part which he took in preserving the peace of
the kingdom during the captivity of the king after
the fatal rout at Pavia, the pains he took to ingratiate himself with the masses and to cement the
foundations of his power, ere long made him a great
name in the realm. To crown all, he made a fortunate marriage, wedding a princess of the royal
blood, Antoinette de Bourbon.  From  this union
sprang six sons, full of vital energy, three of whonz
devoted themselves to the church, and three to
arms, all achieving fame in their respective spheres."
These were Francis duke of Guise, sometimes
called prince of Joinville; Charles archbishop of
Rheims and cardinal of Lorraine, Claude duke
d'Aumale, Louis cardinal of Guise, Francis grand
prior, and Ren6 marquis d'Elbceuf.t
Such was the formidable house of Guise, propped by its six stalwart pillars; and even in the reign
of Francis I., their rise and progress towards power
had been so rapid and insidious, that the dying king
bequeathed to Henry a legacy of distrust of their
talents and ambition, which he thought —rightly, as
the sequel proved-were of an order to endanger
the peace of France.j
Between these factions raged the utmost hate.
O Ranrke, p. 168.                     DaIvila, liv. 1.
I Duncan, p. 20. This quatrain was then very common il
France:
"Le roy.Francois ne faillit point,
Quand il predit que ceux de Guise
Mettroient ses enfants en pourpoint,
Et tous ses sujets en chemise."
Aee Memoires de Conde, and Satyre Menippo.,




200          THE HUGUENOTS.
Usually they were at open war; but when peace
reigned, it was but a hollow truce-2mars gyravior szb
pace latet, war bitterer for the disguise. A coalition
had been formed between Diana de Poitiers and
the constable of France; so that the chief of the
Montmorencis and the courtesan duchess for a time
swayed the sceptre with untrammelled hands.* The
duchess disliked Cardinal Tournon, and one of Henry's first acts was to dismiss this personified inquisition from the public service.tV Montmorenci favored this move, and seeing that his only strength
lay in Diana's smiles, he exerted himself to the utmost to flatter the king's passion for her.
Whatever was done or left undone owed its origin to no zeal for the public welfare, but was simply
a manoeuvre to deceive the king, whom all parties
conspired to blind, and who throughout his reign
was merely the empty shadow of an authority which
was really vested in powers behind the throne.
Such was the political situation at the commencement of the year 1548.
The ambitious projects of the house of Lorraine
were rendered doubly dangerous and difficult to
foil by the masterly tactics of Francis duke of
Guise, one of the most remarkable men of that age.
As a soldier, he hlad distinguished himself by the
capture of Calais from the English, who had usurped
it in a preceding century, and by his defence of Metz
against the Spaniards. HIe possessed in an eminent degree most of those external advantages which
* Browning, p. 25.                  t Ibid.




FRENCH POLITICS.              201
captivate the multitude-a commanding presence,
dignity, affability, an ingratiating address, and a
certain chivalry. These rendered him the admiration of the populace, and nlade him the delight and
ornament of the court.*
His aspiring schemes were of course powerfully
supported by his influential brothers with their hosts
of retainers, all as anxious as himself to share the
patronage and emoluments of office.t
In pursuance of her favorite policy of an adjusted equilibrium, Catharine de Medici coalesced with
the Guises, whom  she both hated and feared,T
against Montmorenci, who stood in the path of
their ambition.
It was against this powerful confederacy that
the constable had to struggle. Feeling his inabil.ity to resist it single-handed, he had already, as we
have seen, called Diana de Poitiers to his side.
He now resolved to attach the princes of the blood
to his party. The next heirs to the throne after
Francis and the other sons of king Henry, were
Antony de Bourbon and the prince of Cond6.
Antony de Bourbon, who had become king of
Navarre by his marriage with Jane d'Albr6t, the
daughter of the good queen Margaret, was weak,
indolent, vacillating, and too fond of ease to take
any active part in the troubled and stirring scenes
which were soon to convulse the kingdom. He was
only roused from his habitual torpor by the hope
of recovering that portion of his realm which had
* Duncan, p. 16.  t Ibid.   [ Vielleville, vol. 1, p. 298.
9*




202          THiE HUGUENOTS,
been seized and retained by Spain. As his sulccess
in this object depended entirely upon the armed
assistance of France, he was easily drawn into the
ranks of the ruling party by empty professions of
friendship and hollow promises of material aid.*
His brother, the prince of Cond6, who was connected with Montmorenci by a: marriage with his
niece, was a man of more determined character;
and though not possessed of those high qualities
which are requisite in a successful party leader, he
compensated the political defect of ordinary talent
by great moral courage and inflexibility of purpose.t
With many others of the higher nobility, he had
espoused the reformed creed; and though he was
too frank and open to shine as a diplomatist in an
age when fraud and mendacity were the prime merits of a negotiator, he yet brought vast strength to
the ranks of Protestantism.  His finances were
scanty, but he was liberal to his followers; and
when life was at stake or honor in peril, he displayed a promptitude and magnanimity of bearing
which commanded universal respect.
Cond6 was the intimate friend of the Chatillons,
an ancient family which had once exercised sovereign authority over Nantua and. Moulon6t, two towns
in the neighborhood of Geneva.t.
T]heo marshal de Chatillon had married Louisa
de Montmorenci, the constable's sister, by whom
* Duncan, pp. 17, 18.? Ibid.
B irantome, Vie de Coligny. Browning, note, p. 37.




FRENCH POLITICS.                    203
he had three sons, two of whom  achieved an immortality of fame.  The eldest of these, Od6t, became bishop of Beauvais and Cardinal Chatillon.
IHe was a keen observer of the world, mild in his
address, polished in his manners, an adept in the
intrigues of the day, and possessed of all those winning and conciliatory arts which disarm  an enemy
and fix a friend.
The second son was the famous Gaspard Chatillon de Coligny, admiral of France,* one of the
brightest and grandest names in history, doubly
consecrated by a life of sublime fidelity to Christian
duty, and by martyrdom.
The gallant Francis Chatillon d'Andelot was the
youngest member of the family; he held the office
of colonel-general of French infantry.t
The two younger Chatillons, better known by
their seignorial appellations of Coligny and D'Andelot, were early initiated into politics by their
uncle of Montmorenci, who placed great reliance
upon their counsel and discretion. The fine talents
of this famous family, their influential connections,
* The office of admiral of France is Supposed to have been created in 1337, during the reign of Charles the Fair. Valne, in his
elaborate commentary on the French marine ordinance of 1681,
gives a list of these officers, amounting in number to thirty-eight,
down to 1626, at which date Henri de Montmorenci resigned the
office into the hands of Louis XIII., or rather into those of Richelieu, who suppressed it by an ordinance dated January 16, 1627,
together with that of constable of France. The duties of the old
admiral were somewhat similar to those of an American secretary
of the navy.
t Brantome, Vie de Coligny.




204          THE HUGUENOTS.
their high offices, rendered them most formidable
to the vaulting house of Guise.
D'Andelot became very early an enthusiastic
adherent of the Reformation. His open and generous nature made him scorn concealment, and he
frequently startled the court by his liberal conversation.*  On one occasion Henry II., upon hearing
that his colonel-general had been heard to utter
hesetical sentiments, sent for him, on the advice of
his favorite, Charles, cardinal of Lorraine, and interrogated him upon his opinions.
"H ow is this, sirrah?" said the king menacingly;
"have you too become moon-stricken, that you
utter this vile trash of Calvin, and rant like a common heretic against our holy mother church?"
Although ID'Andelot had been cautioned to use
prudence in his answer, he scorned to equivocate,
and he replied firmly, but respectfully, "Sire, in
matters of religion I can use no disguise, nor could
I deceive God should I attempt it. Dispose as you
please of my life, property, and appointments; but
my soul, independent of every other sovereign, is
only subject to my Creator, from whomn I received
it, and whom alone I deem it my duty to obey in
matters of conscience. In a word, sire, I would
rather die than go to mass."t
This calm speech roused the king to such fury,
that he drew his rapier and menaced the intrepid
disciple with instant deatlf. But when his rage
o Brantome, Vie de Coligny.
t Brantome, Browning, Duncan.




FRENCI POLITICS.              205
cooled, he stripped D'Andelot of his honors, and
threw him into the prison of M6lun.*
This punishment had no moral effect. It was
well known that the court was tainted with Protestantism, and that many nobles were as heretical
as D'Andelot, though few might have the Christian
courage so openly to avow their faith. It seemed
partial and ungenerous to incarcerate a gentleman
who had shown so much honor and daring. So
that this imprisonment increased the popularity of
the persecuted doctrines of the Bible. The reformers, jubilant over the support of lD'Andelot, and
trusting that all the members of his powerful family
would espouse his creed, fearlessly assembled at the
Pr6-aux-Cleves, situated in the modern Fazbourg St.
Germain, and at that time one of the most fashionable promenades in Paris. There they sang the
Protestant psalms of Marat in the open air. It
became the fashion to visit these reunions; and
many an idle courtier, who had lounged down to
ridicule the "fanatics," as they were called, returned
with his curses turned into benedictions, and his
mocking laughter choked in prayer. Antony de
Bourbon, king of Navarre, ancd Jane d'Albrdt, were
7c1abittes of these gatherings; and while they animated the preachers by their presence, they did
not deign to disguise their attachment to the new
cpinions.t
Coligny was remarkable for his caution in tak,
V Tie de Coligny, p. 86. ]Browning, p. 37.
t Duncan, pp. 12, 13.




206          THE HIUGUENOT.S.
ing a step, but when he reached a decision he was
inflexible. No one possessed greater intrepidity or
more perseverance. Difficulties, instead of daunting him, only spurred him to greater activity, and
served only to excite his ardor to surmount them.*
It was his brother D'Andelot who first persuaded him to inquire into the justice of the Protestant claims. Coligny paused long. He studied
carefully. Meantime he used his utmost exertions
to secure the liberation of his brother. With great
difficulty he at length prevailed on D'Alndelot to
acknowledge that he had spoken to the king too,
roughly.  This acknowledgment, backed by the
influence of Montmorenci, obtained his dismissal
from the IM6lun dungeon.t
Pope Paul IV. was very angry when the news
reached him that D'Andelot was again at liberty.
He imperiously demanded that he should be burned
for heresy. Easier said than done. I)'Andelot's
uncle was then the arbiter of France; his brother,
the cardinal of Chatillon, was one of the grandinquisitors:: he would doubtless hesitate long before consigning so dear a relative to the flames; so
the unhappy pontiff had to content himself for a
while with less distinguished victims. The Guises
shared in the sadness of the holy father on this
account, and they set spies upon Montmorenci
while his nephew was in prison, in the foolish hope
of being able to find some ground on which to base
* Vie de Coligny.           t Brozwning, p. 37.
IbDid.




FRENCH POLITICS.                207
an accusation against that persecuting Saul of favoring heretics.*
Coligny, like Calvin, was of the strictest sect of
the papists. In an age of almost universal license,
no blot has ever been found upon his moral purity.
He maintained several priests at Chatillon; he also 
established free schools for the education of youth.
Upon joining the reformers he continued the same
acts, simply substituting Protestant preachers for
the former monks.t  Girt with his conscience and
armed with his principles, he would have braved
the universe. When a little later he did, after long
pause, declare his adherence to the Reformation,
there was no more vacillation, no more timidity, no
more doubt; not D'Andelot himself was more open
and inflexible.
"Coligny and D'Andelot," says their biographer
B3rantome, "were both endowed with such imperturbable equanimity and coolness, that it was quite
impossible to put them in a passion, and their countenances never betrayed their secret thoughts and
inward emotions."T
So admirable in their mental structure and in
their moral nature were these brothers, the first
political leaders of Latin Protestantism; their brilliant genius, their constancy, their unwearied zeal,
their unflagging faith, made them the idols of the
French reformers.
* Vie de Coligny, p. 192.        t Ibid., p. 74.
$ Brantome, C., vol. 7, p. 163.




Z0S           THE HUGUENOTS
CHAPTER XVI.
MUTATION.
IN the field of persecution, Henry II. walked in
the footsteps of Francis I. He regarded the extirpation of heresy and the convention of costly and
knight-errant tournaments as the double mission of
his kingly career.* For the accomplishment of the
one, he squandered the blood, the treasure, and the
honor of France; in the pursuit of the other, he lost
his life, dying " as the fool dieth."
That he might secure leisure for the gratification of his bias for pageants and autos dafe, a hollow truce of five years' duration was patched up
between France and Spain,t of which Henry could
not say, as Francis I. did on the dismal day of Pavia, " All is lost, save honor," for in this case honor
went first.
Just before the declaration of this truce, in 1556,
Charles V. abdicated, after one of the most stormy,
eventful, and checkered reigns in history. The selfdeposed emperor retired into the monastery of St.
Just, in Estremadura, where he spent his hours in
vainly attempting to make a hundred clocks tick
together,$ precisely as he had endeavored to wind
* Fra Paolo, Hist. Concile de Trente, p. 280.
t Frost, Hist. of France. Robertson, Life of Charles V.
t Motley, Rise of the Duntch Rpcunblic, vol. 1.




MUTATION.                 209
up his subjects' consciences, and compel them to
keep the time of the Vatican.
During the war just ended with Spain, in which
Henry had been the ally of ]MYaurice of Saxony and
Albert of Brandenburg, who led the armed Protestantism of Germany, the cardinal of Lorraine had
advised the temporary cessation of the religious
persecution in France, in order to present the semblance of consistency.
Now the fires were once more lighted, Henry,
to add dignity aLnd importance to the executions,
went in person to several of them. On one of these
occasions he recognized an old domestic dying in
the flames; his follower recognized him, and called
out faintly from within the fire, " Save me, my king!"
and the monarch was seized with such horror that,
turning on his heel, he instantly quitted the scene,
to hide his agitation and remorse in the depths of
the Louvre.*
But the reformers were not to be deterred
front following the dictates of conscience. It was
in vain that funeral piles were kindled in every
town in France. The danger of martyrdom, while
it excited every generous feeling in the hearts of
the devout, and fanned enthusiasm to a white heat,
also became a preventive to desertion. It confirmed
the wavering. Many who would have acknowledged
themselves persuaded in a theological dispute,
would avoid the disgrace of yielding through dread
of so unsatisfactory a proselyter as the fire.
D'Aubigne, Hist. Universelle, vol. 1, p. 75. Browning, p. 27.




210          THE HUG UENOTS.
In Mlay, 1557, an event occurred which showed
that the reformers were numerous even in Paris
itself. Five hundred of them one night were assembled to celebrate the Lord's supper in a house in
the Rue St, Jacques, opposite the College Plessis.
The opportunity for a tumult was too good to be
lost. The populace, instigated by the monks, gathered about the house, but no attempt was made to
interrupt the service. When the assembly was dismissed, however, the reformers were assailed not
only with threats and abuse, but with stones and
rapiers.  The darkness of the night would have
enabled most of them to have escaped, had not lanterns been placed in the windows of the adjacent
dwellings to illuminate the street.*
Many were murdered; some few who had arms
cut their way through the mob; but the old men,
the women, and the children were left to massacre.
In the midst of the orgie, some soldiers charged and
dispersed the rioters; and while the guilty escaped,
the innocent reformers, to the number of two hundred, were taken into custody.ti
Proceedings were immediately  commenced
against these, notwithstanding the fact that among
them were many persons of distinguished family
connections.:t The cardinal of Lorraine demanded
that they should all be condemned to the fire; but
the parliament had not so capacious a maw: they
did not require a hecatomb of victims to glut their
* De Thou, liv. 19.    t Pasquier, vol. 2, p. 76.: Browning, p. 31. 2Duncan, p. 11.




MUTATION.                   211
appetite; and after a long process, five of the Protestants were sentenced to the flames.*
Fortunately for the others, Henry required some
levies in Switzerland and Germany; the elector-palatine solicited the enlargement of these prisoners;
and as it would have been inconvenient for the king
to lose the friendship of that prince, he reluctantly
ordered them to be treated with moderation, to the
infinite regret of the pontiff Paul IV., who loudly
complained in the consistory.t
While Henry was at war with Charles V., a decree, called the edict of Chateaubriand, was passed,
which placed the reformers under the secular jurisdiction.t  But now the cardinal of Lorraine was
desirous of devising some method of defeating that
edict, which served as a shield to the evangelicals.  Accordingly he advised the appointment of
an inquisitor of the faith in France, who should
have the power to cite, interrogate, and punish suspected persons, and who should likewise possess,
through a bureau of trained spies, mischievous and
ubiquitous, the means of penetrating into the privacy of families, and of exercising an unsleeping
surveillance over the whole kingdom, from  the
mountains to the sea.~
The pontiff greedily seized on the idea,, and
* Browning, p. 31. Duncan, p. 11. Felibdru, vol. 11, p. 1060,
They were burned in Sept., 1557.
t Fra Paolo, Hist. du Concile de Trente, p. 338. Soulier, Hist,
du Calvinisme, vol. 2, p. 15. Browning, p. 31.
I De Thou. This was dated June 27, 1551.
~ Davila. Beza, Hist. Eceles.




212          THE HUGUENOTS.
appointed Matthew Oni, a Dominican monk, to
that hateful office.*  The king and his council approved this investiture of a foreigner with absolute
power within the borders of his kingdom; but the
parliament, somewhat leavened with the progressive ideas, and not wholly infatuated, ventured to
remonstrate.  "Sire," said Sequier, one of the
presidents of the parliaments, " we abhor the establishment of this tribunal of blood, where secret accusation takes the place of proof, where the accused
is deprived of every means of defence, and where
no judicial form is respected. Begin, sire, by procuring for the nation an edict which will not cover
France with funeral piles, which will not be wetted
either by the tears or the blood of your loyal subjects.  At a distance, sire, from  your presence,
bowed down under the pressure of rural labor, or
absorbed in the exercise of the arts or of trade, the
people are ignorant of what is preparing against
them; they do not suspect that it is proposed to
separate them from your throne by the intervention of an irresponsible foreign tribunal, which
shall wreak its unchallengeable will upon them, and
deprive them of their natural guardian. It is for
them and in their name that we now present our
humble remonstrances, nay, our ardent supplications.
"As for you, sirs," continued the orator, turning towards the sycophantic crowd of counsellors
and ministers who surrounded the king, " you who
a Davila. Beza, Hist. Eccles.




MIUTATION.                   213
so tranquilly hear me, and secure in the royal favor
imagine that this affair does not concern you, learn
that it is fit that you divest yourselves of that foolish notion. So long as you enjoy the king's friendship, you wisely make the most of your time —'t is
your harvest; benefits and kindnesses are showered
upon you without stint, and it enters into the mind
of no one to attack you. But the more you are elevated, the nearer you are to the thunderbolt; one
must be a stranger to the history of courts who
does not know the trivialities which often precipitate disgrace.
"Under the present regime, even should that
misfortune befall you, you could now retire with
that fortune which would in a measure console you
for your fall. But dating from the registration of
this edict, your condition would cease to be the
same. lMark! You will have for successors men
poor and hungry, who, not knowing how long they
may remain in office, will burn with a desire to
enrich themselves at once and by whatever means.
They will find a wonderful facility in doing so; for,
certain of obtaining your confiscation of the king,
it will only be necessary to bribe an inquisitor and
two witnesses.  Then, though you may be saints,
you will burn as heretics."*
This argumenturn ad Jiominern  of the subtle par* Garnier, Hist. de France, vol. 14, p. 28. Pierre Sequier,
born 1504, died 1580. His speeches, which are remarkable for
their courage and boldness, have been collected and printed. The,one from which this extract is taken is one of the finest of the
series.




214          THE HUGUENOTS.
liamentary orator, produced a profound impression
upon the council, and also on the king, who was so
affected that he remitted the consideration of the
question to another clay.*
A.propos of this edict, it was just before the
wily cardinal of Lorraine conceived his notable
sclieme for the extirpation of heresy, that the society of the Jesuits, the pests of modern Europe,
commenced their machinations, under the protection of this same prelate. So early as 1550, the
cardinal procured from Henry II. letters patent, by
which they were permitted to build an establishment in Paris.t
The order of the Jesuits owed its origin to the
efforts of a fanatic Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola, who,
"poor, obscure, without a patron, without recommendations, entered that city-where now two temples, rich with paintings and many colored marbles,
commemorate his great, services to his church;
where his form stands sculptured in massive silver;
where his bones, enshrined amid jewels, are placed
beneath the altar-and by his activity and zeal
launched his protean propaganda."T
"With what vehemence, with what unscrupulous
policy, with what forgetfulness of the dearest private ties, with what intense and stubborn devotion
to a single end, with what laxity and versatility in
the choice of means, the Jesuits fought the battles
of their church, is written on every page of the.
* Browning, p. 30.             t Duncan, p. I0
t Macauley, Essay on Ranke's Hist. of the Popes.




MUTATION.                  215
annals of Europe during several generations. In'the order of Jesus' was concentrated the quintessence of the Romish spirit, and its history is the
history of the papal reaction against Luther. The
order possessed itself of all the strong-holds which
command the public mind-of the pulpit, of the
press, of the confessional, of the academies.  It
was into the ears of the Jesuit that the powerful,
the noble, the wretched, and the beautiful breathed
the secret history of their lives. It was at the feet
of the Jesuit that the youth of the higher and
middle and lower classes were brought up, from
the first rudiments to the courses of rhetoric and
philosophy."*
Such was the order which, dominant in the south
of Europe, now sued for admission into France.
At the first their welcome was not hearty.
When Henry's letters-patent were presented to
the parliament for registry, the procureur-general
strongly opposed their reception, and the act of
legalization was suspended in consequence of his
remonstrances. But in 1552, the Jesuits obtained
new letters-patent, which contained a peremptory
order for their registration. The procureur-general, howe.ver, persisted in his opposition, and for
two years more the question hung undecided.
Finally, on the 3d of August, 1554, the parliament
decreed that, before the matter was definitely decided, the letters of the king and the papal bulls
which the Jesuits had obtained, should be referred
* 3iacauley, Essay on Ranke's Hist. of the Popes.




'216          THE HUGUENOTS.
to the bishop of Paris and the dean of the Sorbonne Faculty of Theology.*
The bishop, whose name was Eustace de Bellay,
did not hesitate to declare " that the bulls of Paul
III, and of Julius III. contained several articles
which were contrary to reason, and which could
not be tolerated or received in the Christian religion; that those in whose favor they were issued, by
arrogating to themselves the title of'Company of
Jesus,' which could only be applied with propriety
to the universal church, of which Christ was the
head, appeared to desire to constitute themselves
that church; moreover, as the principal object they
proposed to themselves was the conversion of the
Mohammedans, it would be better to give them a
house on the frontier of the Ottoman empire, than
in Paris, which was so distant from Constantinople."t
The answer of the Sorbonne was not more favorable. Feeling persuaded of their ability to cope
singly with heresy, and
" — ----------- too fond to rule alone,"
able to
"Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne,":
that body, by a unanimous vote, declared the new
society " dangerous to the holy faith, calculated to
disturb the peace of the church, and more fitted to
destroy than to edify."~
* Duncan, p. 10.                       t Ibid.
t Pope, Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, Dyce's ed., vol. 3, p. 9.
~ Duncan, p. 11.




'MUTATION.                  217
These two replies annihilated the hopes of the
Jesuits during the reign of Henry II.; but they
plotted in the dark, and bided their time.
Meantime the truce with Spain had been broken; both kingdoms hlad placed large armies in
the field, and the constable, Mlontmorenci, after
sacking the town of Sens, and pillaging Artois,
came upon the Spaniards before St. Quintin,*
wlhich place, the admiral Coligny, one of the ablest
captains of the age, held for France.
St. Quintin had been vigorously besieged, and
though it was but incifferently strong, the gallant
adcmiral had kept it for his king, while MIontmorenci was coming to succor him.
On the 10ti  of August, 1557, the constable
reached St. Quintin, and and attacking the enemy with
Quixotic indiscretion, suffered a disastrous defeat,
in which he was himself captured.t
In consequence of lAontmorenci's captivity, the
cardinal of Lorraine became the administrator of
the government, and the family of Guise employed
their opportunity in securing the hand of the Dauphin for their niece Mary, queen of Scots,t and
in promoting their adherents to all the influential
offices of the court, the capital, and the provinces.~
But upon this occasion the Guises' lease of
pcwer was not of long duration.  Philip II., tired
of the French war, and familiar with Henry's friend* De Thou, Jiv. 18. Motley, Rlse of the Dutch Ref., vol. 1.
t [bid.    t Browning, p.2.     ~ Duncan, p. 21.
REnguenots.          I C




218          THE HUGUENOTS.
ship for Montmorenci, played upon these chords a
tune of reconciliation with his " clear brother of
France;" and after several ineffectual attemrFts,
the treaty of Chateau Cambrisis was signed on the
3d of April, 1559.*
MIontmorenci immediately resumed his ministerial functions, and the humiliated Guises were completely stripped of their snug stations and usurped
honors. The cardinal of Lorraine, however, who
had contrived to render himself necessary to the
king, remained near his person, like an evil genius,
ever prompting the impressible monarch to wicked and arbitrary acts.t
The cardinal's next act was atrocious. By the
treaty of Chateau Cambrisis, it had been stipulated
that Henry's daughter Elizabeth should marry the
king of Spain.t The city was now crowded with
illustrious Spaniards who had come to witness the
marriage ceremony, and to accompany the young
queen to Madrid. Henry's penchant for magnificent follies and splendidfetes led him to celebrate
the occasion with unusual pomp, and to prepare
the lists of endless tournaments.
The bias of several prominent members of the
parliament towards heresy was well known; a:ad
the independent and liberal action of the legislature on several recent occasions, had. disgusted the
bigoted cardinal and provoked the king.
Lorraine determined to make use of the Span.
* Vie de Cidlon, vol. 1, p. 39.
t Browning, p. 33.                     Ibid.




MUTATION.                 219
ish marriage to wreak his vengeance upon the obnoxious legislators.
One day he entered Henry's cabinet, and delivered this infamous harangue: "Sire, although it
would serve for nothing more than to show the
king of Spain that you are firm in the faith, and
that you will not suffer anlly thing in your kingdom
which will disparage your excellent title of most
Christian king, still you ought to proceed about it
boldly, and with great courage. You must gratify
all these grandees of Spain, who have accompanied
thie duke of Alva for the solemnity and honor of
their sovereign's marriage with your daughter, by
ordering half a dozen councillors of the parliament
to be burned in the. public square as Lutheran heretics, which indeed they are. By so doing we shall
preserve the bulk of the legislature; but if you do
not take these measures, the whole court will be
infected and contaminated with heresy, even to the
clerks, attorneys, and tipstaves."*
The cardinal then, with the craft of those Jesuits whom he befriended, persuaded the king to go
to the legislative chamber as if to consult his counsellors on the measures to be taken for the suppression of heresy, but really to observe the responses of the members of the parliament, and if
possible to ascertain their secret sentiments, by
submitting to their frank consideration and judgment some project which should draw front them
an avowal of their own heresy.te
* Viellevile, liv. 7, c. 24.  t Ibid. Prowning, p. 34.




220          THtE HUGUENOTS.
lMontmorenci, instead of dissuading Hlenry from
such black treachery, approved it in open council.*
Vieilleville alone, who records the incident, raised
his voice against it, as degrading to the royal dignity, affirming that "he was about to take upon
himself the office of an inquisitor, and that the cardinal's proposal would entirely destroy the joyous
feeling of the public."t
But the cardinal's advice prevailed.  Henry
convoked the Parliament, and in a few well-disguised and gracious words, begged the advice of
his counsellors upon the best means for the pacification of the kingdom. The more wary judges confined their remarks to general and vague
expressions, believing that the use of language
was to disguise one's meaning, as one of their
later countrymen, the famous Talleyrand, phrased it.
Some were less cautious, or more honest. "Let
us begin," said Louis Faur, "by examining who
the real author of our troubles is, lest the same
answer should be made to us which Elijah made to
Ahab,'It is thou that troublest Israel,'" and a
look at Cardinal Lorraine directed the application
to him. The celebrated Anne Du Bourg, the son
of an illustrious family in Auvergne, and nephew
of the chancellor of France, next spoke. He surprised his hearers by the boldness of his speech,
enlarging upon the cruelties heaped upon the reformers, and remarked with emphasis, "While men
* Vieilleville, liv. 7, c. 24. Browning, p. 34.    t Ibid.




MUTATION.                   221
are conducted to the stake for the sole crime of
praying for their prince, a shameful license encourages andl multiplies blasphemies, perjuries, debaucheries, and adulteries."*
The courtiers trembled, for they considered this
sentence as intended for the king and the duchess
de Valentinois.t
When Du Bourg resumed his seat, Henry rose
in a great passion, and gave vent to a torrent of
reproaches against the moderate party, and especially against tlhose who, enamoured of the beauty
of plain speech, had boldly avowed their sentiments.:
On quitting the chamber, he made a sign to
Count Montgomery, captain of his Scotch guard,
who had surrounded the convent of the Augustines,
where the tParliament was then sitting, with his
men-at-arms. A fierce look directed towards Faur,
IDu Bourg, and three others, gave sufficient instructions for him. They were arrested in the midst of
a parliamentary session, anda immediately thrown
into a dungeon-a high-handed violation of public
law and official etiquette, the mere attempt at which,
in the succeeding century, cost an English king his
head.
Charges were instantly huddled up against the
five counsellors, the trials were pushed on with indecent haste, and so hot was the anger of the king,
* i)'Aubigne, vol. 1, p. 84. De Thou, liv. 22.
t Pasquier, vol. 2, p. 77.
$ Ibid. D'Aubign6e. Falibien, vol. 2, p. 1066.




222          TIHE  IHUGUENOTS.
that " he expressed a desire to see Du Bourg burned
before his own eyes."*
But before this brutal wish could be gratified,
Henry's own life was abridged by violence; and
singularly enough too, he was doomed to die by the
blundering lance of that same iIontgomelry whom
he had just employed in outraging the higher miajesty of the Parliament, in the very sanctuary of justice.
At a tournament held in the Faubourg St. Antoine, on the 27th of June, 1559, the last of a succession of jousts which Henry meant should give
e'clat to his daughter's marriage, the king, after contending with and vanquishing several of his politic
courtiers, elated by his success, challenged Count
Mlontgomery to enter the lists with him. The count
was reluctant to comply, but Henry would not accept his refusal. Finally Montgomery entered the
arena; two fresh lances were given to the champions; the trumpets sounded the charge; the knights
met, with a terrific crash, in mid-career; and when
the dust rolled up, Henry was seen unhorsed, and
with a portion of his captain's shattered lance protrucding from his visor. The shiver pierced into
his brain through the left eye; and after lingering
through eleven days, he expired on the 10th of July,
1559, in the forty-first year of his age, and the
twelfth of his reign.1* Hist. du Concile de Trente. Vieilleville, vol. 4, p. 158. Duncan, p. 12.
t Brantome, vol. 7, p. 46. Browning, p. 36. Duncan, p. 14.




IUTATION.                 223
If history has not scourged the character of this
puppet king so severely as it has those of his monster brothers, Charles IX. and Henry III., it is not
because he was less deserving of obloquy, but because he was fortunate enough to cheat history by
a death which struck him at the very moment when
lie had matured a plan for the exteirmination of
French Protestantism.*  Henry II. was as weak,
as deceitful, and as execrable as any scion of the
Yalois line. Informers were encouraged by the
prospect of reward to denounce the innocent; a
casual, an ambiguous phrase was a sufficient warrant for arrest; suspicion was equivalent to proof;
whoever sheltered a heretic was held to be a participater in his crime; confidence between man and
man was lost; members of the same family distrusted each other; the worst passions of human
nature were let loose by a bribe, and France became an extended dungeon.
It was in the reign of Henry II. that the soubriqu6t HUGUENLOTS began to be generally applied to
the French reformers. Like the names " Puritan,"
"Methodist," and "Abolitionist," this was originally a term of reproach; but the Protestants of
France, like those of England and America, were
wise enough to seize an epithet hurled at them as
a missile, and wear it proudly as a jewel. In a
few years this designation completely superseded
all others: "Protestant" and "evangelical" were
swallowed up in it; and HUGUENOTS became the
* Browning, p. 36. Duncan, p. 13. Brantome, vol. 7, p. 50.




224             THE HUGUENOTS.
honorable and universal synonym of politico-ecedlesiasLical reforrm.*
*. The etymology of the word "I utguenot" has been the subject
of much discussion. No less than ten different opinions as to its
derivation have been more or less popular.
The etymology most generally received is that which ascribes
its origin to the word Eignot, derived from the German Eidgenossen, which means Confederafe. A party thus designated existed at
Geneva; and it is probable that the French Protestants would
receive a name so applicable to themselves. See Browning, Hlist.
Huguenots, Appendix.
It is probable that the precise form Iuguenot may be owing to
the fact that an influential leader of the republican Protestants of
Geneva was named Hugues.  "In any case," says D'Aubigne, "it
must be remembered that this soubriquet had a purely political
meaning until after the Reformation-a meaning in no-respect
religious, and simply designating the firiends of civil independence.
Many years after, the enemies of the Protestants of France called
them by this name, wishing to stigmatize them, and impute to
them a foreign, republican, and heretical origin. Such is the true
etymology of the word." ID'Aubign6, Ref. in Calvin's Time, vol. 1.
pp. 88, 89.




THE CONSPIRAC Y.              225
CHAPTER XVII.
THE CONSPIRACY.
WVITH the death of Henry II. terminated a his.
toric rivalry. Diana of Poitiers at length succulnbed to the subtleties of Catharine de' MIedici,
who not only drove the courtesan from the court
in ignominy, and confiscated her immense estates,
but who actually appropriated the fair Diana's
jewels.*
The politics of the Louvre were once more revolutionized. Montmorenci, whom Catharine hated
because he had coalesced with Henry's mistress,
and put her authority under the ban, and whom
the Guises intrigued to displace because he had
deposed them and himself swayed the sceptre, was
one morning politely advised by the boy king to
quit Paris, and take the benefit of the air at his
country-seat. t
The Guises were reseated in power. The feeble
hands of Francis II., who was but sixteen when he
ascended the throne, on the 10th of July, 1559, and
poor M3ary Stuart, were not old or energetic enough
to hold the reins of government. Their uncles of
Guise and Lorraine were kind enough to perceive
this, and to relieve their majesties of the cares and
honors of the state.T
* Davila, liv. 1.       t Vie de Coligny, p. 92.
t Brantome, vol. 9, pp. 469, 470.
O1*




226          THE HUGUENOTS.
To be sure the witty Parisians were so unkind
as to frame epigrams, and to assert that this philanthropic action of the bashful and modest house
of Guise, whose probity was thus slurred, recdnly held
the kinci in duress.* But when did a generous action
ever fail to be misconstrued?
The naughty Huguenots took this view of the
case; and esteeming it to be their first duty as loyal
subjects to emancipate their king, they immediately
prepared to stereotype their opinion into action.
The Huguenots caballed. The king's duress bred
a conspiracy. But while the conspirators yet plo;ted in the dark with an immature programme, another auto da fe was kindled; which caused all
France to growl ominously.
Anne du Bourg had remained in prison since
the death of Henry II. The cardinal of Lorraine,
securely intrenched in power, and emboldened by
success, ordered that noble counsellor's trial to pro.,
ceed. Du Bourg, though deserted by the craven
parliament which had permitted itself to be dragooned into submission, defended himself with the
utmost vigor and spirit: he challenged one of his
judges, president Minard, his bitter personal enelnmy; despite of which Miinard took his seat on the
jundiciary bench, and presided at the trial.t
Du Bourg could not resist the impulse to upbraid this French prototype of the English Jeffries;
and he'concluded a scathing philippic by prophe.
v IBrantome, vol. 7, p. 82. Davila, liv. 1.
t Browning, p. 38. Mnem. de CondO, vol. 1, p. 300.




THE CONSPIRACY.                  227
sying that this base judge would soon be called to
appear before a more awful bar, when he would
wish to be as guiltless as his prisoner thlen was
known to be.*
These words were quickly and strangely verified.  As MlIinard was returning home one evening
from the court, he was assassinated.t  This occurred in the night of the 12th of December, 1559. On
the morning of the 23d, Du Bourg, despite the herculean efforts made by the Huguenots to save him,
was led out to be executed.
The counsellor's firm demeanor on reaching the
fatal plaza, excited the sympathetic admiration of
the hardened  mob which hauntecl the gallows.
Measures were taken to prevent his addressing
them; the executioner was ordered to gag him,
should he attempt to speak.
At the foot of the gibbet a crucifix was held before his lips, but he refused to kiss it; after whiclh
he was immediately pulled up and strangled, amid
shouts of Jesu  liariac from  the human tigers below.::
His last words were a prayer: "Father' abandon rme not; neither will I abandon thee."
"Thus," says a historian, "perished Anne D)u
Bourg, in his thirty-eighth year, a man of rare tal* Vie de Coligny, p. 197.
f Browning, p. 38. Minarct was killed by a Scotchman named
Robert Stuart, a distant relative of Mary Stuart, who afterwards
shot the Constable Montinorenci at the battle of St. Denis.
I Mem. de Conde, vol. 1, p. 300. Browning, p. 38.




228          THE HUGUENOTS.
ents, and yet rarer integrity, loved, wept, and lionored even by many of those who did not share his
faith."
After hanging for some time, the body was cut
down and burned, the ashes being sc-atterecl to the
fourl winds.*
As in the classic story of the Roman Gracchi,
so the martyred counsellor, mortally smitten, flung
his dust towards heaven, calling the avenging God
to witness; and from that dust sprang ere long the
embattled ranks of D'Andelot and De Coligny,
eager to defend their faith and liberty.
While this tragedy was being enacted, the conspiracy of Ambois ripened. History has recorded
few undertakings of a similar character in which'
the design was more extensive, the motives more
just, the plan more skilful, the means more adequate, and the failure more miserable.
The Jesuits, ever watchful to obtain a foothold
in France, now that their protectors of the house of
Guise were the arbiters of the kingdom, ventured
to emerge from their holes, and, though denounced
by the parliament, the bishop of the metropolis,
and the Sorbonne, to sue for legal recognition.
This, through the finesse of the cardinal of Lorraine,
was at length accorded them, and the privy council
distinctly declared that "the Jesuits claimed no
privileges hostile to the episcopal supremacy, the
authority of curates, colleges, or universities, or to
the liberties of the Gallican church."t'Duncan, p. 24.                 t TBid., p. 25.




THE CONSPIRACY.                 229
The parliament, overawed by the execution of
Du Bourg, and filled with servile counsellors, did
not venture to baulk the cardinal for a third time;
and after sprinkling rose-water, inl the shape of
explanatory articles, over the charter with dainty
fingers, the Corps' Legislatif and the bishops agreed
to the act of incorporation,* though an additional
clause, which plainly indicated the distrust of the
court itself, was appended ere the registration,
which provided that " if, in the course of time, any
thing should result prejudicial to the prerogative of
the crown or the rights of the people, the constitution of the Jesuits might be reformed."tlThe legal recognition of this hateful tribunal
filled the reformers with alarm, for they justly suspected that these mysterious and ubiquitous priests,
who spun their webs in the dark, who invented
every thing, who denied every thing, who even
seized blank paper and, "acfter the mcanner of sIpiders, sucked heresy from it," would ally themselves
with their patrons the princes of Lorraine, in a
grand effort to annihilate the Huguenot idea.
The alarm of the reformers; the discontent of
the nobility, excluded from all posts of trust, replaced in office by the upstart retainers of the house
of Guise; MIontmlorenci, the king of Nlavarre, the
prince of Conde, all disgusted by the haughty behavior of the cardinal of Lorraine-these circumstances seemed at once to warrant and to guarantee
the success of-an insurrection against the "hated
* Duncan, p. 25.              t Ibid., pp. 25, 26.




230           THE HUGUENOTS.
foreigners" who, through their niece, ruled the
king.;*
The discontented nobles and the Huguenot politicians at once formed a confederacy, the former
to end the political usurpations of the Guises, the
latter to protect their party against the repetition
of those severities which were threatened by the
ugly precedent of Du Bourg.t
The conspirators held their first conversations at
the castle of La Fert6, which was situated on the
frontier of Picardy. The prince of Cond6 was unanimously elected chief; but he was not to be known
as a participator in the plot until the decisive moment came.j  Condd accepted this position, annexing this reservation: " Providing nothing be done
or attempted against God, the king, my brothers,
or the state."~
In the mean time a gentleman named La Renaudie, of a noble family of Perigord, a Huguenot, was
selected to be the nominal head of the conspiracy.l1
La IRenaudie combined every quality requisite for
the elaboration and direction of such a movement.
Eloquent, energetic, persevering, intelligent, brave
even to rashness,T familiar, through a long residence at Geneva, with those multitudinous religionists who had been expatriated for their faith, no
* Vie de Coligny.               t Duncan, p. 26.: Vie de C'fligny. Davila, liv. 1. De Thou, liv. 24.
~ Veritable Inventoire de l'Histoire des Frangais, par Jeanl de
Berres, tom. 1, p. 681. Cited also in Duncan, p. 26.
II Brantome, vol. 7, p. 82.     Ir Davila, liv. 1.




THE CONSPIEtACY.              231
one could be better fitted to secure the cordial cooperation of the Huguenots.
On the lst of January, 1560, the confederates
assembled in a ruined chateau in the outskirts of
Nantes-attracted thither by the cloak to their
movements which the vast concourse of people who
then crowded the city to witness the holiday.fetes
would be-and here the final arrangements were
rnade.*
When night had fallen, and the conspirators
had all gathered at the rendezvous, La Renaudie
addressed them in a low but intensely earnest voice.
In a few vivid sentences he painted the tyrannies
of the house of Guise, dwelt with graphic rhetoric
upon the injuries which they had entailed on France,
affirmed his belief that the princes of Lorraine only
waited for the death of the feeble and boyish kingwho might die at any moment under their skilful
nursing, as the orator darkly hinted  to usurp the
Bceptre of poor Francis II., and seat one of their
own family upon the throne.  " For my part," he
continued, forgetting in his heat to observe that
cautious monotone in which he had so far spoken,
and rising in vehemence, "for my own part, I protest, I swear, I call God to witness, that I will never
think or say or do any thing against the king,
against the queen his mother, against the princes
his brothers, against any of his blood; but Lhat I
will defend to my latest breath the authority of the
tlrone, the majesty of the laws, and the liberty of
s De Thou, liv. 24. Browning, p. 40. Duncan, p. 29.




232           THEI  HUGUENOTS.
France against the hateful tyranny of foreign usurp.
ers.-' We swear it!" echoed the band, bathed in the
swarthy light of the stars, with upraised hands and
uncovered heads. The tyranny of the Guises hlad
excited such a feeling that no intervening danger,
not the dread of the block, nor the awful pangs of
inquisitorial torture, could chill the ardor. All
signed the oath, shook hands in unison, embraced
each other weeping, and loaded with imprecations
any wretch who should be perfidious enough to
betray the plot.  Just before the separation, the
fifteenth of the following March, and Blois, were
fixed on as the time and place for the execution of
their progranmme.l
Ten minutes later and the old chateau of Nantes
resumied its disturbed dreams; soon the conspirators were scattered to the four corners of France,
each on his mission of mischief to tyrants.
The purpose of the confederates was to possess
themselves of the royal person, to arrest the princes
of Lorraine, and to vest the administration of the
government in the prince of Conde.:t  There was
no intention to injure the king, but simply to release him from the duress of his uncles of Guise;
aPnd the distinct avowal of this principle won the
confidence of all the loyal gentlemen in France.~
Francis II. was of a fragile and sickly constitut De Thou, liv. 24.  -t Davila, liv. 1. Browning, p. 40.
t Vie de Coligny. Hiis. cdu Tumulte d'Aomboise. Browning,
p. 40,                            % Duncan, p. 27.




THE CONSPIRACY.                 233
tion; and since, in the spring of 1560, he was a
greater sufferer than usual, the court physicians
prescribed a change of air and scene for the royal
invalid. Accordingly; the Guises transported him
to the town of Blois, whose climate was mild and
salubrious.
It was at Blois then, where the court was yet
sojourning, that the mine was to be sprung upon
the Guises.
For a time "all went merry as as marriage bell;"
the confederates sailed over a placid and auspicious
sea. Success seemed certain. The princes of Lorraine, charmed by the syren songs of prosperous
wickedness, lay lapped in supine security, when
suddenly the overconfidence of the chief conspirator withdrew the veil of secrecy, and every thing
was revealed.*
La Benaudie quitted the rendezvous at Nantes
for Paris, where he was to station himself and direct the plot.
He lodged in the house of an old friend, Ava-,
nelles, a lawyer, who, suspecting mischief from the
vast number of persons who called upon his comparatively uninfluential guest, mentioned his suspicions to La Renaudie.  That gentleman very indiscreetly acknowledged the existence of the conspiracy.t
The meddlesome and perfidious attorney professed to be well pleased with the plan and purl Davila, liv 1. De Thou, liv. 24. Browning, p. 41.
j- Hist. du Tumuilte d'Amnboise. Vie de Coligny. Davila, etc,




234          THE HUGUENOTS.
pose of the intrigue, and after sucking its minutis
from his overconfiding friend, he hastened to the
metropolitan residence of the Guises, and unfolded
the whole plot to the cardinal's secretary, who instantly posted Avanelles off to Blois to apprize the
court of the volcano upon which it trembled.*
The messenger arrived travel-stained and weary,
and his interview with Francis duke of Guise speedily interrupted the frivolous festivities with whi6h
his ambitious relatives amused the attention of the
king.
Francis, unaware of the existence both of Avanelles and his news, was strolling in the meadows of
Blois, while the agitated Guises interrogated the
volunteer attorney. He found his principal solace
and amusement in the company of his beautiful and
at that time innocent young queen, Mary Stuart.
Her harp often soothed the painful restlessness
engendered by disease; and though flattered and
worshipped and caressed wherever she appeared,
though walking upon roses, she really seemed devoted to her royal husband.t —
The hair of the girlish queen was singularly
beautiful, and curled in natural ringlets. It was
then a custom to wear low skull-caps; these, as la
matter of fashion, were considered regal; but Francis was so proud of his pet's head that Miary threw
them off. The king delighted to hear the tones of her
voice in singing, in speaking, in reading; and often,
~ Esprit de la Ligue, liv. 1, p. 39. Davila, liv. 1.
t Huguenots in France and Amer, Cambridge, 1843, v. 1, p 55,




THE CONSPIRACY.              235
when sleep fled from his weary pillow, Mailry would
patiently lean over him, and lure the truant back
by low, sweet chants, or by the touching music of
her own dear Scottish ballads.*
This was the queen who was, in later and moro
dismal years, arraigned for the murder of Darnley,
hler own husband.
She may have been guilty, for who can spell the
riddle of corrupting circumstances? Early separated from her mother, trained at a licentious court
by ambitious uncles, that firm, unyielding principle,
that elevation of character which is developed, and
strengthened by judicious education, could hardly
have been acquired. Instigated by hatred, beckoned on by passion, poor Mary may have erred
most sadly in the melancholy hours of her later
career; but now her generous and gentle nature
still controlled her.
On the morning of Avanelles' advent, Francis
and Mary, together as usual, were in the fields —
pausing here on an eminence which commanded a
wide prospect, there by the side of the magnificent
Loire, and wiling away the hours in sweet converse.
Francis, looking forward to a life of regal splendor,
expressed an earnest desire for the time to come
when, unfretted by his uncles, he might govern his
own empire. MIary chatted of her native land, of
the heath-covered mountains of Scotland, and many
a quaint legend gathered from the superstitious
gossip of her attendants.
o HIuguenots in France and America, vol. 1, p. 56.




233          THE HUGUENOTS.
Suddenly the duke of Guise joined them.
s"A fair morrow," said he, "for the hopes of
France. What says my royal cousin, what says
his consort, to a hunting gallop to-day?"
A ready acquiescence was given; and returning
to the castle of Blois, where Louis XI. had been
born, the court-yard was speedily filled with hounds
and steeds, and ere long the merry party were flying over the country at great speed.
When the walls of Blois had been left far behind,
Guise reigned up beside Francis, and informed him
of the discovered plot, and told him that the hunting party was only a pretence for removing him
from an unfortified town to the stronger protection
of the Amboise donjon.
Francis was displeased that duplicity had been
used, and turning towards his guardian he said
pointedly, " It is so difficult now to distinguish
friends from enemies, that perhaps it had been
better for us to remain at Blois."
The duke replied that "he had acted from the
truest motives of tenderness, fearing that any uncommon agitation might injure him in his present
feeble and broken health."
Francis made no further objection to the journey, but contented himself with saying sadly, " What
can be more injurious or painful than to see one's
self an object of party hatred and contention?"*
The princes of Lorraine were now in possession
of the chief features of the plot to unseat them from
H* uguenots in France and America, vol. 1, pp. 59, 60.




THE CONSPIRACY.               237
the government. They also knew the names of a
number of the actors in the e'meude. Beyond this
all was shadowy. Suspicion began wheic knowledge ended.  Coligny and D'Andelot were supposed to be implicated; and though Birantole distinctly declares that the admiral had no part in the
conspiracy,* they were summoned to present themselves before the king at the earliest moment. Both
hastened to comply with this requisition; and upon
being introduced into the queen mother's chamber,
Coligny spoke warmly against the bad administration of affairs, pleaded the cause of the Huguenots,
and recommended that the penal statutes against
them be expunged from the judicial code.'t
The chancellor, Olivier, and the moderates of
the council, seconded this bold appeal, which was
finally embodied in an edict, and published on the
12th of Mlarch, 1560.4  The edict appeared too late
to strangle the conspiracy. The outbreak'was to
occur upon the sixteenth instant; the time had
been changed from  the fifteenth by the removal to
Amboise.~
Every thing now looked as black for succe2s as
before LCa IRenaudie's admission to the recreant Avanelles the.auspices had appeared bright.
Nevertheless Cond6, no whit discouraged, want.
boldly to Amboise, and picking out a band of reso* Brantorne, vol. 7, p. 168. Browning, p. 40.
t D'Anbigne, IIist. IUniverselle, vol. 1, p. 93.: Ibid. Browning, p. 41.
~ Mom. de Condcl, vol. 1i p. 340.




238          THE IU GUENOTS.
lute men-at-arms from the body of his retainers,
introduced them as his body-guard into the donjon
walls,
But the Guises, aware of the plan of attack,
took every precaution, filledl the tower with their
adherents, and posted the Chatillons and Condd
in conspicuous places, and surrounded them with
confidential persons who were pledged to prevent
their joining the assailants.*
Forewarned was forearmed; and when the Hnuguenots attacked Amboise, they were repulsed with
great slaughter. La iRenaudie rallied the fugitives,
who returned gallantly to the charge; but, their
chief, surrounded by a party of his foes, after slaying a number of his assailants, was struck from his
saddle dead by a bullet fired from a distance. The
confederates then scattered in all directions. The
pursuit was pressed with vindictive fierceness, and
the body of La Renaudie was placed on a gibbet with
the inscription, " Chief of the Rebels."tk
During the battle, the duke of Nemours recognized at the head of a Huguenot squadron a gentleman named Castelnau, for whom he entertained a
warm friendship. He reined in his horse, and asked
the Calvinist eavalier why he had taken arms against
the king. "Our intention," was the reply, "is not
to war against the king, but to expel the tyrant
Guises from authority."
"If that be the case," said Nemours, "sheath
* Davila, liv. 1. Browning, p. 41.
Ibid. De Thou, liv. 24. Browning.




THE CONSPIR ACY.             239
your sword, and I promise you on my honor that
you shall speak to the king, and I pledge myself for
your safe return."  Castelnau accepted these terms,
and Nemours reduced his engagement to writing,
and signed it; on which his late foeman followed
him to Amboise.
Castelnau was seized upon his entrance into the
town, put into irons, and despite Nemour's urgent
remonstrances, he was sentenced to death, Guise
insisting that Nemours had no authority to undertake to do what he had written and sworn to dco.
On this proceeding Vieilleville makes this comment: " This caused Nemours great uneasiness and
vexation oqn account qf his signature; for had he only
passed his word, he would have denied it, and given
the lie to any man who should charge him with having plighted it, so valiantt and generozus was thi.s noZleman."  "A remarkable instance," observes Anqu6til, "of the point of honor badly understood,
which fears a crime less than the proof."'
The Guises triumphed. They revoked the edict
obtained by Coligny, arrested the prince of Conde,
commanded that no quarter should be given the
insurgents, and hung their prisoners on a gallows
erected in the Amboise square. Those who escaped
this death were condemned, without trial, to be tied
hand and foot, and thrown into the Loire.'t
Many of the confederates were racked, and especially L;a Bique, La Renaudie's secretary, the object
* Duncan, p. 32. Anquetil, Esprit de la Ligue.
t Davila, Duncan, Browning, Vie de Coligny, De Thou.




210          THE HUGUENOTS.
of the ministers being to secure some testimony
which should implicate Conde, or at least justify his
arrest. They failed on both points. Only one person was found who implicated the prince, and he
spoke only from report, while La ]3ique doggedly
refused to give any specific information, affirminr
that La  tenaudie kept his own secrets, and only
entrusted him with general corresponldence.*
Condd, on his part, was indignant.  He coneluded a long speech to the king's council in these
words: " If any man has the audacity to affirm that
I have instigated a revolt against the sacred person
of the king, I renounce the privilege of my rank,
and am willing to attest my innocence by single
combat."t
Then occurred a notable instance of hypocriticalfinesse. The duke of Guise, the secret author
of the arrest, rose, and unmindful of the evident
application of Cond6's words to himself, said with
apparent heat, "And I will not suffer so great a
prince to be accused of so black a- crinme, and entreat you to accept me as your second.":
Thus ended the conspiracy of Amboise with a
liberation-Guise being as convinced of the treachery of the prince, as Concd6 was sensible of the duplicity of the dluke.
" The prince of Cond6 was liberated," says an
old contemporaneous historian, "in the hope that
* Browning, p. 42. Duncan, p. 32. Vie de Coligny, p. 208.
t Mern. de Conde, p. 400. Davila, liv. 1. De Thou, liv. 24.
$ Ibid.




THE CONSPIRACY.                   241
the apparent confidence thus placed in his loyalty
might throw  the king of Navarre, the Constable,
ID'Andelot, and the vidame* of Chartres off their
guard, and thus enable the Guises to seize their
persons; for they feared to put Concl  to death,
and leave so many of his friends alive to avenge
him.  Past examples had taught them  that it is in
vain to cut down the body of a tree, how high and
lofty soever, if there be any quick roots left, which
may shoot forth new sprouts.t
* A vidame was a person who held lands under a bishop, on
condition of defending the temporal interests of the see. Browning, p. 37, note. Francis de Vendime, vidame of Chartres, was
a noble who had recently joined the Huguenots.
t Davila, liv. 1.




6242         THE HUGUENOTS.
CHAPTER XVIII.
ALMOST A TRAGEDY.
AFTER their fierce suppression of the Amboise
conspiracy, the Guises returned to Fontainebleau
with the court in their pocket. Meantime France
wvailed under a grinding tyranny which could no
longer be endured. Even the just choked clneute
was not able with all its blood to stifle the agonized
cry for relief.  Something must be done; and it
was determined to convene an assembly of the Notables, without reference to party or creed, for the
investigation of the existing evils: all proved grievances were to be remedied-such was the burden
of the Guises' syren song.*
The Montmnorencis and the Chatillons attended;
blut fearful of being entrapped, they were accompanied by a long train of mailed cavaliers, the escort
of the old constable alone numbering eight hundred
men-at-arms.t
The sky brightened for a moment. Chancellor
Olivier, a statesman of moderate views, but weak
and yielding, was so affected by the brutal policy
of the princes of Lorraine, that just as the conspiracy of Amboise was definitively quelled, he diedl. of
* Brantome, vol. 7, p. 103, Davila, liv. 1. De Thou, liv. 25.
t Vie de Coligny, p. 213. Duncan, p. 34.
t March 30, 1560.




AL3MOST A TIRAGEDY.              243
grief at the holocaust of imunolated victims. It is
related of him, that when the cardinal of Lorraine
called on hinm just before his decease, he turned his
face to the wall, and refused to see him, saying, "I
will look no more upon his face, for he is the accursed cardinal who is the cause of all the condemnations."''.
Olivier was succeeded in the chancellorship by
lMichael l'Hopital, a lawyer of distinguished fame,
whom ]Brantome calls a second Cato,t who did his
utmost to inaugurate a reign of peace, and whose
memory France is bound to revere as the active,
unwearied friend of tolerant politics.
The king of Navarre and Condcl had been urgently sunmmoned to attend the convention; but
their wiser partisans, familiar with the wily character and deadly rancor of the Guises, advised them
to absent themselves,t and they followed this prudent counsel.
The debates at Fontainebleau  were long and
animnated. Coligny on his knees presented to Francis a petition from the Huguenots. The king handed
it to his secretary L'Aubespine to read. iHe commenced: "A  request of the people who address
their prayers to God, according to the true rule of
piety;" and when he had gotten thus far, he was
interrupted by the clamors of the Guises' adherents.~  Francis commanded silence; and the secV'iei1evillle, vol. 4, p. 193. Browning, p. 43.
t B]rantome, vol. 7, p. 91.  $ Btrowning. Dunlca
~ Vie de Coligny, p. 213.




244          THE HUGUENOTS.
retary resumed reading the memorial, which contained a prayer that the prevalent persecutions for
conscience' sake might cease; it showed also that
those who were nicknamed  heretics were quite
ready to abide by the declarations of Scripture,
asking only to be convicted of error from the Bible;
that the pope was not a fit person to decide such
matters, since his position as the leader of the hosts
of error made him necessarily more partial than
just; and the paper concluded by calling upon the
king himself to arbitrate.*
When L'Aubespine had finished, the cardinal
took the floor, and opening the flood-gates of his
wrathful bitterness, poured forth a torrent of vituperative epithets. "The docility, the meekness,"
he said, "of these perfect CGhristians, these neew evangelicals, might be judged by the flood of libels lev,
elled at himself; that, for his own part, having collected no less than twenty-two scandalous writings
against his single se!f, he carefully preserved them
as badges of honor."  He added, that " though he
pitied the ignorant, who were misled, extreme
Measures ought to be adopted against those
who carried arms without the permission of the
king."t
Coligny, in his reply, said that "his voice was
that of fifty thousand Huguenots."  "Well then,"
retorted the duke of Guise with bitter emphasis, "I' Vie de Coligny, p. 213. De Thou, liv. 25. Browning,
p. 44.
t Davila, liv. 2. Pasquier, vol. 11, p. 80.




ALMOST At TRAGEDY.                245
will break their heads with a hundred thousand
papists whom I will lead against them."*
This verbal tilt is said to have been the beginning of the mortal feud between the duke of Guise
and the admiral, who had heretofore been warm
personal friendst-a hatred never appeased. Crimination and re.crimination succeeded, mutual defiances were haughtily exchanged, and amid great
confusion the conference was adjourned, and thle
convocation of the states-general was decided upon,
to whom  all the political and religious points of
controversy were referred.$:
While this rude blast was rushing over France,
and roaring in the antique galleries of lordly palaces, the still small voice of the Word was making
its way into the homes of praying men. In private
chambers, in the lecture-rooms and refectories, students, and even masters of arts, were to be seen
reading the Latin Testament, Erasmus' Greek version, and even the Bible in French. Animated
groups were discussing the rationale of the IReformaticn. " When Christ came on earth," said some,
"he gave the word; and when he ascended up into
heaven, he gave the Holy Spirit.  These are the
two forces which created the church, and these are
the forces which must regenerate it."  "No," re] Davila, lit. 2. Pasquier, vol. 11, p. 80. Brantome, vol. 8,
p. 70.
t Browning, p.44. 4Duncan, p. 18. Vie de Coligny, p. 220.
t D'Aubignl, Hist. Universelle, vol. 1, p. 97. Duncan, p. 34
Browning, p. 44.  lemn. de Cond6, vol. 1, p. 535.




246          THE HUGUENOTS.
plied the partisans of Rome, "it was the teaching
of the apostles at first, and it is the teaching of the
priests now." "The apostles," rejoined the Junguenots; "yes,'t is true, the apostles were, during
their ministry, a living scripture; but their oral
teaching would infallibly have been altered by
passing from mouth to mouth.  God willed, therefore, that these precious lessons should be preserved to us in their writings, and thus become the
ever undefiled source of truth and salvation." "To
set the Scriptures in the foremost place, as your
pretended reformers are doing, " replied the monks
and their satellites, "is to propagate heresy."
"And what are the reformers doing," queried their
apologists, "but what Christ did before them?
The sayings of the prophets existed in the time of
Jesus only as scri4pture, and it was to this written
word that Christ appealed when he founded his
kingdom.*  And now in like manner the teaching
of the apostles exists only as scripture; and imitating Christ, it is to this written word that we in our
turn appeal, in order to reestablish the kingdom of
our Lord in its primitive condition. The night is
far spent; the day is at hand; all is in motion-in
the lofty ancestral chateaus of the nobility, in the
classic aisles of our universities, in the mansions of
the rich, and in the lowly dwellings of the poor. If
ac, wish to scatter the darkness, must we light the
shrivelled wick of some old lamp? Or shall we not
i Matthew 22:29; 26:24, 52; Mark 14:49; Luke 18:31;
24: 27, 44, 45; John 5: 39, 46; 10: 35; 17:12, etc.




ALMOST A TRAGEDY.               247
rather open the doors and shutters, and admit
freely into the house the great light which God himself has hung in the heavens?"*
But while by these and kindred conversations
the Huguenots were burying the Romanists in their
own nonsense, public events were marching towards
a crisis.
Although the Bourbon princes had absented
themselves from  Fontainebleau, the Guises had
strongly suspected that some of their emissaries
were present, who were empowered to negotiate
with the leaders of the court opposition, with Mionf;-.morenci, with the Chatillons, and the rest. From
information received, they arrested a Gascon gentleman named La Saque; he was put to the torture,
and the confession that Navarre and Condcl were
prepared to take the field as soon as the states-general were convened at Orleans, was wrung from his
unwilling lips.t  "Dip the wrapper of this letter in
water," faltered La Saque, enfeebled by the rack,
and whose quivering sinews yet anguished him.
The inquisitors hastened to comply with the direction, when lo, the whole plot lay disclosed. What
had before seemed blank paper, teemed with ominous meaning. The handwriting of Dordois, the
constable's secretary, became visible; a letter to
the vidame of Chartres was revealed, and the Guises
learned that, despite the failure of the Amrboise in* D'Aubign6, History of the Reformation in the Sixttwnth Century, vol. 5, p. 162.
t DuncaL, p. 34. Daaila. liv. 2. T, Thol. liv.




248           THE HUGUENOTS.
trigue, the hostile nobles still hoped to succeed in
expelling them from France.*
The Bourbons were soon apprised of the apprehension of La Saque, but they were at first uncertain whether he had made any disclosures, as his
confession was kept a profound secret.  But the
imprisonment of the vidame of Chartres, one of
their most faithful adherents, who was shut up in
the Bastile and treated with great rigor,t convinced them that their projects were known. They
were soon specially summoned to Orleans by Francis. But traversing Gascony at-the head of a considerable number of gentlemen, both Romanists
and Huguenots, pledged to support them, they bade
defiance to the king's nmandate.4  However, repeated commands from the court, intimating that further disobedience would be deemed an act of overt
rebellion and constructive treason, imperilling both
their liberties and their lives, intimidated the feeble
spirit of the king of Navarre, and he dismissed his
little army, saying, "I must obey, but I will obtain
your pardon of the king."  "Go," said an old captain, "and ask pardon for yourself; our safety is
in our good swords;" and the gentlemen who cornposed this nucleus force broke ranks indignantly,
and separated for their homes.~
0: Davila, liv. 2. D'Aubigne, Hist. TJniverselle, vol. 1, p. 97.
De Thou, liv. 25, p. 542. Browning, p. 45.
t August 29, 1560. Journal de Brulart, quoted in Browning,
p. 43.                            t Browning, p. 45.
~ Vallaire, Essai sur les Guerres Civiles de France, quoted in
Browning, p. 45.




ALiMOST A TRAGEDY.              249
3In the month of October, the Bourbon princes
set )ut for Orleans. Navarre, anxious not to make
a mi'step, made the greatest faux pias. He walked
straight into the net, and death touched both Cond6
and himself so closely, that its clammy fingers mig't
have been felt.
The Guises were prepared for a crushing victory. They had persuaded the king, by perverting
Lda Saque's confession, that the princes of the blood,
and especially Cond6, whom they most feared on
account of his energy, boldness, and talents, had
conspired against his life; and they urged him for:his personal safety to arrest Conde as an example.
To this advice the irritated monarch lent a willing
ear.  When Cond6 reached Orleans in the latter
part of October, he ordered him into his presence,
reproached him with his many supposed crimes,
and without deigning to hear any reply, commanded his immediate imprisonment.*
The trial soon followed, before the chancellor
and some commissioners chosen by the Parliament,
now become a mere echo of the Guises.t The prince
refused to plead, protested against the competence
of this mushroom tribunal, and demanded, as a
prince of tbhe blood, to be tried by the king in person and by the peers of the realm.:  This privilege, though perfectly legal and strictly in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Constitution,
* Brantome, -vol. 10, p. 3W5. De Thou, liv. 25. Vie de Cofigny.                  t Brantome, vol. 10, p. 366.; Ibid. Browning, p. 45. Duncan, p. 35.
11*




250           THE HIUGUENOTS.
was refused, and Cond6 was sentenced to be beheaded on the tenth of the following December.*
W~hen Condc  was informed of the decision, his
tranquillity was unruffled. A priest was sent to him
to perform mass. " What want you, reverend sir?"
queried the prince.  "I come to prepare you for
death," was the reply.  "This is a work," said
Conde reverently and solemnly, "that I can safely
trust with my M[aster; it rests between God and
myself. Leave me, good father; it is time for the
work to begin."f
The priest retired, shocked at this blasphemy.:t
Then a gentlemann of the court, an emissary of
the Guises, came to Cond6's cell. The prince received him with the courtesy which distinguished
him.  Having expressed his deep sympathy, the
courtier hinted that possibly affairs might yet be
accommodated, and requested the prince to appoint
hinm mediator.
"I ask but one Mediato1r," said Cond6 with an
upward gesture, " and that one is interceding f ol
me now at the throne of God. Return, my lord,
to your employers, and tell them yozu have.failed in
your mission. ~
One more trial yet awaited him. His wife was
conducted to his prison. When she entered, she
threw herself into her husband's arms, unable to
speak.
* Mem. de Cond6e, vol. 1. D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ., vol. 1, p.
101.-      t HIuguonots in France and America, vol. 1, p. 74
t Ibid.                                ~ lTid&




ALMOST A TRAGEDY.               251
"Now this is kind," said Cond6 with rare tact.' I know your errand: it is to confirm, to support,
to give new strength to your husband; to tell him
that you will live to perform his duties and your
own; to teach our children that their father, though
dying an ignominious death, still bore a true and
loyal heart. And now farewell. Let us not prolong this painful interview. Nothing can be done
by your means or mine; it is hopeless. Let us not
add disgrace to sorrow. All things are in the hands
of God; he may yet save a life that has been sincerely devoted to his cause."
Again the princess would have spoken; but
Cond6 said, "No more, sweet wife; write all you
would say. Farewell." And the hero quitted the
apartment for an inner roonl.*
When Condcl6's sentence was made public, his
powerful relatives importuned the king for his pardon; but they plead in vain. His wife, Eleanora
de Roye, ionitmorenei's niece, accompanied by her
children, threw herself before Francis, and with a
woman's devotion endeavored to beat through the
icy coldness of the king.  "Madame," said the
monarch, "your husband has assailed the crown,
and conspired against my life; he must pay the
penalty."  In despair the poor princess implored
the intercession of the Guises. "It is our duty,"
tlhey said, "to strike off the head of heresy and
rebellion at one blow."t
l Huguenots in France and America, vol. 1, p. 75.
t Dayv., 1.2. Brown. p. 46. Dun., pp. 35, 36. Mea. deCondd




252          THE HUGUENOTS.
The complete destruction of the Huguenot party
was to follow the execution of Condd, and every one
was to be compelled to choose between death or the
signature of the confession of faith drawn up in
1542 by the Sorbonne, in response to Calvin's "Institutes."*
The king of Navarre, though himself but little
better than a prisoner, was for once extraordinarily
active, and he made efforts constant and tireless to
save his brother, even humbling himself to the cardinal of Lorraine, by whom, however, he was rudely
repulsed.  The duke of Guise had conceived a
scheme to murder Navarre, and had even secured
the king's assent to it.t  It was arranged that
Francis should summon Navarre to his presence,
and that at a sign from him some bravos, whom
Guise would station behind the arras, should pierce
their victim to the heart.
Navarre was indeed summoned into the king's
chamber; but having received word from  some
quarter that to go would be to commit suicide, the
reluctant prince refused to obey the citation. At
length, after being summoned three times, he yieldecd, saying to a confidential friend as he departed
on the perilous visit, "Duty compels me to go; I
will defend myself, if attacked, to the last gasp. If
I fall, take my shirt, stained with my blood, carry
it to my son, and may life abandon him sooner than' Davila, liv. 2. Browning, p. 46. Duncan, pp. 35, 36. MIem,
de Conde. Mainmbourg, Hist. du Calvinisme, liv. 2.
t Cayet, liv. 6, p. 525. Browning, p. 46.




ALMOST A TRAGEDY.                 253
the purpose to avenge his nmurdered father."*  Navarre went to the king, listened calmly to his reproofs, replied gently, and retired unharmed * Francis' courage failed him at the critical moment. "Oh
the fool, the coward; what a contemptible monarch
we have!"t exclaimed the incensed duke of Guise
as he saw  Navarre quit the royal presence unsmitten.
Disappointed in their hope of assassinating the
Navarrese sovereign, the princes of Lorraine pressed
with increased vehemence for Cond6's early execution.  The fatal day approached.  Francis, unwilling to witness the ghastly spectacle, had resolved
upon a tour to Chambord, when suddenly he was
taken alarmingly ill. The chancellor instantly sent
for Ambrose Par6, the king's physician; and upon
being informed that Francis was not likely to recover, the cunning lawyer had recourse to a stratagem.  He was very desirous of postponing Condd's
death, and had delayed signing the order for his
execution for several days by one pretext or another, using the weapons of his profession. Now the
Guises hastened to him and implored him to sign;
alarmed by the king's health, they feared that
Condd might yet cheat the executioner. L'Ho6pital
pretended to be seized with a violent colic, which. Doe Thou, liv. 25. Davila, liv. 2. Duncan, p. 36.
t De Thou. D'Aubign6, Hist. Universelle. Cayet. B3rcwning. Duncan.  "According to the Abbe Anquetil, Guise's ex.
pression, when he found that Francis' courage had deserted him
at the last moment, was,' 0 le llche! 0 le pol'ron 1'" Esprit do
la Ligue, vol. 1, p. 84; cited in Browning, p. 4G, note.




254:           TlHE HUGUENOTS.
prevented him from examining the body of the decree, an essential preliminary to his signature; but
when Francis' danger became imminent, the keen
chancellor suddenly recovered fron his pain, and
hurrying off to the queen mother, advised her to take
advantage of the posture of affairs by uniting herself closely with the princes of the blood, as the
Guises had already despoiled her of power and influence.  The M'achiavellian Catharine agreed wi th
L'HoIpital, and charged Coligny, who had been summoned with the other nobles to attend the assembly
of the states-general, with the negotiation.
Thus stood affairs when, on the 5th of December, 1560, the thread which attached the shattered
health of Francis to life, snapped, and the young
king, then but seventeen, lay dead in the midst of
a court which instantly gave itself up to the mockery of woe.*
* Davila positively asserts that the execution of Conde was
defeired by the Guises themselves, who hoped to entrap the old
constable in the same net. Mlontmorenci was urgently called on,
but did not appear. It was also the wish of the Guises to involve
the king of Navarre in the same punishment, but sufficient evi.
dence did not exist. Duncan, p. 37, not.




THE LOST LEADERI.              255
CHAPTER:XIX.
THE LOST LEADlER.
CHARILES IX., a fatal name, an infamous rmemory, succeeded in his eleventh year to the vacant
throne of his dead brother. Now once more the
politics of the court were completely revolutionized.
The Guises had been entrenched by the influence of
their niece, MIary Stuart, over Francis II. Of this
support they were now of course deprived. Chaos
reigned, not Charles; and the selfish struggles of
the chiefs of the several factions, ambitious not for
their country's honor, but for their own governmental advancement, held France a second-rate
power for a quarter of a century, and made this
period one of the most calamitous in its history.
* Upon Charles' coronation, Catharine de' lMedici
assumed the position of arbiter almost without
opposition. Almost the first act of the infant king,
under the queen mother's direction, was to write the
Parliament, on the Sth of December, 1560, a letter,
in which, after announcing his brother's death, he
informed that body "that, considering his youth,
and confiding in the virtue and wisdom of the
queen mother, he had requested her to undertagrke
the administration of affairs, with the wise counsel
And assistance of the king of Navarre, and of the




256           THE HUGUENOTS.
gentlemen of distinction in the late king's counsel"'
This crafty move at once deposed the princes of
LIorraine, but their real influence remained almost
tntouched, since they were the representatives of
the reactionists of France, as the Bourbons were of
the Huguenots.
Still, many changes occurred.  The command of
the army was taken from  the duke of Guise, and
confided to Antony of Bourbon, who was made
lieutenant-general of the kingdom.t
The prince of Cond6 was released from prison;
and while as a matter of form he retired for a little
to his government of Bearn, his innocence was
openly proclaimed at court.$t
The nobles who hald been placed under the ban
by the haughty Guises in the days of their regime,
were recalled with honor, and the constable Montmorenci resumed his ancient functions, and regain
ed his former titles.~
At the council board of the king the queen
mother was now seated as regent, while upon either
hand the princes of Bourbon, the princes of Lorraine, and MAontmorenci were clustered.ll
Between all the memlbers of this keterogeneous
cabinet a rankling hatred still existed, which threatened at every session to inaugurate fresh convul* Browning, p. 47. Brantome, Davila, etc.
t Brantome, vol. 10. Mem. de Tavannes, p. 243. Davila,
liv. 2.             t Browning, p. 47. Mem. de Conda.
~ Duncan, p. 39. Esprit de la Ligue, vol. 1, p. 93.
11 Ibid.




THE LOST LEADEJR.              257
sions. But Catharine, cozened by her favorite theory of an " adjusted equilibrium," foolishly hoped to
be able to hold the scales evenly poised between
these implacable enemies.*
The first measures of the new administration
were indeed judicious. All persons were released
who had been imprisoned for heresy, and their
property was restored, while a general amnesty was
proclaimed.t
While the reconstruction of the cabinet was being effected, the states-general continued their sittings at Orleans. L'HIIpital implored the assembly
to adopt such measures as would insure domestic
tranquillity, burying, in devotion to the general
good, the bitter feuds of the past reign, which had
so nearly kindled a civil war.$  But this statesmanlike and noble appeal of the patriotic chancellor was
not much heeded.
The nobles, taught wisdom by experience, insisted, as a sine qua non, upon the exile of the princes
of Lorraine.  Cond6, Navarre, and Montmorenci
declared that if Catharine did not concede this umeasure to the safety of the state, they would march to
Paris, proclaim one of themselves regent in her place,
and execute their purpose. But this scheme was
rendered abortive by the action of the chancellor, who prevailed upon the king to command the
constable to remain at court; a command which
* Duncan, p. 39.
f Mem. de Conde, vol. 2, p. 260, et seq. Duncan, p. 40.
t Ibid. Browning, p. 48.




258          THIE HUGUENOTS.
Montmorenci was too old and wily a courtier to
disobey.*
But a motion made about the same time by the
king of Navarre in the states-general, had a more
serious result. He proposed a searching examination into the financial system of the preceding reign,
and that a return of all excessive gratifications in
money or lands to the late court favorites be speedily ordered.t This motion instantly made a flutter
in the clove-cote, and alienated a powerful friend.
Every one felt that it was a blow at the extortion of
the Guises, but the blow struck beyond them. It
affected the gratuities of Diana de Poitiers, the
marshal Saint Andre, an old chum of Henry II.,
and the servile instrument of the duchess de Vatentinois, who had battened upon the gains incident
to his office of pimp,; and of Montmorenci himself,
since one of his sons had married a daughter of
Diana, and he had shared largely in the public
plunder.~ A community of interest made this horde
of thieves, but yesterday deadly foemen, fast friends
to-day: all minor differences were buried in the
unanimous desire to preserve ill-gotten wealth; and
the consequence was, an infamous coalition. The
Guises, Mlontmorenci, and Saint Andr6 united under the name of the TRIU31VIRATE.[I These abandoned nobles swore at the altar to forget their old
quarrels; and in order to give a religious flavor to
* Duncan, p. 41.               t Duncan, p. 40.
t Browning, Duncan, Mlem. de Cond6.
] Duncan, De Thou, Pasqlier.         jj Ibid.




THE LOST LEADER.               259
their avaricious league, they signed a treaty by
which they pledged themselves to the extermination of heresy. It was a fitting collocation; a horde
of titled plunderers, mlet to preserve their booty
from the clutch of justice, and leagued to earn a
good right to their stolen gold by filching the yet
more costly jewel of life from their innocent countrymen whose creed taught them better things.
The Triumvirate had a poweirful ally in the
Spanish ambassador, who had a seat at the council, pretending that his master, Philip II., the most
bigoted king in history, had taken France under his
protection.*  And such was the wretched and disgraceful condition of France, torn by the internecine factions, that this insolent foreigner was tanzely
permitted to dictate its policy. This Spaniard was
personally and politically attached to the Guises,
who sacrificed the honor of France and the dignity
of the crown to secure his protection.tThe nation was now divided into two great parties, into which all the minor factions had meltedc
the Triumvirate, supported by the holy see and by
the Romanists; the Bourbon princes, at the head
of the IHuguenots, and backed by those who, indifferent about religious creeds, longed for the inauguration of political reform, and for the reinstatement of France in her natural position of a commanding power in Europe.4:
Between these parties stood the queen mother,
* Duncan, p. 42.     t Ibid., p. 43. Ranke, p. 208.
t Browning, p. 50.




260          THE HUGUENOTS.
muttering her shibboleth, and eternally grasping
the shadow of power, but never its substance.
The Triumvirate and the Bourbons were about
equally matched, and Catharine long hesitated which
-way to lean. Finally judging that it would be safest
to favor the Huguenots for the moment, she permitted the eager chancellor to wring from the statesgeneral a decree, published in July, 1561, and hence
called the Edict of July, which relieved the Huguenots from the punishment of death without a judicial condemnation, but which still refused them
their principal prayer, permission to assemble for
public worship.*
This edict was the pretext for a simulated reconciliation between Cond6 and Francis of Guise.
They met at the palace, where the king desired that
the duke should declare how affairs hcad been managed at Orleans. Guise accused the late king of
having peremptorily ordered the imprisonment of
Cond6; on which the prince answered, looking earnestly at the duke, " Whoever put that affront upon
me, I hold him to have been a scoundrel and a villain."  "And I also," replied the hypocritical duke;
"but it does not regard me in the least."
They then dined together, interchanged vows of
friendship,t and separated with mutual, but smothered curses,
"And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield."
* Browning, p. 50. Pasquier, vol.2, p. 84. Mem. de Cond6,
vol. 2.             t Duncan, p. 43. Browning, p. 51.




THE LOST LEADER.                261
Such was the apparently placid, yet really uneasy and abnormal political situation-a heterogeneous cabinet, a double-faced edict, a hollow reconciliation-when a remarkable event occurred, the
famous colloquy of Poissy was convoked.
The chancellor L'Holpital, eager in the pursuit
of his panacea for the existing evils, a grand conference upon religious differences, in which both
Romanists and Huguenots should be represented,
and in which theological rights should be definitively clefined and regulated, persuaded Catharine de'
Medici to assent to his project, and to command
the debate.*
The Roman publicists and orators were reluctant
to accede to the conference; but stung by the jeers
of the evangelicals, who hailed the project of a free
colloquy with enthusiasm, they finally consented.t
Accordingly, after great preparations, the oratorical representatives of the two ecclesiastical parties met, in the month of August, 1561, in the little
village of Poissy, a short distance from St. Germaine, where the royal family then resided.4
The leading Roman disputant was the cardinal
of Lorraine, a prelate of fine, though sadly perverted intellect, of rare scholarship, and whose discourse, sustained by a never-failing memory, flowed
from him intelligibly and gracefully.~  He was as.' Duncan, p. 43. Browning, p. 51. De Thou, liv. 25. Da.
vila, etc.                               t Ibid.
$ Esprit de la Ligue, tom. 1, p. 88. Duncan, p. 45.
~ Ranke, p. 169.




262           THE HUGUENOTS.
sisted by five other cardinals and by forty bishl
ops.*
The reformers were represented by Theodore
Beza, a divine of singular genius, erudition, acumen, and eloquence, the friend and biographer of
Calvin, who was supported by twelve celebrated
doctors of the iRe-formation, among whom  were
Marloratus and Pierre Martyr.t
On the ninth of September the session opened
with great &eclat.  Never had a grander audience
been convened, not even when Luther's Demosthenian eloquence sounded over ~Worms.  The king
himself attended the first sitting, accomlpanied by
the queen mother, his elder brother Henry of Anjou,
his sister Margaret de Valois, the Bourbon princes,
the princes of Lorraine, the old constable, the ministers of state, the holder of the great seal, and the
chief officers of the crown.:l:
The debate -wNas opened by L'Hopital, in a conciliatory address, which breathed the spirit of a
politician, not of a theologian; for, careless about
matters of religious belief, he was anxious only to
preserve a false peace, to tide over differences. He
proposed a compromise, and urged the papists to
relax upon some points, in order to win back the
Calvinists.~   This conservative, Erasmian course
was distasteful to both parties.  It was thought,
* Duncan, Esprit de la Ligue. Browning, Vie de Coligny, etc.
t Ibid. Hist. du Cardinal Tournon, p. 369. list. du Calvi,
nisme, liv. 3.                            $ Ibid.
~ Hist. du Concile de Trente, p. 435. De Thou, iiv. 28.




THE LOST LEADER.               263
and rightly thought, that in radical differences rad.
ical methods should be employed.
When the chancellor finished his speech, Beza,
the orator of the Huguenots, was called on to state
his opinions. The questions at issue were two, the
authority of the church of Rome and transubstantiation.*
The Protestant orator stepped forward into tile
middle of the hall, knelt, and prayed God to enlighten his mind and inspire him with the luminous truth, and then commenced his address. Hie
adduced numerous and irresistible arguments to
disprove the assumption of Rome that she alone
is the true church, made a profession of the reformed faith, expatiated upon the rigors, unchristian and abhorrent, which were exercised against
the primitive theology, defended the different points
fwhich Rome disputed, and after an exhaustive discussion of the dogma of the real presence in the
eucharist, concluded with the affirmation that Christ
was as far from the sacramental elements as the
highest heavens were from the earth.'t
Horrified by this bold declaration, the adherents
of Latin orthodoxy broke out into vociferous clamors.  The cardinal of Tournon suddenly started
from his seat, and after asserting that he entirely
disapproved of the colloquy, and lhad only sanctioned it in deference to the wish of Catharine de
* De Thou liv. 28. Discours des Actes de Poissy. Brown.
ing, etc.
t Ibid. Duncan, p. 47. Browning, p. 53.




264           TtHE HUGUENOTS.
Medici, exhorted the infant king not to be led astray
by the subtle and impetuous eloquence of Beza, but
to suspend his judgment until he had listened to
the reply of the orthodox divines.*+ Tournon further pointed out the impropriety ef the young monlarch's attendance upon the debates, as they involved
questions above the capacity of his tender age:
this hint was taken, for Charles did not afterwards
appear.'t
The cardinal of Lorraine then rose to speak,
and he delivered a harangue of great astuteness
and rhetorical talent.  When he concluded, the
cardinals and bishops formed a circle around him,
and declared that he had expounded the true faith,
for which they were all ready to suffer martyrdom.$
Beza demanded to reply, but since the hour was
late, the conference was adjourned to the following
day.~
The debates continued through several days,
and Beza astonished his opponents by his accurate
learning, his acute reasoning, his evangelical fervor,
and his animated, graphic eloquence.li Still the
good results of the colloquy were scarcely perceptible; the ecclesiastics in general were convinced that
no reform could take place without stripping them
of their vast wealth, of their usurped power, and of
* Bossuet, Hist. des Variations, tomrn. 1, p. 65.
t Duncan, p. 47. Browning. Hist. du Concile de Trente.
I Ibid. De Thou, liv. 28. IDiscours des Actes de Poissy.
~ Ibid.
11 Vie de Coligny. list. du Card. Tournon, p. 367. Bcrewn
ing, p. 53.




THE LOST LEADER.                   265
their impunity.*   And when  the conference of
Poissy was dissolved, the disputed points stood just
as unsettled as when the debates coimmnenced, while
both sides claimed the victory.  But while in some
respects the colloquy resulted unsatisfactorily, in
others it was not without effect. The papists felt
that they had committed a blunder in consenting
to it at all-it compromised a faith which had existed for so many ages; the bare discussion of these
questions was an acknowledgment that Iome might
err.  "The government," says a violent Jesuit who
wrote at a later day, "committed a grave error, or
at least idleness, in permitting the conference of
Poissy, instead of sending Beza and his troop to
the then sitting council of Trent."t
Besides this moral gain and recognition, several
bishops were so affected by Beza's masterly argumnents, that they devoted themselves to an inquiry
after the truth.l   By the conversations which they
had with Catharine de' 3Medici, they so far wrought
a change in her sentiments, that she not only invited
Beza, but actually insisted upon his remaining at
the court. The divine complied; and protected by
the queen mother, delivered a series of powerful
sermons which greatly advanced the Reformation.~
Catharine did more; she wrote an epistle to the
(: "The chief part of the wealth of the church being given to
have prayers said for the dead, the heritics, by destroying purgatory, would impoverish it."  iiem. ldu Tuvannes, p. 121.
t Caveyrac, Apology for Louis XIV., p. 30; cited in Browning,
p. 53.: Browning, p. 54.
~ Hugluenots in France and Am-elica, vol. 1, pp. 81, 82.
umllenots.          1 2




266          THE HUGUENOTS.
pontiff: "Those of the reform," she said, "are neither Anabaptists nor libertines; they believe in the
twelve articles of the apostles' creed; therefore
many persons think that they ought not to be cut
off from communion with the mother church. What
danger could there be in taking away the images
from the churches, and in retrenching some useless
forms in the celebration of the sacraments? It
would further be very beneficial to allow to all the
communion in both kinds, and to permit divine service to be peiformed in the vulgar tongue."*
Thus spoke Catharine de' Medici shortly after
the conclusion of the colloquy of Poissy. She boldly
recommended to the sovereign pontiff the adoption
of a series of innovations which the most heated
enthusiast, the most Utopian dreamer among the
Huguenots would not have demanded. Yet this was
the woman who, a little later, instigated the massacre of St. Bartholomew! Catharine is the Sphinx
of history; and though many an C(Edipus has assumned to solve the riddle, the wily tiger queen yet
remains a mystery. Of course Beza's eloquence
could not have touched her heart; she had noneonly a muscle to circulate the blood. It is probable that Beza's flattering reception and retention at
court, and the papal letter, were both simply parts
of some scheme for preserving the balance of power
in ler own hands.
Be this as it may, Paul IV. was alarmed, and he
e Hist. du Concile de Trente, p. 433. )Davila, liv. 2, p. 185.
Browning, p. 54.




TIHE LOST LEADEr.               267
instantly instructed his legate at Paris to spare no
exertions for strengthening  the papal party in
Fllance.e 
The most plausible plan for the achievement of
this puropose seemed to be to alienate the king of
Navarre from the Huguenots. It was thought that
if that monarch could be won over to Rome, "heresy would be a clock without a pendulum."  The
legate, seconded by a score of cunning satellites,
commenced the congenial work. Every wile which
could affect the human mind and heart was put in
active operation. Temptation after temptation was
thrown into his way.  The pope offered to dissolve
his marriage with Jane d'Albret, on the ground of
her heresy;t the Guises offered him  the hand of
their niece MIary Stuart, with her prospective claims
on the English throne;~: a marriage with the king's
sister Margaret de Talois was hinted at as quite
possible;~ but to all of these seductions Navarre
was deaf. He even refused a promise of Sardinia,
as an indemnification for that portion of Navarre
of which the Spanish king had deprived him.ll
Finding that Antony of Bourbon could not be
bribed to desert his faith, the Jesuits changed their
tactics. Then this man, proof to all the proposals
of temporal advantage which had been made him,
fell a victim to his own pride and vanity.
o Brantome, vol. 8, p. 269. Browning, p. 54.
-f Hist. du Cardinal Granville, p. 361, et seq. Davila, liv. 2,
p. 178.       } Pasquier, vol. 2, p. 95. De Thou, liv. 28.
~ Ibid. Strada, lib. 3.
I[ Brantome, vol. 8, p. 270. Duncan, p. 49.




268           THE HUGUENOTS.
Antony of Navarre was known throughout his
whole life as a man amiable, but weak and vacillating; who, although he adopted his opinions with
vivacity, did not hold them. with firmnness.*  And
when with insidious and tireless zeal it was insinuated that Cond6 was the actual chief of the Huguenot party, while he was only his brother's second,
his pride and vanity revolted. I-Ie hesitated; the
king's youth opened for him a long career of authority; and if he became a papist, his power and
influence in Europe would be so much enhanced,
that he might dictate to Philip II. of Spain the restoration of his stolen kingdom.  The Spanish ambassador himnself breathed this insinuation into his
ear.t
Quite overcome and dazzled blind to the infamy
of the action by his brilliant prospects, Navarre at
length succumbed; the renegade king joined the
triumvirate, and this "lost leader," in the excess of
his newly acquired zeal, became one of the bitterest persecutors of his old companions.j  Similar
revulsions are the never-failing accompaniment of
political and theological treason.
Navarre soon proceeded to carry his new opinions into practice. He declared that he considered
the reformed preachers as charlatans, and expressed
his determination to remove his son-afterwards
the famous Henry IV.-from  their influence, an(d
* Ranke, p. 209.
t Browning, p. 54. Mem. de Conde, vol. 2, p. 10.
t Duncan, p. 48. Hist. du Cardinal Granville, etc.




THE LOST LEADER.               269
place him unde-r Romanist governors. Jane d'Albr6t, who had inherited her faith and Christian
devotion from her mother Margaret of Navarre, the
mother also of French reform, heard this avowa!
with dismay. After vain entreaties, she was comnpelled to yield; but passionately embracing her
child, she exclaimed, " Oh, my son, if you renounce
the religion of your mother, she will renounce and
disinherit you. KIeep to the faith in which you
have hitherto been educated, and God will be your
guide and support."*
"My dear madame," said Catharine, who was
present, "let me advise you to suppress this violence of emotion. I have always found it best to
appear to yield. Assume a seeming conformity to
your husband's will; even attend mass, and you
will the more easily get the reins into your own
hands."
To this characteristic advice Jane d'Albr6t replied indignantly, " Rather than deny my faith by
attending mass, if I had my son in one hand, and
my kingdom in the other, I would throw them both
into the sea."t
Such was the difference between these two
women and between their creeds.
But Jane d'Albr6t was ere long relieved of her
fears by her vain and vacillating husband's death.
Ere Navarre's defection startled France, the
indefatigable chancellor, not discouraged by the
-l Huguenots in France and America, vol. 1, p. 83. Vie de
Coligny.        t Ibid. De Thou, liv. 28. Davila, etc.




270           THE HUGUENOTS.
failure of the colloquy of Poissy to apply a remedy
to the ecclesiastical abuses, contrived to convoke
another assembly of the states-general at St. Germaine.
"The object of your deliberations," said LlH3O
pital in his opening address to the deputies, "is
simple and clear. Is it advantageous, in the existing state of affairs, to tolerate or to forbid the meetings of the Calvinists for the exercise of their devotions? That is the single question you have to
decide. To come to a right conclusion, you must
keep out of view whatever relates to creed, doctrine, or religious discipline. Even let it be assumed that Calvinism is one coltinlOils error of
judgment, is that a reason to bar their assemblies,
or to justify the proscription of those French subjects who have embraced it?  Can a man not be a
good citizen without being a good Romanist?  Do
not then waste your time, or entangle yourselves in
fruitless controversy, in the vain attempt to decide
which is the true religion. We are not here to establish a mode of faith, but a rule of government."*
It was thus that the keen and cautious chancellor exhibited his anxiety to make all vexed points
of theology subservient to the vital interests of
political government.  By dexterously narrowing
down the discussion into this limited space, and
extracting the sting of theological hate, the triulmph
of the Huguenots was rendered certain; for had
0 De Thou, liv. 29. Davila, liv. 2. Vie de Coligny. Hist. du
Concile de Trente, p. 452.




THE LOST LEADER.                271
the duke of Guise affirmed that none but Romanists
could be good citizens, the prince of Cond6 would
have resented it as a personal affront, and demanded satisfaction at the sword's point. The papists
were thus compelled to make concessions, or raise
the standard of civil war, for which they were not
yet fully prepared.
The assembly of St. Germaine therefore passed
a decree, called the Edict of January, 1562, by which
many of the disabilities of the Huguenots were removed. The reformers might meet unarmed without the walls of cities and towns, and the local
magistrates were commanded to afford them  protection; though prohibited from levying money to
pay their preachers, they might receive any sum
voluntarily contributed.*  In return for these concessions, the Huguenots were to restore all images
and reliques of saints which they had seized, and
to pay tithe and other ecclesiastical dues, while
their preachers were commanded to abstain from
all violent invectives against the mass.t
Some bloody scenes occurred in various sections after the promulgation of this edict;: but as
a whole the winter glided quietly away. The Huguenots were grateful and satisfied; the Romanists
sullen and discontented. But both parties felt conscious of an approaching rupture, convinced that
this temporary calm was only the harbinger of a
fearful storm.' Vie de Coligny, p. 238. Browning, p. 55. Duncan, p. 50.
t Ibid.                      $ Browning, p. 55.




272          THE HUGUJENOTS.
CHAPTER XX.
TH:E APPEAL TO ARMIS.
THE Huguenots were surprised and grieved by
the renegadism of the king of Navarre: the queen:mother was alarmed; and to restore the equilibrium, she openly allied herself with the reform
party.*
Coligny, anxiously watchful for the interest of
religion, was early apprized of the efforts being
made to win over Antony of Bourbon; and when
the illustrious deserter joined the Triumvirate, he
was "sad, but not astonished;" he knew Navarre's
character. He had suspected the motive of a mission to Spain in the early months of 1562, and employing persons to watch the emissary, he ordered
them  to arrest and search him  on his return.
Shortly after the messenger, in the garb of a pilgrim, endeavored to reenter France.!He was
seized and searched; nothing was found. Some
one, however, observing that he threw away his
staff, informed Coligny of the circumstance. The
acute admiral ordered it to be brought to him; a
countryman had picked it up and carried it to his
cottage.  On examination it was founld that the
staff was hollow, and that it contained a budget of
letters from the king of Spain.f Upon examining
B De Thou, liv. 28. Davila, liv. 2. Pasquier, vol. 2, p. 90.
t Vie de Coligny, p. 238. Browning, p. 55.




THE APPEAL TO ARMS.                273
these letters, they were found to be directed to the
king of Navarre, to the Triumvirate, to Cathatine,
and to others of the leading Roman chiefs, expressing poignant grief at the concessions recently made
to heresy, and exhorting them  to take arms and
crush the Huguenots by a single blow, to effect
which Philip offered to furnish men and money.*
Catharine was absolutely frightened; Coligny
was calm and resolute.  Tile queen mother allied
herself more closely than ever with the admiral.
The admiral, perceiving that the foes of his faith
were about to ]kindle the flames of civil war, worked
with Titanic energy to prepare his party for the
ordeal of battle. HIe united with Cond6, and securing the appointment of that prince to the chief conmmand of the reformers, called upon him to make a
public confession of the Protestant creed.t
The gallant prince complied; and so great was
the effect of his example, that many nobles did not
scruple to do likewise. The number of persons who
came to the Faubourgs to hear the Reformation
preached in a little time numbered fifty thousand,c:
a very respectable congregation.
Navarre, witnessing Coligny's activity, and galled perhaps by the presence of his old companion
in arms, urgently pressed Catharine to banish him
from court. She would consent, however, on but
- Duncan, p 50, 51. Browning, p. 55. Vie de Coligny, p.
300.                                      t Ibid.
I Vie de Coligny, p. 243. The cardinal of Chatillon and the
bishop of Nevers were publicl3 married.
I2*




274          THE HUGUENOTS.
one condition: that the duke of Guise, the cardinal
of Lorraine, and the marshal St. Andre, the original triumvirs, should also quit the capital for their
estates. 1: nexpectedly to Catharine, her terms were
accepted; for the chiefs of the reaction, knowing
that their interests might safely be intrusted to
Montmorenci and the king of Navarre. who were
to remain in Paris, were willing to go into temporary exile for the purpose of,removing their dangerous rivals from the vicinity of St. Germaine.*
But this compromise did not long stop up the
mouth of Vesuvius with its cotton. The adherents
of Guise at the capital wrote him that the queen
mother was every day becoming more closely connected with the Huguenots, and urged him to hasten back to Paris. Guise obeyed the summons,
leaving his estate of Joinville towards the close of
February, 1562. His suite, already numerous ivhen
he quitted his chateau, was augmented as he advancecl, until, when he reached the little town of
Vassy, he was at the head of a small army.f
At Vassy a fatal event occurred. A Huguenot
congregation attending divine worship in a barn,
attracted the attention of the bigoted chieftain and
his fanatical retinue. Filled with hate, and armed,
they rushed upon the reformers, who endeavored to
shut the doors against the assailants. A collision
resulted; Guise himself was slightly wounded in: Duncan, p. 51. Vie de Coligny, p. 250.
t Davila, De Thou, Browning, Vie de Coligny. Vassy is a
small town in Champagne, some sixty leagues east of Paris.




THE APPEAL TO ARMS.               275
the cheek by some chance missile, and his followers, infuriated at the sight of his blood, massacred
the whole helpless congregation.*
The news of this bloody foray spread with almost incredible rapidity; it reached the metropolis
before its hero; and when Guise appeared, the civic
mob of Paris hailed the "buztcher qf Vassy" with
"frenzied shouts and tears of joy."t A sanguinary
and cowardly slaughter of an unarmed assembly,
convened for religious worship, was hailed as a
great and heroic exploit.
In later days Guise protested that he had no
hand in this wholesale assassination; but whether
he intended it or not, it is enough that he did not
prevent it. The deed was his; upon his head history heaps her malediction.t:
Nor was Yassy the only scene of violence.  Cahors, Toulouse, Sens, Amiens, and Tours hastened
to follow in Guise's bloody footsteps.~  At Tours a
refinement of cruelty was displayed. Three hundred Huguenots were shut up without food for
three days; then, tied together two by two, they
were led to a slaughter-house and butchered like
beasts.II
At Sens also there was an exhibition of atrocious fanaticism; during three successive days the
bell of the cathedral invited the citizens to murder
-' Ranke, p. 211. Browning, p. 57. Duncan, p. 51. Vie (le
Coligny, p. 243.
t Duncan, p. 51. Ranke, p. 211, etc.   $ Ibid.
~ Beza, Life of Calvin. D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ. De Thou,
liv. 29.                        11 Browning, p. 58.




276            THE HU GUENOTS.
the reformers.  Even the vines which embellished
their dwellings were plucked up by the roots. The
bodies of the victims, floating down the Seine, appeared to speak trumpet-toned to their brothers in
the faith for justice.*  The Huguenots did indeed
bestir themselves to obtain redress.  Wfhen some
of the shocking incidents of the massacres were
related to Navarre, the traitor cried with a sneer,
"They were all factious heretics."  "Sire," replied
Beza, who chanced to be present, with indignant
emphasis, "I speak on behalf of a religion which
pardons injuries, instead of resenting themn; but
remember, it is an anvil which has blunted many
hlamners."'
But while one party demanded justice, the other
clamored fiercely for the extermination of the Huguenots, and Aiontiuc addressed a memoir showing
how easily it might be effected.'::
_Meantime Concd, overpowered, quitted Paris
with his preachers and armed followers.~  "COesar
has not only crossed the Rubicon," wrote he to
D'Andelot anad Coligny, "he has already seized
Romze, and his banners will shortly be everywhere
displayed."li
Guise was aware that in a coup d'e't[ audacity: Browning, p. 58.
t Duncan, p. 52. Beza, Hist. Eccles., liv. 6.
$ This memoir may be foundl at length in Mem. de Conde, vol.
3, p. 184, et seq. Browning, p. 58.
~ Vie  de Coligny. Browning, p. 59. Ranke, p. 211.
il Duncan, pp. 52, 53. Browning, p. 59. Journal de Henri
III., vol. 2, ed. Cologne.




THE APPEAL TO ARMS.               277
and energy were necessary.  Catharine was sojourning at Mleaux with her royal son. The princes
of Lorraine sped thither, seized the regent and the
king, and hastening back to Paris, received another.tvation.*  Their captives were lodged in a building which had been used as a prison for a century.t
The possession of the king's person was the grand
object of their policy, and they succeeded, spite of
the prayers and menaces of the queen mother.
Emboldened by their success, the triumvirs rejected all compromises, all overtures, and determined to strike a vigorous blow at once in the very
commencement of their lawless campaign; they
designed a revocation of the tolerant edict of January, in the chief cities first, and then throughout
the kingdom.
Meantime Paris was surrendered to a carnival
of fanaticism; the cardinal of Lorraine commenced
preaching in the style of his predecessors, St. Dominic and Torquemada; and M3ontmorenci displayed
his zeal on the evening of the youthful monarch's
return to the metropolis, by plundering the Htuguenot chapels, destroying the books, and building
bonfires with the reading-desks of the preachers.
The fanatical violence with which he sought after
and destroyed these desks, gained the hoary old
bigot the soubriquet of Capitaine Brule-Baizcs.S
R Ranke, p. 212. Thuanus, lib. 29. Mem. de Conde(, vol. 3,
p. 195                  t Beza, list. Eccles., liv. 29.
J MeIem. de Condel, vol. 3, p. 198. Duncan, p. 53. Brantome,
vol. 7, p. 79.




278           THE HUGUENOTS.
While these events were occurring at the capital, Cond6 was not idle.  HIe received, through a
secret messenger, a letter from Catharine, in which
she implored him to save the mother and the child,
at the same time assuring him  that all her hopes
rested upon him; the liberty of the king, the prosperity of France, all was staked upon the pluck and
loyalty of the Huguenots.*
Cond6 at once published two manifestoes,which
roused France as with the blast of a trumpet. The
eloquent prince implored the Huguenots to arm
and attack their common enemy, and he conjured
all true Frenchmen, whatever their creed, to couch
their lances for the liberation of their captive sovereign.t-  The response was enthusiastic.  Orleans
was seized after a sanguinary battle, and there
Cond6 set up his banner.  This city became the
Huguenot rendezvous.t:
The triumvirs, to destroy the effect of Cond6's
appeal, forced the irresponsible toy who at this
awful moment played king, to sign and publish an
official denial of the charges of the Bourbon prince,
and an affirmation that both his mother and himself
enjoyed perfect freedom;~ but the cheat was too
transparent, and even the reluctant pen of an old; The queen's letters are printed in Mem. de Conde, vol. 3,
p. 222.
t These manifestoes were dated, the first on the 8th, the cther
on the 25th of April, 1562. Mem. de Conde, vol. 3, pp. 222, 319.
$ La Noue, p. 554. Davila, liv. 3. Browning, p. 60.
~ Davila, liv. 3. Duncan, p. 53. Mem. de Conld, vol. A
p. 320.




THE APPEAL TO ARLMS.            279
contemporaneous historian, devoted to that side,
was forced to pen these significant words: "It is
most certain that the young king was seen by many
to weep that day, being persuaded that the Romanist lords had restrained his personal liberty; and
that the queen mother, being discontented that her i
wonted arts had not prevailedl, and foreseeing the
mischiefs of the opening war, seemed perplexed,
and spoke no word to any one; of which Guise
made light, saying publicly,'The good is always
good, whether it proceeds from love or force.' "
The enthusiasm of the Huguenots was at floodtide. They were very soon in possession of the
principal cities of the provinces-Lyons, Bourges,
Vienne, Rouen, and the rest.-  All the Orleanoise
was subjected to them, and the whole of Normandy
declared in their favor. Levies of men were everywhere made to swell their embattled ranks, and
detachments flocked from every quarter, with the
motto "God and liberty" emblazoned on their baniers, to Cond6's camp.
Brantome relates that a squadron of fifty Huguenot cavaliers set out fronm MIetz for Orleans, and
I. d'Espan, governor of VYerdun, learning the circumstance, determined to cut them off on the march.
~When he came up with them, they had taken a
position in an old windmill, where they defended
themselves with stubborn valor, until night closed
the combat. Before morning they made a sortie,
* Davila, liv. 3.
t Mem. de CondeO, vol. 3, passim.




280           THE HUGUENOTS.
surprised their weary assailants, and routed them,
The cavaliers then recommenced their march, and
after thirty different slirmishes, they reached Or.
leans with the loss of but three of their number, an
incident which the quaint old  chronicler justly
thinks illustrative of remarkable pluck and zeal."
The leaders of the reformed host were Conde's
nearest relatives: there were the three Chatillons,
the cardinal, Coligny, and D'Andelot, the uncles of
his consort; the Count Porcian, who was married to
his niece; Francis de Rochefoucault, who was married to his sister-in-law, of whom it was said that he
could bring an army into the field composed of his
friends and vassals in Poitou alone. The viscount
Ren6 de RIohan led the Bretons, Antony, count de
Grammont, the Gascons; 3Montgomery —the count
who had accidentally slain Henry II. in the tournament of 1559-was present from Normandy, and
Hangest de Genlis from Picardy. There assembled
at Orleans in a short time three thousand gentlemen, of whom Lanquet says, " If they were destroyed, the very seed of masculine virtue would have
been exterminated in France."tThe triumvirs received assistance not only from
the reactionary home party, they drew upon Romanist Europe.  The king of Spain, the pope, Costmo, duke of Florence, all lent jubilant levies; and
soon the Guises marched towards Orleans at the
* Brantomne, Discours sur les.Belles Retraites; cited in Brown,ing, p. 64.
f Rtanke, p. 214. Duncan, p. 54.




THE APPEAL TO ARMS.    281
head of ten thousand men-at-arms, the vanguard
of the larger host to come.*
Between the hostile ranks of Conde and Guise
the government of a boy and a woman disappeared.
Catharine made one last effort to regain her
lost prestige. As usual, her weapons were hypocrisy and treason. Instigated by Guise, with whom
she appears now to have allied herself,-tl overawed
perhaps by the threat that she would be deposedc
even from  the nominal regency, unless she lent
herself to the projects of the usurpers, the queen
mother attempted to entrap Cond6.
A personal conference was appointed between
them at Thuri.:  Conde, unsuspicious of treachery,
nearly fell into the snare. It was proposed that he
and his friends should quit France for a time, while
the triumvirs also retired from the court.  "Offer
these terms," said the wily queen in a seductive
whisper; "they will certainly be refused; then you
will gain the credit of having made a patriotic proposition, which will augment your strength."
The frank soldier for once attempted to play
Machiavelli; he was unequal to the part.  Cond6
assented. After some delay, the council replied
"Your terms are accepted," but no allusion was
made to the retirement of the triumvirs.~  Condcl
was thunderstruck; his diplomatic rutse had recoiled
upon himself; Catharine had played him false. His': Davila, liv. 3. De Thou, liv. 29. Duncan, p. 54.
t Men. de Conde, vol. 3, p. 508. Browning, p. 63.
$ bid. Duncan, p. 55.                  ~ Ibid.




282          THE HUGUENOTS.
troops were indignant; his nobles protested against
the validity of the contract; the preachers inveighed
against the regent's duplicity; and Cond6, declaring that he had been deceived, retracted the agreement, and mounting his horse, bade defiance to his
own and his country's foes.*
Thisfaux _as convinced the Huguenots that no
reliance could be placed either on the friendship or
the good faith of Catharine de' M3edici.
Cond6 was anxious to strengthen his cause by
alliances with the Protestant powers of Europe. In
Germany, the proofs he advanced in justification of
his action were regarded as satisfactory. The old
landgrave, Philip of Hesse, gave  liMarshal Rollshausen orders to advance into France with some thousands of Icanzknechzts and arquebusiers.t
The Huguenots also dispatched a mission to
England to sue Elizabeth for an alliance. The
stingy queen agreed to aid them on condition that
HIavre de Grace was delivered to her as a compensation for Calais, whose loss still rankled.1 This
conceded, Elizabeth furnished one hundred thousand crowns, and garrisoned Havre de Grace,
IDieppe, and IRouen, with six thousand English
yeonmen.~
Towards the close of June, 1562, the contending
armies opened the campaign. Cond6 and Coligny
left Orleans to attack Paris and deliver the king;
* Duncan, p. 56.              t Ranke, p. 215.
i Davila, liv. 3, p. 236. Browning, pp. 61, 62. Duncan, p1
567.                     ~ Ibid. De Thou, liv. 29.




THE APPEAL TO ARMS.             283
the triunivirs quitted the metropolis to besiege the
Huguenots in Orleans.*  The two parties were
about equal, each having ten thousand men.t
To detail the various skirmishes which steeped
the provinces in fraternal blood, to enumerate the
villages plundered and razed, to record the deeds
of cruelty committed by individual and remorseless
leaders of roving bands attached to either army,
would occupy volumes, and would form a narrative
of crime hideously diversified in its features, from
which humanity would recoil. Both sides undoubtedly committed excesses.  Where the Huguenots
triumphed, they destroyed altars and broke images;
where the papists were successful, Bibles were
burned and heretics were racked.
The picture of France rent by demoniacs is the
most melancholy and pathetic that ever employed
the pencil of an artist. Not Angelo nor Raphael
nor Rembrandt could have originated so woful a
canvas.
It is an unquestionable historic fact, that in this
drama of death the papists were the most frenzied
and remorseless actors. The testimony of the Abb6
Anqu6til will scarcely be impeached in the court of
Rome. Let us see what this inimical witness has
to say: "For the heretics there was no security, no
asylum; the faith of treaties and the sanctity of
oaths were alike set at naught. Tortures, contrived
with cruel care for delaying death and increasing
the duration of pain, were inflicted upon persons
* Browning, p. 62. De Thou, etc.    t Ibid.




284           THE HUGUENOTS.
who had  surrendered  upon capitulation.  Husbands and fathers were poignarded in the arms of
their wives and daughters, who were then violated
in the sight of the dying loved ones.  Women and
children were treated with a brutality which defies
description.  Aged magistrates, the victims of an
unbridled rage, were insulted after death by the
populace, who dragged their yet palpitating entrails
through the streets, and even ate their quivering
flesh."
Beaumont, baron des Adrets, oaie of the Huguenot leaders, determined to meet cruelty with cruelty, forgetful of the mild tenets of the faith which
he professed to serve.  He killed and laid waste
with a barbarity which made his own officers shudder; superstitious nurses frightened  children by
the simple repetition of his name: his vengeful acts
drew forth an admonition from the admiral, and a
severe reproof from Calvin.t
Beaumont's rival was the ferocious Blaise do
MIontluc, who relates in his memoirs, with the utmost sangy.froid, the chilling cruelties which he practised upon the heretics: "I procured," he says,
"two executioners, who were called my lackeys,
because they were so constantly with me in active
service."$:
* Abb6 Anquktil, Esprit de la Ligue, vol. 1, pp. 161, 164; cited
and summarized in Browning, p. 64.
4i Beza, Hist. Eccles. D'Aubignel, Hist. Univ. De Thou, liv.
3, etc.
$ Montluc, Memoires, liv. 5, vol. 3, p. 27. Browning, p. 64.
Concerning Baron des Adrets, "Maiimbourg, whose testimony on




THE APPEAL TO A.RIMS.                   285
Thus, while France wailed and heaven wept,
the hideous dance of the loosened furies of death
and hell went smoothly on.
this occasion is unquestionable, states that he blindly threw himself into the HIuguenot party to revenge himself upon the duke of
Guise, who had offended himn; and the queen, wishing to injure
that family, wrote to Des Adrets, exhorting him to destroy Guise's
authority in Dauphiny by any means whatever, even by the aid of
the Huguenots, and promising him her protection and authority.
" But it was not necessary to know his motives for making a
profession of Protestantism, for his conduct showed that he harl
no religion whatever. We learn from the Abbe Caveyrac that' he
returned sincerely to God and his king,' but not without his resentment being again called into action; for his cruelty excited
such horror, that the prince of Condel sent Soubise to supersede
him in the government of Lyons, which made him renounce the
Protestant religion and return to the Roman church." Browning,
p. 65.




286          THE IIUGUTENOTS.
C IAPTER:  XXI.
DEATH'S COUP D'ETAT.
BEFORE a fanatical conception of religion, morality, which lies at the base of civilization and
of human society, vanished.  A kind of fatalism
reigned. A species of resignation linked with enmity, of religion mingled with hatred-this was
what took place in these sad years. It was like a
bloody Scottish feud, in which those who held the
same principles regarded themselves as members of
one clan.
Both armies were in the field, and Guise especially was viciously active.
Navarre assailed and captured Bourges. Then
pausing and looking towards Paris, he asked, Where
next?
The Triumvirate hungered for Orleans, the rendezvous and the d6pot of Cond6 and the Chatillons.
Catharine said No; she thought that if the citadel of
Protestantism should fall, the already over-powerful
league would shoot up to a still loftier pinnacle.
"Let us resnatch IRouen," said the wily queen;
"these bulldog Englishmen have seized Normandy; we must shake it from their greedy maw."@
The Parisians were cozened; besides, the Hugue* Davila, liv. 3, p. 246. De Thou, liv. 33. Meem. de CoudO,
vol. 3. Browning, p. 67.




DEATH' S CO UP DD'ETAT.            287
not garrison of Rouen would suffer no merchandise
to ascend the river from the sea. Inexorable lRouen
stood guard upon the Atlantic. Trade was sulky;
commerce was angered. "We will give two hundredc
thousand crowns to the king, if he will drive the
Huguenots from Rouen,"* cried the Parisian mer-t
chants. Navarre marched into Normandy, andC at
the close of September, 1562, laid siege to Rouen.t
Montgomery held the town, supported by two
thousand English men-at-arms, twelve hundred
choice infantry from Cond6's army, four squadrons
of horse, and one hundred gentlemen who had volunteered their services.:t
The attack was vigorous; the defence was obstinate. A breach was no sooner made, than the indefatigable Montgomery threw up behind it a new
intrenchment. "This count is a necromancer; he
juggles in war," said Navarre dispiritedly, as he
returned one day from a foiled assault.~
Mining and countermining succeeded. The Hu —
guenot bombs fell within Navarre's lines with but
slight effect; burying themselves in the soil softened
by recent rains, they only made volcanoes of mud;
the explosion was changed into a splash.
At length, an the 25th of October, Guise, who
had joined the army before Bouen, led an assault,
after a spirited harangue, the effect of which he
heightened by a brilliant display of chivalric valor.11
* Vie de Coligny, p. 269.  t Ibidc, p. 271. Brownilhg, p. 67.
$ Ibid. Davila, liv. 3, p. 250. ~ Mlem. de Conde, vol. 4, p. 45.
i[ Brantome, vol. 8, p. 262. De Thou, liv. 33.




288           THE HUGUENOTS.
Rouen -was captured by this coyzp de main; Montgomery had only time to leap into a galley which
was in port. By the promise of liberty, he induced
the galley-slaves to row so well, that he got to sea
despite some chains swung across the river a few
leagues below the city by the besiegers, to prevent
the English sending any assistance from the ocean.*
Shortly after, MIontgomery safely touched the shores
of Britain.
Rouen was pillaged through three clays; many
citizens were massacred; the reformed preachers
especially were hunted down with vindictive cruelty;
and M[arloratus, who had been a central figure at
the Poissy colloquy, was hung in front of the cathedral, amid the jeers of the brutal soldiery and
the insults of Montmnorenci and his son Montberan.t
That which characterizes other Romanic races
even at this day, the lhabit of repaying violent deeds
with violent deeds, was then the general custom of
France. The Huguenots at Orleans, as a reprisal
for the IRouen massacres, hung the abbe Gastines, a
violent Jesuit, and Sapin, one of the hostile presidents of the Parliament of Paris.J:
The capture of Rouen cost Navarre his life.
Emulating the prowess of Guise, he descended into
the trenches one day to view the town; while there,
* Brantorme, vol. 8, p. 262. De Thou, liv. 33. Browning, p. 67.
t D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ., vol. 1, p. 159. Meln. de Cond6,
vol. 2, p. 105.
$ Beza, Eccl. Iist., liv. 8. Brantome, Davila, etc.




DEATH'S COUP D'ETAT.                 289
he was struck in the shoulder by a discharge of
musketry.  The surgeons at the outset laughed at
the wound, and the king even desired to make a
triumphal entry into the conquered city.  Soon
however symptoms of danger appeared.  Navarre
desired to be transported to the village of St. Maur,
near Plaris.  He did not live to reach it, but died at
Andel1ys on the 17th of November, 1562, in his
forty-fourth year.*
All writers who have sketched Antony of Bourbon's character, describe him  as deficient in every
princely quality except personal courage.  He was
ambitious without foresight, vain without capacity,
and intriguing without diplomatic skill.  He threw
away that noble part which fortune destined for
him. Denying his faith, he ceased to be the head
of a powerful party, to sink into the despised tool
of abler rogues.
"Antony of Bourbon, father of the firmest and
most intrepid of men, was the weakest and least
decided," says one of the most celebrated of French
critics.  "He was always so wavering in his religion, that it is doubted in which faith he died.t  He
bore arms against the Huguenots whom he loved,
and served Catharine de' iedici whom he detested,
and the party of the Guises who oppressed him."%
* Davila, liv. 3, p. 260. De Thou, liv. 33. This historian
says that Navarre was forty-two years of age. Browning, p. 68.
t "Brantome states, that'he died regretting his change of
religion, being resolved to help the Protestants more than ever if
he lived, and that he sent word to that effect to the prince his
brother."' Browning, p. 68.   1 Voltaire, note to "Henriade'"
Tllgiv.notF.   




290          THE HUGUENOTS.
While these events were occurring in Normandy,
the Huguenot leaders, CondU, Coligny, and D'Andelot, united their forces, and tempted by the absence of the main army of the Triumvirate before
Ronen, marched towards Paris. The prince actually
pitched his tents at MIontrouge, from whence his
troops pillaged the faubourgs on that side.
This movement hastened the return of the triumvirs from the ruins of Rouen, to effect the salvation of the imperilled capital.
Cond6 then determined to march into [Normandy,
and forming a junction with the English forces, secure Elizabeth's subsidy. On the 10th of December he broke camp, and commenced his march.
Guise, who had meanwhile arrived in Paris, upon
being apprized of the prince's intention, determined
to pursue him, and force a battle.
Cond6 was overtaken near Dreux, and finding it
impossible to avoid an action, he prepared to fight.
Here, by the banks of the sparkling Eure, the
first collision between the hostile ariies in the
open field occurred. The sight was a singular one.
It seemed as if this mass of human beings had
become a monster, and had but one mind. Each
squadron undulated and swelled like the ring of a
polype. They could be seen through the thick
smoke, as it lifted brokenly here and there. It was
a p611-mell of casques, cries, sabres; a furious bounding of horses, a blare of trumpets; a terrible and
* Mein. de Tavannes, p. 267. Pasquier, vol. 2. p. 101. La
Noug, p. 583.




DEATH'S COUP D'ETAT.                 291
disciplined tumult; over all the cuirasses, like the
scales of a hydra.
Concd charged first.  His cavalry, composed of
thLe e7ite of the Huguenot party, cut clean through
thle enemy's centre, which was commanded by
M:)ntmorenci.  Smitten by this resistless thunderbolt, the constable tumbled from his saddle. Rising again, he strove to redeem his position. In
vain; Conde's cuirassiers would not be stayed, antl
TIontmorenci was ere long himself made prisoner,
while his son 1fontberan, who had so recently jeered
at the martyrdom  of M3arloratus in the streets of
Rouen, lay dead before his face.*
The battle lasted seven hours, during which
time wavering  success perched with  capricious
whim  upon both banners.  At the moment when
victory seemed finally to have declared for the HuguLenots, Guise, who had held himself carefully in
reserve,- thundered down upon the conquerors, and
wrested the hard-earned laurels from  their grasp.
By a singular reverse of fortune, Cond6 fell wounded, and was made a prisoner by D'Anmville, Montmorenci's son.:j
The wearied and dispirited Huguenots' infantry.were instantly panic-stricken.  Guise pressed them
fiercely, and their rout was complete.~
Coligny, perceiving that safety lay in retreat,
* Hist. des Derniers Tioubles, liv. 1.
t Vie de Coligny, p. 274. 3reantome, vol. 8, p. 112.
1 Brantome, vol. 8, p. 113. Browning, p. 70.
~ Vie de Coligny, p. 274. Ranke, p. 217.




292          THE HUGUENOTS.
held his men well in hand, and shouting, " He who
holds his troops together to the last carries off the
fruit of the battle," he commenced to retire leisurely
and calmly to a neighboring morass, where, entrenching his followers behind a pile of felled timber, he awaited Guise's attack with nonchalance.
At the same time the admiral, divining that Orleans
would be the next point assailed, directed D'Andelot to collect as many of the dispersed battalions
as possible, and hasten with them to reinforce the
menaced city.*
Meantime Guise pressed on, and renewed the
battle with great ardor. Coligny obstinately defended his position.  In vain did the fiery duke
hurl squadron after squadron upon his imperturbable lines. The marshal St. Andr6 at length fell;
and Guise, glancing sadly at his terribly thinned
ranks, desisted from the attack, and preparing to
bivouac upon the battle-field, dispatched a courier
to Paris to announce a victory.t
The battle was a bloody one. Eight thousand
dead strewed the plain.:
The Huguenots were far from considering themselves defeated, though Guise remained master of
Dreux, and Coligny, after the cessation of the
duke's assaults, continued his retreat.
" Our infantry," wrote the admiral in a letter to'Elizabeth of England, " has suffered a defeat with* Vie de Coligny, p. 274. Ranke, p. 217. Browning, p. 70.
t Brantome, vol. 8, p. 117. Browning, p. 70. La Noue, vol
5, p. 7.                       Ibid. Davila, liv. 3.




DEAT1H'S COUP D'ETAT.              293
out fighting; but our cavalry, which alone fougnt the
battle, is undamaged, and wishes for nothing more
ardently than to meet once more without delay the
enemies of God and of this kingdom.  These will
deliberate whether to attack us, or to await an attack
from our side.*
Guise was wonderfully elated by his success,
disputed as it was. The first account of the battle
which reached Paris ascribed the victory to Cond6.
" Well then," said Catharine coolly, "we shall have
to pray to God in French."t  And when she received the second report from IDreux, she was far
from expressing joy at the event. The death of St.
Andr6 and Montmorenci's captivity delivered Guise
from all rivals; no one shared his triumphs. The
duke wrote a letter, demanding the disposal of St.
Andre's baton in so arrogant a tone, that young
Charles himself was astonished.J4:
Cond6, in his captivity, was treated with politic
krindclness. Guise conducted him to his quarters;
they supped together, and the prince accepted the
offer of half the duke's bed.~ He was afterwards
taken to court, where Catharine exerted herself to
win him front the Huguenot party, a task which she
did not esteem very formidable, since, removed from
the counsels of the inflexible Coligny, she thought
lie might be easily biassed.
* Coligny's letter to queen Elizabeth, cited in Ranke, p.. 218.
t Yoltaire's second note to the " Henriade."
t Vieilleville, vol. 5, p. 7. Browning, p. 71.
~ Brantome, vol. 8, p. 248. Duncan, p. 60.




294          THE HUGUENOTS.
Montmorenci was taken to Orleans, where his
niece, the princess of Cond6, used every persuasive
measure which she could devise to reconcile her
uncle and her husband; all however to no purpose.
The sulky veteran only growled and swore.*
Meanwhile Guise led his victorious squadrons to
the Orleanoise, and laid close and resolute siege to
the iHuguenot citadel.
D'Andeldt's defence of Orleans was as skilful
as the duke's assault. While the fate of the city
hung undecided, murder stepped between the conmbatants, and dictated a decision: Guise was assassinated.t
In the dusk of the evening the duke went to
superintend the erection of some redoubts. While
the party trotted pleasantly along, chatting and
laughing, a shot was fired from behind a hedge, and
three balls lodged in Guise's left shoulder. The
shock made him stagger; but he only said, "This
was to be expected; but I think it will be nothing.":
He was carried to his tent, when the surgeons, on
examining the wound, pronounced the bullets to
have been steeped in poison.~
Upon his death-bed he expressed regret for
many of the occurrences of his violent, ambitious,
and warlike career; but this late repentance served
but to inflict upon him sharper pangs of remorse.
* Browning, p. 71.
t La Nou6, p. 503. T'ie de Coligny, p. 282. Duncan, p. 60.: Brantome, vol. 8, p. 126. Vie de Coligny, p. 287. Brown.
ing, p. 71.                            ~ Ibid.




DEATHI'S COUP D'ETAT.              295
The massacre of Vassy tormented his conscience,
which could neither be soothed by all the peans
of the priests, nor quieted by the hymns of the Parisians.
On the 4th of 3March, 1563, eight days after the
ihfliction of the fatal wound, this celebrated soldier
heaved his last sigh.
This event stirred France profoundly.  The
animated attacks upon Orleans suddenly ceased.
The famous Triumvirate crumbled to pieces. Navarre, St. Andr6, and Guise were lost to Rome.
The duke's assassin was finally arrested and
put to the torture. He was a madman nanmed Paitrot.*  What was called a " confession" was wrung
from his crazy lips, which implicated several of the
Huguenot chiefs in a plot to butcher Guise. Bossu6t accuses Coligny and ]Beza of having instigated
the insane zealot to commit the crime; but the eloquent Frenchman, with all his subtlety, could not
twist the circumstances of the case into giving color
to the charge. All impartial chroniclers have acquitted these illustrious and unspotted Christians
of any participation in so odious a deed. History
dismissed the accusation to contempt.t
Yet despite Coligny's published and reiterated
denial at the time, Henry de Guise persisted in
charging the admiral with his father's murder; and
young as he was at the time, he swore against him
8 Davila, liv. 3, p. 87. Brantome, vol. 8, p. 120, etc.
t Duncan, p. 60. See the very elaborate consideration of thiA
matter in Browning, pp. 72-77.




296          THE HUGUENOTS.
an unrelenting hatred, which was only appeased by
one of the bloodiest catastrophes in history.*
With the dissolution of the Triumvirate there
cainme a general pause. IDeath's coutp de main startled
France. The genius of civil war halted for a moment before the bier of 3Francis Guise.
* Duncan, p. 61.




THE HOLLOW  TRUCE.              297
CHAPTERt XXII.
THE HOLLOW TRUCE.
BY the death of Guise, Catharine de' Medici re.
gained supreme power. Her first act was to intrigue
for tranquillity. Every insidious art was employed
to cajole Concld into signing a treaty of peace. The
Chatillons were absent in the field. Their inflexible spirit insured the continuance of the war until
liberty was guaranteed, unless some disgraceful
concession could be won from the prince.
The Huguenot sky never looked so bright.
Hardly a cloud spotted the horizon. Two of the
triumvirs were dead; the third was a prisoner.
Every thing was propitious for a liberal and righteous peace. The reformers congratulated one another, and said, " The wished-for day has come."
Suddenly these hopes were dashed; a courier
arrived in Coligny's camp one morning, and flung
this announcement into the admiral's face like a
thunderbolt: "Peace is declared; Cond6 orders
arms grounded."*  The messenger then circulated
an edict which had just been ratified at Amboise.
This was eagerly scanned by the surprised Huguenots. It contained a permission for the reformers
to assemble for the exercise of their religion in
O Mem. de Conde. Vie de Coligny. Brantome, etc.
13*




298          THE HUGUENOTS.
those towns'which were in their possession on the
day the edict was signed; but the general permission to preach in the country places, contained in
the preceding edict of January, 1562, was considerably curtailed. The lords high justiciaries could
only convene their friends and neighbors on the
demesnes of their seignories. The nobles were only
allowed to hear their preachers in their own chateaux, and even that indulgence was withheld if they
resided in a city or territory over which a Romanist governor exercised judicial power. The decree
contained neither censure nor amnesty; but declaring that Cond6 and his friends were good and faithful subjects, buried the past in" oblivion.*
Such was the niggardly decree to which Cond6,
without consulting his friends, had irrevocably set
his hand. The Huguenots were indignant. D'Andelot was chagrined. "Alas," said Coligny, "our
prince has injured the Reformed church more by
this stroke of his pen, than the Triumvirate could
have done in ten years with all their armies."t
Sadly and dejectedly the admiral dismissed his
old companions in arms, paying them great attention, that he might, in case of need, calculate upon
their speedy aid..
Catharine was displeased at this precaution;
but when she complained of it to Conde, he silenced
her by replying, " Nay, nmadame, this conduct of
- Anquetil, Esprit de la Ligue, torn. 1, p. 150. Duncan, p. 62.
f Vie de Coligny, p. 291. Hist. du Concile de Trente, p. 674,
t Ibid.




THE HOLLOW  TRUCE.               299
Coligny ought to be attributed solely to a grateful
desire to acquit his obligations to the nobility; sure'tis the least he could do for those who quitted
home and friends to serve our cause."*
The queen mother was doubly provoked at this
unexpected speech; she had done her utmost to
convince Condo that Coligny's influence was prejudicial to his own. She now perceived how cautious
Cond6 was of taking the bait; indeed she feared
the prince saw into her treacherous design; she
therefore referred no more to the subject, but redoubled her blandishmlents.t
One clause of the recent treaty bound the HIuguenots to unite with the royal forces in expelling
the English from Normandy.4:
Cond6, conscious that nothing could justify him
in admitting the hereditary foemen of France once
more into the kingdom, and entrenching thenm
within important strong-holds, proffered his services for their dislodgnment.~
The prince's offer was accepted, and ere long
lie returned to Paris from  this expedition completely successful. France was no longer dismembered; no hostile foot profaned her soil.
Elizabeth of England was very indignant at the
loss of Havre de Grace, which she hoped would
have compensated her for Calais.  "When the': Mern. de Cond6, vol. 2, p. 163. Browning, p. 78.
i Mem. de Conde, vol. 2, p. 163.
$ Pallavicini, lib. 20, p. 407. Browning, p 78
~ Ibid. Mem. de Concld, vol. 2, p. 175.




303          THiE HUGUENOTS.
admiral again desires my assistance, I shall know
hlow to act," said the maiden queen.*  But when
her anger subsided, she observed, "The king
of France is happy in having such faithful subeotes.."t
Cond6's star was now at its zenith. As he had
distinguished himself by his bravery in the field, so
now lie desired to shine through his versatility, by
taking part in the knightly festivities of the court,
in which it was then the fashion to represent the
heroic fables of the Greeks.t His wit and vivacity
nmade him a great favorite. All restraint was removed by the recent death of his excellent wife
Eleanora du Roye; and Condd, whose amorous
disposition disposed him to fall an easy prey to the
intrigues of the queen, frittered away his time and
strength in dissolute and infamous orgies.~
The condition of the Huguenots now became as
bad as it had ever been.  Encroachments upon
the edict of Armboise were of constant occurrence.
The Protestants would not submit without attempting to defend their rights. The consequence was,
that the uneasy kingdom fretted under the abnormal pacification-a name without a substance. The
Huguenots inundated France with apologies, complaints, and remonstrances —some addressed to the
king, some to the queen, but most to Cond6, who
* Vie de Coligny, p. 297.            t Ibid.
$ Ranke, pp. 223, 224.
~ Browning, p. 81. Huguenots in France and America, vol
1, p. 100.




THE HOLLOW  TRUCE.               301
was generally held responsible for the strict fulfilment of the treaty, since he had signed it.*
But Catharine had so artfully engrossed the forgetful prince in lewd amusements, be was so surrounded with every charm and variety of pleasure,
that he had neither time to think nor heart to bestir himself on behalf of imperilled liberty of conscience.'t
The noblesse were ensnared in a similar manner. Catharine's maids of honor, young and beautiful, but abandoned girls, were the syrens enmployed to captivate the more worldly and impressible of the Huguenot leaders. Treachery was the
leading feature in the queen mother's policy; her
aim being bad, she naturally was not scrupulous as
to her means, and the morals of her licentious court
would be exposed to but little scrutiny. Those of
her pimps, men or women, who were most successful in their infamous work, received the highest
honor. Thus it was that those twin devils, debauchery and perfidy, were the earliest and most intimate
companions of Charles IX.
Thus was the Reformation compromised by its
political chiefs. While the current ran in lowlier
channels, it coursed unwaveringly to the sea. The
alliance of the nobles lowered the religious nmorale.
The fervor of Calvin, the eloquence of Beza never
injured the cause they loved; the treason of Navarre, the licentious coxcombry of Cond6, wastilg
IDe Thou, liv. 35. Mem. doe Conde, vol. 2, p. 180.
+ Browning, p. 81.




302          THE HUGUENOTS.
precious hours lapped in the arms of Catharine's
dancing syrens, melted, like a common fop, in baths
and perfumes-these worked God's cause incalculable mischief.
It is a pity, some say, that the noblesse gathered under the Huguenot banner; why, query otlhers, did Beza's pulpit stoop to preach politics?
Great moral movements necessarily and inevitably bubble over into politics. If politics invade
the domain of morals, if diplomacy attempts to
strangle religion, if iniquity enthrones itself in law,
then it becomes the preacher's duty with one hand
to appeal to the state for redress, and with the other
to uncloak the cheat. This was what Luther did.
This was what Calvin did. They desired to preach
Christ. The state said, No. Then the reformers
created a party in the state whose circumstances
enabled them  to obtain the required liberty to
preach God's word.
In this sense, wherever statutes withhold permission to proclaim  salvation, if men's thoughts
influence their laws, it is the duty of the pulpit to
preach politics. If it were possible to conceive of
a community whose opinions had no effect upon
their government, there Beza and Calvin and Luther
would have no call to impeach bad laws and ungodly
policies. But those worthies knew of no such comnimunity. The czar, at the head of a government
whose constitution knows no check but poison and
the dagger, yet pauses when he hears his subjects
growl. The sultan dared to murder his janizaries




THE HOLLOW TRUCE.              303
only when the streets came to hate them as much
as he did. Though sheltered by Roman despotism,
Herod and the chief priests abstained from this
and that because they "feared the people."  Certainly then there can be no question that the rationale of the reformers was right.
At all events, the pontiffs never scrupled to bring
the pressure of public opinion to bear upon governmental action. In the early years of the reign of
Charles IX., Pius IV. directed the politics of the
Vatican. This crafty pope perceived that the temporal authority of his see would be undermined if
the Huguenots could enjoy religious liberty; his
object therefore was to make them hateful to the
French government.
To prevent the clergy from giving the Reformation countenance, he determined to punish those
prelates who had either wholly adopted the new
theology, or had at least tolerated it. He excom-.municated the cardinal of Chatillon, St. Roomain
archbishop of Aix, MIontluc bishop of Valence,
Caraccioli of Troyes, Barbanton of Pomniers, and
G-uillart of Chartres, all of whom were summoned
to appear before him and account for their concluct.*
Pope Pius' audacity saved these prelates from
his wrath. HIe cited the queen of Navarre to give
an account of her faith; and if within the space of
six months she did not appear before himn, he declared that she should be proscribed, convicted of
e Hist. du Concile de Trente, p. 769. Browning, p. 81.




304           THE IUGUENOTS.
heresy by default, and deprived of lber kingdom,
which should be given to the first occupant.*
This insolent assault upon a crowned head and
a near relative of the king of France, caused a
strong remonstrance to be filed by the French ambassador at Rome; in consequence the bull was
withdrawn, and affairs remained in statu quo.t
Upon the heels of the pope's rescinded bull
trudged a new edict; it was called a declaration,
and was avowedly to explain the obscurities of that
of Amboise, but in reality to curtail once more the
rights of the Huguenots.;:
The nmonth of December, 1563, was rendered
remarkable by the conclusion of the Council of
Trent, one of the niost famous of the Roman synods. Long before the doctrines of Calvin bad become popular in France, Germany, embracing Martin Luther's evangelical opinions, demanded the
convocation of a general council to settle disputed
points of orthodoxy.  Finally Paul III., who theD
wore the tiara, yielded to the request, and in the
year 1537 selected Mantua as the ecclesiastical rendezvous; but the sovereign duke of that city refused
his consent, in consequence of which the assembly
was transferred to Yicenza, and postponed to 1538.
Various contingencies delayed the conference till
1542; when Paul convened the council at Trent.~
* The bull is dated Sept. 28, 1563, and is to be found in exzenso
in Mem. de Cond6, vol. 4.
t Hist. du Concile de Trente, p. 796. Mem. de Conde, vol. 4,
p. 680.                          I Browning, p. 81.
- Hist. du Concile de Trente.




THE HOLLOW  TRUCE.              305
From that date the sessions dragged their slow
length along, amid constant and frivolous adjournments, through twenty-one tedious years, during
which time the dogmatism, the bigotry, and the
tergiversations of the council, wholly devoted to
Rome- there was not a Lutheranist or Calvinist
present-so disgusted the Protestants, that they
refused to recognize its authority, or to be bound
by its decrees.
Pius IV. had renewed the sessions and pressed
for a decision, because he was persuaded that unless some fixed principles were adopted, to which
the floating creed of the Vatican could be anchored
in case of need, the most sincere adherents of the
holy see might be seduced into heresy by the arguments of those who claimed the right of interpreting the holy Scriptures for themselves.*
The different discussions during the twenty-five
sessions of the council, embraced the whole range
of subjects which affected the purse, wealth, and
supremacy of the court of 1Rome.t The decrees
were prefaced in this style: "The holy (Ecumenic
Council, legitimately assembled under the guidance
of the Holy Spirit, the apostolical legates presiding.":  But as the various pontiffs had the council
completely under their control, no latitude of discussion was permitted, no breath of liberality stirred the murky air. Instead of deliberating upon
the spiritual interests of Christendom, for effecting
* Browning, p. 82.
t Ibid. Hist. du Concile de Trente, passim.  Ibid.




306           THE HUGUENOTS.
an abolition of the superstitions and corruptions
which were the grounds of Luther's terrible attacks,
it was only proposed that one or two of the more
glaring abuses should be slightly modified, while
additional authority was conferred in every point
i;n which the councils and traditions of the church
were at variance with the Scriptures. Thus what
was professedlly intended to reform  the Roman
communion, served only to confirm its errors.
How could this be otherwise, when the council
was packed with the creatures of the pontiff, whose
number he could increase at his pleasure, while the
nmost learned and evangelical divines of Europe at
large were never invited to shed over the discussions the light of their luminous counsel, when even
those papists who ventured to differ with the legates upon trivialities were speedily gagged?*
The last act of the council was to establish the
absurd dogma of the pope's infallibility;t and it
#was observed at the time that the "Holy Spirit," of
which the decrees spoke, "was sent from Rome in
a portmlanteau."$
So greatly did the ultramontane interest predonmilate in the decrees of the Council of Trent, that
even the papists of France would not submit inconsiderately to their reception.~  A celebrated law* Hist. du Concile de Trente, passim. Browling, p. 82. Turretin, Hist. Eccles.
t Fra Paolo, Hist. du Concile de Trente. Maimbourg, Hist.
du Lutheranisme.
I Turretin, Hist. Eccles. Browning, p. 82.
~ Ranke, p. 225,




THE HOLLOW TRUCE                  307
yer, Charles du Moulin, published a memoir, showing that the council was null and vicious, contrary
to former decrees, and prejudicial alike to the prerogatives of the crown and to the liberties of the
Gallican church.*  He was arrested for this while
upon the steps of the Palace of Justice, and that
circumstance nearly caused a tumult, for the whole
legal profession felt indignant that an advocate who
honored the law so highly should be treated like a
malefactor for a legal writing. The clerks were incited to attempt a rescue. The conciergerie, however, being close at hand, the guard hustled their
victim within its walls and shut the gate, thus by a
prompt flight escaping the vengeance of their pursuers.t
No sooner did this affair reach Coligny than he
made the case his own, for he had encouraged De
Moulin to publish the memoir; he went to the
queen mother, and by a full representation of the
facts and the probable result of the incarceration,
soon obtained an order for the advocate's release.$
As the king's minority had afforded the pretext
for many of the attempts against the government,
Catharine was desirous that he should be declared
of age; that measure could not affect her influence
over the boy, while it would protect her fiom the
intrusion of meddlers. In 1563, Charles entered
* Meln. de Condcl, vol. 5, p. 81, et seq. Rankle, p. 225.
t Meim. de Conde, vol. 5, pp. 86, 87. Vie de Coligny, p. 304.: Matthieu, Histoire de France, vol. 1.




308           THiE   UGUE;NOTS.
his fourteenth year, the age fixed by a law of
Charles the Wise as marking the majority of the
king.*
After some manoeuvring this point was gained,
and the royal party then set out upon a tour of observation through France.t As the brilliant retinue
of the young monarch passed. through the country,
the populace crowdel to salute the king with their
acclamations.  The court first tarried at Lorraine,
where a number of f6tes were given in honor of the
visit.  But though  Catharine's policy made her
countenance these lavish revels, since "thereby she
caught nmany gudgeons," the wily queen was very
far from permitting herself to be engrossed by the
follies she set afoot. Availing herself of this opportunity, she negotiated with the neighboring German
princes, for the purpose of -persuading them to restrain their subjects from arming to aid the Huguenots in case of another civil convulsion in France;:her efforts, however, were not crowned with full
success.
From Lorraine, Charles journeyed into the south
of France. At Avignon the queen met a special
legate from the pope, a Florentine, and Pius' confidant. While the besotted court was amused with
pageants, this precious pair had an interview of
long duration. Catharine is supposed upon this
occasion to have opened her full budget of perfi] Matthieu, Histoire de France, vol. 1.
t Browning, p. 83.
t Pasquier, vol. 2, p. 309. Davila, liv 3, p. 329.




THE HOLLOW  TRtUCE.                309
dies, for the nuncio was reported to have been
" merveilleusement sati.s/ait.'"*
On the 10th of J-une, 1565, the court arrived at
Bayonne.  Here the king met his sister the queen
of Spain, who had been dispatched by her husband'Philip II. as an unconscious instrument in a hideous plot.t- She was accompanied by a splendid
suite led by Alvarez de Toledo, duke of Alva, celebrated for his atrocities in the Low Countries,: an
envoy quite equal, by his talents and his sanguinary,
bigoted temper, to the infamous commission confided to him.
Here, at Bayonne, it was that while the French
and Spanish courts endeavored to outvie each other's pageantry —for it was a peculiarity of Catharine de' Miedici, that when she plottedcl most infamously she hid her intrigues behind a pageantthat Alva and the queen mother hatched the nmassacre of St. Bartholomew.~
By a gallery which she had ordered to be constructedcl to connect her apartments with those of
her daughlter, she conversed every night with the
duke of Alva.ll   Here the monster duke and the
serpent-like queen discussed the best means of
extirpating French heresy;T sitting there in the
M iaimbourg, Hist. dn Calvinisme, liv. 5. Daavila, liv. 3.
t Browning, p. 84.
1: Motley, Riise of the Dutch Republic, vol. 1.
~ Browning, p. 84. Duncan, p. 66. Ranke, p. 227.
11 De Thou, liv. 37.
~T "Les Reynes de France et d'Espagne'a Bayonne, assisti6
du Duc d'Albe, resolvent la iuine des Heretiques en France et




310          THE HUGUENOTS.
gloom, like two conspirators, they agreed upon the
adoption of one of two plans: to expel the whole
body of Huguenot preachers from the country, or
else to assassinate at one stroke the four or six
unhappy men who stood at the head of the party,
and whose loss was supposed to be irreparable.*
"Ten thousand frogs are not worth the head of
one salmon," cried Alva when speaking of the contemplated massacre. The young prince of Bearn,
afterwards Henry IV., who was with the royal party
on this tour, and whose penetration was far beyond
his years-he was then but twelve —treasured up
this expression, which he accidentally overheard,
and considered applicable to Cond6 and Coligny.
He repeated the words to his mother, Jane d'Albret, who warned the prince and the admiral that
sly mischief was afoot.tV
Revolving in her mind these "mortal accidents
for the ruin of the state," Catharine concluded the
royal progress, and in 1566 convened an assembly
of the Notables at M3[oulins. Her chief object now
was to lull all suspicion to sleep; and then, whenl
the Huguenots were entrapped, to give themn the
coup de gcrace. If the Sanmson of reform could be
won to recline in the lap of this Delilah, she felt
competent to insure that when she pronounced the
words, "Samson, the Philistines be upon tlhee," the
Flandres." Mem. de Tavannes, p. 282. Strada's history also len.
tions it. Browning, p. 84, note.
* Ranke, p. 227.
t M atthieu, Hist. de France, tom. 1, p. 283. Duncan, pp. 67,
68, etc.




THE HOLLOW  TI{UCE.              311
undone Hercules should not have the strength to
rise and avert his fate.
We shall see how well Catharine succeeded.
The result of the conference at Moulins was the
promulgation of an edict which settled many controverted points of jurisprudence, and which, in
reference to religion, ordered that the former decrees should be solemnly confirmed.*
Had there been any sincerity in the professions
of Charles, or had hones-ty swayed the counsels of
his authoritative advisers, the privileges and disabilities of the Huguenots would have been clearly
and fundamentally fixed by this edict. But though
there was a general ratification of prior decrees, all
of which had been distorted by unfair constructions
put upon essential clauses, yet it was so loosely
worded as to leave all the main principles in confusion and incertitude. Indeed the court had no wish
to establish any definitive settlement of the quest,ions at issue; on the contrary, it was their intention to leave all the mooted points in such a fluctuating and doubtful state, as to render the constant
interference of the royal council necessary; by these
means it was hoped gradually to fritter away all the
protective securities of religious liberty.t'
Through these perfidious negotiations the queen
mother had great difficulty in restraining the belligerent bigotry of the young king, whose hatred of
the Huguenots was only equalled by his dissimula~ Vie de Coligny, p. 314. Davila, liv. 3. De Thou, liv. 37.
~ Dulncan, p. 69.




312          THE HUGUENOTS.
tion; for though yet a mere boy, he masked his reai
opinions with a wiliness and duplicity which deceived the oldest and craftiest courtiers.@  Every
fresh demand of the Huguenots for the extension
of their privileges, or for the protection of those
already conceded, roused his choler.
One clay he broke out in great anger against the
admiral: "It is not long since," said he, " that you
were satisfied with being merely tolerated by the orthodox; now you claim to be their equals; presently
you will wish to be supreme." The habitual caution
of Coligny kept him silent. Charles left him abruptly, rushed into the apartment of the chancellor,
and exclaimed, "The duke of Alva was right; heads
held so high are dangerous to a state; tact and skill
are useless, for they may be parried by the same
weapons. We can only keep our ascendency by
force."t
Catharine also was heard to mutter darkly that
" ere long the ancient faith would have few enemies
in France."$
Below the deceitful calm which smiled above,
these ominous words presaged St. Bartholomew.
* Duncan, p. 71. M~iem. de Conde. B]rantorne, etc.
t Ibid.
t Browning, Vie de Coligny, Mem de Condo, etc.




THE WARt RECOMMENCED.             313
CHAPTER XXIII.
RECOMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR.
THE treaty of pacification gave no satisfaction
to either party. As in all compromises upon vital
questions, one side esteemed that too much had
been conceded; the other thought that assured
triumph had been bartered to obtain a hollow
and treacherous edict. Gloomy and suspicious,
all France rested upon arms; while the Huguenot
chiefs, fearful of Catharine's poisoner or of the steel
of her bravos, quitted the dangerous vicinage of
Paris for a safer residence.*
No sooner had the champions of the Reformation left the court, than the cardinal of Lorraine,
plotting busy mischief, arrived at St. Germaine, and
resumed hirs seat at the council board.t Notwitlstanding his apparent moderation and the vacillation of his ordinary conduct, this consummate intriguer was ever the same-unchangeable in his
views, and, despite of all reconciliation, implacable.
The effects of his presence were soon visible.
The king of Spain, determinedl to exterminate
the Protestants of the lNetherlands, designed, at the
commencement of 1567, to march an army, under
Alva, by the route of Savoy and the mountain chain
* ttlnke, p. 229.                  f Ibid.
Yaaueaotu.        I 4




314          THE HUGUENOTS.
of Lorraine skirting the French frontier, into the
Low Countries.*
The plotters at Paris eagerly seized this pretext
to augment the army. Catharine expressed great
alarm lest France should be invaded by the Spaniards. Avowedly to avert the menaced danger, six
thousand Swiss were taken into the pay of the government, new captains were appointed to the civic
militia of Paris, and the companies of the hommes
d'armes were raised to their full complement.t
At first the Huguenots took the bait. Cond6,
with HIotspur impetuosity, even tendered his services to guard the frontier.t But ere long their suspicions were aroused. It was perceived that all
stations of trust were bestowed exclusively upon
Romanist officers, and that Alva, so far from meeting with any opposition, received the warmest of
welcomes and the heartiest, was supplied with abundant provisions, and trod through France amid an
ovation.
The keen eye of the sleepless admiral instantly
pierced into the depths of Catharine's perfidious
policy. A secret council of the Huguenot chiefs
was speedily convened at his residence, Chatillonsur-Loing. It was determined to foil stratagem by
stratagem. French history teaches that that party
which is master of the court can alone accomplish
Duncan, p. 72. Davila, liv. 3. Motley, Rise of the Dnutch
Rep., vol. 1.
t Ranke, p. 230. Davila, liv. 3. De Thou, liv. 37.
t Mem. de Conde, vol. 2.




THtE WAR RECOMMENCED.   315
its designs;* therefore, since it had been ascertained that Catharine had resolved to imprison
Cond6 for life, put Coligny to death, distribute the
Swiss to garrison Paris, Orleans, and Poitiers, and
to revoke all edicts of tolerance and pacification,
that the extermination of the reformers might proceed unfettered by statutes, the wary Huguenots
determined to take the initiative —by a grand cop'
d'etat, to elope with the court.t
In the secrecy with which this plan was formed,
and in the rapidity and precision of its execution,
the learned men of the age could find nothing in
history to be compared with it, without going back
to the times of Mithridates king of Pontus.t.
The court was sojourning at AMonceaux, near
Meaux, in an open residence, quite unsuspicious of
danger.~  Catharine, steeped to the lips in treachery, was now caught napping; the biter was nearly
bitten. At the critical moment however, the king
was warned, and he returned to Paris under the
escort of his Swiss, whose steady, disciplined valor
beat back the headlong charges of Conde's cavaliers.ll
But though foiled, the Huguenots were not disheartened. Cond6 pressed forward, and encamped
before the capital. His head-quarters were at St.
Dennis, fromn whence his troops blockaded the city,
* La Noue, Memoires, chap. 47, p. 169.
t Vie de Coligny, p. 325. La Noue, p. 609. Davila, liv. 3.
$ Davila, liv. 3. De Thou, liv. 37. Ranke, p. 231.
~ Ibid. Duncan, p. 73.
lI Vie de Coligny, p. 328. Browning, p. 91.




316          THEE HUGUENOTS.
destroyed the mills, mastered the river, and fortified
all the surrounding castles which commanded the
main roads.*
Tedious and subtle negotiations ensued.  The
HIuguenots demanded the general, distinct, and
irrevocable guarantee of religious toleration, complete and public, as the essential basis of pacification. The court not only refused this concession,
but speaking through the octogenarian lips of Montmorenci, declared that those indulgences which had
been granted to the heretics were always intended
to be temporary; that the king had now determined
upon their revocation, since henceforth he would
permit no lisp of any religion in France save that
of lRome.t
The decision was then left to the arbitrament of
battle. The royal army, much the more numerous
and the best equipped, sallied out, and led on by
the old constable in person, charged Cond6 upon
the plain of St. Dennis. A sanguinary battle ensued; Montmorenci himself, the scarred veteran of
a hundred fights, fell mortally wounded; and the
Huguenots, borne back by stress of numbers, rested
at a little distance from St. Dennis, with unbroken
ranks and undiminished ardor. The field and the
spoil remained to the royalists, but the honor of the
day belonged to the vastly outnumbered Huguenots.4  The admiral commanded; and Marshal Ta* Yie de Coliguy, p. 328. Browning, p. 91. La Noun, p. 614
t Davila, liv. 4. De Thou, liv. 42.
1 Browning, p. 92. Brantome, vol. 6, p. 420.




THE WAtR RECOMMENCED.              317
vannes, himself an accomplished soldier, said admiringly, " Faut cornfesser que l'A4miral de Coligny estoit
Cca2ittane."*
Montmorenci was taken to Paris, where he
shortly died. " Those who speak without passion
of the constable," says Davila, who knew the, old
soldier well and personally, "give him three principal attributes: that he was a good captain, a loving servant, but a bad friend; for in all his actions
he was ever swayed by the single consideration of
himself."t
Brantome bears this quaint testimony to his
piety: " He never failed in his devotions; for every
morning he would repeat his paternosters, whether
he was in the house or on horseback among his
troops; which caused the saying,'EBeware-of the
constable's paternosters;' for while he was repeating
them and muttering the creed, as occasion presented he would cry,'Go hang up such a one;
tie this man to a tree; run that fellow through with
your pikes this instant; shoot all those fellows before me; cut in pieces those vagabonds who wish
to hold yon church against the king; burn me
this village:' and. such sentences of justice or war
he would utter without leaving off his paternosters
until he had quite finished them, thinking that to
defer them to another time would be to commit a
great error, so conscientious was he."$
At the solicitation of Cond6, John Casimir of
* Tavannes, Memoirs, p. 88.
t Davila, liv. 4, p. 117.  f Brantome, vol. 7, p. 76.




318          THE HUGUENOTS.
the palatinate, who was zealous for his creed, and
always ready to battle for it, entered France at the
head of seven thousand five hundred cavalry and
some thousands of infantry, to assist the Huguenots; not, as he said, to resist the French king, but
to protect his coreligionists against the enemies of
their persons and their faith.*
Cond6 and Casimir formed a junction shortly
after the stricken field of St. Dennis, and directed
their united march towards Paris, pausing on the
way to capture Chartres.t
The Huguenots had agreed to pay their German
auxiliaries one hundred thousand crowns; the military chest contained but two thousand. What was
to be done?  Cond6's army served without pay;
they hiad suffered severely in the retreat from St.
Dennis in the most rigorous season of the year;
their provisions were scanty, and regiment after
regiment walked barefooted. To all these privations they cheerfully submitted for conscience' sake.
It was doubtful whether this impoverished and frozen host would exert themselves to discharge the
claims of the Germans. The experiment was tried;
it was successful: thirty thousand crowns were
raised at once by voluntary contribution, and Casimir's followers were satisfied.T History records no
circumstance more extraordinary, or which more
finely illustrates the influence of religious principle.
While the Huguenot army lay before Chartres,
* Ranke, p. 233.  t Davila. liv. 4. De Thou, liv. 42. etc.
t Duncan, p. 79.




THE WAR RECOMMIENCED.             319
Catharine, alarmed by the formidable danger which
menaced her government, had recourse once more
to vicious diplomacy: she granted the reformers
what they had demanded from the beginning, the
complete restoration of the original edict of pacification.*
Both Cond6 and Coligny were dissatisfied. They
wanted guarantees.t But the gentry, fatigued by
an arduous campaign, longed for their homes; they
imagined that their object was accomplished; they
hoped to " honor God and serve the king in peace."
Very reluctantly the Huguenot chiefs disarmed.
Trusting God, they yet " kept their powder dry."
After the ratification of peace, the German troopers left France. The Huguenots insisted that the
Spanish and Swi-ss auxiliaries of the court should
also depart. Spite of this protest, they were retained. This distinction between the foreign levies
sufficiently announced the hollowness and insincerity of the recent negotiations. Presently events
proved that the reenacted edict was only a concession wrung from the reluctant fear of the perfidious court —a concession made only to be broken.
Distrust and suspicion everywhere arose.t:  Every
possible discourtesy was shown to the admiral, to
DI'Andelot, and even to Cond6,~ while the Huguenot
masses were exposed to an infinite variety of petty
vexations. The papist pulpits resounded with invec* Davila, liv. 4. De Thou, liv. 42. Ranke, p. 234.
t Ibid. Vie de Colign-y, p. 333.:Duncan, p. 81. Yie de Coligny, p. 352.  ~ Ibid.




320          THE HUGUENOTS.
tives against the heretics, with seditious reflections
on the recent peace, and with clamorous exhortations to break it. The clergy had become inoculated with the virus of Jesuitism; and digging up
from its grave of three hundred years the infamous
maxim  of Innocent III., they openly proclaimed
that "no faith should be kept with heretics," and
that their massacre was just, pious, and conducive
to salvation.*
These inflammatory ravings provoked constant
tumults, and occasioned frequent assassination. The
ignorant and superstitious canaille ran frenzied and
foaming through the streets, panting for murder.
HIuguenot writers affirm that under this "pacification," in the space of three months ten thousand
of their persuasion perished by poison, by the dagger, and by the slow torture of iinprisonnent.t
The astute policy of Catharine aided the frantic
zeal of the priests and the Jesuits. Fearing lest
any of her diabolical plans might reach the ears of
Coligny or Condd, she new-modelled the cabinet.
De l'llcpital, whose virtue and equity had frequently thwarted the exterminating plans of the
princes of Lorraine, was ordered to deliver up the
seals, and he was banished to his estate. The effective powers of government were confided to a faithful
few, and shrouded in mystery. Every possible preo
caution was taken to render the next blow struck at
the iHuguenots decisively fatal.:1
* Duncan, p. 81.         t Ibid. La Noue, p. 625.
t Ibid. Vieillemain, Vie de l'I-Ipital.




THE VWAR REECOMMENCED.            321
In pursuance of her scheme, the queen mother
determined to seize Cond6 and the admiral. The
prince was at his castle of Noyers, in Burgundy;
Coligny at Chatillon-sur-Loing.*  "Their retreat,"
ncaively writes one of the admiral's biographers,
"would have been extremely satisfactory to Catharine, if she had not seen that one half of the kingdom paid court to them. And indeed so great was
the confluence at Chatillon and Noyers, that the
Louvre was a desert in comparison. All the noblesse of the Huguenot party went in crowds to see
them; and when ten gentlemen went out by one
door,- twenty passed in at another. This obliged
the admiral especially to incur great expense; and
if he had not been a careful man in every thing elsse,
it would have ruined him. However, he was slo
much beloved that a thousand presents were collstantly brought to him; and although he forbade
his attendants accepting them, this did not prevent
the same thing from occurring every day. The different reformed churches collected and sent a hundred thousand crowns to prevent the prince and
himself firom entirely bearing such a charge."t
The queen mother sent an engineer to reconnoitre Noyers, to familiarize himself with Cond6's
habits, to learn the weak points of the castle, and
to see whether it would be possible to get possession of it by a cozjp de maitn. The spy entered
Noyers without difficulty under the guise of a poulterer. He was well received; but when he began
* Browning, p. 98.      t Vie de Coligny, p. 346.
I4




322          THE HUGUENOTS.
to talk, it was suspected that he was not what he
pretended to be. The prince ordered him to be
watched; when lo, one night he was detected
sounding the moat.  Cond6 dissembled, and dismissed him pleasantly; but when he was gone, he
wrote Coligny, acquainted him with the circumstance, and advised him to be upon his guard.*
The two chiefs then dispatched couriers to arouse
their friends, and to request them to stand ready
to grasp the sword at any moment.t
In the mean time Coligny also had a visitor.
Catharine sent Castelnau, an able diplonmatist, to
Chatillon-sur-Loing, to penetrate the admiral's designs; but the wary Huguenot was on his guard,
and the hoodwinked politician reported that he
found him busily engaged in his vineyards.:1
When Castelnau left him, Coligny posted off to
Noyers to confer with the prince.~  Upon being
apprized of this, Catharine ordered MIarshal Tavannes, who comnmanded  in Burgundy for the king, to
seize them at all hazards.l1 But though Tavannes
was a bitter foe of the Reformation, he had a keen
sense of military honor; and he knew besides, that
if the scheme miscarried he would be sacrificed by
the queen mother without a scruple, to allay the
ensuing storm. IIe was too wary a courtier, however, to disobey openly so authoritative a mandate;
* Vie de Coligny, p. 346. Browning, p. 99. t Ibid.
D Duncan, p. 74.
~ Men:. de Tavannes, p. 314. Brantome, vol. 9, p. 109.
11 Ibid.




THE WAR RECOlMMENCED.   323
so he set himself dexterously to save Cond6 and the
admiral while yet appearing to perform his mission.
Approaching Noyers, he wrote Catharine, " The
stag is at bay; the chase is prepared." After dispatchinlg this laconic epistle, he sent two scouts to
sound the depth of the water in front of the prince's
strong-hold. They were captured, as Tavannes intended they should be, and upon being interrogated,
confessed the plot."
Cond6 and Coligny prepared for instant-flight.
They quitted Noyers with their families in August,
1568, and after enduring the severest hardships,
traversing mountain paths hitherto untrodden, and
crossing the Loire at a ford never before passed,
reached, in September, the protecting walls of the
friendly city of Rochelle.t
Nor were these the only victims of intended
perfidy who baffled the subtle arts of the outwitted
petticoated Machiavelli.  Odet, cardinal of Chatillon, in the disguise of a common sailor, reached
England from a port in Normandy, where his negotiations with queen Elizabeth subsequently proved
of eminent service to his party.J:
The qtueen of Navarre, whose arrest had been
entrusted to Montluc, retired from  Beam  at the
critical moment, and accompanied by her son andt
daughter, sought safety at Rochelle.~
* Mem. de Tavannes, p. 314. Brantome, vol. 9, p. 109. Dun.l
can, p. 83.
t Vie de Coligny, 346. Pasquier, vol. 2, p. 127. Davila, liv.
1, p. 443.            j Duncan, p. 83. Ranke, p. 238.
~ Ibid.




324          THE HUGUENOTS.
Thus St. Bartholomew was again postponed.
Hostilities instantly recomumenced.
The feeling at the court was very bitter. The
edict of January, 1562, confirmed by the last peace,
was again revoked; the exercise of any other form
of - orship than the Roman was prohibited, under
penalty of death;*' and the nominal command of
the royal army was given to the duke of Anjou, the
second brother of the king, a youth of sixteen, with
the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom.tV But
Marshal Tavannes commanded in reality.
A feeling of the utmost jealousy and hatred
existed between Anjou and the young king; and
Charles let no opportunity slip of mortifying his
brother. When Anjou was nominated to the chief
command of the army, Charles protested vehe-.
mently, and on one occasion an angry altercation
took place at the supper-table. "Cousin," said the
duke, "if you strive to obtain what belongs to me,
I will make you little in the same degree as yo"
imagine to become great."$
In this convulsion Rtochelle became the Huguenot rendezvous, as Orleans had been in the preceding war. The extreme measures of the court rallied
the whole Huguenot party to fight for their common safety; nor did they on this occasion require
any stimulus from the exhortations of their preachers. Their chiefs levied troops in all the provinces
in which they had personal interest. So great was
$ Davila, liv. 4. - Castelnau, liv. 7, ch. 2.  t Ibid.
t Ranke, p. 229.




THE WAR RECOiMMENCED.             325
the influence of these leaders, that James Crussal,
lord of Acier, alone raised and equipped twentyfive thousand men in Languedoc and Dauphiny;*
a striking proof of the comparative weakness of
the royal prerogative, and of the vast power still
retained by the descendants of the ancient baronial aristocracy.
Miarches and counter-mariches, skirmishes and
maneeuvres innumerable succeeded.
At length the two main armies fronted each
other on the banks of the Charente, near Jarnac, a
small frontier town which divided Limousin from
Angoumois. The river separated the combatants,
and had the Huguenots exercised common prudence, they might have avoided the calamities
which soon befell them; but they neglected to keep
a diligent watch through the night, and -Tavannes
passed the Charente unchallengedl.
Cond6's army was spread over a wide tract of
country, while that of the marshal advanced in a
compact phalanx. The prince, surprised and beaten
before the battle commenced, attempted to retreat
upon his main body commanded by the admiral.
In vain; Tavannes held him in a vice. Cond6 then
wheeled and charged the royal cavalry led by the
duke of Anjou. At this critical moment his leg
was broken by a kick from the horse of De la
Rochefoucault, who was riding by his side. Undaunted by this accident, the gallant prince held his
o Duncan, p. 84.
4 Davila, liv. 4. Mem. de Tavannes. De Thou, ete.




326             THE HUGUENOTS.
saddle, and encouraging his feeble escort, plunged
like a hero  into  the thickest of the fight.  Sur
rounded on all sides, he was soon dismounted;  with
one knee upon the earth, he still shook his sword
in  fierce defiance of his enemies.  He was conmmanded to surrender by the royalist officers who
recognized him; but ere he could do so, Montesquieu, a captain of Anjou's guards, came behind
him  and shot him  through the head.*
Such was the end of Louis de Bourbon, prince
of Cond6, a man of many noble and some great
qualities, distinguished for his heroism, skill, and
wit in an age when such a reputation necessitated
corresponding ability.  His licentiousness was the
chief blemish upon his character. This exposed
him  to many snares, and impeded him  in the rigid
maintenance of his principles. Aside from this
grievous fault, his character was free from spot; a
sincere friend, an unwavering advocate for religious
toleration, an ardent, unbending Huguenot in his
*La Noue, p. 659. Davila, liv. 4, p. 470. Browning, p. 102.
"Oh plaines de Jarnac! O coup trop inhumaine I
Barblare Montesquieu! moins guerrier qu' assassin!
Cond6 dej& mourant tombi sous ta furie,
J'ai vu porter le coup, j'ai vu trancher sa vie.
Helas! trop jeune encore, mon bras, mon foible bras,
Ne peut ni prevenir, ni venger son tr6pas."
HENRIADE, chant 2.
The body of the prince was carried into Jarnac upon a pack.
horse, "All the army,'; says Davila, "making sport of the spectacle, though while he lived they were terrified even by his name.
The body was afterwards restored to his nephew, Henry prince
of Bearn, by whom it was buried at Ven t-ome, in the sepulchre of
his ancestors."  Davila, liv. 4, p. 484.




THE WAR RECOMMENCED,               327
intellectual convictions, if not always in his practical conduct, he was mourned by his friends with
poignant sorrow, while his memory was respected
even by his foes.
The defeat of the Huguenots was complete.
Many of their best officers were captured, among
the rest the brave and talented La Nou6, whose
graphic pen has left a stirring picture of his age.
Upon this gallant soldier the cruel and remorseless
duke of Montpensier pronounced summary sentence.  " IMy friend," said he sneeringly, "your
trial is finished; yours, and that of all your comrades: look to your conscience."  Martigues, a
captain in the royal army, who had been an old
brother in arms of La Noud, obtained his pardon,
and he was exchanged.*
The Huguenot army was only saved from utter
rout by the coolness and skill of Coligny.t Collecting the remnant of the dispersed and shattered
squadrons, the imperturbable admiral held them
firmly together, and retreated with slow and stubborn valor upon the neighboring village of Cognac.:.
Pausing here only long enough to fortify the town,
he left there a strong garrison, and then resumed
his retreat, resting at St. Jean d'Angely, from
whence he could advance to the assistance of
Cognac, should it be besieged, while he was enabled also to open a road for the duke of Deux* La Noue, p. 700. Davila, liv. 4. Duncan, p. 87.
t Vie de Coligny, p. 358. Mem. de Tavannes.
t$ bid.




328            THE HUGUENOTS.
Ponts, who was advancing to his assistance at the
head of some German auxiliaries.*
The conduct of the royalists after the battle of
Jarnac was weak, vacillating, and impolitic.  The
dukes ID'Aumale and Nenmours, relatives of the cardinal of Lorraine, commanded an army fully equal
in numbers to that of the duke of Deux-Ponts; still
the Bavarian general marched steadily through the
heart of France.  The duke of Anjou did not push
on to Cognac till Coligny had strongly fortified it;
and then he no sooner reached it than he hastily
retreated from  its walls.  The solution of these
mysterious tactics is to be found in the memoirs of
Tavannes, who attributed the whole of these faulty
operations to the jealousies and intrigues of the
court.t
Ileantime two inauspicious events occurred: the
duke of Deux-Ponts fell a victim to the fever which'then raged as a pestilence;:  but he did not die
before delegating his authority to his lieutenant,
Mansfeldt, to whom his troops swore allegiance.~
The loss of the Bavarian general was immediately succeeded by another of more importance to
thle  Huguenots.   Coligny's  brother, D'Andelot,
* Yie de Coligny, p. 358. "The army of the duke of Deux,
Ponts, who was also called Wolfgang of Bavaria, was composed
of fourteen thousand men, and among his officers were William
of Nassau prince of Orange and his two brothers Louis and
Henry, who quitted the Low Countries to avoid the merciless
persecutions of the duke of Alva." Davila, liv. 4.
t Mem. de Tavannes. Duncan, p. 89.
$ Davila, liv. 4. Esprit de la Ligue, vol. 1, p. 291.
~ Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, vol. 3, p. 281.




THE' WAR RECOMMENCED.                329
whom the admiral termed his right hand, was also
stricken clown by the remorseless fever. His death
soon followed, and the first patrician apostle of
religious liberty was lost to France.  D'Andelot
was a man of spotless integrity and singular hardihood of character; frank, open, generous, he was a
universal favorite, while he lived his religion as well
as thouyght it.  "He was true and sincere," says the
Itomanist abb6 Anqu6til, " and of all the Calvinist
chiefs, one of the most honestly persuaded of the
truth of his faith.  Naturally frank, candid, and
generous, he attracted friendship, as his brother,
more severe and reserved, conciliated esteem."*
Coligny deeply felt this bereavement; but carrying it to God, he subordinated private sorrow to
his stern sense of public duty, and remained at his
post.
Upon the death of Conde the leadership of the
Huguenot army had devolved upon Coligny. B3ut
ere long dissatisfaction arose. There were many
nobles iv the ranks who were his equals in wealth
and birth; these, while they readily conceded the
admiral's military superiority, considered themselves degraded by accepting him as their chief.+
The wise admiral accordingly wrote the queen of
Navarre, who still tarried in Itochelle with her
children, that the time had come when she should
raise her son to the dignity which was his due.4
I Anqudtil, Esprit cle la Ligue, vol. 1, p. 298.
t Browning, p. 105. Duncan, p. 88.
t Davila, liv. 4, p. 488.




330         THE HUGUENOTS.
This politic move exhibits at once Coligny's
wisdom and his self-abnegation. IH-e served God,
not his own interests; he was anxious for union,
not greedy for power. Nothing could more finely
prove this than his appeal to Jane d'Albr6t.
That illustrious woman, who inherited all her
mother's fervid piety and brilliant genius, responded to the call in the same spirit. Hastening to
Coligny's camp, her presence at once rallied the
desponding spirits of the mutinous army, and animated them to fresh exertions. HIer son Henry,
prince of Bearn, and the eldest son of Louis of
Bourbon, prince of Cond6, who was a few years
younger than her own boy, and destined also to
achieve wide fame, accompanied her. Holding the
two princes by the hand, she presented them to the
Huguenots in these stirring words:
"My friends, we mourn the loss of a prince who,
to his dying hour, sustained with equal fidelity and
courage the faith which he had undertaken to defend; but our tears would be unworthy of him,
unless, imitating his bright example, we too firmly
resolved to sacrifice our lives rather than abandon
God. The good cause has not perished with Cond6;
his unhappy fate ought not to fill with despair men
who are devotedly attached to their religion. God
watches over his own. He gave that prince companions well fitted to serve him while he lived; he
leaves among us brave and experienced captains,
able to repair the loss we have sustained in his
death. Here I offer you my son the young prince




THE WAR RECOMMENCED.               331
of Bearn; I also confide to you Henry CondS, son
of the captain whom we bewail.  May it please
heaven that they both show themselves worthy
heirs of the valor of their ancestors, and may these
tender pledges, committed to your guardianship,
be the bond of your union, and the assurance of
your future triumph."*
As the beautiful queen, blooming with excitement, concluded, shouts of acclamation made the
welkin ring; the timid were reanimated, the dissatisfied were reassured, and the boldest panted for
action. The enthusiasm of the army was kindled
to a still higher pitch when the prince of Bearn
and young Cond6, with warlike vehemence of gesture, swore to defend the reformed religion, and to
persevere in the "good fight" until death or victory.t
Henry of Navarre was immediately proclaimed
generalissimo of the Huguenots: all dissatisfaction
ceased; the scrupulous point of honor was satisfied, and Coligny became in fact what Henry was
in name.T
In the summer of 1569, active operations were
resumed. The Huguenot army, forming a junction
with the German auxiliaries, numbered twenty-five
thousand; the royalists under Anjou were still
stronger.~  Coligny met the young duke at La
Roche l'Abeille, and worsted him in a severe en": Esprit de la Ligue, vol. 1, p. 292. Browning, p. 106.
t Davila, liv. 4, p. 490. Duncan, p. 88.
4 Browning, p. 106,           ~ Duncan, p. 92.




332           THE HUGUENOTS.
gagement;* he then pressed on to besiege Poitiers.
Here an epidemic broke out among the G(ermans,
who had eaten immoderately of the autumnal fruits;
wvlhole regiments were incapacitated for service; tl.e
camp became a hospital, and the admiral himself
was prostrated. While the army thus lay hors dua
combat, Anjou, who had marched to the relief of
Poitiers, suddenly retreated; and this afforded Coligny also a pretext to retire without compromising
his honor.t
If Coligny was adored by his own party, he was
admired and esteemed by all the high-minded and
generous cavaliers among the royalists. No one
questioned the sincerity of his faith; all praised
his invincible fortitude. Some of the royalist officers sent him word from Anjou's camp of their vast'numerical superiority, and urged him to avoid an
engagement. To these admonitions the admiral,
whose military genius was of the Fabian order, lent
a willing ear. But this skilful policy was rendered
impossible by the rashness of the Hotspur spirits
in his ranks, and by the open mutiny of the Germans.t
On the 3d of October, 1569, the two armies
joined battle at Moncontour. The hospital army
of the admiral, enfeebled and demoralized, was
quickly routed. A pistol-ball shattered the lower
jaw of Coligny, who still kept his saddle, and continued to display the courage of a soldier and the
Q Davila, liv. 4. D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ., vol. 1, p. 285.
t Ibid. Duncan, p. 92.          t Ibid., p. 93.




THE WAR  IECOtMMENCED.             333
talent of a captain. But the fortune of the field
could not be retrieved. Cannon, baggage, banners,
all fell into Anjou's hands; and of an army of
twenty-five thousand men, but six thousand reached
St. Jean d'Angely on the retreat.*
But the Huguenots were too numerous, too well
organized, and too enthusiastic to be subdued by
the'loss of a stricken field.
Upon this occasion they were especially assisted
to recover their feet by the bickerings and dissensions of the court. Tavannes, under whose skilful
guidance Anjou had achieved his victories, was
insulted out of the service by the cardinal of Lorraine.t "Sir cardinal," said the indignant marshal
when the inflated churchman ventured to dictate
military tactics to him, "each to his trade; no
man can be at once a good priest and a good solcliel." 
The victory of Moncontour obtained for Anjou
{he loudest praises of his party; but the glory he
had acquired rankled in the envious heart of Charles
IX. The king departed for the army, hoping that
his presence, even after the battle, would transfer to his own brow the laurels which his brother
had culled in the ghastly carnage of the battle's
front.~
The disunion in the royal camp enabled Coligny, indefatigable and ubiquitous, to recruit his
- Duncan, p. 93. Davila, liv. 4. Ranke, p. 241.
t MIem. de Tavannes.     t Ibic. Duncan, p. 94
~ Ibid.




334          THE HIUGUENOTS.
forces, in order to try the success of a new campaign. Early in the spring of 1570, he descended
from  the mountains of Upper Languedoc, and
marshalled his troops on the plains of Toulouse.
Thence he spread his two wings, and cairied pillage and desolation to the Loire. Arrived in Burgundy, he was opposed by Marshal Cassd Gouner,
at the head of thirteen thousand men. Though the
admiral's army numbered but six thousand men-atarms, he attacked boldly and with such skill that
he gained a complete victory at Arnay-le-Duc.*
This defeat alarmed the court, but nothing was
done. The vigor of the government was paralyzed
by the intrigues of rival cliques. Catharine once
more dissembled; the tragic-comedy of a reconciliation was sought to be once more enacted.
The overtures of the government were received
with joy by the Huguenots. Peace on the basis of
toleration was their dream. Saddened by reverses,
wearied by tedious campaigns, longing for their
homes, the cavaliers of the Reformation required
nothing but insured liberty of conscience to make
them doff their armor with enthusiasm.
This was Catharine's programme: All preceding
edicts ratified; a general amnesty; the free exercise
of the reformed religion; confiscated property restored; the Huguenots declared eligible to all offices
of the state; the complete possession of four important cities, Rochelle, Montauban, Cognac, and La
* Browning, p. 120. Vie de Coligny, p. 381. TMatthieu, aol.
1, p. 327.,




THIE WAR RECOMMENCED.   335
Charit", as guarantees: such were the terms demanded and conceded in order to renewed pacification.*:
France hailed the peace with acclamations; but
the curtain fell upon a dreary war, only to rise upon
an atrocious massacre.
o Vie de Coligny, p. 383. Browning, p. 120. Duncan, p. 95.
MI.m. de Tavannes, p. 98. Matthieu, vol. 1, p. 335.




,o36        THE IIUGUENOTS.
CH APTER XXIV.
HOODWINKED FRANCE.
WITrr the pacification of 1570 came a new regime.
The court changed front. Foiled in the field, Catharine changed weapons. The crafty Florentine determined henceforth to use those perfidious and
deadly arts which were so congenial, in which she
was strongest, and which were in such fatal vogue
in her native Italy. Every effort was made to lull
France into a feeling of profound security.
The Huguenots especially were treated with
profound and unprecedented respect. Did any one
demand additional privileges? the concession was
ready. Did a murmur of complaint wail through
the court? vengeance was swift. This very excess
of graciousness was enough to excite suspicion,
especially when it was well known that Catharine
and treachery were synonymous terms; that she
smiled, and, like Cassius, "murdered while she
smiled." Strangely enough, it did not. The party
seemed infatuated. Indeed all France, save the
conspirators who sat darkly hatching their hideous
plot, said, "Lo, the millennium is come," and fondly
believed-that the present tranquillity would be permanent.
At the outset the Huguenots were wary. Upon
the cessation of hostilities, the Bourbon princes,




HO ODWINKED  FRANCE.                337
Jane d'Albr6t, and the admiral fixed their residence
at Itochelle, where the queen of Navarre held her
court.*  It was the study of the government to allay
the suspicions which this policy proved to exist, and
to tempt the noblesse of the reformed party to
the metropolis. Every artifice known  to the queen
mother's extensive re23etoire was exercised.  "As
soon as the peace was signed," says Davila, " every
secret spring which the king and queen held ready
in their thoughts was put into action to draw into
their nets the principal Hluguenots, and to do by
artifice that which had been so often vainly attempted by means of war."t
Never bad Catharine acted her part with more
consummate skill. Not a wrinkle of vexation marred her placid features.  She even in appearance
surrendered that authority for whose acquisition
she had damned her soul; and perfectly aware that
the reformers observed her closely, she made her
son assume the direction of public affairs, convincing him that it was necessary to success that he
should gain the confidence of the heretics, and particularly of Coligny..t
On the 23d of October, 1570, the year of the
pacification, which Charles with paternal affectation styled "my peace,"~ the king was married to
Elizabeth of Austria, second daughter of the reign* De Thou, liv. 47. Davila, liv. 5. Vie de Coligny, p. 385.
t Davila, liv. 5, p. 578.: Ibid. Browning, p. 123. De Thou, liv. 47.
~ Ranke, ch. 15. Dincan, p. 103. Memoires de Sully, tom.
1, p. 18.
Hutu2aots.         I 5




338          THE HUGUENOTS.
ing house of Hapsburg. This princess possessed
the esteem and confidence of her hust and, but she
exercised no influence over him, for hex mild temper
quailed before the assumption of the imperious
Catharine.*
To commemorate the nuptials, a giddy round of
fetes was given, and the nobility of all parties were
invited, so that a superficial observer would have
imagined that the words " Huguenot " and "Romanist" had been swept from the language and
merged in that of Frenchmen.t
Yet still the admiral and his coterie absented
themselves; the queen of Navarre, with obstinate
suspicion, continued to hold her modest court within
the stout walls of devoted Rochelle.
A new scheme was hatched. With the ostensible view of conciliating conflicting interests, but
with the real design of masking his perfidious and
t3anguinary plot, and to insure the presence of the
T.hief victims, Charles endeavored to promote various alliances among the leading families of the
kingdom, and proposed his youngest sister, the
beautiful but frail Margaret of Valois, as the consort of young Henry prince of Bearn.:
Now for the first time this prince, who in after
years achieved an immortal fame, begins to make a
central figure in the checkered and tragic history
of his epoch. It is fitting therefore that the more
* D'Aubigne, IHiist. Univ., vol. 1. Duncan, p. 96.
t Ibid.: Davila, liv 5. D'Aubigne, De Thou, etc.




HOODWINKED FRANCE.                 33J
salient features of his early life should be briefly
recited.
Henry was born at Pau, in Bearn, on the 13th of
December, 1553.7  He was the grandson of Heniy
dI'Albret, the brother-in-arms of Francis I.; his
grandmother was the beautiful, accomplished, and
pious Miargaret de Yalois, the sister of the paladin
king.
The young prince was reared in the castle of
Courasse, in the mountains of Navarre. Here he
was exercised like a Spartan boy; nourished on the
coarsest diet, brown bread, beef, cheese; he was
also sent to play with the children of the peasants,
bareheaded and barefooted.t  Thus from his cradle
he was hardy, independent, and self-reliant. This
harsh apprenticeship, so unlike that of most princes,
prepared him for heroic destinies.
While Henry d'Albr6t lived, he personally superintended his grandson's education, a task for which
his fine scholarship well fitted him. Indeed Charles
V. considered him one of the most accomplished
men of his age.4: Upon his death, Jane d'AlbrA6
provided him with an excellent and learned tutor
named La Gaucherie, who cultivated his illustrious
pupil's mind chiefly by conversational instruction.~
He had the wisdom to abandon that trifling course
of study invented in an age comparatively barbaro0ul, which wvas calculated rather to disgust than to
* Matithieu, Hist. de France; Cayet, vol. 1; Mem. de Sully, etc,
t Ibid. Duncan, p. 99.   T Browning, p. 84, note.
~ Duncan, p. 101. James, Life of Henry IV., vol. 1.




340          THE HUGUENOTS.
enlighten. La Gaucherie, moreover, instilled into
young Henry's mind principles of honor and of
public virtue, which ever after, if we except his
many and sad errors of gallantry, and tlhese the
Christian and moralist must condemn, guided his
conduct.
When this able teacher died, Henry was confided to the tuition of Florent Chretien, a Huguenot
preacher of high merit.*  He readily entered into
the views of the queen of Navarre, and trained the
prince in the reformed faith with careful assiduity.
When the young mountaineer was first presented at the court of France, his blunt frankness
caused much amusement; but his biting wit, grace
of manner, and bonhomie speedily subdued all
hearts.t
"Will you be my son?" queried Henry II. on
one occasion as he stood chatting with the little
prince.  "No," was the frank reply, "hlie is my
father," pointing to the king of Navarre. "Well,"
retorted the king, " will you be my son-in-law then?"
"With all my heart," said Henry; and from this
early date his marriage with the princess Margaret
is said to have been decided upon.:
At Bayonne the duke of Medina, looking at him
earnestly, said, " This prince either will be or ought
to be an emperor."~
In the iem)oires de Nevers, some letters written
W Duncan, p. 101. James, Life of Henry IV., vol. 1.
t Cayet, tom. 1, p. 236. Browning, p. 84.
Cayet, tom. 1, p. 240.             ~ Ibid.




tHOODWINKED FRANCE.              341
in 1567, by the principal magistrates of Bordeaux,
are found, which contain interesting particulars of
young Henry's nmanners and person at that time.
"We have here with us," says one of them, " the
prince of Bearn. It must be confessed that he is a
charming youth. At thirteen he has all the riper
qualities of eighteen or nineteen. He is agreeable,
polite, obliging, and behaves to every one with an
air so easy and engaging that wherever he is there
is sure to be a crowd. HPe mixes in conversation
like a wise and prudent man, and speaks always to
the purpose. When the court is the subject discussed, it is easy to see that he is au fait, for he
never says more nor less than he ought. I shall all
my life hate the new religion for having robbed us
of so worthy a subject."*
Another describes Henry's personal appearance:
" His hair is inclined to a reddish tint, yet the ladies
think him none the less agreeable on that account.
His face is finely shaped, his nose neither too large
nor too small, his eyes full of sweetness, his skin
brown, but clear, and his whole countenance animated by a striking vivacity. With all these graces,
if he is not well with the ladies, it must be strange."t
Henry was early initiated into the science of
war, in which he was destined to achieve so wide a
celebrity. Even at the early age of fifteen, when
his mother conducted him to Rochelle and presented him to the army, he criticised the military
* M sm. de Nevers, tom. 2, p. 586, et seq.
t Ibid., tom. 2, p. 590, et seq.




342          THE HUGUENOTS.
faults of Cond6 and Coligny, two of the greatest
captains of the age.*
Such was the embryo king of Navarre —whose
white plume at a later day led the headlong charge
at Ivry-when, in his nineteenth year, he was invited
to wed M3argaret of Valois.
For many reasons, the proposal was extremely
distasteful to Jane d'Albret. She instinctively distrusted the tortuous politics of the court. Now,
without putting a decided negative upon the plan,
she yet withheld her positive sanction, for she had
a dark foreboding of Catharine's sinister designs.
This tacit opposition disconcerted the court. It
was feared that the slightest breath of suspicion
would detect the exterminating conspiracy ere it
was ripe. The precautions were redoubled. Every device was adopted with renewed zeal to lull
the Huguenots into false security. Any infringement of the recent treaty was severely punished.t
And Charles carried his duplicity to such a length,
that he insulted the Guises into apparent exile,
expressed a wish that young Conde should marry
Mary of Cleves, marchioness de l'Isle, who had
been reared in Jane d'Albr6t's court, and was an
advantageous match; and to crown all, he brought
about a marriage between Coligny, now a widower,
and Jacqueline of Savoy, countess d'Entremont, a
wealthy and noble Protestant lady who had become
deeply interested in the admiral,: giving them a
* Duncan, p. 101. j Ibid. Davila, liv. 5; De Thou, liv. 47, etc,
$ James, Life of Henry IV. Vie de Coligny.




HOODWINKED FRANCE.                 343
nuptial present of a hundred thousand crowns, together with all the benefices enjoyed by Ocld6t, cardinal of Chatillon, who had just died abroad.*
These generous and successive acts of kingly
comity produced the desired effect; only the most
cautious and penetrating of the Huguenots still
held out; but unfortunately among these were
Coligny and the queen of Navarre. Charles perceived this, and in the summer of 1571 he made a
tour into Touraine, hoping that Jane and her suite
would visit him on the route; nor was le disappointed; she came to his itinerant court, accompanied by the princes and escorted by the admiral.1When Coligny stood in the presence of his majesty, out of habitual respect the old soldier was
about to fall upon one knee. Charles saw his intention, seized him by the arm, and prevented the
intended obeisance, saying, " Nay, I hold you now,
admiral, nor shall you for the future quit me when
you please; I cannot spare so valuable a friend."$
Then, with great emphasis and much apparent genuineness of feeling, he added, " This is indeed the
happiest day of my life." The queen mother, the
duke of Anjou, and all the attendant nobles loaded
Coligny with compliments and caresses, and especially the young duke of Alen~on, youngest brother
of the king, who, giving full play to the vivacit y
* Duncan, p. 103. Vie de Coligny. De Thou, liv. 56. Odet
bf Chatillon died at Southampton, England, in 1571, just as he
was about to embark for France. He is said to have been poi.
soned by his valet. Duncan.
t Brantome, Duncan, Mem. de Sully.   $ Vie de Coliguy.




344          THE HUGUENOTS.
and frankness of boyhood, expressed his esteem for
the admiral in extravagant terms.* But he alone
was sincere; he was not yet old enough to be steeped
in dissimulation.
On this ill-fated visit it was definitely settled that
Henry of Navarre should wed fMlargaret de Yalois,
and Jane d'Albr6t and her suite consented to celebrate the nuptials in the spring of 1572 at Paris.t
The two courts then parted, with mutual professions of eternal amity.
Catharine returned to the metropolis with sardonic satisfaction. " The cautious fish have taken
the bait," said she with a leer of triumphant malice.
On her part, the queen of Navarre reentered
Rochelle sadly and thoughtfully. [Reasons of state,
anxiety to cement a lasting and righteous peace, had
wrung from her a reluctant assent to the ill-omened
rnarriage of her beloved boy; but not all the persuasions of apparent gain could satisfy her maternal instinct, nor quiet her apprehensions. She repeated incessantly, " This union is not, nor can it
come to, good."$
The political heavens now seemed serene; not
a cloud specked the horizon. The awful lightnings
which lurked behind this smiling sky yet lid their
thlunderbolts.
Completely cozened, the leaders of the Iuguenots crowded to Paris, from which they had been
* Vie de Coligny, La Noue, Brantome, 1Mem. de Sully.
t Mem. de Sully, Vie de Coligny, Duncan, La Nou6.
t Ibid.




HOODWINKlED FRANCE.                 345
so long debarred, anxious to share once more in
the pleasures of the capital.*
In the middle of ~iMay, 1572, the queen of Navarre, accompanied by a brilliant retinue, arrived at
the Louvre.  On the 9th of June she was a corpse.
Suspicions of foul play were at once bruited through
the streets.  Her death was attributed to poison,
which they say was given to her in a pair of gloves
by a Florentine named Ren6, the queen mother's
perfumer.f
This melancholy event of course postponed the
marriage of Henry, who now assumed the title of
king of Navarre.:t
Singularly enough, the fate of their great queen
did not persuade the Huguenots of the doom which
awaited them.  Dazzled blind by Catharine's wiles,
they lingered on at the court, nor ma;de an effort to
escape the impending horrors.
Coligny indeed, profoundly grieved by the death
of Jane d'Albret, which however he considered natural,~ retired to his estate of Chatillon-sur-Loing
for a few weeks; but it was not long ere he was
once more an habitual visitor at the Louvre.ll
The admiral's conduct at this time bordered
upon infatuation, and is all the more remarkable
on account of his natural caution and penetration.
* Davila, liv. 5. De Thou, liv. 50. Esprit de la Ligue.
t See the Memoires of L'Etoile, D'Aubignd, and others. Da.
vila, liv. 5, also corroborates this account. Jane d'Albret was
forty-two years of age when she died.
Meiem. de Sully; De Thou; Browning, p. 129; Duncan, p
117.     ~ Vie de Coligny.    iI Davila, liv. 5, p. 179.
I 5 \




346          THE HUGGUENOTS.
While at his country residence, he was flooded with
letters from his friends urging him not to return to
Paris, and presaging calamity. They did not indeed base their appeals upon any specific facts;
their admonitions were rather the result of general
inferences from current reports and peculiarities
of conduct observed at Paris.*
But the admiral was deaf. One day one of the
gentlemen attached to his suite requested leave of
absence. "On what account?" demanded Coligny.
" Because they caress you too much," was the reply,
"and I would rather escape with the fools than perish with the wise."t
The chiefs of his party, relying upon the habitual wariness of Coligny, and noting his calmness,
shared his confidence, and partook of his doom.
The fact is, that the admiral was attacked on
his weak side. His darling project, a war against
Spain for the assistance of the staggering Protestautism of the Netherlands, was held out to him as
certain to be adopted.$  Extended conversations
were held between the king and himself, in which
he dilated upon the advantages certain to accrue to
France from such a war.~  The profound and farreaching mind of the great admiral formed plans of
the grandest character. Philip II. was destitute of
money; the French forces, disciplined by innumerable internecine wars, were superior to the Span.
* Davila, liv. 5, p. 179. Duncan, p. 167.
t Davila, liv. 5, p. 179.
$ Duncan, p. 104; Browning,'anke, De Thou.   P Ibid.




HOODWINKED FRANCE.             347
iards in military science; he had but to throw united
France into the Low Countries, and reipwrce the
kingdom by an alliance with England and Protestant Germany, and then the Reformation might be
cemented into an indestructible unit, while Roman
Europe would be lassoed into quiet imbecility.*
Such, according to the best contemporaneous
authorities, was the brilliant programme of this
statesmanlike Huguenot.
The French court listened with courteous attention to the admiral as he unfolded his plans, and
map in hand, pointed out the salient features of the
grand campaign. Catharine and the king appeared
to enter with his own ardor into the scheme; and
then, when Coligny quitted them, retired to the
secret recesses of the palace, and spent half the
night in arranging the details of the slowly ripening holocaust.
* Ranke, p. 256; Mlem. de Sully, Vie ie Coligny, Brantome.




348          THE HUGUENOTS.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW.
THE preachers in Geneva and the cardinals at
Rome foresaw and predicted a catastrophe from
the abnormal political situation at Paris. The radical antipathy between the rival parties who stood
nudging each other's elbows at the Louvre, with
reconciliation painted on their faces, but hatred
still unsubdued in their hearts, could not but forebode evil.
Yet, unmindful of the petulant murmurs of the
king, oblivious of the old threats which had issued
from -Bayonne, the Huguenot leaders still lingered
at the court, while one more act was played in the
dreary comedy which ushered in the awful tragedy
of St. Bartholomew. On the 18th of August, prince
Henry and Margaret de Yalois were married.*
The young duke of Guise had cherished the
hope of marrying the king's sister; he had long
entertained a violent passion for her, while her
affection for him was equally undisguised.'t 3But
mutual affection was compelled to succumb to
vicious state policy, and the wedding was consummated.
It had been agreed that the. ceremonial of tho
B4 ]rantome, vol. 8, p. 180. Davila, liv. 5, p. 609.
t Davila, liv. 5. Browning, p. 126.




ST. BARTHOLOMEW.               349
marriage should not be wholly conformable to either
creed: not to the Protestant, because the vows were
to be received by a priest, the cardinal of Bourbon;
not to the Romish, because those vows were to be
received without the sacramental ceremonies of the
Vatican. A great scaffold was erected in the court;
before the principal entrance of the cathedral of
Notre Dame; and standing upon this typical structure, the inauspicious nuptials were celebrated.*
It was remarked by many that when the princess
was asked if she were willing to take king Henry
of TNavarre to be her husband, she stood obstinately
silent; she had said repeatedly that Guise alone
should be her husband. But the king her brother,
who stood just behind her, with his own hand
rudely inclined her head, and this was taken for
TIargaret's assent.t  This done, the bridegroom
retired into a neighboring Huguenot chapel, while
the reluctant bride passed into the cathedral with
a bitter and broken heart to listen to the mockery
of the mass. In the evening the coldly indifferent
husband and the sulky spouse attended the brilliant festival with which Charles crowned the dismal day.J
From this time horrible events begin to jostle
each other. Four days after the wedding, an attempt was made to assassinate the admiral as he
was returning from one of his daily interviews with
* Decade de Henri Quatre, tome 2. Duncan, p. 108.
J Davila, liv. 5, p. 609. Mezeray, La Grain, etc.: Ibid.




350          THE HUGUENOTS.,
the king at the Louvre. IHe was fired at from a
window screened by a curtain.  Coligny was indebted for his life to an accidental movement made
at the moment; but as it was, his left arm was broken, and the index finger of his right hand was shot
off. With imperturbable santg.froid the old soldier
pointed out the house from whence the bullet sped;
but ere his suite could break open the gate, the
assassin had escaped.*
This assault caused a profound commotion.
The hostile mob of Paris, which hacl only borne
the presence of the Huguenots with suppressed fury,
now heaved in almost open insurrection. Navarre
and Cond6, supported by the whole Protestant
party, presented a petition for justice and protection; and the king, who was playing at tennis when
the news reached him, threw dclown the racket in a
violent rage, muttered something about immature
action, and exclaimed, "M3ust I be perpetually
troubled by broils; shall I never have quiet?"t
Active measures were then taken to allay suspicion, to quell the rising tumult, and to flatter the
angered Huguenots into renewed stupefaction.
Coligny, who had been borne to his apartments
by his attendants, weltering in his blood, was
shortly visited by the king, the queen mother, Anjou, and many of the chief nobility. Every expres-; Sully, liv. 1. De Thou, liv. 52. The assassin's name was
Maurevel, an adherent of the Guises.
t Sully, tome 1, p. 33. Davila says that the king merely
feigned displeasure; he was playing with the duke of Guise.




ST. BARTHOLOMEW.                351
[ion of condolence was uttered, signal vengeance
upon the assassin was promised, the police were
ordered to make domiciliary visits and arrest all
suspected persons, and his majesty even carried his
hypocrisy so far as openly to notify his high displeasure at the occurrence to all the public ambassadors.*
This energetic action at once disarmed the suspicion and conciliated the respect of the Huguenot
chiefs. Startled Paris resumed its tranquillity, and
that awful hush which precedes a storm succeeded.t
Meantinme, warned by this e'neute of the danger
which lurked in procrastination, perfectly well aware
that every hour lost was an opportunity for misfortune, the conspirators worked with diabolical zeal
to complete the preparations for the wholesale
slaughter, and the time was definitively fixed-the
23d of August, 1572, the eve of St. Bartholomew's
day.:$: A pistol was to be fired in front of the Louvre as the signal for the commencement of the
butchery.
A few of the Huguenots were alarmed, and
boldly proposed to quit Paris with the admiral.
The vidame of Chartres strongly advised this
course. He even informed Coligny that the Guises,
despite their ostensible disgrace at court, had been
twice seen in masks at the Louvre in secret conver* De Serres, tome 11, p. 470. Duncan, p. 109.
t Browning, De Thou, Vie de Coligny.
~ DavilU, liv. 5; ]Kem. de Sully; Duncan, etc.




352           THE HUGUENOTS.
sation with Catharine and the king. "We havo
been shamefully ensnared," he added.*
Coligny was averse to showing any suspicion. "If
I do so," said he, " I must display either fear or distrust: my honor would be hurt by the one; the king,
I hope, would be injured by the other. Besides, I
should then be obliged to renew the civil war, and
I would rather die than again see such ills."t
The shrewd vidame, however, was not to be persuaded, and accompaniecl by a number of equally
wise friends, among whom were Rohan and M[ontgomery, he passed out of the fatal city.t
Under pretence of protecting the admiral and
his friends from any tumult which the Guises might
stir among the populace, the whole Huguen ot faction were lodged in one quarter of the city, and the
chiefs were huddled together for the double purpose
of preventing their escape and keeping them under
easy surveillance. Perhaps too Charles called to
mind the pithy maxim of Alaric: "Thick grass is
easier nown thanL thin."  Around this doomecd
quarter was drawn a cordon of the duke of Anjou's
guards, professedly to protect the victims, but who
shortly became their most zealous murderers.~  At
the same time arms were profusely delivered to the
crccaille of the metropolis, previously crazed by the
clamors of the Jesuits,' and these were hidden in'Q Sully, liv. 1, p. 32. De Thou, liv. 52. Browning, p. 136.
it Matthieu, Hist. de France, vol. 1, liv. 6, p- 343.
1 Browning, p. 137.
~ D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ., vol. 2, p. 17. De Thou, liv. 52.




ST. BARTHOLOMEW.               353
the slums of the capital.*  Finally, couriers were
dispatched to all parts of France with orders to
make the massacre gelleral and exterminating.tr
France was commanded to commit suicide. The
kingdom was to stagger and bleed beneath self-dealt
and frenzied blows.
The awful eve arrived. At midnight the pistol
shot was fired; the talismanic word was uttered.
Charles cried, IHavoc, and let slip the thunderbolt.
The wild populace swayed through the streets, crying, "Blood, blood 1!" The protecting guard of the
Hugueaot quarter was suddenly transformed into a
legion of demoniacs. " Bleed, bleed 1" shouted Tavannes; "the physicians say that bleeding is as
good in August as in M1ay."' The dukes of Guise
and lMontpensier rode through the streets, crying,
" It is the will of the king; slay on to the last, and
let not one escape." The count of Coconnas seized
thirty prisoners, put them in prison, and put them
to death with his own hand by slow and lingering
tortures.
The butcher Pezon, who slaughtered men, women, and children as he did cattle, boasted of having
in one day killed a hundred and twenty Huguenots.
Ren6, Catharine's perfumer, frequented all the gaols
in which the evangelicals were immured, and amused
himself by stabbing them with daggers. Ho  decoyed a rich jeweller into his house, under pretext
of saving him; but after plundering his person, Rend
* Browning, p. 136. Brantome, vol. 8, p. 184.
t Ibid. Mezeray.  -       I Mern. de Tavannes.




354           THE HUGUENOTS.
cut his victim's throat, and threw the body into the
Seine. "This arm," said Cruc6, a gold-wire drawer,
taking off his coat and exhibiting his naked arm,
"on the day of St. Bartholomew, put to death four
hundred heretics."*
At the first signal the duke of Guise sped for
the residence of the admiral, pausing but to ring
the great bell of the palace, which was only tolled
on days of public rejoicing.t He was accompanied
by his two creatures, Petrucci, an Italian, and
B6rne, a German bravo; a company of men-atarms also followed. The bravos rushed into the
chamber of the helpless admiral, who, awaked by
the noise, had just arisen from his bed and now
stood leaning against the wall of his apartment..
"What means the tumult?" queried he of his attendants. " My lord," was the solemn reply, " God
calls us to himself."  The admiral then bade his
suite to leave him. "I cannot escape; it is all over
with me; I have long been prepared for death; but
save yourselves, dear friendcs."  Such were the colt
lected and noble words of this martyr, whose spirit,
armed by faith in God, no danger could quell. Coligny's attendants at once quitted him, while he
composed himself in prayer.~
Unmoved by the entrance of the assassins, he
continued his supplications.  Awed by the gran* These anecdotes are found recorded in Sully's Memoirs, To
vannes' Memoirs, in Browning, Vie de Coligny, and in Duncan.
t Mezeray, Abrege Chron.
Doe Thou, liv. 52. Vie de Coligny. Browning.
~ Ibid.




ST. BAITHOLOMEW.             355
deur of the scene, the majestic figure of the calm
and venerable old soldier engrossed in devotion,
Petrucci instinctively paused. "Art thou Coligny?"
demanded the bravo. "I am indeed," responded
the admiral. "Young man, you should have respect unto my gray hairs: but work your will; you
can abridge my life only by a few short days."*
A moment later, and Gaspard de Coligny, the
foremost subject in France, the most distinguished
man in Christendom, lay dead.
B6rne plunged his sword into Coligny's body, and
his companions then gave him multitudinous stabs
with their stilettos. "Your enemy is dead," cried
Petrucci from the window to the duke of Guise, who
awaited the ddnouement impatiently in the court
below.  "Yery well," was the answer, borne up
through the midnight gloom; "but M. d'Angouldme
will not believe it until he sees the body at his feet."
The next instant the corpse, flung from the window,
fell with a thud at the feet of the princes; the yet
warm blood even spirted out on the clothes and into
the faces of the disbelievers. With brutal nonchalance Guise stooped and wiped Coligny's face, then
ordered his satellites to hold a torch, that he might
recognize his foe. WThen, through the lurid and
flickering gloom, he detected that it was indeed the
lighty admiral who lay before him, he spurned the
body with his foot, and ordered the head to be cut
off.t This was sent to Catharine: what disposition
0 Brantome, vol. 8, p. 185.
t De Thou, liv. 52. Browning, p. 139. Vie de Coligny.




356           THE HUIGUENOTS.
she made of it is uncertain; Tavannes and Felibien
affirm that it was dispatched to Rome;* others say
that Philip II. of Spain received the ghastly present. The decapitated body was m-angled and drawn
through the streets during two or three days; the
populace then threw it into the river, but afterwards
drew it out and hung it by the heels to the gibbet
of MAontfaugon; a slow fire was then kindled beneath it, which disfigured it horribly.t
The body swung from this gibbet when Charles
went with his court to gloat over the abused remains of that man whom he had so recently termed
"his father," and assured of his affectionate veneration. The odor emitted by the decomposing body
was so dreadful, that the courtiers stopped their
noses with their handkerchiefs.  "Fie, fie!" cried
Charles, borrowing the language of the classic
brute Yitellius: "' The carcass of an enemy always
smells pleasantly.' "T
Marshal Montmorenci, Coligny's cousin, had
these insulted remains cut down one night, and
secreted, for he feared to inter them at Chantilly,
lest they should be molested. Subsequently, when
the decrees against the admiral's memory were reversed, they were buried in the tomb of his ancestors at Chatillon-sur-Loing.~
While Coligny's murder was being perpetrated,
the drunken pavements of bewildered Paris were
* Mem. de Tavannes, p. 419. Felibien, Histoire de Paris, vol
2, p. 1119.      t Vie de Coligny, D'Aubign, IDe Thou.
$ Brantome, P. Masson, Browning, Duncan, etc.    ~ Ibid,




ST. BARTHOLOMEW.                357
glutted in blood. The Huguenots, surprised and
overmatched, could make no resistance.  Escape
was impossible; the city gates were shut and guarded; numerous lights, placed in the windows of the
dwellings, deprived the reformers even of the normal protection of night;* and patrols traversed the
streets in all directions, butchering every one they
met. From the streets, as the carnival grew wilder,
the frenzied multitude swept into the houses. Neither age, sex, nor condition were spared. Priests,
holding a crucifix in one hand and a sword in the
other, preceded the murderers, encouraging them
to butcher alike relatives and friends, and promising them absolution from all crimes and heavenly
happiness as the reward of these "'acts of devotion."t
Even the Louvre became the scene of great carnage; the king's guards were drawn up in double
line, and the Huguenots who lodged in the palace
were summoned out one after another and killed
with the halberds of the infuriated soldiers.j:J Most
of them died without complaining; others appealed
to the public faith and the sacred promise of the
king. "Great God," cried they, "be the defence
of the oppressed.  Just Judge, avenge this perfidy."~
While these events were occurring in the courto Mem. de Tavannes; D'Aubigne.
t Browning, p. 140. Duncan, p. 114.
M MSem. cle Tavannes, p. 418. Davila, liv. 5.
~ D'Aubign6, Hist. Univer., vol. 2, p. 18. Browning, p. 14.0,




358         THE HIUGUENOTS.
yard, Charles, seated at a window of the Louvre,
amused himself by shooting down all who came
within range of his musket.*
The monarch's ferocity was contagious; even
the ladies of his court were seen descending into
the square of the Louvre, then filled with the dead
bodies of Huguenot gentlemen, many of whom had
cheerfully passed with them some hours of the preceding day. It was by their syren-like qualities
that some of the victims bad been enticed to their
death; they now became harpies, through the addition of cruelty to fanaticism and wantonness, and
trampling common decency under foot, they jested
and laughed as they recognized the murdered HIuguenots,t precisely as the king did from the window
of the Louvre, and beneath the gibbet of Montfau on.
Among those who fled within the precincts of
the palace was a nobleman named Soubise, whose
wife had recently instituted a suit of divorce against
him. His mangled body underwent a careful examination from these brazen wantons, whose barbarous curiosity was worthy of such an abominable
court.t
When day dawned, Paris exhibited an appalling
spectacle of slaughter: headless bodies were dangling from innumerable windows; gateways were
blocked up by the dead and dying; the houses were
e- Duncan, p. 124. Browning. Notes to the "EHenriade.'
t Browning, p. 143. Mlem. de Tavannes.
I De Thou, liv. 52, vol. 6, p. 402. Browning, p. 144.




ST. BARTTIOLO1W EW.             359
battered, while the doors were smeared with gore;
and the streets were filled with carcasses, which
were drawn, bleeding and mutilated, across the
bloody pavements to the choked and reddened
Seine.*
These atrocious scenes were continued through
three days and nights, and the orgies only slackened from lack of victims.
Meantime the massacre spread  throughout
France; the reeling kingdom  bled at every pore
with mute heroism. The slaughter at Meaux, Angers, Bourges, Orleans, Lyons, Toulouse, IRouen,
and in many of the smaller towns of the provinces,
was horrible.But the genius of humanity had not wholly fled
from France. Claude de Savoy, count of Tende,
saved the lives of all the Huguenots in Dauphiny.
" This missive," said he when the king's letter orclering the massacre was handed to him, "must be
FI forgery, and I shall so treat it."$
Eleoner de Chabat, count of Charny, who commanded in Burgundy, acted with similar heroism;
there was but one Hluguenot murdered at Dijon.~
Heran de MIontouvin, governor of Auvergne,
positively refused to obey the mandate, unless it
were supported by the personal presence of the
king.11
O: D'Aubignd, Davila, Mlaimbourg, De Thou, Browning, et.
f Ibid. Duncan, p. 122.
I Sully, tome 1, p. 45. De Thou, lib. 52. 53.
~ D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ., tome 2, lib. 1.
dI Duncan, p. 122.




360         ITHE HUGUENOTS.
The Viscount d'Ortes, the governor of Bayonne,
penned this immortal response to the royal order:
"Sire, I have communicated your majesty's mandate to your faithful inhabitants in this city, and
to the mnen-at-arms in the garrison. I find here
good citizens and brave soldiers, but not one executioner. On this point, therefore, you must not
expect obedience from me."*
But despite these luminous exceptions, from seventy to a hundred thousand victims were slaughtered, and the lives of two of the heroes who refused
obedience to the bloody fiat of Charles IX.-the
Count de Tende and the Viscount d'Ortes-were
abridged by the infernal skill of the royal poisoner.tBoth the Romish and the Huguenot chroniclers
of this tragedy have bequeathed to posterity many
episodes of personal adventure, which are replete
with thrilling interest. But after " supping full of
horrors," the imagination wearies and palls. Details grow hideous. " The deep damnnation of their
taking off" appalls those who peruse the history of
the I uguenots; readers have no appetite for m11nut-tice.
It was long a mooted question whether Conld
and young Henry of Navarre should be saved or
not. Upon this point the testimony is clear. "It
was anxiously deliberated," says the archbishop of
Paris, "whether the prince should be murdered
with the others; the conspirators were for their
* Duncan, p. 122. Sully, De Thou, Davila, Browning.
t Sully, lib. 1. Pl6rfixe. Duncan, p. 125, note.




S T. BA R   -THOL O AIEW.         361
death; nevertheless they escaped by a miracle."*
"The duke of Guise," remarks Davila, "wished that,
in killing the H-iguenots, Henry of Navarre anl the
Prince de Condcl  should be included; but the queen
mother and others had a horror of dipping their
lhands in royal blood."t " Indubitably," says quaint
old Brantonme, "they were proscribed and down on
the'red list,' as they called it, because it was:remarked that it was necessary to dig up the roots of
the heretical faction, Navarre, Condd, the admiral,
and other noted personages; but the young queden
MIargaret threw herself upon her knees before king
Charles her brother, to beg her husband's life at
Catharine's command.  The king granted it to her
after much urging, since she was his good sister.":t
Margaret, in the account she gave of the horrors of the night which ushered in the massacre,
relates that "on retiring to rest, HIenry's bed was
surrounded by thirty or forty Huguenots, wNho
talked all night of the accident to the admiral, and
resolved the next morning to demnand justice upon
the Guises. No sleep was had; and before day the
king of Navarre rose, with the intention of playing
at tennis until king Charles was up."~
3Iargaxret then narrates that she fell asleep after
the retirement of Henry and his suite, but that in
less than an hour she was awakened by loud shouts
in the palace corridors, and by a man striking with
* Pdrefixe, list. de Hienri le Granide.
t Davila, liv. 5, p. 616.  t Brantome, vol. 1, p. 261.
~ Mem. de la Reine Marguerite, p. 181, et seq.
Hugnlenot    IX




362          THE HUGUENOTS.
hands and feet against the door of her room, and
crying, "Navarre, Navarre!"  Thinking it might
be her husband, she opened the door, when lo, a
mall besmeared with gore rushed in, and clasping
her by the feet, conjured her to save him. This
cavalier was quickly pursued by four soldiers, from
whose greedy swords the young queen with difficulty saved her strange client. At length his life
was spared to her prayers, and she was conducted
to the chamber of her sister the duchess of Lorraine, where, at -the very moment of her entrance,
a gentleman was killed just at her side.
Margaret fainted: upon ho recovery she inquired for her husband, and was told that both
Henry and Condd were then in the presence of the
king.*
When the princes were summoned to the king,
Catharine, in order to affright them into submission, ordered them to be conducted under the palace vaults, and to be made to pass through the
royal guards drawn up in files on either side, and
poised in menacing attitudes.t
"Charles received them," says Sully, "with a
fierce countenance and a volley of blasphemies.
He avowed that the admiral and the other heretics
had been slaughtered by his mandate; affirmed that
he would no longer be thwarted or questioned by
his subjects; declared that all should revere him as
the likeness of God, and be no longer the enemies
O Mem. de la Reine Marguerite, p. 181, et seq.
t Perefixe, Hist. de HIenri le Grande.




ST. BARTTHOLOMEW.               ca3
of his mother's images; and ended by calling on
the princes to recant."*
" Sire," replied Cond6 with noble candor, "I aml
accountable to God alone for my religion; my posseossions, my life, these are in your majesty's power;
dispose of them as you please; but no menaces, nor
even death, shall make mle renounce the truth."t
" And you, sir," said Charles with bitter emphasis, turning to prince Henry, " what say you?"
Henry expressed the same determination, though
less frankly.:  "Well, sirs," said the king, "I give
you three days in which to consider; then the mass,
death, or the Bastile; take your choice."~
Charles then gave way to sardonic glee. " Have
I not played my part well?" asked he of Catharine
de' Medici. "He who cannot dissemble is not fit to
reiggn," said Louis XI. "Have not I known how to
dissemble?" queried Charles, quoting this precept;
"have not I well learned the lesson and the Latin
of my ancestor, king Louis XI.?"1I
Thus the hideousfete of St. Bartholomew closed
with a laugh and a sarcasm.
The slaughter was complete. The heads of the
most distinguished HIuguenot families in France
were the victims of the holocaust. Coligny, Itochefoucault and his son Teligny, the admiral's son-inlaw Briquemont and his sons, Plauviant, Bemy,
Sully, liv. 1.
t D'Aubigne, Hist. Universelle, vol. 2, p. 19.
$ Duffcan, p. 121.              ~ Ibic. Sully.
[j Brantome, vol. 2, p. 424.




364           THE HIU GUENOTS.
Clermont, Lavardin, Caunmont de la Force, and
many thousand more gallant gentlemen and Christian soldiers, formed the trophies of the fanatics.
The zealous reformer of the University, La Ramee,
hunted out in his hiding-place by one of his colleagues whose ignorance he had frequently exposed,
was surrendered up to a gang of hired assassins.*
Nor did fanaticism alone sharpen the sword and
direct the dagger. Defendants in actions at law
assassinated the plaintiffs, debtors sla ughtered their
creditors, jealous lovers butchered their rivals.-l- It
was a combination of religious frenzy, private vengeance, and public condemnation such as the world
has never seen since the days of Sulla's proscriptions.
When the ghastly saturnalia had continued
through a week, Pibrac, the king's advocate, waited
lipon his majesty to inquire whether he would be
pleased to have the "joyous" event registered in
Parliament, to perpetuate its memory.:~ The lawyer also begged that the "revels " might be discontinued.  To both these propositions Charles acceded, and orders were given by sound of trumpet
forbidding further murder.~
Shortly after proclamations were issued in which
the king assumed the responsibility of the mlassa*
cre, which he declared that he had ordered;l1 affirm.
* Ranke, p. 277.               t Duncan, p. 114.
t Le Pape Derniere, liv. 29, p. 66. Browning, p. 145.
~ Anquetil, Esprit de la Ligue, vol. 2, p. 50.
11 Ibid. Browning, p. 146.




ST. BARTHOLOMEW.               365
ing that Coligny and his associates had plotted regicide; branding the admiral's memory as infamous,
confiscating his property, degrading his family to
plebeian rank, ordering his body-and if that could
not be found, his effigy-to be drawn on a hurdle,
hung up at the Place de Gr6ve, and then fixed on
the gibbet of Montfau~on. Coligny's portraits and
arms were commanded to be destroyed wherever
they could be seized, by the public executioner; and
his residence at Chatillon-sur-Loing was to be razed,
and the trees cut down to within four feet of the
earth.  The decree concluded by declaring that in
future the anniversary of St. Bartholomew should be
celebrated by public processions and feus dejoie.*
It was perhaps honestly believed that these
spiteful and abortive insults would affect the posthumous fame of the illustrious admiral, thrice honored by the stigmatization of such a king.
In the conduct of Charles IX. it is difficult to
decide whether his atrocity or his dissimulation is
most detestable. His own edicts, which closely followed one another, were ridiculously contradictory;
and it is asserted by a Romish partisan that the
day after the publication of the edict commanding
tranquillity, he dispatched courtiers of note to the
larger provincial cities with verbal orders to continue thefte despite the proclamation.t
These orders were quite unnecessary; the un0 Browning, p. 146.
I Abbe Anquetil, Esprit de la Ligue, vol. 2, p. 52. Davila
liv. 5. De Thou, liv. 52.




366          THE HUGUENOTS,
slaked rage of the fanaticized multitude was not to
be suppressed by a parchment fiat. From time to
time the " Paris matins," as the massacre was called-a name suggested by the "Sicilian vespers "-a
were renewed; the tocsin sounded everywhere, and
the sans-ctlottes stormed the houses of the Huguenots with undiminished ardor, robbing, murdering,
and ravishing with the talismanic cry, " The king
desires and commnands it."*
The minds of men were filled with wild fantasies, which made them fear even themselves, and
caused the very elements to appear fraught with
terror. In after years, Henry IV. used openly to
relate, that during the seven nights which immediately succeeded the slaughter, flocks of ravens
perched upon the eaves of the Louvre, and croaked
loudly and lugubriously, always commencing as the
palace clock tolled twelve.Henry mentions another prodigy still more extraordinary: " For several days before the massacre
commenced, I noticed, while playing at dice with
the dukes of Aleunon and Guise, that drops of blood
clotted upon the table: twice I tried to wipe them
off, when they reappeared; upon which, seized with
horror, I quitted the game."4
About eight days after the slaughter, Charles
IX. summoned his Huguenot brother-in-law to his
bedside at midnight in great haste. Henry found
him as he had sprung from his couch, filled with'I Ranke, p. 277.
t Notes to the "I enriade." Duncan, p. 124.   1 Ibid.




ST. BA.PTllOLOMBEW.            367
terror at a wild tumult of confused voices which
resounded through the chamber.  Henry himself
imagined that he heard these sounds; they appeared like distant shrieks and howlings, mingled with
the indistinguishable raging of a furious multitude,
with wails and groans and smothered curses, as on
the day of the massacre.  Messengers were dispatched into the city to ascertain whether any new
tumult had broken out, but these returned with the
assurance that Paris was quiet, and that the commotion was in the air. Henry could never recall
this scene-the affrighted courtiers huddled in the
middle of the room, the half-distracted king, and
the agonized wail of the phantom voices-without
a horror that made his hair stand on end.*
Thus, for his share in the awful "pageant" of
St. Bartholomew, the weak and too late affrightedc
king was tortured by the reproachful visions of his
distempered imagination, compelled
"To groan and sweat under a weary life,"
while conscience gradually stung him into an un.
timely grave.
Ranke, p. 278




368          THE HUGUENOTS.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE TERIUMPH OF ROCHELLE.
THE massacre of St. Bartholomew created an
unprecedented sensation throughout Christendom.
Affrighted Europe, frozen with horror, stood on
tiptoe gazing towards France, and asking with
white lips, "What next?"
This was regarded as the signal for a general
crusade against Protestantism.
Even the maiden queen of England was far from
esteeming her insulated position to be a guarantee
of safety. She was familiar with the tortuous morality of the Yatican. She had already experienced
the character of Romish intrigues in the different
manoeuvres made to unseat her and install iMary
queen of Scots in her throne. The pretended rupture between France and Spain, which had cozened
the profound penetration of Coligny, vanished as
soon as its object was accomplished. Elizabeth
feared either an immediate attack from Philip II.,
or a general revolt of the papists in Great Britain.*
F6n6elon was then the French ambassador at the
court of St. James. Upon being sumnmoned into
Elizabeth's presence to present the dispatches of
* Hume, Hist. of England; Lingard, Hist. of Eng.; Brown.
ing, p. 152.




TRIUMPH OF ROCHELLE.              369
his king, which represented this monstrous act of
treason against his subjects as the offspring of necessity, F6n6lon blushed at being a Frenchman.*
When he attended the hall of audience, he found the
whole court arrayed in deep mourning; a gloomy
silence was preserved; no friendly eye was turned
towards him; every countenance was mournful and
downcast. He approached the queen, who neither
rose from her throne nor extended her hand, as was
the courtesy of the times. Elizabeth read the documents with marked displeasure, and broke the stillness only to express her astonishment and indignation.t
A cry of horror rang through Germany and the
Low Countries. iMany writings were published, all
denouncing the massacre, which was justly chraracterized as a compound of trickery, perfidy, and
atrocity, exceeding in turpitude all that had ever
been perpetrated in the annals of tyranny.l:
The court of France was the more sensitive to
these animadversions, as negotiations were then
pending to secure the crown of Poland for the duke
of Anjou. It was feared that the prejudices and antipathies of the neighboring Germans might frustrate these expectations. Accordingly a deputation
was sent to the Protestant princes to disarm their
l'esentment.~
The pleas of justification were as various as
they were absurd. Sometimes the whole transac* Condillac, tom. 13, p. 184.  t Ibid.  I Duncan, p. 127.
~ Ibid. Davila, De Thou, Esprit de la Ligue, etc.
I61




370          THE HUGUENOTS.
tion was defended by citing the odious maxim of
Innocent III., more recently. decreed by the Council of Constance and adopted by the Jesuits, that
no faith need be kept wit/h ]eretics.* Sonme condemned
in part, and extenuated in part; while others regretted the event, but denounced what they were pleased
to term  Coligny's regicidal intentions, borrowing
the "buncombe" of their king. But these lame explanations, these limping apologies, were not able
to stand on their own feet. Such absurdities produced but little effect in the outraged Netherlands
and in angered Germany, where the assassins of
the Huguenots were always held in undisguised
abhorrence.t
There were two courts which received the news
from Paris with acclamations. At Rome diabolical
joy was manifested.  Cannon were fired, bonfires
blazed, the city was illuminated as if to celebrate a
glorious achievement, and a solemn mass was intoned, at which pope Gregory XIII. personally officiatedl, with all the imposing ceremony of the papal
church.T. The cardinal of Lorraine, who was resident minister of France at the Vatican, questioned
the messenger like a person informed beforehand;~
and a medal was struck, bearing on one side the
head of Gregory XIII., and on the other the exterminating angel smiting the Huguenots, with the
legend, "H tguenotorum rtStages, 1572."11
* Abbe Caveyrac.            t Duncan, p. 127.
t Esprit de la Ligue, vol. 2, p. 65. Browning, p. 153.
Ibid.             1 Ibid. Duncan, p. 128, note




TRIUMPH OF ROCHELLE.              371
Thus IEome embalmed' the massacre in barbar,
ous Latin.
Yet despite his processions, his high masses
celebrated in- St. Peter's, and his honorary medals,
it is said that the pontiff shed tears when he listened to the private recital of the excesses which
smeared France with fraternal gore.  "I cannot
but weep," said Gregory, " when I think how many
of the innocent must have suffered with the guilty."*
The abb6 Anqu6til cites these words, and observes,
"A sentiment of compassion not incompatible with
those public- demonstrations which policy required."t  But it has been justly said that this is a
dangerous morality which permits a jubilant exultation in public over a crime which is condemned
in privacy, which distinguishes between the natural and the artificial man, and throws the mantle
of hypocrisy over the spotless form  of shrinking
virtue.
It was at Madrid that the horrible crime was
welcomed with the loudest plaudits.  Philip II.,
the dark and gloomy bigot whose habitual demeanor
was as frigid as the outside of a sepulchre, then
showed for the first time that he could be sensible
to joy. The sombre gravity which had been proof
against Alva's cruelty, whichl had given no outward
sign of pleasure when the great naval victory of Lepanto crippled the Ottoman, now quite forsook him,
and his black heart gloated over the streams of blood
which had reddened the streets of Paris.. He made
* Brantome, vol. 8.  t Esprit de la Ligue, tom. 1, p. 312.




372           THE HUGUENOTS.
magnificent presents to the courier who brought
him the thrice-welcome news, wrote an autograph
letter of congratulation to Charles IX., caroused
with his courtiers, rejoiced in public, ordered Te
Deuon to be chanted, and summoned all the functionaries of the state to. wait on hlim and tender
their felicitations.*
The admiral of Castile read the French dispatches at table, thinking to increase the festivity
of the occasion. " Prythee, good admiral, were
Coligny and I his friends Christians?" queried the
young dulke del Infantado, who was seated among
the guests.  "Undoubtedly," replied the admiral.
"Why then," rejoined the young prince, " since
they were Christians, were they butchered like wild
beasts?"  "Gently, gently, my prince," said the
admiral; " know you not that war in France means
peace in Spain?"t1
But while agitated Europe was commenting
thus variously upon the massacre of St. Bartholomew, France, plagued once again by those ills which
Coligny so pathetically deprecated,' was plunged
in civil war. The pacificatory results which the
court crazily imagined would ensue, failed to appear; it was divinely fixecl that the sowers of the
-wind should reap the whirlwind.
To slaughter the representatives of an idea even
*in hecatombs does not extinguish the principle,
* Brantomne, vol. 8, p. 189; cited in IBrowning, p. 153, aitd in
]-Dancan, pp. 128, 129.   t Brantome, vol. 8, p. 189.: Chap. 25, p. 350.




TRIUMPH OF ROCHELLE.              373
does not settle controverted points, does not weaken the right of private judgment. lBoreover, the
massacre of the Huguenots, extensive as it was, was
very far from an extermination. Thousands survived the bloody deluge; and seeking asylums in
tie Netherlands, in the German duchies, and in
England, they still had faith in God, and bided his
good time.
Others, making no effort to quit France, fortifiecl themselves in Montauban, in Nimes, in Rochelle; and these three towns, forming themselves
into a confederation, declared their union an independent republic —imperi'um in inm2erio.*
"The court," says the abb6 Crillon, " thought
to have drowned Calvinism in the blood of its chief
defenders; but that hydr:a soon regained its vigor."t
The Huguenots were indeed so far from being crushed, that they speedily put eighteen thousand well
equipped and devoted men-at-arms in the field, and
became masters of a hundred towns.4:
The court made strenuous exertions to throttle
the infant confederation. Three armies were lev-.
ied. One, under La Chastre, was employed to reduce Sancerre; D'Amville Montinorenci, with another, undertook to choke the 6eeute in Languedoc,
while the third, commanded by Yillars, the new
admiral of France, was sent into Guyeure. Besides: MIatthieu; Maimbourg, Hist. du Calvinisme; Duncan, p
133.
I Vie de Crillon; cited in Browning, p. 150.
I Duncan, p. 133; Davila; De Thou.




374           THE HUGUENOTS.
these, there were the forces under Strozzy and
Montluc's army.*
It was determined that Rochelle, now, as always
before, the Huguenot citadel, should be conquered
at all hazards. After various intrigues to foist upon
the Rochelloise a Romaanist governor, all of which
were foiled by the keen inhabitants, the city was
besieged by an immense army, officered by Strozzy
and Bovin, accompanied by the duke of Anjou.tRochelle had long been one of the first maritime cities in France. It was well known to the
early English merchants under the name of the
"White Town," as they called it, from its appearance when the sun shone and was reflected from its
rocky coasts. It was also much frequented by the
Netherlanders.  There were merchants among the
Rochelloise who had each as many as ten ships at
sea at one time.:t
Ever since the period of the English wars for
the French succession, Rochelle had enjoyed extraordinary municipal franchises. It had by its own
unaided power revolted from the English dominion;
and for this heroism  Charles V., in his customary
manner, conferred upon the burghers valuable privileges; among others, that of independent jurisdiction in the city.~
Rochelle exhibited Protestant sympathies at an
* MIezeray; Browning; D'Aubign6, Hist. Univ.
t Davila, liv. 5. Browning, p. 163.
I Arcere, Histoire de Rochelle, vol. 1, p. 302. From the cot,
temporary narrative of Barbot, advocate, and mayor in 1610.
~ Hist. de Rochelle, vol. 1, p. 208.




TRIUMPH  OF ROCHELLE.               375
early period. Habituated to civil liberty, intelligent and self-reliant, the citizens were excellently
well prepared to accept the Reformation; and when
a Genevese preacher arrived there in 1556, on Ilis
return from an unsuccessful missionary enterprise
to Brazil, he found no difficulty in building up a
prosperous church among the Rochelloise. With
the rough and hardy population, habituated to the
sea, a teacher like this, who had boldly performed
his voyage across the ocean to serve God, was sure
of a generous reception. In all the reactionary
changes and alternations of party through the civil
wars, the faithful Rochelloise clung to the tenets of
the Reformation, to Christ and their open Bibles,
with unshaken firmness.*
The town had a fine harbor, and was naturally
well fortified, while nature had been carefully reinforced by art. The garrison now consisted of fifteen hundred regular troops and about two thousand of the burghers, who belonged to the trainbands of the city.t These had been well disciplined in the frequent wars, and their ardor was at
this time raised to fever heat by the enthusiasm of
the women, who at once emulated and animated
their husbands, fathers, and lovers.:i
The influence of the preachers was also Very
marked. Two among them, La Place and Denard,
were remarkable for their ability, energy, and devotion. Their discourses marvellously strengthened
* Hist. de IRochelle, p. 208. Ranke, p. 242.
i Arc6re, p. 419. Davila, l-v. 5.    ~ Browning, p. 162.




376          THE HUGUENOTS.
the determination of the populace, whose humanity
was appealed to by descriptions of the sufferings
endured by their brothers in the faith; but they
chiefly dwelt upon the paramount claims of religion to their utmost devotion. Denord was very
eloquent; and he possessed such influence by his
persuasive style, that he was called the pope of
Eocbelle.':e'
Although the town was not completely invested
before the close of January, 1573, there were several
assaults in December, 1572; one especially was
upon a mill near the counter-scarp. As it could
not easily be fortified, it served as a barbican or
post of observation in the daytime, and at night it
was left under guard of a single sentinel. Strozzy,
considering that the position would be valuable to
the ltochelloise, advanced by moonlight to attack it.
The solitary sentinel, with a hardihood rarely equalled, resolved to defend the mill, although two culverines were pointed against it. He briskly fired
on the assailants; and in order to deceive them, he
called out to an imaginary troop of followers, as if
encouraging them or giving orders, while an officer
hallooecld from the nearest bastion that he would
soon be reinforced. The contest was too unequal
to allow time for the arrival of the promised assistarnee, and to avoid the consequences of an assault,
the sentinel demanded quarter for himself and men.
It was granted; when lo, he walked out alone.
Strozzy was so enraged at his presumption in pre-: Browning, p 102. Arcere, p. 421.




TRIUMIPH OF ROCHEILLE.            377
tending to hold out, that he ordered his heroic prisoner to be hung for his insolence; but Biron interfered, and saved his life, at the same time condemning him to the galleys. Happily the courageous fellow managed to escape. His name has not been
preserved, but Barbet says that he was a brazier of
the isle of Rhe.":~
The conduct of the court in the prosecution of
the war was enigmatical. La Nou6, a fearless soldier, a skilful captain, and a zealous HIuguenot, had
been absent in Icainault, whither he had been sent
by Coligny to collect such intelligence as might be
useful in that Nethevland campaign which was never
to occur, at the time of the "Paris matins;" thus
he had escaped the massacre.t  On his return to
France, Charles received him with open arms. He
gave La Nou6 the confiscated estate of his brotherin-law Teligny, and then entreated him to use his
influence with the tRochelloise, whose commander
he had been in the preceding war, to induce them
to accept terms of peace.:t
At first La Nou6 peremptorily refused; but after
a long struggle he yielded to the importunities of
the king, and influenced both by anxiety for peace.and the hope of serving his party, he accepted the
delicate cornmission.~
Upon approaching Rochelle, La Nou6 halted in
* Arcere, p. 436; cited in Browning, pp. 162, 163.
t Brantome; Vie de Noue.: Duncan, p. 135.
~ Browning, p. 161.




378           THE HUGUENOTS.
an adjacent village, and sent to the town announcing his errand and arrival.
The Rochelloise at once dispatcher deputies to
meet the distinguished soldier. Familiar with the
character of the court, they feared that some treachery lurked beneath La Ntou's overtures. "We have
been invited," said they, " to confer with La Nou6;
but where is he? It is nothing that the gentleman
to whom we speak resembles him in person, when in
character he differs so widely from him." The soldier pointed proudly to his artificial arm, which had
procured for him  the sobriquet of Bras defer, thus
mutely to remind them of the limb which he had
lost in their service.* But the deputies persisted
that they remembered with gratitude their valued
friend, but that they did not now recognize him.
Finding it impossible to treat with them, La
Nou6 asked permission to enter Rochelle.  The
citizens received him joyfully, but would not listen
to his proposals for peace. They left him to choose
one of three alternatives, a safe passage to England,
a residence in their city as a private individual, or
the governorship of Rochelle. After some hesitation, he accepted the command.1t
Strange to say, this step did not destroy the
good opinion which Charles and the whole court
party entertained of him; and it is a case alm:)st
* " At the siege of Fontenay, in 1569, his left arm was so severely fractured by a musket-ball that amputation was necessary."
Browning, p. 162, note.
it e Thou, liv. 53. D'Aubigne, Hist. Univi, vol. 2, p. 34.




TRIUMPH OF ROCHELLE.    379
unparallelled that, being commissioned by two contending parties, he preserved the confidence of
both. In action, none more bravely joined in repelling the assailants; and at quiet intervals he never
omitted to exhort the townspeople to listen to the
Ling's offers-liberty of conscience, and full security
for themselves. But the gallant iRochelloise were
not satisfied with simple liberty to worship Gocl
for themselves: while their coreligionists went with
shackled lips, they knew no peace. They insisted
on treating for all the Huguenots; a demand to
which the king would not accede.*
After a time La Nou6, dissatisfied with his equivocal position, requested and obtained permission to
qui't Rochelle for an honorable retirement.f
The tRochelloise could not but regret the loss
of their skilful chieftain, but they "bated no jot
of heart or hope."  The siege dragged through
six bloody months, and still the Huguenot bastions remained impregnable.  There was no order
among the royalists, no unity, no combination of
plans; jealousy and bickering poisoned their counsels;
"And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard, their currents turned afwry,
Aind lost the name of action."
Anjou was wounded; Aumale was killed in the
trenches; many others of rank also perished; an
* Browning, p. 162.
Dt avila, liv. 5; De Thou, liv. 53; Arcere, etc.




880           THE HUGUENOTS.
epidemic broke out in the camp, and fifty thousand
men' died either by the sword or by disease.*
Anjou began to weary of a siege in which his
reputation was frittered away; and as the negotiattions for the crown of Poland wore an auspicious
a,spect, the elated prince forgot his duty to France,
and passed his time with his favorites in planning
schemes of pleasure and magnificence on his installation at Warsaw. f
The royal arms were as unsuccessful in other
sections as before Rochelle;-t and in July, 1573, the
exhausted state of the court exchequer compelled
the cessation of hostilities.~
On the 6th of July a treaty of peace was signed,
which guaranteed to the confederated cities, Rochelle, Mlontauban, and Nimes, the free exercise of
their religion and their civic independence.ll    Thus
the self-sacrificing efforts of the gallant Pochelloise
to secure the enfranchisement, not only of thenmselves, but of their brothers in Christ, were crowned, through God's favor, with success.
In November, 1573, the duke of Anjou quitted
France for his new kingdom  of Poland, for that
crown had at length been tendered him.T  His departure was followed by the birth of a new conspiracy, which originated with the duke of AlenSon, the: Davila, liv. 5; De Thou, liv. 53; Arcere, etc. Duncan
says forty thousand; Browning's estimate is twenty thousand.
t l7avrila, liv. 5.      $ Brantome; D'Aubign6.
~ Duncan, p. 137.
[I Ibid.; Arcere, p. 424; Brantome; Vie de Crillon, by his son.
~[ De Thou, and others.




TRIUIMPHI OF RIOCHELLE.           381
]Montmorencis, Biron, and CossS, to which Navarre
and Concld, both of whom had finally succumbed
to the king's threats, and apparently united with
the Roman church, also adhered.*  But a variety
of circumstances united to strangle this infant cabal
in its cradle; and though its aim had been to effect
certain needed reforms in the state, without any
consideration for religion, it exploded in a laugh.
Charles IX., meanwhile, was every day drawing nearer to his grave. His last hours were embittered by that remorse which agonizes the conscience of the dying sinner. From the fatal eve of
St. Bartholomew, he was observed to be always
gloomy and wretched; he would groan involuntarily when the horrors which he had perpetrated
were recalled. The king's physician, Ambrose Pare,
though an outspoken Huguenot, possessed a greater
share of his confidence than any other person; and
to him he frequently unbosomed the tortures of his
soul. "Ambrose," said Charles, "I know not what
has happened to me these two or three past days;
but I feel my mind and body to be terribly at enmity with each other.  Sleeping or waking, the
murdered Huguenots seem  ever present to my
eyes, with ghastly faces and weltering in their
blood. I wish the innocent and the guiltless had
been spared."t
It is pleasing to record these expressions of
repentance, says an eminent historian, for they
* Mem. de Bouillon, p. 2-1; Vie de Mornay, liv. 1, p. 25; and
others.                     t Sully, tom. 1, p. 43.




382             THE HUGUENOTS.
show that humanity can never be wholly despoiled
of her rights, and that outraged conscience will
sting the most callous soul.
Henry of Navarre was present at the death of
Charles IX.  The expiring monarch called him  to
his side, and recommended his wife  and  infant
daughter to his protection. At this solemn hour
he appreciated this manly prince whom  he had so
bitterly outraged. He drew Henry to his pillow, and
cautioned him  to distrust; but he whispered
the name so faintly, that none heard it but his kinsman into whose ear it went.  Catharine however,
who stood near by, guessed his meaning, for she
said, "My son, you should not speak thus."  " Why
not?" queried the king; "it is perfectly true."*
On the 30th of May, 1574, Charles IX. expired,
bathed in a bloody sweat, which oozed from  every
pore.t
* Duncan, Davila, and others. In the notes to the "Henridcle," it is said that Charles alluded to the duke of Anjou. Caget
makes Catharine the object of the remark.
t Caget, Brantome, Duncan, De Thou.
The reason assigned for Charles' death by his physician was,
his passion for hunting, when he incessantly blew the horn.
"However," says Brantome, "it could not be driven out of some
people's ideas that he was poisoned when his brother set out for
Poland; and it was said, with the powder of some marine animal
which makes the victim languish a long time, and then dwindle
away till he becomes extinct like a candle." Brantome, vol. 15
p. 440.
"Marshal Bassompierre relates in his memoirs that, having
cautioned Louis XIII. not to blow a horn too much, as it killed
Charles IX., the king answered,' You mistake: blowing the horn
did not cause his death; but he quarrelled with the queen Catha.'ine Lis mother, at Montceaux, and left her and went to Meaux.




T3IIUMPH OF REOCHELLE.    383
Standing beside this awful death-bed, the soiemn words of the apostle may be discerned written
across the livid lineamlents of the atrocious king:
THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH."
if he had not yielded to the persuasions of Marshal de Retz, who
conducted him back to Montceaux, to join the queen his mother,
lie would not have died so soon."' Moem. de Bassompierre, vol.
2, p. 21; cited in Browning, pp. 168, 169,




384    -    TTHE  IHUGUENOTS.
CHAPTER XXYII.
VICISSITUDES.
UPON the death of Charles IX., Catharine do'
MIedici, grown old and hag-like, but as energetic
and unscrupulous as in her prime, dispatched a
courier to Poland to inform Anjou that the vacant
throne of France awaited him;* she then assumed
the regency during the interregnum.ti
In these troubled times, the slightest change at
court was the signal for a cabal; so important an
event as the demise of a monarch was certain to
precipitate a revolution.  France soon heaved in
insurrection, and even private gentlemen made forays upon the royal strong-holds in the southern
provinces.::
This outbreak had no special religious significance, but was rather one of those periodical upheavals which occur at stated intervals in countries
where justice and law are recklessly overridden by
selfish, licentious, and abandoned despots. France
through all this dismal epoch was emancipated
from judicial forms; a strong hand and an unsheathed sword-these were the synonyms of government. The arbiter of all disputes, public or
private, was the dagger, the bullet, or the poison-: MAezeray, Abrege Chron. Journal de Henri III.
t Brantome; Vie de Charles IX.  $ Dacvila, liv. 5, p. 667.




VICISSITUDES.               385
ei's bowl. To such a desperate strait had the Italan morality of Catharine de' Medici-the morality
which looks upon all means as lawful by which
power is obtained and preserved, which stands muttering the favorite Jesuitical shibboleth of the Vatican, " The end sanctifies the means " —reduced
unhappy France. Catharine's ancestor, Cosmo de'
M.Iedici, had maintained his authority at Florence
by severity, guile, and vengeance; should she scruple to use the weapons of so consummate a politician?
She now used all three. HIer severity and ven
geance were shown by the execution of La 3Malle
and Coconnas;* by the arrest of Mlontgomery in
Normandy, shortly followed by his beheadal, ostensibly for killing Henry II. in the tournament of
1559, but really because he was one of the most
indefatigable and uncompromising of the Huguenots;t- by the imprisonment of marshals MIontmorenci and Coss6 in the Bastile, and by the confinement of Alen9on and Henry of Navarre in a grated
chamber of the Louvre under careful surveillance.4
Her guile was exhibited by the attempts which
she made to wheedle those chiefs who wisely absented themselves from her dangerous vicinage, and
especially by her efforts to cajole ID'Amville  Montmorenci, who, dissatisfied by the imprisonment of
his brother the marshal, by the insult offered his
o Matthieu, Brantome, De Thou.
t Journal de Henri III. D'Aubigne.
t Brantome, vol. 1, p. 171. James, Life of Henry IV.
Huguenots.        j 7




386            THE HUGUENOTS.
family in the assassination of Coligny, and by the
exile of his house from court, aided, salb rost, the
insurgents in his government of Languedoc, while
professing to quell the  nzeztte.*
Such was the political situation when Henry III.
returned to France.
Henry received intelligence of his brother's
death within fourteen days after his arrival in Poland.  The austere behavior of his new subjects
made him regret, even in that brief period, the unchecked profligacy of Paris; and his companions,
young libertines from twenty to twenty-five years
of age, disgusted by the restraints of decency and
virtue, longed to lap themselves once more in the
licentious arms of Catharine's court beauties.  In
this desire the dandy king, who wore earrings,t,ndcl perfumed his person so that he smelled like a
)walking Cologne-bottle, fully shared. Fearing lest
the Poles might remonstrate against his departure,
one clark tempestuous night he quitted his palace
at Cracow by stealth, thus abandoning as a fugitive
a crown which he had gained by bribery and intrigue, and in two clays he reached the frontiers of
the German empire.$
A little later Henry joined Catharine at Lyons.~
On arriving at his capital, he found the seeds of
civil war again sown; and amid the hireling shouts
of gratulation which hailed his presence, he heard'~ Da-vila, liv. 5, p. 671.     f Ranke, p. 307.
l Matthieu, liv. 7. De Thou, liv. 58.
~ Duncan, p. 143. [Bro-wning, p. 171.




VICISSITUDES.                  387
the ill-suppressed murmurs of seditious discontent.
13ut disc ord was Catharine's element, she revelled in it: "I prefer to fish in troubled waters,"
said she.>  She told Henry that it became the hero
of Jarnac and 3Ioncontour to crush sedition sword
in land; and the weak monarch succumbed to this
subtle flattery, and adopted Catharine's pernicious
counsel. Siege was at once laid to one of the insurgent towns —livron.t
At this juncture died the cardinal of Lorraine,J:
whose infamous policy and vaulting ambition had
bathed France in blood. He possessed great talents,
which he devoted to the aggrandizement of his farmily, careless of the honor or advantage- of his country. He was the centre of a circle, and his relatives
bounded its circumference; no thoughts of national
utility ever, even transiently, entered into his conceptions of state policy. He made use of religion as the
ladder of his ambition;~ he embroiled the various
members of the royal family with each other, while
he directed their concentrated fury against the best
subjects in the kingdom. He was a priest withou-t
pietr, a statesman without honor, a libertine by practice, a hypocrite by habit, avaricious, unfeeling,
treacherous; concealing, under an engaging air of,simulated candor, a black heart, malignant and revengeful. li
* Brantome.                       t Sully, liv. 1.: Brantome, vol. 8, p. 148.
~ "He availed himself of piety for purposes of grandeur.'
13rcntome, vol. 6, p. 149.       It Duncan, p. 148.




388          THE HIUGIUENOTS.
Ere the court recovered from the sensation pros
duced by the cardinal's death, the chiefs of the insurrection met at AMillaud and bound themselves by
oath to two distinct articles: the political imalcontents covenanted never to lay down arms until the
Huguenots were secured in the complete and free
exercise of their religion; the Huguenots pledged
themselves neither to sign a peace, nor to consent
to a truce, till the liberation of the captive marshals
Miontmorenci and Coss6.*
3Meantime the feeble garrison of Livron defied
the utmost exertions of the royal army, and Henry
himself went to the camp, accompanied by the
queen mother and the court, expecting that his
presence would insure the speedy fall of the stubborn town. He was mistaken; when the besieged
learned of his arrival before their walls, they
crowded to the ramparts and hurled the bitterest
insults into his ears.  "Cowards," they cried, "assassins, what are you come for?  Do you think
to surprise us in our beds, and to murder us, as
you did the admiral?  Show yourselves, minions.
Come, prove to your cost that you are unable to
stand even against our women."t Thus Henry was
literally hooted from the walls of Livron; he lost
his heroic laurels, and raising the siege in a great
passion, retired ignominiously to Paris.:i:
The court had scarcely settled itself in the
j]r-uvre, ere it was startled by the news that Alen~ Davila, liv. 5. Brantome, liv. 9.   t De Thou, liv. 60.
$ Mezeray, Abrege Chron.




VICISSITUDES.               389
von, the king's brother and heir apparent to the
throne, had escaped his mother's surveillance and
joined the insurgents.*  Alenon, whose only importance consisted in his position, for he was utterly
destitute of talent and honesty, had been angered
by the king's refusal to bestow upon him the lieutenant-generalship of the kingdom, which Henry
withheld because he knew his brother's turbulent
incompetence.
Still, Alengon was a prince of the blood, and his
accession to the opposition gave them increased
strength. The confederates had nominated Cond6,
who had quitted Paris sonme time before, and was
now in Germany recruiting an army for the Huguenots, as their leader, in the absence of Navarre,
still held at court; but with rare good sense, when
Cond6 heard that Alengon had joined his party, he
conferred the nominal leadership upon that prince,
satisfied with retaining its essence.1t
Soon the confederates had a large army in the
field; Cond6 was rapidly advancing at the head of
his German mercenaries; and Thor6 Montmorenci,
who commanded the advance guard of the main
body, met the dukes of Guise and Mlayence, brothers, and two of the ablest captains of the age, at the
village of Dormans. The forces at once joined battle, and after a sanguinary contest, Thord was routed.t It was here that Guise obtained the wound in
* Davila, liv. 6. Memr. de Nevers, vol. 1, p. 97.
t Ibid. Mezeray, Browning.
t Mem. de Bouillon, p. 137. Browning, p. 177.




390           THE HUGUENOTS.
the face which gained for him the surname of Le
Baltfrd.
Alengon was soon surrounded by a number of
distinguished gentlemen, among whom  were Turennetl and La Nou6.  Ere long the party was still
further reinforced by the arrival of Henry of Navarre, who escaped fromn Paris by a stratagem, to'the chagrin of Catharine and the rage? of Henry III.:
At Tours, lNfavarre renounced popery, protested
against his abjuration of Calvinism, in 1572, as
wrung from him in duress, and announced his determination to battle for his faith.
The Huguenots were jubilant, and they speedily
put fifty thousand men-at-arms in the field.~
Suddenly Alengon, true to his weak and perfidcl
ious nature, wavered, then went over to the court.
Soured by the superior influence of Navarre and
Condcl in the confederate camp, he fell an easy vic
tim to his mother's wiles.ll
Shortly after Alengon's defection, both parties
wearied of the war, and a treaty of pacification was
signed.[ The H uguenots again wrung from  the
reluctant court those concessions so often granted
and so invariably infringed. But the terms now
won were more favorable than any heretofore ob-' Davila, liv. 6.
t Henry de la Tour, Viscount Turenne, afterwards the duke of
Bouillon, nephew of the constable Montmorenci, a young man of
rare talent. Browning.
T D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ., vol. 2, p. 188. Sully, liv. 1. Matthieu, liv. 7.                   ~ Browning, p. 179.
j1 Davila, liv. 6.   I This was dated May 14, 1576.




VICISSITUDES.               391
tained: amnesty for the past; full liberty of conscience; the free exercise of religion, without exceptions of time or place; the power of erecting schools
and colleges, of convening synods, of performing
marriage, of administering the sacraments according
to the reformed creed; the eligibility of Huguenots
to office; the liberation of all prisoners of state; a
promise to establish a court of justice in each parliament, composed jointly and equally of Huguenots
and Romanists: these were among the chief clauses
of the treaty, a treaty which was characterized at
the time as "not a pacification, but a surrender aE
discretion of the court."+
Yet despite Brantome's epigram, the Huguenots
committed a gross blunder in signing the pacification. With their experience of the hollowness and
treachery of Catharine and the king, it seems strange
that they should not have kncwn that concessions
so ample would never be executed.  Catharine's
well-known maxim was, "IDivide and govern." When
the wily queen was hard pressed, she negotiated a
peace, and then went deliberately to work to break
its most solemn ratifications.
Concerning this treaty, Davila openly confesses
that the court never intended to fulfil their engagements; that all they aimed at was the withdrawal
of Alenqon from the coalition, and the return of the
mercenaries to Germany.t And Sully, referring to
the queen mother, says, "She offered more than we
thought that we could demand; promises cost that
0 Brantome, vol. 8.      t Davila, liv. 6, p. 672.




392           THE HUGUENOTS.
artful princess nothing. Thus all things fell out as
she wished; for in making this peace she had nothing in view but the disunion of her enemies."*
Sully and Davila were right: the treaty of pacification was scarcely ratified before it was pronounced null and void; not one of its articles was
ever executed.t- It produced an armistice, rather
than a peace; both parties rested upon their arms.
But the apparent " surrender of the court at discretion" was in fact another trophy won by the
vicious statesmanship of Catharine de' Medici.
a Sully, liv. 1.          t Ibid. Duncan, p. 155.




THE LEAGUE.                393
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE LEAGUE.
THE rose-water sprinkled upon the glowing embers of the late civil strife was so far from quenching the fire, that the flame threatened at every
moment to blaze again with increased fury.
All parties were dissatisfied: the Huguenots,
because they saw that they had bartered success
for a worthless parcel of parchment promises, which
the government had no intention of enforcing; the
Romanists, because they thought that their creed
had been compromised by even the empty assent
to tolerant concessions, whether made in good faith
or fronm hypocrisy; the people at large, because
their taxes were vastly increased, while the court
spent their substance in riot and debauchery.*
But two years had elapsed since Henry's accession, yet he was clothed in dishonor. The Polish
diet had expelled him from their throne with the
most degrading marks of infamy; and he now
lounged in the court of France, occupied in seductions, in inventing new forms of etiquette, and in
weighty consultations with his tailor upon the cut
of a coat or the tie of a cravat,t while his government was crumbling into dust. He was hated by
* Sully, liv. 1. Mem. de Nevers, vol. 1.
t Ranke, p. 307. Browning, p. 182.
17*




394          THE HU GUENOTS.
the reformers on account of his vices and his
breaches of faith; he was despised by the Romanists for his foppish imbecility.*  Thus the substance of royalty had departed from him, only the
shadow remained. Openly bearded by the Huguenots, while the reactionists, led by the house of
Guise, secretly conspired against his nominal authority, this miserable representative of the august
Valois dynasty saw none but enemies abroad and
rebels at home. His only friends, if that sacred
name can be applied to such characters, were young
libertines, the companions of his profligacies, whose
extravagance and license put the seal to his unpopularity.
Not the slightest dependence was placed upon
the unsteady royal popinjay.  On behalf of his
party, Cond6 wrote to prince Cassimir requesting
him to remain near the frontier with his lan.7cknechts,
as great apprehension was felt that the pacification
-would not be observed by the court.1On their part, the ultramontanists, incited by
the gold of the Spanish king, and filled with the
venom of religious hate, longed and watched and
plotted for the dismal tocsin to ring in once more
the "Paris matins."  They petitioned the king to
revoke the recent edict; they conjured him to exterminate the heretics.
IHenry's will to comply with this congenial requisition was as good as that of the fiercest fanatic in
* Duncan, p. 155.
t Hist. des Derniers Troubles, vol. 1, p. 6.




THE LEAGUE.                 395
his kingdom; nothing would have pleased him better than to figure as the hero of another St. Bartholomew. But he lacked stamina; when weighty
obstacles were to be surmounted, his unstable and
weak nature succumbed. Wary and dissembling as
he was, he made use of an expression which showed
the wish of his heart, immediately after signing the
obnoxious treaty. The Huguenots of Rouen had
just resumed the exercise of their worship, and the
cardinal of Bourbon, accompanied by several counsellors, went to their rendezvous to prevent the service. He entered without difficulty, but when he
mounted the pulpit and began to speak, the evangelicals quitted the building and left him to address
empty benches. Some one told the king that the
cardinal had dispersed the Huguenots of Rouen by
a flourish of his cross and banner. " Is't so?" cried
Henry; "would to God they could be as easily
driven from the other towns, were it even necessary
to add the holy-water basin.";
But the ultramontanists distrusted Henry's
pluck, and they despised his lack of vigor. Therefore they determined to choose a fitter leader, and
to league themselves together by an oath to extirpate heresy, and to exclude the Huguenots from
participation in the government.t
Such, in its inception, was the famous League;
such was its abhorrent and fanatic object. Later
as we shall see, it assumed an additional phase.
* Amiranlt, Vie de la Noue, p. 191; cited by Browning, p. 181.
Ancquetil, Esprit de la Ligue. Cayet, Brant., Brown, tic.




396             THE IUGUENOTS.
There is a little cabinet in the castle of Joinville
which has long been pointed out as the chamber in
which the league was formed. There, in 1576, there
were assembled Tassis and Moreo, two delegates of
the king of Spain, the dukes of Guise and MIayenne,
who also represented the cardinal of Guise and the
dukes D'Aumale and Elbceuf; and besides these, a
delegate of the cardinal of Bourbon.  A  covenant
was drawn up and signed, Henry duke of Guise was
appointed chief of the association,* and under the
pretext of religion, a terrible, secret, and atrocious
society was launched  which, like the Jesuits who
reinforced it, plotted in the dark, used all weapons
of deceit and fraud and force, and ere long drenched Europe in blood.t: Anquetil, Esprit de la Ligue. Cayet, Erantonle, Browning,
etc. Ranke, p. 340.
t The ipsissimna verba of the League, translated, were as follows:
"In the name of the most holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, our only true God, to whom be glory and honor. The covenant of the princes, lords, and gentlemen of the Romish religion
ought to be made, and hereby is made, to establish the law of God
in its purity, and to restore and settle his holy service according
to the form and manner of the apostolic Roman church, abjuring
and renouncing all errors contrary to it.
" Secondly, it is made to preserve king Henry, the third of that
name, and his successors the most Christian kings, the state, honor, authority, duty, service, and obedience owed by his and their
subjects, as the same are contained in the articles which shall be
presented to him in the assembly of states, and which he swore
and promised to observe at the time of his consecration and coronation, with a solemn protestation not to do any act against what
shall be. ordained and settled by the state.
"Thirdly, to restore unto the provinces of this kingdom, and
to those other states which are under it, those ancient rights, pre.
eminences, liberties, and privileges, which existed in the time of




THE LEAGUE.                        397
As in antiquity  Athens cannot be thought of
without Sparta, Rome without Carthage, so in the
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries France  can
Clovis, the first most Christian king, or others better and more
profitable-if any such can be found-under the same protection.
"In case there be any impediment, opposition, or rebellion
against what has been premised, be it from whom it will, or proceed
fron whencesoever it may, those who enter into this covenant shall
be bound and obliged to employ their lives and fortunes to punish, chastise, and prosecute those who may attempt to disturb it
or prevent its execution, and shall never cease their endeavors till
the aforesaid things be done and perfected.
"In case any of the confederates, their friends, vassals, or dependents, be oppressed, molested, or questioned for this cause, be
it by whom it will, they shall be bound to employ their goods, estates, and persons, to take vengeance upon those who shall have
so molested them, either by way of justice or force, without any
exceptions of persons -whatsoever.
"If it shall come to pass that any man, after uniting himself
by oath to this confederacy, shall desire to depart from it, or separate himself on any pretence or excuse-which God forbid-such
violators of their own consciences shall be punished both in their
bodies and goods, by all means that can be thought of, as enemies
of God and rebels and disturbers of the public peace; nor shall
the aforesaid associates be liable to be questioned for any punishment they may inflict, either in public or private.
"The said associates shall likewise swear to yield ready obedience and faithful service unto that HEsAD who shall be appointed;
to follow and obey him, and to lend all help, counsel, and assistance, as well for the entire conservation and maintenance of this
league, as for the ruin of all who may oppose it, without partiality
or exception of persons; and those who fail or depart from it shall
be punished by the authority of the HEAD, and according to his
orders, to which every confederate shall be obliged to submit
himself.
"All Romanists of the several towns, villages, and cities shall
be secretly advertised and warned by the particular governors of:
places to enter into this league, and concur in the finding of men,
rTms, and other necessaries, every one according to his adjudged




398             THE HUGUENOTS.
neither be comprehended nor understood without
the counterpart of the Spanish monarchy.
What was it that Francis I. and Charles Y. contended for in their tiie?  The emperor sought to
realize that universal supremacy which was connected in theory with his title; Francis maintained
the idea of France.  There was now no danger to
be apprehended from  the Capuchin emperor; but
his son and successor, powerful in the possession
of extensive territories and the gold of the Indies,
renewed the claim to Spanish predominance, and
stepped forth himself as the champion of the ancient faith against its assailants.  In the adherents
of the Vatican he met with warm  supporters, by
whose assent he assumed the position and authority of head of the reactionists generally throughout
Europe.
The  League  then was largely  his idea, and
condition and ability. All the confederates shall be prohibited
from stirring up any discord, or entering into any dispute among
themselves, without leave of the HEAD, to whose arbitrament all
discussions shall be referred, as also the settlement of all differences, as well in matters of goods as of good name; and all of
them shall be obliged to swear in the manner and form following:' I swear by God the Creator-laying my hand upon the holy gospel-and under pain of excommunication and eternal damnation,
that I enter into this holy Roman league according to the form of
that writing which has now been read to me, and that I do failt h
fully and sincerely enter into it either to command or obey, as I
shall be directed; and I promise on my life and honor to continue
in it to the last drop of my blood, and not to depart from it or
transgress it for any command, pretence, excuse, or occasion which
1 y any means whatsoever may be represented to me."' Davila,
liv. 6, p. 223, et seq.




THE LEAGUE.                  399
Guise became merely the lieutenant of Philip II.
when he assumed the nominal leadership.*
The emissaries of the new society circulated the
forms of the covenant with equal celerity and secrecy: at first no proselytes were made; only papists
of known zeal and discretion signed the rolls and
took the oath, for the association did not mean to
strike a hasty blow; they intended rather to perfect
their organization at leisure, and to await an auspicious moment for the manifestation of their prodigious power.t
Thus the League lay coiled and torpid, like a
huge serpent, ready to spring upon the victim when
events should warm it into vicious life.
Meantime, towards the close of the year 1576,
the states-general were convened at Blois;t France
was agitated; Henry had just learned by accident~
of the formation of the League; the Huguenots
were clamorous for the enforcement of the edict of
paceification; the papists were mutinous; chaos
seemed come again. The king was alarmed.  The
League boldly demanded war; he felt himself too
weak to resent their insolence; yet to yield was in
effect an abdication.  In an unhappy moment
Henry determined himself to head the League,[l to
become the chief of a faction, instead of the sovereign of a nation.
t- Ranke, p. 305.
t Anquttil, Esprit de la Ligue. Maimbourg, Hist. de la Ligue
t Cayiet, liv. 1, p. 10. De Thou, liv. 63.
~ Browning, p. 1S3. Maimbourg, Hist. de la Ligue, vol. 1,
il De Thou, Per6fixe, La Grain.




400          THE HUGUENOTS.
This manceuvre disconcerted the confederates;
but instantly recovering their equanimity, they dispatched the duke of Guise to visit the king, and
enjoin him as a member of the holy union to annul
the last edict and proclaim war.*  It was however
desirable that, before the sword was unsheathed,
Tavarre, Cond6, and ]D'Amville should be summonedl to obey the king, in order that on their refusal to recant, the responsibility of the ensuing
strife might appear to rest on their hoads.t
This was done. Navarre declared that " if God
opened his eyes that he might see his error, not
only would he immediately abjure it, but he would
contribute his utmost efforts to abolish heresy altogether,"$ a speech which has been well said to be
characteristic of the epoch. Navarre was at the
tilme in arms for liberty of conscience, and yet declared his readiness to become a persecutor if a
change took place in his opinions, a remark which
actually justified the leaguers in their course, and
which cried Amen to the tortuous diplomacy of
Catharine de' Medici.
The deputies to Cond6 and D'Amville received
this answer: " We ask only for peace; let the promises given us be fulfilled, and all will be well; besides, we do not acknowledge your states-general,
aind we protest against every resolution there made
tc our prejudice."~
- De Thou, Perefixe, La Grain.
t elem. de Nevers, vol. 1, p. 451.      Ibid.
I De Thou, liv. 63.




THE LEAGUE.                 401
Towards the close of MIarch, 1577, the w, ar recommenced; the campaign, however, was a tedious
one; little was accomplished on either side; it was
a war of skirmishes. The League, persuaded that
iheir policy dictated patient preparation, and convinced that they were not yet fit to take the field,
dissembled; and Henry, true to his weak nature,
speedily tired  of the contest when no longer
hounded on by bolder rogues. The consequence
was the conclusion of a new treaty at Bergerac, in
September, 1577,* which was immediately followed
by the edict of Poictiers,t confirming, in all essential respects, the tolerant enactments of the past.1
Peace-if a society torn by feuds and cursed by
incessant emeutes, can be said ever to enjoy that
blessing —now reigned through three years.
In 1580, a wanton insult offered by king Henry
to the queen of Navarre, by a brother to a sister,
again kindled war. Henry, impelled by his love of
mischief or by his dislike of Navarre, wrote that
prince that Turenne was criminally intimate with
iIargaret.~
Both Turenne and the queen were naturally
indignant at this insult, with which Navarre acquainted them by showing the royal letter, and
they spared no pains to precipitate another revol ution.
This contest had no religious basis; yet such
was the peculiarity of the times, that in any trouble
sa Davila, liv. 6.    t Ibid. Mer. cle Nevers.
5 Browning, p. 188.    ~ D'Aubign6, vol. 2, p. 345.




402          THE HUGUENOTS.
the chiefs of either party could depend upon tho
support of their partisans, who took it for grantecl
that the object for which they battled was just.
After raging fiercely for some months, thle
"Lover's war," as it was called on account of its
origin, was concluded by another pacification, ancl
weary France again rested for a moment from internecine butchery.*
But the lingdom had undergone so many andc
such violent convulsions, had become so habituatecl
to martial strife, that a parchment treaty had lno
power to tranquillize it. The civil wars had createcl a distaste for the ordinary occupations of life;
a large portion of the population, demoralized by
the camp, hated whatever made for peace; the
country swarmed with bcazditti; bravos, ready to
assassinate or to plunder, awaited employment in
the open market-place.t  Such was France under
the imbecile sceptre of Henry lII.; but while the
papists, in the excess of their fanatic zeal, did not
scruple to charge these crying evils to the prevalence of heresy, the Huguenots, with better philosophy, attributed them to the wickedness of France,
abandoned to licentious despots and the whims of
fanaticism; no text was more frequent upon their
lips than this: "Righteousness exalteih a nation;
blul sin is a reproach to any people."
Q Browning, p. 193.
t Mezeray, I)e Borg, Life of Henry IV., Vie de Henri IIl., eke.




THE THREE HENRIES.               403
CHIAPTERE XXIX.
THE WAR OF THE THREE HENRIES.
IN June, 1584, the duke of Alenion died at
Ch'teau-Thierry, a castle on his apanage, and his
demise opened a vast field to those intriguers who
were fomenting civil war.*
Instantly the torpid League sprang to its feet,
frill of Satanic energy, and prepared for action. In
the reigning monarch the house of Valois became
extinct. Henry had been married ten years, but
he was childless; by the death of Alenyon, Navarre of the line of Bourbon became next heir to
the throne. This the Salic law decreed; this abstract right not the fiercest bigot questioned.1- But
the Navarrese prince was a Huguenot; and tihe
champions of the Vatican in France appealed
through the League to the intolerant passions of
the people, affirming that the accession of a Calvinist monarch would necessitate the overthrow of
Latin orthodoxy.t
The chiefs of the League were again convened
at Guise's castle of Joinville, and to this rendezvous Philip of Spain also sent his delegates. A
pronunciamento was agreed on, and shortly publishecd.~  Proceeding from the fundamental princi* Brantome, Duncan, Mlem. de Nevers.
t Pasquier; Browning, p. 196.  $ Ibid. Duncan, p. 174.
~ Mem. de Nevers, )Da-vila, Hist. de la Ligue.




404          THE HUGUENOTS.
pie that a heretic could not be king of France, this
paper declared the League to be of one mind, that
the sceptre should not pass to the king of Navarre,
but to his uncle the cardinal of Bourbon, a younger
brother of that renegade Antony, who married Jane
d'Albret, and from whom these claims were derived.2*
The cardinal, by his plenipotentiary, joined the
union and adopted the shibboleth. Further, the
League was announced to be intended to effect the
extirpation of the Huguenots not only in France,
but also in the Netherlands.t  The king of Spain
promised for the first year a subsidy of one million
scudi.j The French princes, on their part, regarding themselves as already clothed in the royal purple, bound themselves to renounce the alliance with
the Ottoman Porte; to give up the system of piracy
carried on in the West Indian waters; to restore
Cambray, wrung from Philip by the valor of the
Protestants; and to assist Spain in the subjugation
of the Netherlands.~
Such, in its main features, was the extraorditlary treaty concluded between the traitorous subjects of Henry III. and the Spanish government,
without the consent, nay, without the knowledge of
the king of France.11
When Henry learned of the mischief which was
brewing, he was prodigiously startled. One of his
favorites, Epernon, was hastily dispatched to Henry
o anke, p. 340.   t Davila, liv. 6. Duncan, p. 176.
$ Hist. de la Ligue.      ~ Ibid. Maimbourg.
I1 De Thou, liv. 81. Villeroy, vol. 3.




THE THIIEE HENDJIES.             405
of Navarre, to offer llin the undisputed succession,
provided he would return to the court, renounce
-his creed, and reconcile himself to Romle.*
The League, in its turn, was now startled. SMatt]hieu, a Jesuit, who was nicknamed the cozurier of
the Leagcue, was sent to Rome to procure the pontiff's dispensation for the action of the confederation, a move which looked to the nmurder of the
king.t  But Gregory XIII. steadily refused to sign
any document, while his verbal answers were always expressed with non-conmmittal craft.$:
In the mean time Epernon had been received
by Henry of Navarre with courtesy. The Navarrese
prince hesitated.  By renouncing Calvinism  he
smoothed his path to the throne, but he distrusted
the sincerity of the court: he feared to exchange
his present independence for a gorgeous imprisonment; nay, more, should the Guises regain the
ascendency, his assassination was certain. He was
also much influenced by the recent conduct of his
wife, who was separated from him, and who led a
licentious life in Auvergne. HIe felt that he would
be obliged to receive her back to secure the sincere
friendship of the queen mother and the king, if any
such quality as sincerity could be expected from
Henry III., whose other name was duplicity, and
from Catharine, whose synonym was treachery.
These considerations made him finally resolve
neither to embrace Romanism nor to return to the
o Duncan, p. 179.   t Duncan, Davila, D'Aubigne.
$ Ibid.




406           T-HE IIUGTUENOTS.
court; but he offered to assist the king against the
League, and declared himself open to conviction
in religion.w,Just as Henry III. received this answer, and
stood deeply lamenting the failure of the negotiation, the leaguers, who had assenbled at Gaillon,
in the neighborhood of Rouen, published a manifesto declaring war without awaiting the king's
assent, artfully blending together the interests of
religion, the privileges of the nobles, and the oppressions of the poor; demanding the definitive
revocation of all tolerant edicts, and dictating the
expulsion of the Huguenots from France.t
The emissaries of the League then seized every
strong-hold  which  they  could  surprise;i: while
Guise, at the head of an insignificant army, rendezvoused at Chalons, and anxiously awaited reinforcement.~
The king published a -counter-declaration, in
which he appeared rather to justify his imbecile
government than to condemn the rebellion. "Forgetting the arms which nature and necessity presented to him, he had recourse to pen and paper,"
says a satirical contemporary; "but so tamely that
you would say he did not dare to name his enemy,
and that he resembled a man who complains withoat saying who has beaten him."l[,: Duncan, p. 181; Hist. de la Ligue; Vie de IIenri III., etc.
t De Thou, liv. 81. Davila, liv. 7. This paper was dated
M1arch 13, 1585.:       Maimbourg, Hist. de la Ligue.
~ Ibid. Browning, p. 201.
l! Hist. des Derniers Troubles3 liv.,. p. 20.




THE THRIEE HENRI]ES.            407
The king's appeal produced no effect; not a
sword was drawn.
Had Henry possessed either courage or energy,
he might have easily dispersed Guise's nucleus
force. Indeed Guise himself said to Nangis, when
that gentleman asked him what he should do if the
king assailed him, "Retire as quickly as possible
to Germany, and await a more favorable opportunity."*
But when fear chills the heart and paralyzes
the arm of a sovereign, all is lost; the audacity of
revolt increases with impunity. Could Henry have
exhibited the conqueror of Jarnac, he would. have
insured tranquillity. But anxious to appease the
insurgents, not to quell them, he entreated the
queen mother to meet Guise, assure him of his
friendship, and accede to the terms of the League,
rather than disturb the peace of France.-t
Lyons, Bourges, Orleans, Angers, had succumbed to his feeble army, and Guise, emboldened by
success, nmet Catharine with an air of bravado, and
with.rare insolence actually dictated a peace to his
king. A request, signed by himself and the cardinal of Bourbon, was presented, demanding an edict
for the extirpation of heresy, the forcible expulsion
of the Huguenots from the kingdom, a pledge from
tHenry to adhere to the League, and to renounce
the protection of Geneva.J:  Mem. de Beauvais Nangis.
t Hist. des Derniers Troubles; Mezeray.
$ Davila, De Thou.




408          THE HUGUENOTS.
This "request" was at once adopted, and the
royal imbecile signed the ignominious treaty at
Nenmours on the 7th of July, 1585.*  From  this
hour Henry III. ceased to be de facto king of
France; he was merely the nominal chief of a religious faction. He himself felt this, and he once
said with a touch of pathos, "'T is true that I wear
the crown, but Guise is the king of hearts."t The
king now came to hate Guise with the peculiar
virulence of a weak and treacherous nature, and he
determined to avail himself of the first opportunity
to avenge his humbled honor by the stiletto of a
bravo. "This overpowerful subject," muttered he,
" must be swept from my path."
The Huguenots received the intelligence of this
fatal treaty with grief and consternation. The king
of Navarre was astounded.  Conde's troops had
been largely disbanded; the party were unprepared
for war; the fiercest harry yet organized, sanctioned
by the king, was about to swoop upon them. So
terrible was Navarre's agony, says the historian
Matthieu, that "his mustachios became white in a
night."$
But unlike the king, his energy and fertility of
resource were not to be paralyzed by danger, either
menaced or present. With Titanic zeal he labored
to save imperilled Christianity. Negotiations with
Protestant powers abroad were opened; the home
partisans of reform were summoned to assemble;
s Matthieu.                  i- Ranke, p. a66.
$ Matthieu, Hist. de France, liv. 8, p. 501.




THE THRIEE HENRIES.              409
Conde went into Germany to recruit his lanzlmec7lts;
Navarre published an appeal to Christendom, in
which lie complained of being stigmatized as a relapsed heretic, a persecutor of the church, a disturber of the state, false and malicious libels on his
character invented to deprive him of the royal succession; declared that lie had been compelled to
appear to abjure his faith on the St. Bartholomew
to save his life; that he was open to conviction,
but that efforts had always been made to destroy
rather than convert him: he repudiated the accusation of persecuting the papists, showing that
manny of that creed held high offices in his hereditary domains, and that others were constantly in
attendance upon his person: he averred that he
had never molested the persons nor touched the
revenues of the Romish priests; offered to place
all his fortresses in the king's hands if the Guises
and their adherents would imitate his example;
denounced the ambition of the house of Lorraine;
and concluded by giving the lie to his enemies, and
offering to decide the quarrel with the duke of Guise
according to the chivalric habit of the times, by
combat, either singly, or with two, ten, or twenty
on a side.*
This manifesto produced a profound sensation.t
Liberal Europe cried, Amen. His friends displayed
increased devotion; the indifferent joined him, partly from admiration for his fortitude, partly because
* Cayet, liv. 1, p. 8. Browning, p. 202. Mnem, de Dnplessis.
t Ibid.
nuguenots.         I8




410          THE HUGUENOTS.
they were clear-sighted enough to perceive that he
was the victim of a base and unprincipled faction,
who, to compass their ambitious views, would hazard laying France prostrate at the feet of Spain.
Small detachments of cavaliers reached Navarre
from time to time, the precursors of more formidable levies; and this prince, who was supposed by
many to be preparing for flight, was soon strong
enough to attack the overconfident League.*
Thus Navarre was supported by his own indomitable heroism, by the enthusiasm of his party, by
the prayers of the righteous, and by God's all-powerful hand.
The contest at once commenced. It was called,
The TWcar of the three Hen.riest-Henry III. at the
head of the royalists, Henry of Guise at the head
of the leaguers, and Henry of Navarre at the head
of the Huguenots.
At this critical juncture pope Gregory XIII.
ied. He had steadily refused to identify himself
with the League, or to put the Bourbon princes out
of the pale of the church: "I will leave the door
open for their conversion," said he.; He was succeeded by Felici Paretti, a fanatical friar of the
Franciscan order, who assumed the tiara under the
title of Sextus Y.~  This pontiff had no sernples;
lie excommunicated Navarre and Cound, stigmatizing them as relapsed heretics; as such he declared
them incapable of the royal succession; he de.
* Duncan, p. 191.   t Ibid.     $ Ibid., p. 196.
~ Ranke, Hist. of the Popes. Hist. des Derniers Troubles'




THE THREE HENRIES.'411
prived them of their estates, absolved their subjects
and vassals from allegiance, and menaced with
anathema all who should thenceforth serve them
either in a civil or military capacity.*
Unawed by this b'rtumz fdrmnen, the Bourbon
princes preserved their serenity, and even posted
on the walls of the Vatican a protest against the
anatheina.t
But this authoritative voice from the " holy of
holies" at Rome consolidated the League, confirmed many doubting consciences, and gave Guise
prestige. Even Catharine was awed into the cessation of her machinations. Croaking, "Divide and
govern," she had ventured to negotiate with Navarre, and to give him covert aid; for she feared
lest Guise might be too successful, and thereby destroy the political balance. Guise discovered this
move, and shaking his finger menacingly, bade the
withered old diplomat beware of approaching the
abyss of excommunication; and the queen mother
shrank back affrighted.T
The League was jubilant; the sanction of the
pontiff was the text of every Jesuit sermon. The
fanatics declared that victory was sure to follow a
banner blessed by the vicegerent of God; and the
zealots already in imagination celebrated the extirPation of heresy.
Still, on the whole, the moral effect of this insolent interference was favorable to the Huguenots.
* Browning, p. 204.      t Duncan, pp. 196, 197.
$ Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France.




412          THE HUGUENOTS.
The calmer and more reflecting members of the
body politic deprecated the pope's presumption.
They perceived that it struck at the civil franchises
of the kingdom, and might be twisted into a precedent dangerous to the privileges of the Gallican
church.*
The pontiff's fiat did indeed detach numerous
partisans from the Huguenot banner, but these
were of the lowest and most ignorant class. As a
compensation, many gentlemen of rank openly adhered to Navarre; while others who did not choose
publicly to join him, stood neutral, or favored him
in secret.  The gauntlet he had flung down to
Guise and which the chief of the League had not
ventured to take up, his defiance of the pope, the
severe misfortunes which he had incurred, all combined to make Navarre an object of interest, of admiration, of pity; they gained him the active sympathy of the good, the generous, and the heroic.
The Swiss cantons sent deputies to Henry to
intercede for the Huguenots.t The Germans, animnated by the eloquence of the famous Theodore
Beza, who had pleaded the cause of the Reformation before Charles IX. in happier years, armed in
defence of their coreligionists, and enthusiasm gave
to their movements the character of a Protestant
crusade.d
Henry of Navarre took the field: under such a
leader, small bodies equalled armies. He marched
* Duncan, p. 197.   t Maimbourg, Iist. du Calvinismc.
$ Davila, Pere'fixe, Duncan.




THE THREE HENRIES.               413
from victory to victory.  Fired by his spirit, his
troops captured fortresses, subjugated provinces,
and baffled the most subtle tactics of Alayenne.*
On the 20th of October, 1587, the battle of Coutras was fought. The royalists, commanded by the
duke of Joyeuse, were confident, well equipped, and
ten thousand strong.t
The Huguenot army was composed of four thousand infantry and two thousand five hundred cavalry; but the disparity of numbers was balanced
by discipline.  Joyeuse was a courtier; Navarre
was a soldier. The duke's officers were dressed in
richly ornamented costume, and their helmets were
adorned by brilliant plumes; the Huguenots displayed naught but iron, and arms rusty with rain.
It was the army of Darius against that of Alexander.
Navarre drew up his men-at-arms in the form
of a crescent; Conde and the count of Soisson were
on his right, Turenne was upon his left.  " My
friends," cried the king, " behold a prey much more
considerable than any of your former booties; this
is a bridegroom who has still the nuptial present in
his pocket, and all the chief courtiers with him."T
Then turning to Cond6 and Soisson, he said, "All
that I shall observe to you is, that you are of the
house of Bourbon, and, please God, I will show you
that I am your elder brother."~
Just as Navarre concluded, one of his principal
supporters, Duplessis-Mlornay, stepped forward, and
> Davila, Pelrefixe, Duncan.  t Matthieu, De Thou.
I Ibid. P6'refixe.                    ~ Ibid.




414:          THE HUGUENOTS.
in a solemn manner reminded Henry of the great
injury which he had done the reformed religion by
his incontinence, and particularly by the recent and
notorious seduction of a young lady of Rochelle.
"Sire," said this reproving Nathan, "make public
reparation for your misconduct, lest God send defeat as a judgment upon your so many sins."*
Henry, influenced either by religious feeling, or
considering that the ardor of his soldiers would be
heightened by the freedom of their cause from so
foul a stigma, consented publicly to avow his fault
in the church of Pau, and also to confess it on his
first visit to Rochelle. He then knelt, together with
the whole army, while prayer was offered to the
God of battle.
This spectacle, instead of awakening respect in
Joye.use's mind, only confirmed his vain confidence.
"See," cried he with a chuckle, "they kneel, they
tremble; the day is ours."  Laverdin, an old soldier, who was familiar with the habits of the HIuguenots, replied, " Nay, my lord, you mistake.'T is
their custom; they always pray when they mean
either to conquer or die."t
The battle was decided in half an hour. The
courtiers were no match for the soldiers of Christ.
The royalists routed; five thousand dead; five hund(red prisoners; Joyeuse slain: such were the fiuits
of this brilliant victory.:
* Vie de Duplessis-Mornay, liv. 1, p. 108.
t Journal de Henri III.
$ Davila, liv. 8. Cayet, vol. 1, p. 38.




THiE TEHIBEE hENRIES.           415
The Bourbon princes performed prodigies of
valor on that day, but Navarre eclipsed them all.
He fought like the paladin of a fairy tale. A white
plume fastened in his helmet made him conspicuous.  When some of his friends, esteeming him
menaced, threw themselves in front of him to shield
his person, he cried, "Give me room, I beseech you;
you stifle me: I would be seen."*
Henry did not press his victory; indeed he is
charged with having frittered it away.  Quitting
the army, which he left under the charge of Turenne, he repaired to Bearn and laid at the feet of
the duchess de Guiche, of whom he was enamoured,
the colors captured at Coutras.t  He dwarfed the
heroic Henry of the battle-plain to the dandy carpet-knight of a courtesan's boudoir-a sad metamorphosis, shameful to the prince, and insulting to his
God.
To say nothing of his duty as a professed Christian, he ought not, as an able captain, to have bartered success for a lady's smile; he ought not to
have muddled the future by leaving it to the chapter of accidents, when, by energetic action, he might
have anchored God's cause and his country's.
e: La Grani, Decade de Henri Quatre, tome 4.
t Vie de Duplessis-Mornay, p. 111. D'Aubignd, Hist. Univ,;
-roL 3, p. 58.




416          TtHE HUGUENOTS.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION.
TEDIOUS negotiations, which had no effect, followed the battle of Coutras.*  In the meanwhile
Guise was winning laurels at the head waters of
the Loire. His name was on every papist's lips.
Henry III., jealous of this renown, himself departed
for the army; but he arrived only in time to see
the hated Guise entwine the laurel about his brow;
so that when the king returned to Paris, armed
cap-a-pie, with the port of a warrior, the witty citizens only lampooned his vanity and satirized his
assumption of stolen honors.t
But Guise was the popular idol. The metropolis especially resounded with pwans in his praise.
The "new David," the "second MIoses," the "modern Gideon," "the prop and pillar of holy church,"
such were the titles showered upon him. Every
cacf/ in Paris hymned his virtues.
This adulation turned Guise's head. Hurried
away by the madness of ambition, he summoned
his family to assemble at Nancy; and here the
house of Lorraine matured a scheme for deposing
thle king, immuring him in a cloister, and crowning
HIenry of Guise.;
* Duncan; Vie de Henri III.  t Ibid.; Branlome.
$ Ibid.; Davila; De Thou; Mem. de Nevers; James, Life of
Henry IV.




THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION. -417
This shows how little interest the princes of Lorraine really took in religion; they only used it as a
vehicle in which to ride to empire.  Their simple,
sole object in every manceuvre, from the very inception of these troubles in the reign of Francis I.,
through forty years of internecine strife, was thile
aggrandizement of their mushroom  house.*  To
that every thing was made to bend —the public
weal, religious honor, the good faith of the state:
the weightiest interests were transmuted into battledoors.
The convocation at Nancy masked its real design, the usurpation of the throne by Guise; and
committing to writing a series of insolent demands,
forwarded them  to the king.  This precious document was not a petition; it was a command.  Signed
by the Guises, the cardinal of Bourbon, and other
principal chiefs of the League, it imperiously demanded that the king should banish from his court
all persons who were front any cause obnoxious to
the "holy union;" that -he should publish and enforce the decrees of the Council of Trent, place in
the hands of the confederates such towns and fortresses as they might see fit, the crown paying the
garrisons and all costs of fortification, and confiscate
* The cardinal of Guise used frequently to say that he should
cever die happy until he held the king's head between his knees,
to fit on a.monk's cowl. Madame de Montpensier, sister to the
Guises, wished to use her own scissors to make the cowl. The
device of Henry III. was three crowns, with the motto, Manet ultinma
Coelo. The leaguers travestied it into 2Manet ultima Claustro.
Notes to the "HIIenriade."
I8*




418           THE HUGUENOTS.
the Huguenot estates to defray the expenses of the
war of extermination.*
Henry II1. was quite broken by this daring insolenc e. As was usual with him when perplexed, he
applied to the queen mother for assistance.t  Discord reigned in the privy council.  One set of the
king's minions favored the League; another urged
the monarch to identify himself with Navarre, and
strangle that presumptuous union, -the pest of
France.: In accordance with the weak vacillation
of his character, he took neither counsel, but contenting himself with half measures, which in stormy
crises always disgust both parties, he sent the conspirators at Nancy word that he would consider
their petition.~
Guise, emboldened by the king's timidity, now
resolved to strike a decisive blow. His friends were
ready; he was sure of the capital; the omens were
auspicious; he determined to proceed to Paris, and
seize Henry during the celebration of the carnival.[l
Despite the written and reiterated orders of his
sovereign not to quit the camp, he entered Paris on
the 9th of AIay, 1588,~ at high noon. Ere he had
passed half through the city, he was recognized and
thronged by the admiring mob. Thirty thousand
people formed his retinue.*   " The shouts of tho
people," says an eye-witness, "sounded to the skies;
* De Thou, liv. 90. Cayet, liv. 1, p. 44.  t Ibid.' Duncan, p. 214.
~ Mem. de la Ligue, vol. 2, p. 269, et seq. Duncan, p. 215.
IJ Esprit de la Ligue, tom. 2, p. 144.
1 Vie de Henri III.; Duncan, etc.  ** Davila, liv. 8,




THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION.  419
nor did they ever cry, YTrE  LE Roy, as energetically
as they now shouted, YIVE GUIsE. Some saluted
him, some gave him thanks, some bowed to him,
others kissed the hemn of his garment. Those who
could not get near him manifested their joy by gestLres ~ some w ere seen who, adoring him as a saint,
and touching him with their beads, either kissed
them or pressed them against their eyes and foreheads. Even the women, throwing green leaves
and blooming flowers from their windows, honored
and blessed his coming.
"Guise, with a smiling countenance and gracious air, showed himself affable to some in words,
to some by courteously returning their salutations;
others he requited with kind looks. Passing through
the throng with his hat off, le omitted nothing that
was calculated to win and rivet the affection and
applause of the people."*
Such was the reception awarded to the " king of
Paris."  Guise, intoxicated by this adulation, had
the hardihood to visit the Louvre. Catharine was
aghast.  She received him  pale, trembling, and
dismayed. Henry's consternation may not be described. The impudent duke stood with easy nonchalance, enjoying the astonishment which his presence caused, and smiling as the shouts of the populace, who now crowded the court of the Louvre
and the adjacent streets, camne borne to his ears on
the exultant wind.t
* Davila, liv. 8, p. 337. f Maimbourg, Hist. de la Ligue, voL
2, p. 323.




420          THE HUGUENOTS.
Henry reproached Guise for his disobedience in
visiting the capital, and the stern look which greeted him at length made the champion of the League
and the idol of the Parisians turn pale. After a
stormy interview, the duke feigned fatigue, and took
1his leave amid the accliamations of the multitude.*
In the evening Guise fortified his house and
stored it with ammunition. Equal vigilance was
observed at the Louvre. The Swiss were under
arms, and every man-at-arms whom Henry could
press into service was put on guard.t
The next morning Guise again visited the Louvre; but fearful of treachery, he was accompanied
by four hundred armed friends. Nothing was accomplished; and in the evening further consultations were held.:'.In the mean time every wile was employed to
lash the excitable populace into a frenzy. The report
was spread that a hundred and twenty of the chief
leaguers were marked out for death. A counterfeit
list was framned and circulated. Guise headed the
victims. The people, incited by the priests, raged
madly. Then commenced the famous barricades.
Paris, in the reign of Henry III., was not protected by the vigilant police of modern times. Now
the constabulary force receives instructions from
the crown minister; then it was wholly under the
control of the municipal authorities. The city was
ther girt with walls, flanked by lofty towers; the
* fIaimbourg, Hist. de la Ligue, vol. 2, p. 323. Davila, liv 9.
t Cayet, liv. 1, p. 58.              4 Ibid.




THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION.   421
gates were shut exactly at the fixed hour, and the
sheriffs held the keys. The burgesses were formed
into a militia, chose their own officers, and were
frequently drilled.  At the corners of the streets
weighty chains were attach ed to rivets in the houses;
these were stretched out at the least alarm, and
thus all communication of one quarter of the city
with another was impeded.*
The people had banners, fixed places of meeting, rallying words; and no more than a drum-tap
or the sound of a bell was required to collect a
mass of soldiers under arms, imperfectly disciplined, but formidable from their number.t  Paris was
divided into sixteen districts: in each of these a
council was formed in the interest of the League;
these appointed sixteen demagogue delegates, who
made another council, called the "Council of Sixteen,"I which was so famous in the religious wars
of France.
Now the SIXTEEN were in their element. The
tocsin sounded; the streets were unpaved; the
chains extended from corner -to corner; the Swiss
guard of the king, shut up in the square before the
church of the INNOCENTS and isolated, were soon
forced to surrender; and Guise saw himself master
of Paris by an almost bloodless cotup d'Rtat.~
While these scenes were being enacted in the'i reets of his turbulent and traitorous capital, IHen* Duncan, p. 214.                    t Ibid.
Esprit de la Ligue, toll. 2, p. 140.
H list. des Derniers Troubles; Cayet; DIavila.




422           THE HUGUENOTS.
ry, palsied by fear, gave up all hope.  He had been
informed of the object of Guise's visit by one of the
repentant conspirators,* and he could not believe
that his foe would let slip this opportunity: he
stood disarmed and friendless; what could save
him?
The craft of Catharine de' Miedici extricated her
inefficient son fron Guise's net.
The queen mother had already visited Guise,
when he had named such hard terms as anmounted
to the abdication of the king.t  Now, returning to
the duke, she held him in protracted conversation,
that he might have no opportunity to invest the
Louvre, while the king prepared for instant flight.T
Proceeding into the garden of the Tuilleries on
pretence of taking a promenade, Henry repaired to
the royal stables, equipped himself for his journey,
and immediately set off on horseback, accompanied by a suite of fifteen or twenty gentlemen, for
Chartres, where he arrived safely the next day, receiving every mark of affection and respect.~
In the mean while Memrville, one of Guise's attendants, having ascertained that Henry had quitted Paris, burst unceremoniously into the duke's
cabinet, interrupted the queen mother's empty harangue, which meant only time, and flung into his
* Nicholas Paulain, one of the conspirators, revealed every
thring to the chancellor, named his accomplices, and offered to
remain in prismBn till the truth of his report was ascertained. The
court at first doubted; but the appearance of Guise convinced tho
king. Duncan, p. 216.       t Matthieu, liv. 8, p. 549.
l Hist. des Derniers Troubles.  ~ Hist. de la Ligue.




THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION.   423
master's ears the announcement, "The king has
fled from Paris."  The duke started up in dismay,.and said to Catharine, "Ah, madame, I am undone;
while your majesty has been detaining me, the king
has departed to plot my ruin."*
Catharine, versed in all the arts of dissimulation, replied, " I credit not this news," and took her
leave.'t
Although bitterly disappointed that the grand
prize had escaped him, Guise was not inactive, but
took every precaution to secure the advantages
which he had gained.  He secured the Bastile,
took St. Cloud, Vincennes, Lagry, and thus commanded the free navigation of the Seine and the
MIarne to the gates of Paris, and revolutionized the
municipal administration, filling all offices with his
satellites.l:
Notwithstanding these usurpations, Henry, from
his retreat at Chartres, had the despicable weakness to open negotiations with the triumphant Parisian leaguers; and eventually a treaty was signed,
which ratified demands very similar to those drawn
up at Nancy.~
In this edict a clause was inserted which guaranteed the convocation of the states-general at
Blois on the 16th of October, 1588, to confirm the
* Hist. de la Ligue.                   t Ibid.
J Ibid. Mem. de la Ligue. Duncan.
~ De Thou, liv. 90. Hist. des Derniers Troubles, vol. 3, p.
86  This edict was agreed to on the fifteenth, signed by the king
on the sixteenth, and registered by Parliament on the twenty-first
of July, 1588.




424           THE HUGUENOTS.
treaty.*  Victors thus far, the princes of Lorraine
now used every effort to subsidize the members of
the states-general; religious zeal, ambition, avarice,
all were appealed to; they were again successful,
and Guise was master of the assembly ere its opening session was held.t
At the appointed time, the states-general were
convened, and the pomp was unprecedented.  The
king, who, despite his reconciliation with the League,
had resolutely refused to enter Paris since his ignominious flight, sojourning mneantime at Rouen, made
the inaugural address. Then business commenced;
manoeuvre succeeded manoeuvre.  Guise was confirmed as commander of the gencd'armerie; a prior
decree, declaring the cardinal of Bourbon first prince
of the blood and next heir to the throne, was assented to; and Guise, blinded by success, moved
that the decrees of the Council of Trent be registered, an act which would have barred the house of
Bourbon from  the crown.i: Even the lackey states
paused here. They were not prepared to go to
such a length. The clergy feared to jeopard the
rights of the Gallican church; the nobles dreaded
any extension of the papal power over their temporalities; the states secured a practical vet;o by
postponement.~
Guise, no whit discouraged, then moved that
Navarre be declared incapable of the succession;
thi.s was voted with alacrity. In spite of HIenry's
Maimnbourg, Hist. de la Ligue.  f Duncan, p. 225.: Pasquier, vol. 2, p. 360. Cayet, liv. I, p. 97.   ~ Ibid.




THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION.   425
intrigues, notwithstanding his manifest reluctance
to accede to this fiat, against the protest of Navarre, who denounced the states-general as a packed and exclusiv-e convention of his enemies, the
king, finding that he could neither conquer the inflexible resolution of the League nor evade their
demands, finally assented to the general vote, and
said that he would issue an edict giving it validity.*
The political situation was still further confused
by the seizure of the mnarquisate of Saluzzo by the
duke of Vassy, an adherent of the League. This
aggression touched the national pride, and the voice
of patriotism was heard amid the din of religious
discord. Henry charged that Guise had instigated
the act; the duke asserted that the king himself
incited it. Murmurs arose, and both Guisacids and
royalists hated each other with increased venom.t
It was now, while aff:irs were thus tangled,
while nothing was settled, save that the Huguenots
were outlawed, declared incapable of holding office,
and tabooed, that Henry, driven to desperation,
definitively decided to assassinate his subtle and
triumphant persecutor..
HIe had recourse to iMarshlal D'Aumont, a brave
soldier, and to Nicolas D'Augenay, an able publicist: informing them of his purpose, he asked their
opinion.  "Strike," advised the cavalier in a monosyllable; but the lawyer, with the instinct of his
profession, counselled the duke's imprisonment and
* Davila, liv. 9. Duncan, p. 229.
t Journal de Henri III. Mem. de Nevers, vol. 2.  $ Ibid.




426          THE HUGUENOTS.
trial before the regular tribunals for high treason.>
The soldier's advice was the most congenial, and
the king resolved to adopt it. It was some time ere
he obtained a willing instrument of revenge. At
leingth Loignac, a partisan of Epernon, and a bitter
foe of Guise, undertook the work.
On the 22d of December, 1588, Henry sent word
to Guise that, as he proposed going to Notre Dame
de Clery to pass the festival of Christmas, he should
hold his daily council early the next morning.t
Loignac then received his last instructions.
Thirteen assassins were introduced into the council-chamber and hidden behind a tapestry; and
HIenry himself gave each of them a poniard, saying, " Guise is the greatest criminal in my kingdom;
the laws, both human and divine, permit me to punish him. Not being able to do so by the ordinary
tribunals, I authorize you by my royal prerogative
to do so."
In the mean time the wretched victim received
Henry's treacherous note, and unmindful of the manifold warnings which he had received to beware of
the king, he at once repaired to the palace, where
he arrived in the grey, bleak winter dawn. Once
in the trap, every thing conspired to alarm the duke.
The gates were clanged to after him with ominous
precaution; he passed though a long lane of soldiers stretching away to the court-yard; he met
4 De Thon, liv. 93.
t D'Aubign6, vol. 3, p. 150. Davila, liv. 9.




THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION.  427
the archbishop of Lyons, a confidential friend, who
said to him in presence of Larchant, one of the captains of the guard, alluding to the light dress he
wore, "That coat is too light for this season and
place. You should have put on one stiff with fur."'
These words, pronounced in accents of suspicion,
heightened Guise's alarm.*
In one of the anterooms he nearly fainted; recovering, he proceeded to the fatal council-chamber.
The door had been walled up. Ignorant of this,
Guise was in the act of raising the tapestry which
screened the apartment, when the bravos sprang
upon him, and ere he could draw his sword, gave
him countless stabs, and flung him to the floor quite
dead.t1
The false door of the council-chamber was then
thrown down, and Henry, followed by his suite,
emerged into the anteroom where lay his late redoubted foe. The courtiers jested; and the king
himself, in imitation of Guise's brutality to the dead
body of Coligny, kicked the duke's remains..:
Having gloated his eyes with this ghastly spectacle, Henry hastened to the queen mother, and
cried exultingly, "Madame, the king of Paris is
dead; I am now king of France."~
"I fear," replied the astute Catharine, "that
you will soon be king of nothing." But she exhorted him to wait at once upon the papal nuncio,
H liist. des Derniers Troubles, liv. 4; Davila, D'Aubigne, Cayet,
and others.     t Ibid.      $ Browning, p. 230.
~ Davila, liv. 9.




128          THE HUGUENOTS.
and avert his displeasure, and to use diligence and
resolution.*
The murder of Guise caused a profound sensation. Never was man less fit to die. He had quitted the chamber of one of the titled harlots of the
court, the mnarchioness of Noirmontier, with whom
he had passed the night, on the very morning of his
death. HIe was stained by vices and crimes whose
name was legion, and was one of the chief butchers
of St. Bartholomew-a fearful record with which to
face his God.
Guise possessed many of the qualities of a political leader. He was sagacious, affable, prepossessing in his physique, and possessed the keen,
penetrating talent of a Machiavelli. He united in
his single person the diplomatic acumen of his
equally unscrupulous uncle the cardinal of Lorraine, and the military genius of his father.
Henry III. for once acted with vigor. He ordered the arrest and instant execution of the car-.
dinal of Guise. Then the bodies of the unhappy
princes were consumed in quicklime, and buried
secretly.t Mayence also was upon the red list,
but he escaped from Lyons to D)ijon, whence he
repaired to Paris;T but the archbishop of Lyons,
the old cardinal of Bourbon, the prince de Joinville,
and the duke of ]Elboeuf were seized. "]Henceforth," cried the aroused king, " I wish my subjects'to know that I will be obeyed. I will punish the
* Davila, liv. 9.             f Ibid., p. 373..
Ibid. Duncan, p. 234.




THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION.   423)
leaders of insurrection, and those who abet thenl.
I will be king not merely in words, but in deeds;
and it will be no difficult matter for ime to wvield the
sword again as I did in my youth."*
News of the tragedy at Blois reached Paris on
the day succeeding the assassination of the duke of
Guise. Popular indignation vented itself in the
bitterest and fiercest execrations.  Sermons were
preached on the martyrdom of the "king of Paris,"
and Henry was compared to Herod.  Intelligence
of the death of the cardinal of Guise soon followed,
and the outcries of fury grew louder and deeper.
The king was denounced as a favorer of heresy, as
an enemy to holy church, who had dyed his hands
in the blood of an ecclesiastic.  Priest and layman
panted for revenge.  Councils of war were held in
shops and cloisters. The statues of the king were
broken, the royal arms were defaced; he was called
simply, Henry of Valois.  The Sorbonne declared
that he had forfeited the crown, and that his subjects not only might, but ought to cast off their allegiance; and this resolution was forwarded to Rome
for the sanction of the pope.tIn the midst of this excitement, Catharine de'
Medici died.  She breathed her last on the 5th of
January, 1589, in the seventieth year of her active
and intriguing life.t
Catharine possessed a strong intellect, persua* Davila, liv. 9, p. 373. Duncan, p. 234.
t Duncan, p. 236. Davila, liv. 9, p. 378. Notes to the "Henriade.": COayet, liv. 2, p. 72. Perefixe.




430          THE HUGUENOTS.
sive eloquence, and an invention so ready that it
never halted for an expedient. She believed with
the Vatican, that "the end justifies the meeans;"
and in the pursuit of her purpose, she availed herself without a scruple of the most abhorrent arts,
and especially of the licentiousness of her court.
She was always accompanied by a bevy of fair but
frail beauties; and by her encouragement of -vice,
she raised it to an unparalleled height of dissoluteness and infamy.
In the exercise of her cruelty and perfidy, she
eventually became equally detested by the papists
and the HIuguenots, both of whom she had often
betrayed. Fighting with such poisoned weapons,
she could not fail to be despised in each camp when
she became known in each.
In her stony heart maternal affection had no
sway. She encouraged her children in habits of
licentiousness, in order to make them subservient
to her will. She is even accused of murdering two
of her sons when they stood in her path; and it is
not questioned that she employed the poisoner's
bowl and the stiletto of the bravo to abridge the
lives of several rivals. The good she did France
was imperceptible; the evil she inflicted, the curses
she entailed, the atrocious regime of deceit and perfidy and selfish despotism which she inaugurated,
two centuries later crazed France-drove it to blow
its own brains out in the revolution of 1793.
The death of the queen mother completed the
king's embarrassment. He had leaned upon her




THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION.  431
counsel; now that prop was gone.  The whole
country heaved in insurrection. City was opposed
to city, castle to castle. In vain did Henry strive
to appease the indignation of the League by proving
the treason of the duke of Guise. The correspondence with Spain and Savoy, the terms of the alliance, the monies raised to arm the traitors against
the throne, all went for nothing. The country was
in no mood to listen to evidence; the people were
the slaves of unbridled passion; they wanted not
truth, but vengeance.*
Nor was the monarch more successful in his
efforts to placate the pope. When Sixtus V. learned through the French ambassador of the death of
the Guises, and the imprisonment of the cardinal
of Bourbon and the archbishop of Lyons, his rage
knew no bounds. "Your master," said he, "thinks
to deceive me, and treats me as if I were no more
than a poor monk; but he shall find that he dec eives himself, not me; and that he has to deal with
a pontiff who is ready to shed plenty of blood when
the interest of his see requires it."  "But, holy
father," retorted the keen ambassador, "shall not
the king my master be at liberty to kill the cardinal of Guise, his mortal enemy, after pope Pius IV.
has authorized the murder of cardinal Caraffe, who
had been one of his friends?"  Sixtus was too much
enraged to reply to this home-thrust, so he dismissed the minister from his presence.t
This rebuff at the Vatican isolated the king
* Duncan, p. 238.          t Browning, p. 235.




432          THE HIUGUIENOTS.
He held a sceptre which he could not wield. On
one side of the Loire the exasperated League ruled
undisputed; on the other, the king of Navarre governed. Henry stood alone ill the centre of his kingdom, without money, without friends, without an
ar D.ay. 
He attempted to negotiate with the League;.
but that confederacy, under the able management
of MIayenne, who had been appointed head, had
regained stability, and the offended brother of the
murdered princes haughtily refused all overtures.t
In despair, the wretched monarch recalled the
dying advice of the queen mother. Ile turned to
Navarre, and besought his forgiveness and assistance.:j  When this was known, the papal legate
and the Spanish ambassador quitted him, and proceeding to Paris, recognized the lords of the League
as the legitimate government of France.~
But the Huguenot sky was propitious. Navarre
acceded to Henry's request for an armistice; and
on the 30th of April, 1589, clasping hands at Plessisles-Tours, the two monarchs pledged themselves to
bury the past, to unite for the future; and they entered Tours amid the acclamations of the soldiers
and the inhabitants. Huguenots and royalists fraternized, and vowed to devote their consolidated
strength to the subjugation of the League and the
inauguration of a tolerant reimze.ll
* Journal de Henri III.   t MIaimnbourg, Hist. de la Ligue.
$ Ibid.                  ~ Duncan, pp. 241, 2412.
II La Grani, liv. 4. Perefixe, liv. 1. Sully, liv. 1. It waa




THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION. 433
Deeply chagrined by this unexpected phase of
affairs, Mayenne collected bis squadrons and dashed
towards Tours, hoping to surprise the kings in the
midst of the reconciliatory fetes.  He nearly sucaeeded.  Swooping upon Vendo'me, h e captured it,
and then pressed into the suburbs of Tours.*  After
a severe contest, Mayenne was forced back; and
retreating  across France slowly and sullenly, he
passed through St. Cloud into the friendly and sheltering walls of Paris.t
The jubilant royalists crossed the Loire close
on Mayenne's heels.  When they reached Poissy,
they were joined by some foreign auxiliaries, ten
thousand Swiss and four thousand Gerzmans, whom
the king had enlisted under his banner.  These,
added to the detachments of Longueville, Montpensier, De Givry, and Navarre, swelled Henry's army
to forty-two thousand fighting men.T
with reluctance that Navarre went to this interview. He feared
treachery. Many of his counsellors thought that the king would
take Navarre's life to purchase the pope's absolution. Navarre
wrote to his confidential friend Duplessis-Mornay in these terms:
"The ice is broken, not without many warnings that if I went I
should be a dead man. I passed the water recommending myself
to God." Mornay answered, "Sire, you have done what you
ought, but what none of your friends would have adclvised."
Such was the apprehension of Navarre, that he halted two
leagues from Tours, and took the opinion of his retinue whether
tc proceed or return. Sully claims the honor of having persuaded
Bourbon to trust the good faith of Valois. Duncan, p. 243, note.
* Matthieu, liv. 8, p. 375, et seq.  Maimbourg, Hist. de la
Ligue, vol. 2, p. 161.                        t Ibid.
2 Davila, De Thou, Mem. de Duplessis-Mornay, Vie de Henry III.
Hugrenots.            I 9




431          THE HUGUENOTS.
The terror excited by this array reduced those
towns which environed the capital to speedy submission.  Consternation reigned in Paris.  Mayenne could only muster eight thousand infantry and
eighteen hundred cavalry. Despite his exertions,
all the passages of the Seine were wrung from his
control, and the approaches to the bridges fell into
the hands of the king.*
Paris was almost strangled by the besiegers, so
closely did they clasp the throat of the rebellious
capital. Henry in person begirt the Faubourg St.
Honore, and all that side of the Louvre which borders on the river. Navarre besieged the line from
the faubourg of St. Martin to that of St. Germain.t
The fate of Mayenne seemed certain; when fanaticism extricated the League from the impending
danger, and once more unsettled France.
Fanatical opinions exercise their power oftener
over individuals than on great corporations. From
the midst of the common fermentation there now
arose a monk who resolved to perpetrate a fresh
deed of horror. This was Jacques Clement, a Donlinican whose passions were strong, whose principles were libertine, and whose frenzy was unequalled. He had recently been ordained a priest. To
persons of his own age and to his friends, he was
an object of ridicule. He was weak in body and
simple of mind. Such are the natures on which
* Davila, De Thou, Mnem. de Duplessis-Mornay, Vie de IHen.
ry III.
t Villeroi, vol. 5. Cayet, liv. 1. Mem. de Duplessis-Mornay




THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION.   435
fanaticism  makes the most profound impression.
Cl6ment was persuaded that it was lawful to kill a
tyrant, and he laid before his superiors the question
whether it would be a mortal sin for a priest to assassillate a despot. He was told that it would be
an irregularity, but no mortal sin.*  Meantime ev-.
ery art was employed to heat his brain and nerve
his hand for the atrocious deed.
When the fanatic communicated his project to
Mayenne and D'Aumale, they approved it.t  Ths
demagogue Council of Sixteen applauded it.T  He
was promised a cardinal's hat if lie did the deed
and escaped; if taken and executed, he was assured
of canonization;~ and on the night that his resolution was confirmed, the duchess of Mlontpensier sacrificed all that a woman holds most dear to the
young libertine regicide.[l
Thus doubly crazed by passion and by fanaticism, Clement provided himself with forged credentials to the king; then bidding his friends adieu,
he passed outside the lines of the League, loosened
his frock, and walked with rapid strides towards
Henry's camp.  After some delay, he spent the
night within the king's lines.  Cle6ment succeeded
in securing an audience. Henry approached him.
Pretending to draw a paper from his sleeve, he drew
instead a knife, which he plunged with deadly effect
into the monarch's abdomen. " Wretch," cried the
* Ranke, p. 396.        t Matthieu, liv. 8, p. 772.
I Esprit de la Ligue. Davila, liv. 10.  ~ Ibid.
11 Duncan, p. 245. Browning. De Thou, liv. 96, passim.




4=36          THE HIUGUENOTS.
king, "what have I done, that you should assassinate me?" and as he spoke, he drew the fatal
blade from the wound, and struck it into the foreblead of the miscreant friar.  La Guesle, one of thle
attendant courtiers, ran him through. His body
was hurled from the window, wvhere it was hacked
to pieces by the soldiers, burned, and the ashes
thrown into the Seine.*
Henry lingered eighteen hours, counselled forbearance, deplored the unhappy state in which he
left France, exhorted the nobility to remain united,
and declared Navarre to be his legitimate successor.t  Then turning to the anxious followers who
crowded about his couch, he said, "Adieu, my
friends; turn your tears into prayers, and pray for
me." Shortly after this, in the thirty-eighth year of
his age and the fifteenth of his reign, the last of the
Louse of Yalois died without a struggle, while re].eating the miserere.
Henry's death was finer than his life. Imbecile,
vacillating, vicious, even to name his vices would
outrage decency. Never did monarch mount the
throne under brighter auspices; never had a king
more shamefully squandered his time in low debauchery, lost golden opportunities, and frittered
away his reputation.  His feebleness alienated the
League; his treachery disgusted the Huguenots.
* I)avila, liv. 10. Cayet, liv. 1, p. 223. Maimbourg, Hist. de
la Ligue, liv. 3.               t De Thou, liv. 96.
T Ibid.. Hist. des Derniers Troubles, vol. 2, p. 7. Davila,
liv. 10,




THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION.  437
His religion was hypocrisy, his prudence was craft,
his liberality was licentious prodigality, his private
life was a continuous round of enervating and roiue
pleasure. His death was received by the factions
and by bigots with exultation, and France at large
rashly attributed it to a stroke of divine justice.




4:38         THE HUGUENOTS.
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE WHITE PLUME OF NAVARRE.
THE monk who murdered Henry III. because
he was not Romanist enough, by his fatal blow
enthroned a Huguenot.
WVhen apprized of the assassination, ultramontane France ran mad with ferocious joy. The Doininicans of the capital chanted a, Te DeGun.*  Portraits of Clement were exposed to the veneration of
the populace.t The statue of the murderer was
placed in the cathedral, with the inscription, "St.
James C(Iment, pray for us."$ Bonfires blazed;
rockets shot up to kiss the heavens. The abandoned duchess of MlIontpensier, in whose arms the
assassin had had his purpose confirmed, traversed
the Paris streets with dishevelled dress, crying,
"Good news, my friends, good news! The tyrant
is dead; we shall have no more of Henry Yalois."~
Pope Sixtus T., in full consistory, pronounced a
studied panegyric upon Cldment, beginning his
atrocious harangue with a quotation from. the
Psalms: "This is the Lord's doing; and it is marvellous in our eyes." Then, with frightful blasphe.
my, this pastor of the faithful declared the cow* Davila, liv. 10.
t Mem. du Duc d'Angouleme, p. 22. Jonrmal de Henri IV.: Hist. des Derniers Troubles, vol. 2, p. 6.
~ Ibid. Duncan, pp. 255, 256.




THE WiHITE PLUIME.               43J
ardlyy regicidal act comparable, for heroism, to the
actions of Judith and Eleazar, and for usefulness,
to the incarnation and resurrection of the Saviour.*
But while the League was exulting, Navarre,
aware that boldness is the mother of opinion, an(L
that from this springs power, from power victory,
and thence security, hastened to have himself proclainmed  ing of France under the title of Henry
Quatre; then, leaning with one hand upon the Swiss
auxiliaries, and with the other upon the united
Huguenot and conservative parties, he  calmly
turned to Europe and demanded recognition.
This, however, was not readily conceded. Most
of the foreign states were hostile to his claim;
rFirance itself was divided: the League, dominant
in half of the kingdom, cried Veto to the new monarch's accession; many of the royalist cavaliers
deserted Henry's standard at this critical moment;
and the luing, with his army thinned by desertion
to half its original size —forty-two thousand menraised the siege of Paris, divided his squadrons into
three divisions, and retired into lNormandy.t
Nor was the League a unit at this crisis. Dissension, bitter and open, ate out the heart of action. Mayenne himself, chief of the "holy union,"
backed by the formidable house of Guise, aspired
to the throne.$  Mendoza, the Spanish ambassain Hist. des Derniers Troubles, vol. 2, p. 6. Duncan, pp. 255,
256. Browning, p. 251.
t Davila. Vie de Henri IV. James, Life of Henry Quatre.
t Duncan, p. 256. Itohan, Mem., liv. 4.




440          THE HUGUENOTS.
dor, opposed his election in favor of Philip IT., who
also had designs upon the crown; and Sixtus V.
was urged to espouse the cause of the " most Christian king."  But the pope did not enter into the
views of Spain with any cordiality. He foresaw
that if Phllilip, who was already too strong for the
Vatican, should become arbiter of France and master of the Netherlands, he could reduce the pontiff
to the position of mere head chaplain to the court
of M3adrid.  Accordingly Sixtus threw the weight
of his influence into the scale against Philip, whom
he all the time cozened into imagining that he was
assisting. This tortuous policy finally effected the
election of the old cardinal of Bourbon, whom the
Huguenots still held in duress, and whQi received
the empty honor of the ultramontane allegiance,
under the sobriquet of Charles X.*  In the absence of their nominal king, the Council of Sixteen
ruled Paris, and Mlayenne controlled the Romanist
provinces.1
In the mean time Henry Quatre, by dint of his
superior military genius, beat down all opposition,
and marched from victory to victory. He convened
a parliament. at Tours, where his authority was ac1knowledged, and where justice was administered in
his namee;t he overran Normandy; he gained the
celebrated battle of Argens, in 1588, and subdued
a multitude of rebellious towns.
After exhaustive but abortive diplomatic ruses,
* Sully, liv. 3. Davila, liv. 2. Matthieu, liv. 1, vol. 2. Brown.
ing, p. 260.    t Ibid.    t Mem. de Duplessis-Mlornay.




THE WHITE PLUME.               441
suceeeded by much military manoeuvring, the army
of the League, commanded by Mayenne, and the
Huguenots, led by Henry IV., met, in March, 1590,
on the famous plain of Ivry.*
Two writerst who were with the king mention
that, during a terrific thunder-storm which preceded
the battle, two armies were descried in the heavens
fighting furiously. "This," says Davila, "discouraged the royal army, who for the most part looked
on the heavenly display as a presage of defeat, and
coupled it with the unhappy rout at the fight of
Dreux, fought on that very spot at the commencement of the civil wars.".
At a time when the aurora borealis was but little
known, this phantom fight in the clouds could not
fail of producing consternation.
The force of the two armies was very unequal:
the king had eight thousand infantry, and but two
thousand cavalry.  The League mustered twelve
thousand men-at-arms and four thousand horsemen.~
In the king's camp much time was given by
both Romanists and Protestants to devotion. The
churches of the neighboring hamlet of Nanancourt
were crowded by gentlemen who went to mass;
while the Huguenot ministers performed divine
service with their adherents.ll
When all was prepared, Henry advanced to the
o Maimbourg, Hist. de la Ligue; Matthieu; Perefixe, etc.
t Sully and Davila.            $ Davila, liv. 2.
~ Matthieu, Hist. des Guerres, etc., p. 29.
I list. des Derniers Troubles, c1. 2, p. 16.
19*




442          THE HUGUENOTS.
head of his army, in complete armor, but bareheaded, and prayed aloud to the Almighty for his
favor and protection. When he finished Lis supplication, a shout of " Vive le roi" ran through his
lines. Ienry then exhorted his followers to keep
their ranks, andc assured them that lie was. determinedcl to conquer or die with them. "Gentlemen,'?'
cried he, with animated voice and sparkling eye, " if
the standard fail you, keep my plume in your eyes;
you will always find it in the path of honor and
duty."-  So saying, he put on his helmet adornecl
with three white plumes; then perceiving that the
wind blew in the faces of his soldiers, and that in
consequence.the smoke would blind them, he orderedl a position to be taken more to the left. Mayenne, perceiving this manoeuvre, at once soundecl
a charge, and battle was joined.1The, field was stubbornly and skilfully contested,
and the victory long hung in doubt. At length Henry
in person plunged with his reserve upon Mayenne's
array headlong and resistless; for a space he was
swallowed up in the dreadful nelee: then came the
clang of sabres, the fierce shouts of infuriated combatants, the agonized wail of the death-smitten;
while above all sounded the hoarse roar of musketry and the sullen boom of cannon. The suspense was awful; but when the smoke rolled up,
the army of the League was descried decimated,
broken, dispersed, scattered in wild rout across the
* D'Aubigne, Hist. Universelle, vol. 3, p. 231.
t Maimbourg, Hist. de la Ligue, vol. 2, p. 268.




T'1'E WHITE PLUME.               443
ghastly plain, shouting madly, "Sauve qui peut;"
while over all loomed the white plume of Navarre,
and echoed the frenzied cry of, " Victory, victory!"
"Gentlemen," said the exultant monarch, "you
have served God well this day; receive his benediction and your king's."'
In this famous battle six thousand leaguers perished, among whom were the count of Egnmont, who
commandecl the Spaniards, and the duke of Brunswick, who led the Germans. Sixteen French ancl
twenty Swiss colors, eight pieces of cannon, all the
baggage and ammunition of MIayenne-these were
the trophies which graced the triumph of the king.t
Henry lost five hundred killed, and two hundred
wounded.:
Mayvenne retreated with his battered battalions
upon the dismayed capital, at the same time dispatching a courier to the duke of Parma, the Spanish governor of the Netherlands, whom he implored
to hasten to the rescue of the imperilled League.~
The victory of Ivry gave Henry IV. a 1prestige
which consolidated his party and insured his eventual success. Upon this occasion he did not fritter
sway his triumph by misspent hours at the feet of
a courtesan, as he had his prior victory of Coutras;
but pressing closely upon MIayenne, he environed
the discomfited legions of the League, and laid
close siege to his rebellious capital.ll
* Cayet, liv. 2. Davila, liv. 2. Villeroy, vol. 1.
t Amirault, p. 357. Pelrfixe, liv. 2.: Ibid.
~ Villeroy, vol. 1. I)avila, liv. 2. Matthieu.
[1 Jour. de Heilri IV. I-Hist. des Derniers Troubles, v. 2. p 20.




44l4         THE HUGUENOTS.
So skilfully did Henry invest Paris, that ere
long gaunt famine stalked through its streets. The
hunger of the isolated city was terrible and unprecedented. The Parisians not only ate human flesh,
after consuming dogs, cats, leatlher, every thing
masticable, but they actually ground the bones of
hluman beings and mixed this awful powder with
chaff and bran, of which, at the papal nuncio's suggestion, they made bread.*
Yet though Henry choked them  with hunger,
the leaguers, steeled by desperation and heated by
the Jesuits, still held out. The king might have
easily taken Paris by assault, but he was anxious
to save it from the horrors of pillage; so he resolved to starve it into submission.'e
Mleantime Alexander [Farnese, duke of Parma,
was apprized of the desperate condition of the
League. This celebrated soldier and consummate
tactician at once set out to relieve Mayenne and
Nemours.t.:
Farnese did indeed compel Henry to raise the
siege of Paris, but avoiding a battle by a series of
those cunning military manceuvres which had gained
him his reputation, he contented himself with this,
and soon retired into the Netherlands.~
MIortified by Farnese's tactics, Henry attempted
to take Paris by escalade. But the obstinate forti.
tude of the citizens, led by a regiment of fanatic
* Hist. de la Sorbonne, vol. 2, p. 45; cited in Browning, p,
266.          t Perefixe, Mem. de Nevers, vol. 2, p. 601.
$ Ibid. Duncan, p. 273.  5 Matthieu, Cayet, Sully.




THE WHITE PLUME.               445
monks grotesquely armed above their frocks, foiled
the assault, and the king retired balked and sulky
from the city walls.*
But while these scenes were being enacted, severald other important events occurred. Charles X.,
the phantom monarch of the League, died at Fontenoy, after publicly acknowledging the right of his
nephew to the throne.t About the same time the
prince de Joinville, now duke of Guise, who had
been imprisoned by Henry III. when he seized the
cardinal of Bourbon, made his escape from duress,
not without some suspicion of the Connivance of
Henry Quatre, who was accused of desiring to make
use of the young duke to foment dissension in the
ranks of the League.:
These events were chiefly of consequence because they revived with increased earnestness the
question of the succession, to which the demise of
pope Sixtus V., in 1591, and the election, after a.
stormy conclave, of Gregory XIV., a creature of
the Spanish king, gave added venom. There were
several rival claimants of the French crown within
the ranks of the League. Some favored Philip II.;
some were for Guise; others preferred the dnuke of
Savoy.~  After a rancorous contest, during which
Henry marched from one success to another almost
uniopposed, the settlement of the mooted claims
* Cayet, liv. 2. Davila, liv. 11.
t Sully. D'Aubigne.
{ Journal de Henry IV. Maimbourg, Hist. de la Ligue.
Pr6efixe. Duncaan, p. 2(6L




446          THE HUGUiENiOTS.
and the election of a king was referred to the statesgeneral.*
This decision alarmed Henry. The formal nomination of a monarch by the states-general would
greatly embarrass him, if it did not ultimately baulk
him of the throne.  His heroism had melted all
Europe into admiration.  MBany of the inimical
nobles did not scruple to declare that, were it not
for his heresy, they would serve him and die for
him. His Huguenot tenets seemed the only obstacle to the almost undisputed succession.  God
seemed to put before Henry these two alternatives:
a throne bought with a denial of his truth; a dividedl sceptre accompanied by loyalty to the heavenly King.
The struggle in Henry's soul was fearful. Ambition imperiously beckoned one way; religion
sternly pointed the other.
At length ambition triumphed; Henry determined to recant. Miany things combined to make
the king desert his mother's God. He had no true
faith in his soul. His Protestantism was not a saving grace in the heart; it was a cold intellectual
conviction, nothing more.  lHe was a Huguenot
because Romanism was so ridiculous: "It is unreasonable," cried he, "this mummery of the Yatican."
Devoted to pleasure, nay, to gallantry, whg t Svlmlpathy could this licentious monarch, who seduced
young girls, debauched the wives of his highest
subjects, and kept a dozen mistresses, have with
* PFr6fixe. Duncan, p. 264. Browning, p. 268, et seq;.




THE WHITE PLUME.                   447
the pure morality, the chastened piety, the holy
ardor of the children of God?
Therefore, since Henry was always a Romanist
in practice, since his Protestantism was of the head,
not of the heart, his apostasy was not so difficult, the
abyss across which he leaped was not so yawning
as some have painted it.
HIenry had long thought that unless he became
reconciled to Rome, he would have to pass his life
in warfare, "a monarch without a kingdom," in his
phrase.*  He had not raised himself to the Christian height of daring to TRUST GOD.  Like Simon
Peter, he doubted. His favorite mistress, Gabrielle
d'Estres, constantly urged him to recant and pacify
the country.  When the alarmed Huguenots entreated him not to abandon them, he said, " lentre
St. Gris! Paris is well worth a mnass."tOn the 25th of July, 1593, Henry publicly abjured
Protestantism at St. Denis, and envoys were instantly
dispatched to Rome to obtain the papal absolution;
but the reluctant pontiff would not publish a decree
of admission into the bosom of Ronme until two years
later.  In 1595 he was absolved from all censure,
upon certain prescribed conditions, with all of which
he complied.:
* Browning, p. 287.
Cayet, liv. 5. Jour. de Henri IV. James, Life of Henry TV.
f The conditions were as follows: that the Roman church
should be introduced into Bearn as the established religion; that
four monasteries of friars and nuns should be established there,
and that the decrees of the Council of Trent should be received
into France, except in those articles which nmight injure the inde.




448             THiE HUGUENOTS.
This event broke the back of the League; Mayelne only held out to obtain better terms; ere
long he succumbed.  The nobles and the commons
hastoned to swear allegiance to the renegade monarch,* and ere many months had passed, rebellious
Paris itself opened its obstinate gates with a shout
of welcome.it
But if Henry's abjuration killed the League, it
also  wounded the Huguenots.  From. the clay of
his mock reconciliation with Rome, Henry treated
his old friends, Turenne, Duplessis-Mornay, ID'Aubighi6, and the rest, with shabby neglect.  Happily
Cond6 was dead, poisoned some years before, so he
could not be tabooed. The whole reform  party was
pendence of the Gallican church; that within one year the young
prince of Cond6l should be delivered into the hands of Romish instructors to be educated by them; that all lands and goods taken
from the church should be restored; that none should be elected
to the magistracy who were heretics; that the king should give an
account of his conversion and abjuration to all Christian princes.
The spiritual penances imposed were, that on every Sunday and
holy day he should hear a conventual mass; that he should hear
mass every day; and that on some set days of the week he should
say certain prayers; that he should fast on Fridays and Sundays,
and receive the communion publicly four times a year. Davila,
liv. 2, p. 675.
When these terms were accepted by the king's representatives,
they knelt down at the gate of St. Peter's church, and abjured the
heresies contained in a written document; they were then touched
on the head by the cardinal Santa Seremia, and received absolution for their master. The church was opened, and immediately
resounded with music, while the castle of St. Angelo fired salvos
of artillery. Cardinal Alessandro de 5Medici was appointed legate
to France, to report the papal decision, and to cause it to be pub.
lished in every church. Diulcan, p 332.
PlrYefixe; Ca,,yet; D'Aubigne, etc.           f Ibid.




THE WHITE PLUME.               449
sad and apprehensive. "In taking the king's abjuration," wrote the wise and good Duplessis-Mlornay to the duke of Bouillon, "it was proposed that
lle should swear to make war upon the Huguenots,
which he refused to do. This is a great boldness
to dare to make such a demand when he was barely
on the threshold of their door."* " I expect," wrote
he further on, alluding to the embassy to Rome,
"that Henry will obtain absolution on condition of
the revocation of his edict against the bull of excommunication; and for penance, he will be secretly
enjoined to make war upon the Huguenots. The
king of Spain will then remain to be satisfied: he
can marry his daughter to our king, by which the
two interests will be blended, and then the Philistines must be sacrificed as a dowry."t'
Such is the force of pernicious example, that
within a few years after the farce at St. Denis, nearly
every family of distinction in France had returned
to tlome,$ like dogs to their vomit.
The loss of their protectors rendered the humbler Huguenots an easy prey to their Jesuitical
foes, and the slender recompense which they obtai.ned for their services to Henry Quatre was only
an added spur to the oppressions of his successors,
The monarch now lapped himself in the caresses
of his late opponents; upon them his favors were
ahlost exclusively bestowed.~ ZBut he did not feel
strong enough to dispense with the support of his
* Mem. de Duplessis-Mornay, vol. 2, p. 367.    t Ibid.
$ Browning, p. 287.            ~ Ibid., p. 288.




450          THE HUGUENOTS.
ancient comrades; so that when a Huguenot synod,
convened at St. MIaixent, sent deputies to petition
Henry to inform them how their affairs were to be
conducted, and to entreat him to convoke a gel:-era]
assembly of the Protestant church, he answered
suavely but equivocally that his conversion had
not changed his affection for them, and promising
to take their petition into speedy consideration.*
All France now seemed desirous of acquiescing
honestly in the new regime, all save the Jesuits,
those pests of modern Europe. These obstinately
refused to recognize or obey the king, notwithstanding his recantation and absolution.  Filled
with hatred, they hissed and spat their venom at
the throne. They did more; they openly counselled regicide.  One of these wretches named Commolet preached a sermon, in which he enlarged
upon the death of Eglon king of Moab; he applauded the assassination of Henry III., and described
Cldment as seated among the angels of heaven.
Having thus applied the text, he exclaimed, " We
too require an Ehud; we must have an Ehud; be
he monk, soldier, or shepherd, does not matter;
but we need an Ehud; and this blow is all we want
to give us a halcyon sky."t
Similar regicidal doctrines were proclaimed in
Lyons and at Rouen, indeed wherever the Jesuits
were influential.  These madmen soon heated a
* Cayet, liv. 5, p. 259.
t Journal de Henri IV. Plaidoyer de M. Arnauld, in 1594,
p, 50.




THE WHITE PLUMIE.                451
fanatic, Pierre Barridre, an ignorant and superstitious waterman of Orleans, so that he resolved to
attempt the assassination of the king. He askled
the advice of the grand prior of the Carmelites at
Lyons, who praised his courage and eulogized his
piety. A Capuchin, of whom lie made a confidant,
told him decidedly that his enterprise was meritorious.  Happily for Henry, the embryo assassin
held a similar consultation with a Dominican named Serapin Bianchi, who was attached to the royalist party. He notified the king, through a gentleman of the royal retinue, of the impending danger;
and eventually, after a variety of adventures, Barridre was seized. In his ample confession lie implicated all the instigators of the horrid crime in
contemplation, after which he was tortured to
death.*
The connection of the Jesuits with Barri6re,
together with their impolitic resistance to the pacification, increased the storm gathering above their
heads. They had shown themselves so persistently
and implacably the enemies of the king and of the
state, that it was resolved to cite them before the
courts of justice, as a preliminary to their total expulsion from France.t
The University of Paris led the prosecution-,
A petition was presented to the Parliament, which
narrated in detail all their crimes from their admisa Journal de Henri IV. Plaidoyer de M. Arnauld, in 1594, p1
50. Browning, p. 289.       t Ibid. Duncan, p. 313.: Cayet.




452          THE HUGUENOTS.
sion into the kingdom, and urged their banishment;
"the Jesuits having been the tools of the Spanish
faction all through the late troubles, aiming at the
disseverment of the state, conspiring against the
life of the king, and violating all order, political
and hierarchical."*
The cause was pleaded at Paris in July, 1594.
Antony Arnauld, one of the most famous advocates
in the jurisprudential history of France, appeared
for the prosecution.'t
Since, in our day, the Jesuits are as active, as
ubiquitous, and as malicious as in the epoch of the
League, it becomes of interest to know what the
foremost lawyers of medimval France thought of
these dangerous enemies of civilization and of God.
"Was it not among the Jesuits," exclaimed Arnauld, after a brilliant exordium, "that the ambassadors and secret agents of the Spanish king held
their traitorous meetings? Was it not among them
that Louchard, Anzeline, Cruce-Crome, and other
murderers, hatched their diabolical conspiracies?
Was it not among them that, in 1590, it was resolved that nine tenths of the population of Paris
should starve, rather than the city should be surrendered to its lawful king?  Who was president
of the Council of Sixteen, but the Jesuit Pigenot,
the most ferocious tiger in the capital, who was so
heart-broken at the bad success of the League, that
he became insane through vexation.
"Was it not in the Jesuit colleges of Paris and
e Duncan, p. 314.                   t Ibid.




THE WHITE PLUME.               453
Lyons, in the month of August, 1593, that the last
resolution to assassinate the king was formed?
Does not the deposition of Barriere, executed at
M6[lun, prove it?  Was it not the Jesuit Vorade
who assured the would-be murderer that lie could
not perform a more meritorious act, and to confirm
him in his purpose, had him confessed and absolved
by another Jesuit whose name is not known? D)id
not these impious and execrable assassins employ
the most holy, the most solemn, the most awful
mysteries of the Christian religion to confirm the
wavering resolution of a fanatic to massacre the
first king in Christendom?
"I confess that a righteous indignation transports me beyond the bounds of forensic calmness
when I see that these traitors, murderers, confessors, and absolvers of regicide walk still among us,
that they live in France and breathe its air. What
do I say?  Not only do they live among us, but
they enter our palaces; they are couItenanced,
they are caressed, they form cabals, leagues, and
alliances.
"The humiliation of these pests in the affair of
Cardinal Borromeo is quite recent. Their order
was extinguished, and they were expelled from Italy
by pope Pius V. And yet the Jesuits, who have
attempted to murder the king of France, and who
daily preach regicide, are not banished from our
country! Is the life of a cardinal, then, more precious than that of the eldest son of the church? If
tEe tribunal before which I plead does not deliver




454          THE HUGUENOTS.
us from these monsters, they will perpetrate even
more evil than they have yet accomplished.
"If the day of conservation is not less delightful than the day of birth, certainly the day on wvhich
the Jesuits shall be expelled from France will be
no less memorable than that on which the UJniversity of Paris was founded; and as Charlemagne,
after having delivered Italy from the Lombards,
Germany from the Hungarians, passed twice into
Spain, subdued the Saxons, and founded our university, which during eight hundred years has
served as a refuge to men of letters banished from
Italy, and persecuted in Greece, Egypt, and Africa,
in the same manner Henry Quatre la Grand, having expelled the Spaniards by force of arms, and
banished the Jesuits by your decree, will restore to
our university, to the city, to France, the ancient
splendor, the primitive glory."*
Louis Dolle, advocate of the curates of Paris,
followed Arnauld, and he spoke against the Jesuits
with equal force and eloquence. He said that they
were not members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy,
either as secular or regular priests; that they had
only been received in France in the character of a
collegiate society, and on the express condition
that they should plot no mischief, nor undertake
any thing to the prejudice of the bishops or curates;
that, far from observing these conditions, they had
meddled in politics, assumed to be the censors of
the clergy, pretending to be universal pastors and
* Plaidoyer de M. Arnluld, in 1.594, p. 30, et seq.




THE WHITE PLUMIE.             456
guardians of the church; that by virtue of the privileges too prodigally granted them by the pope,
they had not only exalted themselves above the
curates, but even above the bishops, and had dislurbed the whole hierarchical discipline.  Dolld
painted in the blackest colors the furious zeal displayed by the Jesuits during the siege of Paris.
"Dare you deny," cried he, apostrophizing them,
"dare you deny that when Henry III. was at St.
Cloud, in 1589, you went daily to the trenches distributing money to the soldiers, and exhorting them
to persist in their rebellion? Have you not been
compelled to acknowledge that a priest of your
company was chief of the Sixteen, and presided at
the meetings of those villains?"*
The relentless advocate next dwelt upon the
evils caused by the Jesuits through the system of
confession. " It is not necessary," said he, " to cite
examples; there is not a family in France which
cannot adduce several. I shall content myself with
noticing one quite recent, and of public notoriety.
The Jesuits of Fribourg wished to persuade the
small lRomanist cantons to separate themselves
from the small Protestant cantons, and break their
union, which is the palladium of Switzerland; but
finding the men too firm and wise, they imitated
the serpent who tempted Eve. They cozened the
women; urged them to refuse all conjugal privileges
to their husbands till they had consented to dissolve the alliance. They obeyed these directions;
* Cited in Duncan, pp. 319, 320.




5156        THE HUGUENOTS.
and the men, having learned from them by whom
they were seduced, punished the Jesuit seducers as
they deserved."
The lawyer also denounced their infamous doctrines, that "to the pure all things are pure," and
that "the end justifies the 9means;" he then concluded in these words:
" WeT have been told that the Jesuits wished to
assassinate the king: not only have we evidence of
the fact, but the traitor has confessed that he counselled the deed. Can we doubt after this what ought
to be done to those who would cut all our throats if
they had the opportunity?  If you do not now banish them from the kingdom, you will positively establish them. Our first movements are full of vigor,
but all efforts, national or individual, slacken with
the lapse of time; of this we have too much proof,
for during the thirty years that this question has'been agitated, we have slumbered, and have not
thought of the evil, till we have been made to feel
its pressure. Behold, now is the appointed time.
The Jesuits, who know our weak point, wish to protract your sentence by delaying the trial; thus they
gaini time, which in France gains every thing. Those
for whom I speak know that their sacred calling
prevents them from demanding vengeance upon the
atrocities of this most pernicious society. But, genl
tlemen, as in ancient times the augurs of Rome were
obliged to advise the senate concerning all prodigies that appeared, that the evils they presaged
might be averted by expiations, so the plaintiffs,




TiiLE WHiITE PLUME.               457
who have charge of thiings holy and sacred, as the
augurs formerly had, apprize you now that there is
an ominous prodigy in this city and in other towns
of F'rance; it is this, thfat mnen wvio call tlienselve.
religious, teach7 their blind pupils thle latqfelness of mnur -
derinrg kings. Avert then the evils of this prodigy
by timely and energetic action."*
So intense was the feeling excited by these masterly pleas, that the Jesuits did not venture to respond, but availing themselves of legal technicalities, they artfully postponed the sentence,- aware,
as Doll6 said, that in France to gain time is to
gain every thing.
Then they renewed their intrigues, and formed
new plots to assassinate the king. A  miscreant
named Chatdl, who had studied in a Jesuit college,
was now selected as their instrument of vengeance.
On the 27th of December, 1594, as IHenry was
surrounded by a cordon of gentlemen who had
called to congratulate him  upon his auspicious
prospects —he had just returned froml Picardy, and
stood booted and spurred —Chat6l stole up stealthily behind him and aimed a blow at his throat. An
accidental movement saved him, and the treacherous knife merely cut his lip.  The foiled assassin
endeavored to escape; but lie was seized, and when
interrogated, confessed that the Jesuits had incited
him to attempt the miurder.t
Q' Duncan, pp. 322, 323.
t Cayet, lMen. de Nevers, D'Aubigun.
t Hist. des Derniers Troubles; Jouvenci, Hist. S ic. Jesu.
Henry -was not ranmuchalared, even at the very moment of the
IXtlzgucitts.       _ 0




458          TTHE  IUGUENOTS.
The cry of indignation which reverberated over
France brought down  the slumbering avalanche.
Proceedings against the Jesuits were hastily resumed in Parliament; and the same decree which
condemned Chat6l to a frightful death, choked the
Society of Jesus, and flung it, banished and dishonored, froll the kingdom.'*
This consummation caused wide-spread gratulation; the Huguenots especially rejoiced. D'Aubigne hastened to Paris to felicitate the king.  This
brave soldier and unspotted Christian had expressed himself freely since Henry's abjuration; in the
synodical conventions of the Protestants he had
not hesitated to denounce the king's hypocrisy.
Henry had in consequence been alienated from this
old, tried friend, whose honest rebukes rankled.
But he now received D'Aubign6 kindly.  On one
occasion Chat6l's attempt upon his life became the
theme of conversation.  "Ah, sire," said the frank
sloldier, "as you have as yet renounced God with
your lips alone, they only have been pierced; whenever your heart renounces him also, that will receive
the blow."t
This was at once a warning and a prophecy.
blow. With his usual readiness and wit, he said to the crowd of
anxious friends who surrounded him, pointing to his wound, "I
have heard from the lips of others how little the reverend Society
of Jesus loved me; now I have learned it from my own."
* Jouvenci, list. Soc. Jesu. Cayet, liv. 6, p. 436
- I'Aubign6, Mem., p. 136.




THE EDICT OF NANTES.             459
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE EDICT OF NANTES.
FRANCE was now nominally at peace with itself,
and Henry's only open enemies were the Spaniards
upon the frontier of Flanders; yet the condition of
the country was deplorable. Distress, the exhaustion consequent upon protracted civil war, the unsatiated ambition of many chieftains anxious to reestablisll the feudal sovereignties of the middle ages,
the uneasiness of the people at large, habituated to
the restless vicissitudes of partisan warfare-these
materially retarded returning prosperity, and sadly
checked a healthy pacification.
Henry devoted the larger portion of his time to
the amelioration of internal affairs; in manyrespects
his statesmanship was wise and judicious, and every
effort was made to obliterate the scars of war.*
On the 30th of April, 1598, the Edict of Nantes
was signed. From its provisions it appears to have
been modelled upon the old edict of pacification
ratified at Poitiers. Its essence was, limited toleration.  The Huguenots were permitted the most
ample liberty of conscience, but they might not
l tblicly exercise their religion except in certain
specified parts of France. They were compelled to
submit to the external police of the Romish church* Sully, liv. 9.




46 0         THE HUGUENOTS.
es, by keeping festivals, by paying tithes; but as
some compensation, they were declared eligible to
office; their poor were admitted into the hospitals;
while, for their protection, mnixed chambers were to
be established in all the parliaments.*
Such, in its scope and purpose, was the famous
Edict of Nantes. Upon several occasions the HIuguenots had wrung more liberal terms from the
mailed hands of thl League, and from the reluctant
diplomacy of king Henry III.  The only gain now
was, that the Edict of Nantes was honestly granted;
the others had been mere make-shifts, intended to
tide over a shallow spot-made to be broken.
Yet comparatively niggardly as were these
concessions, the papists considered them superliberal; many of the parliaments refused for some
time to register the decree;t while the fanatics
protested so loudly that their voices echoed to the
Vatican.  Still Henry would not be baulked; when
the Ronmanists murmured, he stormed. "The edict
must be registered," said he to a delegation appointed to wait on him and acquaint him with the
reluctance of the parliament to ratify it; then he
added in his pithy, picturesque style, "I have
climbed the walls, and can easily get over the barricades."$
As usual, firmness triumphed; the edict was
* Browning, p. 312. D'Aubignd, Hist. Univer., vol. 3, p. 459.
Soulier, list. du Calvinisme, p. 323.
t Journal de Henri IV. Life of Henry IV., by G. P. R. James,
t D'Aubigne, ut antea.




THE EDICT OF NANTES.               461
registered; indeed a year did not elapse between
its signature by the king and its ratification by the
provincial assemblies.*
The complaisant king next turned to Spain, and
opened negotiations with his ancient foe, Philip II.,
now grown old and worn. Both monarchs desired
peace; and on the 2d of:May, 1598, the French
plenipotentiaries signed an advantageous treaty at
Vervin, whiclh Henry a little later ratified at Paris.t
"Thus," says Sully, Henry's Huguenot minister
of state, with justifiable exultation, "in spite of so
powerful a league, comprising the pope, the emperor, the king of Spain, the duke of Savoy, the great
French feudatories, and all the ecclesiastics in Christendom, our king effected his designs, and crowned
them with a glorious peace.":,
At this time measures were taken to annul Henry's marriage with the profligate M3argaret, with
whom he had not lived for many years. When the
divorce was obtained, he felt considerable repugnance to contracting any new alliance. In a conversation with Sully, after enumerating the qualities which he considered essential to a happy marriage, he said with a sigh, "But I fear no such person can be found."~
Subsequently, however, he yielded to reasons of
state, and in 1600 he conferred his hand upon Mary
de' Medici,II one of the boldest, haughtiest, and most
$ Sully, liv. 9.  t Mattlhieu, Hist. des Guerres, etc.
Sully, Mem., liv. 9, at the end.    ~ Browning, p. 307.
1[ Life of Henry IV., by- G. P. R. James.




46           THE HUGUENOTS.
revengeful queens JwAiho ever bore the name of that
unscrupulous and intriguing house.
The year 1594 witnessed the revocation of the
decree which banished the Jesuits.*- Singularly
enough, Henry himself was the most strenuous advocate of this policy, against the remonstrance of
the Sorbonne, against the counsel of the politicians,
against the urgent advice of the sagacious Sully.
Whether the king wished to conciliate this horde
of fanatics from dread of their ceaseless intrigues,
or to convince Europe that lie acted upon genuine
and impartial principles of liberality, is simply matter of speculation. Whatever influenced his action,
it is certain that the " Society of Jesus"' never forgave Henry for decreeing their expulsion, that his
generosity did not placate their vengeful animosity,
and that the regicidal blow of Ravaillac, so shortly
to be dealt, was echoed by a deep Amen from every
Jesuit heart.
During the remainder of Henry's reign, the
affairs of the Huguenots present no event of marked
importance. Sheltered beneath the Edict of Nantes,
they pursued the even tenor of their way, held their
periodical synods, elected their deputies to the provincial parliaments, and were a recognized body of
the state.  Henry consulted the sympathies, and
deferred to the wishes of the Romanist majorityt
andc in this sadly grieved his ancient adherents;
but his place in their affections was in some degree
filled by his sister Catharine of Bourbon, whom
u Sully, liv. 17.           t Browning, p. 317.




THE EDICT OF NANTES.              463
RSIy  rono unces "noble and generous,"* who inherited Jane d'Albr~t's zealous faith, who adherecl
to the primitive creed with enthusiastic devotion,
and whose influence in obtaining the edict of toleration, by her tears, her entreaties, her prayers, was
fully recognized by her coreligionists.t
"To you, madame," wrote Duplessis-Mornay
from the synod of Montauban, "we now look for
our sole illustrfious patronage.  Continue firm, we
entreat you, in the true faith; let not the persuasions of the king nor the arts of the Romanists prevail. ~Write to us, we beseech you; give us comfort
and assurance."T
Catharine at once answered this epistle, assuring the Huguenots of her unshaken fidelity. "All
I see, all I feel, but the more confirms me in my
convictions," she said. "You know well the pain
my brother's abjuration has given me. But I have
a strong hope that, when this unsettled state of
affairs has passed away, he may, through God's
grace, repair the breach which, for the seeming
good of his people, he has now suffered to be made
in his conscience.  Of me personally, believe no
slanders. If reports say I go to mass, receive my
denial in a word: I do not, either in act or thought,
Nor does the king request it; he leaves me free in
the exercise of my faith; depend on it, I will not
go to mass till you are pope in very deed."~
* Sully, liv. 23.
t Huguenots in France and America, vol. 1, p. 289.
$ Ibid., p. 282.
~ Ibid., ut antea. juplessis' influence with the Huguenots




464           THE HUGUENOTS.
Catharine's inflnuence over Henry was very
great;* and this, coupled with her lively faith and
vigilant protection of all menaced privileges, was
of incalculable advantage to the Huguenots, themselves exiled from  familiar access to the throne,
One of the clauses of the [Edict of Nantes forbade;
the exercise of the reformed faith within the corporate limits of Paris; and even Sully, the chief minister of state, was obliged to repair to Allon, on the
banks of the Seine, four leagues distant-the nearest spot where the primitive worship was heldwhen he listened to the Huguenot preachers.t
But Cathariie, who usually resided at Fontainebleau, when she visited the king at the Louvre, always had divine service performed in her chapel by
her own chaplain, and to these precious reunions
all medmbers of the reformed church crowded, without distinction of rank, for Catharine recognized the
essential democracy of Christianity. Once the cardinal of Goud6 waited upon Henry at the head of
a formal ecclesiastical delegation, to protest against
this "strange desecration" of the palace. "Gentlemen," said the iking angrily, "I think it more
strange that such language should be held to me,
in my own palace, and of my own sister. I am
king, not you, sir cardinal. Adieu.": 
The snubbed delegates withdrew, nor did they
venture to renew their complaints.
was so great, that he was called the "pope of the reformed re,
ligion."
a Sully, Mem., liv. 9.  t Ibid. Browning, p. 310.
t Huguenots in France, etc., vol. 1.




THE EDICT OF NANTES.               465
Several attempts were made at this time to
reconcile the differences between the two hostile
creeds.*  Discussions were held; one even took
place before Catharine;t but nothing was effectedl
Rlome and Geneva could not embrace; their rel.
spective doctrines differed too radically to kiss each
other.
In 1604, the death of Catharine of Bourbon occurred.:l. She had been married to Charles, duke of
Bar, who loved her with romantic devotion, and
with whom, despite their opposite religious opinions, she enjoyed the utmost felicity.  Bar made
nulmberless kind efforts to detach her from  her
faith, but in vain. One of her last acts was to visit
Angers, where she received communion with three
thousand devoted Huguenots. When married, the
nuptial benediction was pronounced by a Protestant minister;~ and constant to the last, she died,
finding "joy and peace in believing."  The fervent
and uncompromising princess was buried at Vendcame, in the tomb of her ancestors, beside queen
Margaret and Jane d'Albr6t, a noble trinity of illustrious and beneficent women.
Henry was deeply afflicted by this event. "All,
all; mother and sister!" cried he with anguish.
How many painful reflections must have thronged
upon him. They slept together in a common faith;
he, the hope, the pride of both, had deserted their
- Jonrnal de Henri IV., 1609.
t Sully, lMem., supplement.
i D'Aubignh, Hist. Univ., vol. 3.  ~ Ibid., p. 601.
20*




466           THE HUGUENOTS.
God. Bitter regret for a moment wrung his heart;
and when, among the letters of condolence received
from  every crowned head in Europe, there came
one from the pope, "expressing his holiness' feari
for the salvation of the princess who had died out
of the bosom  of the church," he exclaimed with
warmth, "I have not that bitter pang added to
what I now feel; not a doubt with regard to my
sweet sister's salvation exists in my mind."*
To divert the king's mind, he was persuaded to
visit different cities in various portions of the kingdom. Wherever he arrived, tedious addresses were
delivered, of which he heartily tired. One of these
municipal orators repeated very often the words,
" Oh, very benign, very merciful, very great king."
"Add too," cried Henry, " very weary."  Another
began his speech with, "Agesilaus, king of Lacedellmon-" " yentre St. Gris," interrupted the mnonarch impatiently; " I have heard that people spoke
often to this Agesilaus, but it was always when he
had dined; I have not."  To another, who had addressed him for some time, and who showed no signs
of desisting, Henry said, "Pray, reserve the next to
another time;" but the orator was not to be cheated
of the full delivery of his florid prose, and he per,
sistecl in speaking. " Well," said the king,C "I am.
going, and you must say the rest to lMaster William." This was the court fool; and the orator, 1not
liking the audience, concluded his harangue.t
~:' Huguenots in Franee, etc., vol. 1, p. 306.
t Ibid., p. 298.




THE EDICT  OF NANTES.                467
With few interruptions the Huguenots now enjoyed unprecedented repose.  At a synod held at
Gap, in Dauphiny, D'Aubigne was appointed historiographer to the reformed church, a position
lwhich his eloquence, learning, and piety enabled
him to fill with great success, as his strangely vivid
portraits of his epoch testify.*
In 1609, it was reported that the Huguenots
were secretly plotting an insurrection-that this
was what their unwonted  repose really meant.
This device of the Jesuits to reinaugurate commnotion-for in tranquillity they stifled —cozened Henry for a moment. I)uplessis-Mornay, the king's old
Mentor of the day of Coutras, was the reported
chief of the conspiracy.tk  But after much crimina,tion and recrimination, the report was proved to b B
a Jesuit bubble, and Duplessis retired to his cha;teau of La Forest, in Poitou.  There, surroundedl
by true friends, amid the venerable groves of his
ancestors, he carried his long and useful life far
into the reign of Louis XIII.  Duplessis-Miornay
died in 1623, after having witnessed all that the
world has to exhibit of vicissitude in human opinion.:
The last years of Henry's momentous reign were
spent partly in licentious intrigue,~ partly in exten* This D'Aubigne is an ancestor of Merle d'Aubigne, the his.
torian of the Reformation, a worthy descendant of a noble ancestor.
t Cayet; De Serres, Hist. de France; D'Aubigne, Hist. Un/is: Huguenots, etc., vol. 1, p. 313.
~ Matthieu; D'Aubign6; Mem. de Duplessis, et.




468          THE HUGUENOTS
sive preparations for some grand expedition whose
object is shronded in mystery. Into the chapter of
gallantry it is not necessary to go. To speculate
upon Henry's design in the giant preparations
v lich Sully mentions, but cannot explain, is equally
futile.  It is supposed that he had conceived a
scheme for the consolidation of Europe into a Repaldliqte (Chretieizne, which should promote the happiness of man, and insure perpetual peace*  " Rumor, with her thousand tongues," bruited through
Europe misty reports of the projected movement.
The din of preparation resounded friom Paris to the
Pyrenees.
The execution of the scheme would necessitate
the lengthened absence of the king from France.
Mary de' Medici insisted upon the regency ad inzterimn. In vain did Sully and even Henry himself
combat this demand; the queen would not be put
off; indeed she increased her request, and asked to
Ibe crowined, in order to give additional sacredness
to her government and person. With much reluctance Henry made these concessions; on the 13th
of Ifay, 1610, nine years after her marriage, the
grasping Florentine's coronation occurred.f  The
king assisted at the pageant as a private spectator,
and though fifty-six years of age, inspired general
admiration by his grace of carriage and charm of
manner. Throughout his life he possessed a iemnarkable power of captivation; on this occasion
his frank, social, and yet dignified demeanor,
0 Sully, Meenm., supplement.         t Ibid.




THE EDICT OF NANTES.             469
caused Miary to turn towards her suite of Italian
parasites, and say to Leonora Concini, her chief
cofiCdante, in Tuscan, "Ah, if he were mine alone.":
On the following clay, the fatal 14th of May, the
queen was to make her public, ceremonial entry
into Paris. The capital was gay with flags, with
legendary banners, with.feurs-de-lis. Opening with
a laugh, the day closed with a cry of horror.
Henry was early astir. His buoyancy at the
coronation pageant had given way to icy gloom.
He was haunuted by terrible apprehensions. A premonition of disaster, vivid and awful, chilled his
blood. The morning he spent in his own apartments. In the afternoon he rode out with several
friends, gentlemen of his suite. The curtains of
the king's carriage were drawn up, not only on account of the beauty and warmth of the weather, but
to enable him to witness the joyous aspect of the
city, dressed in its gala garb to welcome Mary de'
3M/edici.
The streets through which they passed were
narrow; in one of them two carts were met, one
laden with wine, the other with hay; the greater
number of attendants passed beyond the carts to
give more room to the royal coach, which meantime
hlalted; two footmen only were near, one occupied
in clearing the road, one stooping to acljust some
p)ortion of his dress.
At this moment, while Henry's guards were thus
scattered, an assassin, nwho afterwards proved to be
* Hugnenots in France, etc., vol. 1, p. 319.




470          THE HUGUENOTS.
a wretch called Ravaillac, stepping on one spoke of
the stationary vehicle, leaned forward and struck
Henry on the left breast with a dagger; it glanced
on one of the ribs, and the king cried faintly, "I
am zwounded:" cdetermined not to be baffled, the
resolute miscreant repeated the blow; this time it
went to the monarch's heart; the blood rushed up
impetuonsly, and in an instant he was suffocated;
he had no time to speak another word.*
The assassin was at once seized; and the gentlemen present, alighting from the blood-smeaxed
carriage, caused the curtains to be closely drawn,
and marched back to the Louvre benumbed with
horror." t
In order to avoid a tumult, the king's death was
concealed; a cloak was thrown over the yet warm
body, and a surgeon and restoratives were ordered.l:
The queen was in her closet when the news wasblroken to her; rushing out wild with terror, she
cried, "Great God, the king is dead 1" " Madame,"
responded the chancellor, who was present, "the
kings of France never die. We must take care that
our tears do not undo the state; we have need of
remedies, not of grief."~
"When I heard the fatal news," writes Bassompierre, afterwards the famous marshal, "I ran to the: Huguenots in France, etc., vol 1, p. 320. Sully, Journal
de Henri IV., etc.                       t Ibid.
T Ibid.; D'Aubigne, and others.
~ Sully; D'Aubigne; Journal de Henri IV.; G. P R.. James,
Life of Henry IV.




THE EDICT OF NANTES.             471
king's closet, and saw him  extended on the bed.
MNI. de Yie, counsellor of state, was seated upon the
same couch, and had laid lthe cross of his order
upon IHenry's mouth. M1ilan, his head physician,
was sitting by the bedside weeping bitterly, and a
corps of surgeons stood near to dress the gaping
wound.  The windows stood open, and once we
mistook the low sighing of the wind for his voice;
but in a moment the physician said,'Ah, it is over;
he is gone.' 3. Le Grand, as soon as he entered,
knelt beside the bed, took the king's lifeless hands
and kissed them. As for me, I threw myself at his
feet, which I held, embracing again and again, and
bathing themn with my tears. There he lay, still
and motionless-he who, but a few short hours before, was the life of every circle. It seemed as if
all waited for him to break the silence; not a sound
was uttered. The children of the king were brought
into the chamber, but no one else was suffered to
approach.  Every measure was taken to deceive
the people till the queen's regency was declared,
lest there should be a popular commotion. About
nine in the evening a number of nobles rode thlrough
the streets, and as they passed, cried,'3Iake way
for the king.'  It being dark, the people thought
Henry was among the horsemen, and shouted back,' Yive le Roi!' It was only in the quarter of tole
Louvre that the dismal truth was known. Througll
the night the dreadful farce was continued; the
king was dressed and washed with the same ceremony as if he were alive: one gave him a slirt; an



472           THE HUGUENOTS.
other bleld the serviette, eo napkin, and a third stood
ready with his robe-de-chamnbre."*'Thus fell Henry QLuatre, and his frightfully sudden transition from life to death is at once a lesson
and an admonition. His story is strikingly romantic.  He spent more than half a century in active
collision with turbulent events, and in unremitting
efforts to direct and mould them to the advantage
of his country.  Sully has pronounced his eulogy:
"He was candid, sincere, grateful, compassionate,
generous, wise, penetrating, and loved his subjects
as a father."t  It is a glowing  record.  But if we
pursue Henry to the retreats of private life, witness
his unbridled license, the impure devotion of his
truant heart to the frail Gabrielles and Henriette
d'Entragues of his seraglio, and recall his sad apostasy, caused by mistaken state policy, and his ostentatious lip-service to virtue and his heart-service to
vice, no pleas of the faithlessness of his wedded
wife, of apparent statescraft, of the profligacy of
the age, of the pernicious examples of the Louvre,
can shield the hero king from the censure of good
men; no sophistry can avert, no swelling proans can
drown the mournful verdict of the sober muse of
history:
"He knew the right, and yet the wrong pursued."
When Henry's assassin was interrogated, it was
found that his name was Francois -Iavaillac, and
that he was a native of Angonumais, of low birth,
* Bassompierre, vol. 1. Nouv. eIem., p. 222.
t Sully, Mern., liv. 9.




THE EDICT OF NANTES.              473
who had passed through his novitiate in a monastery, but had never taken the final vows.*  Filled
with wild and superstitious notions, he had listened
greedily to the laudations of Cldment, and the virmu
lent attacks upon the king daily uttered by the Jesuits drove him to frenzy-he determined to murder
the king. He was put to the most frightful tortures,
he suffered the most horrible death, yet he would
implicate no accomplices in the murder of the monarch.i'
Still, "the deep damnation of his taking off"
weighed heavily against the Jesuits, not from historic proof, for it could not be had, but in a great degree from the prevalence of certain opinions which
the society was well known to cherish, and which
not only led lRavaillac to commit the crime, but
caused others to envy the wretched notoriety he
thus acquired, and to avow their readiness to perpetrate a similar atrocity. At the time, public feeling was unequivocally against the Jesuits. Even
the Romanist clergy, both regular and parochial,
impugned them in their sermons; and these accusations found an echo in lay publications. In the
courts of law, and at meetings in the market-place,
the "Society of Jesus" was alike believed to have
prompted the assassin.:
Strange to say, in the investigation of the regicide, the effort-was rather to suppress than to elicit
the facts. France seemed afraid to know the truth.
0 James, Life of Henry IV., vol. 3, p. 403.
t Ibid., p. 404.       1 Browning, p. 317, et seq.




471           THE HU GUENOTS.
"' It would seem," remarks L'Etoile, the journalist
of the age, " to hear the matter spoken of, that we
are afraid of showing ourselves too exact and severe
in inquiring into this crime, the most w7icked nll
barbarous, and the most important to our state, of
any perpetrated for a thousand years.""
Sad as is the misfortune for a nation to produce
such wretches as Cl6ment and Ravaillac, it is a still
more serious calamity to have a servile magistracy.
Sequier was chief president of the Parliament: his
reply to the queen's inquiry respecting his opinion
of the question, proves the importance of the real
criminals,t- yet the investigation was smothered.
"If I am asked who were the demons who inspired
this damnable murder," says P6rdfixe, archbishop
of Paris, "history answers that she knows nothing;
even the judges who interrogated  lRavaillac did not
dare to open their mouths upon the subject, and
never spoke of him otherwise than by shrugging
their shoulders."4
- L'Etoile. See also Lettres de N. Pasquier.
f Journal de Henri IV., February, 1611.
$ Perifixe, Hist. de Henri le Grande.




RICHELIEU.                 475
CHIAPTER XXXIII.
R IC HE LIE U.
THE murdered king left three children by Mary
de' M3edici. The eldest succeedecl to the throne in
his ninth year, under the title of Louis XIII. The
younger, the dukes of Orleans and Anjou, were
infants. On the dclay following the assassination,
the Parliament, browbeaten by the duke d'Epernon," confirmed the queen as regent. France, reinmembering the regency of Catharine de' Medici,
beheld with grief and terror the sceptre pass from
the vigorous grasp of Henry Quatre ostensibly into
the feeble hands of an infant, really into the grasping talons of an Italian interloper, who was herself
ruled by foreign parasites.f
IWhile the public salons of the Louvre were
covered with " the trappings and the suits of woe,"
the private apartments of the new-made regent
resounded with songs of gladness and bursts of
laughter.'T was here that the Florentine held her
giddy c)urt, smiling before the open grave of her
murdered husband, gay amid her cordon of favorites who served luxurious viands and emptied sparkling goblets in her honor.
* Girard, Vie du Due d'Epernon, p. 246.
t Wyatt, Hist. Kings of France, p. 220.




476          THE HLUGUENOTS.
The government of Mary de' lMedici was really
the government of her confidants, Concini, who rose
to be Marshal d'Ancre, and his wife Leonora Galigni. The pernicious art of this subtle pair cozened the queen into the adoption of their measures,
while she believed them to be her own. Under
their influence, the court was new-nodelled. Epernon was slighted, Condce was snubbed, Sully was
insulted out of office.*
An inimical contemporary bears witness to the
quiet deportment of the Huguenots at this crisis:
"Instructed by experience, they then displayed
great moderation, and made no pretensions to innovation;.ftignhiny to have no wish to undertake any
unfriendly action, provided they were permitted to
live under the untouched edicts."t
Ere long, however, uneasiness was felt.  The
regent, not satisfied with remodelling the court and
promoting her lackey favorites to the highest seats
of honor at the council-boardl, and to the noblest
titles of the state, revolutionized the politics of
Henry Quatre. His idea was, Germany protected
from the encroachments of Austria, the insidious
advances of Spain sternly repulsed. Now efforts
were made to placate Austria, and an alliance with
Spain was eagerly sought. Despite the ominous
growls of discontent provoked by this new policy
of the queen regent's mushroom council, it was
pressed; and with so much success, that the boy* Sully, Heem., last liv.
t Bernard, Hist. de Louis XIII., p. 12.




RICIELEU.                  477
ish king was soon married to Anne of Austria, the
Spanish infanta.*
Tihe Huguenots read in these events melancholy
auguries for their cause.  Secret conferences were
held; chiefs were chosen to maintain their menaced rights.t  The Jesuits, in their sermons, openly
announced the object of the royal marriage to be
the extermination of heresy.T  Threats soon passed into acts. Ancient and well-defined privileges
were invaded and annulled.  Slumbering animosities were rekindled.
The heads of the Huguenot party at this time
were Rohan, Soubise, La Tremouille, and Bouillon.  Conde and the count de Soisson had been
educated as Romanists, but their turbulent ambition impelled theml frequently to negotiate with the
reformers.  Duplessis-Mfornay, broken by age, rested in honorable retirement. Dl'Aubigne was still
an active agent of his coreligionists.~  "Rohan,"
says the Jesuit d'Avrigny, "was a sincere Huguenot, and aimed at the good of his party.  Sully was
not very devout, but felt sore at his exclusion from
public affairs. Bouillon was politic, nsing his religion to forward his interests."ll
Bigotry and court cabal kept the country in
feverish excitement.  The crowd of reclless foreigners who surrounded the queen regent fomented
* Bassompierre. Pardoe, Court of Louis XIV. Bernard.
Rohan, Mem.                t D'Aubignu, Hist. Univ.: Arcana Gallica, pp. 74, 75.    ~ Mnem. tohan, liv. 1.
D'Avrigny, Mole. Chronologiques, vol. 1, p. 68.




478          TiHE IUGUEN OTS.
discord; for they saw in it all opportunity to aclieve
wealth and fame. Their efforts were seconded by
a horde of warlike nobles, whose idea of life was
drawn swords and pointed cannon. Added to all],
the Jesuits constantly inflalned their penitents
against the toleration of heresy.  Local eJmeute.s
were of frequent occurrence.  These were sometimes terminated by mutual apologies, sometimes
by negotiation.
On the 24th of April, 1617, the regency was
ended, as it began, with a tragedy. The marshal
D'Ancre was assassinated. This adventurer had
in reality swayed the sceptre under cover of the
queen. His insolence and cruelty made him feared
and hated.  The young king especially disliked
him; and it was at the instigation of:De Luines,
Louis' favorite, that the former obscure notary of
Florence, and later gentleman-usher of the Louvre,
who had clutched a marshal's baton, was slain..*
Now the king himself assumed to reign; but his
rule, like his mother's, was only nominal. IDe Luincs
succeeded d'Ancre; a satyr followed a satyr.
On the fall of her government, lIMary de' Medici
was "permitted to retire to Blois,"t the velvet
phrase in which the court wrapped the iron reality,
hiTlnpriqso'lment.
Through these troubles at the court, the Huguenots did their utmost to remain quiet. Synods were
frequently held, assemblies were often convoked, but
their discussions were entirely devoted to questions
* Hist. de la Mere et cdu Fils, vol. 2, p. 185.    Jf Ibid.




RIC I]E LIEU,              479
of divinity and discipline.*  Ambitious nobles did
their best to inveigle the reformers into adopting
their quarrels and avenoging their supposititious
wrongs. Bouillon was active in his endeavors to
enlist the party in his selfish schemes.t Cond6
also, relying upon his historic name and the traditional affection of the Huguenots for his house,
attempted to win them to support his tortuous conspiracies to aggrandize himself.: But except in
isolated instances, these insidious arts did not succeed; while their peaceful behavior and loyal tone
gave the anxious court no pretext for persecution.
At length De Luines, supported by the ready
clergy, determined to create war.
The principality of Bearn had been for many
years preponderately Protestant.  It was there
that Margaret de Valois had taught and prayed;
it: was there that her daughter, Jane d'Albr6t, had
lived and labored in God's service; it was there
that Catharine of Bourbon had garnered many
souls as trophies; there Henry Quartre had been
reared: it was the "holy of holies" among French
provinces.
Influenced by the reiterated clamors of the
Romish clergy, one of whom did not scruple to declare that " Christians were worse treated in Bearn
than in Mohammedan countries," and that "the
property of the church was applied to the support
of its enemies,~ Louis XIII. determined not only to
* Browning, p. 334.  t Ibid., p. 323, et seq, passim.
$ Ibid.            ~ This was the bishop of Macon.




480           THE HUGUENOTS.
restore the Romish religion, but to crown that pious
work by the annexation of the principality to
France.?
An carret was soon after given to this effect in
open council; and since the resolute IHuguenots,
unwilling to surrender their ancient privileges without a struggle, declined to yield, the king assembled an army, and in 1620 marched to enforce his
usurpation by the unsheathed sword.t
The ill-armed and unorganized partisan bands
Df the Huguenots could not impede the triumphal
advance of the king's mailed cohorts. In October,
1620, Louis entered Pau, and the Romish worship,was at once celebrated in those cathedrals which
for sixty years had echoed the purer praises of the
prinitive ritual.
The abolition of the provincial independence of
Bearn was denounced by the whole Huguenot party
as an infraction of the edict of Nantes. An assembly was convened at Rochelle. Here the excited
delegates, regardless of the advice of their most
judicious leaders, abjured all allegiance to the king,
and published a decree dividing Protestant France
into military and civil districts, on the model of the
United Netherlands.T  The command of one circle
was given to Soubise, the commnand of another to
La Force, while a third was entrusted to the due
* Bernard, Vie de Louis XIII., p. 149.
t Rohan, Mlem. D'Aubign6e, MIenl.: Arcere, vol. 2, p. 459, et seq; Rohan; Discours sur les Der.
nier8 Troubles, V. tiO




RICHELIEU.                  481
de Rohan, the most enlightened, virtuous, and talented soldier of his age.*
These bold proceedings instantly precipitated
active hostilities. The royal army marched into
Southern France, the old, familiar haunt of tjle
twin clemons of civil war and bigotry. Montpellier
was entered. Montauban was besieged; but it was
so skilfully defended that De Luines, now constable
of France, quitted the obstinate walls with a malediction.tDuring this contest, the affairs of the Huguenots became so extensively diversified that it is
scarcely possible to give a connected view of the
events which occurred among the many divisions
comprised in their loose-jointed confederation; for
the interest is no longer arrested by one body,
around whose history the episodes of its satellites
can be successively unfolded; but events of equal
importance claim and fix attention in opposite directions.
In some respects the struggle was a gallant one;
but there was a prevailing readiness on the part of
many of the Huguenot strong-holds to surrender
upon the king's approach, in strong contrast to their
unvarying practice in the preceding civil wars. Indeed Rohan observes, "From  Sanmur to MIontaubtan there was a general submission, with no resistance except at St. Jean d'Angely, which my brother
Soubise defended as long as he could. And the
Arcere, vol. 2, p. 259, et seq.; Rohann; Discours sur les Der.
aiers Troubles, p. 101.    t UIohan, Mem., p. 130.




482             THE HUGUENOTS.
peace of Montpellier comprised no chiefs of provinces except my brother and myself, all the others
having made treaties separately, and on advantageous terms."*
At length all parties tired of the war. Louis
announced his intention to adhere strictly to the
Edict of Nantes, and the divided and crippled Huguenots willingly laid down their arms on this assurance.t Amnesty was granted in October, 1622.
The pacification was signed, and tranquillity once
more reigned in France.
Two years later a new  re'gime was inaugurated.
Richelieut entered the council of state.  From  the
* Rohan. Discours sur les Derniers Troubles, p. 101.
t Bassompierre, Mem. Arcere, vol. 2.
A Armand Jean Duplessis, cardinal duke of Richelieu, was
born in Paris on the 5th of September, 1585. Five years after the
birth of the future statesman, his father, who held several important posts at the court of Henry IV., died, leaving three sons, of
whom Armandwas the youngest, and two daughters, both of whom
were early married to nobles of the French court. The church and
the camp were the usual resources in those days of the younger
sons of noble houses; and since the bishopric of Lagon, which the
family of Plessis could command for one of the sons, was destined
for Alphonse, the second, Armand was dedicated from infancy to
the profession of arms. Ere long Alphonse resigned his see, and
entered a Carthusian community; whereupon Richelieu quittedl
the camp, and applying himself to the study of theology, assumed
the mitre of the Lagan bishopric. He was a studious and diligent
scholar, and completed his course with considerable applause. In
1607 he departed for Rome, to receive from the hands of the pope,
Paul V., the consecration of his new dignity. He was asked whether he had attained the age required by the canonical law, twentyfive years. The embryo prelate replied at once in the affirmative;
but immediately after the completion of the ceremony, he requested
the holy father to receive his confession; in which, with imper.




PRICHELIEU.                       483
very outset his soaring intellect, sagacious diplomacy, and consunmmate tact gave him  the leadership; and ere long, basing his authority upon these
qualities, he governed France as absolutely as heo
could had he been born to the royal purple and
inherited the crown.
To elevate the regal authority by destroying the
festering remains of feudal caste; to raise the importance of France by humiliating the overbearing
arrogance of Austria and Spain; to terminate all
domestic differences by suppressing the few liberties still enjoyed by the Huguenots-this was the
triple policy of the famous statesman;* and he
turbable composure, he admitted the falsehood of which he had
just been guilty. The pontiff absolved him from the sin; but in
the course of the same evening, he pointed him out to the French
ambassador, with the remark that he would one day become a
clever politician. The prophecy proved true; and the unscrupulous use of means which, at the age of twenty-one, he displayed
in hastening his elevation, affords no bad specimen of the shifts
to which he resorted through life to maintain his authority.
On his return to France, he formed a friendship with the advocate Boutheiller, who was intimate with Barbin, the confidential agent of Mary de' Medici. Through Barbin, Richelieu was
presented to the all-powerful Concinis, who brought him to the
notice of the queen regent. His remarkable talents soon won him
the confidence of Mary, who employed him in a variety of missions, always with success. Upon the downfall of the regency,
Richelieu went into exile with the queen; but returning with her
to the court, he soon quitted his old protectress, and gaining the
notice of the king, rose step by step to a seat in the council of state.
He received a cardinal's hat in 1622; and from the date of his
admission into the holy conclave, assumed the name and title of
Cardinal duke of Richelieu.  James, Life of Richelieu; Pardoe,
Louis XIV. and his Court, vol. 1, p. 19, et seq.
Lclerc, Vie de Richelieu; James, Life of Richelieu, etc.




484          THE HUGUENOTS.
steadily pursued it through the mazy intrigues
essential to success. Pretexts of every kind were
unscrupulously employed to veil these designs. As
circumstances required, he would vary the apparent
progranmme; but whatever hue the diplomatic chameleon reflected, the real purpose was unchanged
and unchangeable.
Richelieu accomplished his first object by choking the e'meutes of the turbulent nobility with an
iron hand. He achieved the second by a system
of crafty manceuvres at once protean and astounding. As a prince of the church of Rome, he naturally devoted himself to the third; yet reasons of
state were his chief motive and guide. There was
nothing of the fanatic in his constitution. Richelieu never persecuted merely from the love of it.
Torquemada was not his model, nor was St. Domiic a congenial soul.
In 1626 England, like France, had a vizier: the
luke of Buckingham, famous for his singular elevation and untimely end, swayed the councils of the
British king without a rival. Recently Charles I.
had espoused a daughter of the house of Bourbon.
Buckingham was dispatched to receive her. While
tarrying in Paris, the foppish courtier became ena,moured of the queen of France: the daring libertine even had the audacity to declare his passion;*
and undismayed by the frowns of the outraged wife
of Louis XIII., on the conclusion of his mission,
* Some historians affirm that the queen encouraged Bucking.
ham. See Browning, p. 346, note.




RICHELIEU.                  485
he returned to Paris to renew his advances.*  But
his dream  of illicit happiness was shortly dissipated by a peremptory command to quit the country.ti'
Humiliated and enraged, Buckingham reentered Englahnd, anxious to wipe out this "insult" cf
his expulsion from France, by war. He negotiated
with the duke of Savoy, Richelieu's enemy. He
fomented discord in the sister kingdom; and an
envoy was dispatched to inveigle Rohan, who-since
the death of IDuplessis and the self exile of D'Aubign6 domesticated at Geneva —had been the leader
of the Huguenots, into arming against the incessant,
though insidious encroachments of the court upon
the tolerant decree of Henry Quatre.t.
Meantime a powerful armament was equipped,
and in the summer of 1627 Buckingham in person
appeared off Rochelle.~ After much hesitation,
and through his instrumentality, the whole Huguenot party armed, really to support the projects of
the duke of Buckingham, but as they thought, to
wring from the greedy clutch of Richelieu the stolen and denied clauses of the [Edict of Nantes.ll
This afforded the wily cardinal a desired opportunity; and acting with his accustomed energy, he
speedily conjured an army into existence, at the
*.ohan, Mem. Hist., p. 279. Also Lord Clarendon and Bishop Burnet.                              t Ibid.
I Rohan, AMem., p. 212.'Violart, vol. 1, p. 683.
~ Bassompierre, vol. 3, p. 64.
II llohan, Merm., vol. 3, p. 61. Leclere, vol. 1, p. 332.




486          TIHE HTUGUENOTS.
head of which he in person pressed forward to besiege the Huguenot citadel.*
Richelieu's skill met and conquered all difficulties; and comprehending all the weak points in the
political situation, as well as in the character of his
adversaries, with the keen glance of genius, he prepared to assail both where they were most vulnerable.
He held out to the Rochelloise the prospect of
renewed religious enfranchisement, and thus deceived the mayor and the city council, and securedl
a vacillation of purpose which gave him time-the
desidelratmm. He dispatched the prince de Cond6
into Languedoc, to hold the reformers quiet by the
mailed hand; and then, piecing out the lion's skin
with the fox's, he sent Gallaud, aan eloquent Huguenot whom  he had secretly suborned, to persuade
his coreligionists to remain in tranquillity.t
While these crafty measures were being set
afoot, large garrisons were thrown into all menaced towns; quantities of ammunition were collected; provisions abounded in his camps; and fleets
of boats were floated to convenient points, where
they were serviceable in the transportation of supplies in the attack and defence of cities.
In the mean time the Rochelloise acted tprecisely as Richelieu anticipated-began with a solemn fast, and instead of admitting their English
allies at once, hesitated, disputed, and inquired.4
* Rohan, Mem., vol 3, p. 61. Leclerc, vol. 1, p. 332. James,
Life of Richelieu, vol. 1, p. 82, et seq.  t Ibid,
t Mnem. de Rohan, lib. 4.




IRICHELIEU.                487
The Huguenots of the south followed this pernicious example; but they were even more besotted. Some armed under the appeal of Rohan;
some positively supported the court; but the great
majority remained in hesitating inactivity, complaining of those who had taken arms before danger had
grown into adversity.
Richelieu laid close siege to Rochelle. The defence was one of the most heroic on record. The
operations dragged through fifteen months. At
length famine began to gnaw; various attempts
were made by Rohan and by the English to succor
the succumbing city, but the cunning of the cardinal foiled these; and the assassination of Buckingham on the very eve of a new expedition,* rang the
death-knell to all hopes of aid. Then craving nature had her way; and in October, 1628,t hitherto
unconquerable Rochelle opened its maiden gates to
the triumphant legions of Richelieu. So terrible
had been the suffering endured during the siege,
that the inhabitants were reduced from twentyseven thousand to five thousand —ghastly proof of
the heroism of their fight.
Richelieu completed the humiliation of this
"city of refuge" by celebrating mass with great
pomp on the festival of All Saints, which occurred
shortly after its conquest, and by stripping it of its
boasted franchises,~ a desecration over which the
Rochelloise shed proud tears.
* Hume, Hist. of Eng. Reign of Charles I. Arcere, vol. 2, p. 291.
t Arcere, vol. 2, p. 323. Browning, p. 354.  $ Ibid.  ~ Ibid.




488            THE HUGUENOTS.
In other sections the Huguenots, led by the
gallant De Rohan, aclhieved success; but when the
sad news from  Rochelle reached their scattered
camps, quite disconcerted and heart-broken, they
desired peace.  Rohan convened a Huguenot assembly at Anduze in 1628. The deputies opened
negotiations with Richelieu; and on the 27th of
June, 1629, a treaty was concluded and signed at
Alais, which guaranteed liberty of conscience and
of worship on the essential basis of the often-infringed Edict of Nantes.*'
No sooner was the civil war terminated, than all
France resounded with paeans to Richelieu.  The
cardinal-duke was now firmly seated in his vizierate; but his time was largely occupied in foiling
the intrigues of his foes. The court soon became
the scene of rivalry and cabal; and Louis, one of
the most inefficient and timid of monarchs, was so
harassed by the quarrels of his family, that he acquired a habit of leaning upon the iron arm of his
great minister, whom he soon came to consider indispensable to his happiness and comfort and to the
government of France.
Engrossed by these events, the court paid little
attention to the despised Huguenots.  Stripped al* Menard, Histoire de Nimes, vol. 5, p. 586. Rohan, nuem.,
lib. 4. Soon after the signature of this peace, Rohan went abroad,
and achieved a brilliant fame in foreign service. He was, by general admission, one of the greatest men and one of the best of his
age. He never abandoned his religious principles. And when,
in 1638, he was killed, his body was carried to Geneva., and buried
with great honor.




RICHELIEU.                 439
ready, by insidious assaults, of their political importance, the time was hastening on with giant strides
when they were to be deprived of the rights of conscience. But now for a space they rested in quiet
security. Protestantism was armed and triumphant
on the Continent. All Europe knew the resolution
of Gustavus Adolphus to make common cause with
all reformers who suffered persecution. France was
the secret ally of the great Scandinavian; a position into which Richelieu had drifted through his
desire to humble the house of Austria. This made
him cautious not to alienate the continental Protestants by the oppression of their brothers in France.
Besides, the Puritan party in England was rising
into influence; the entente cordiale between the Puritans and the Huguenots had never been disturbed;
this too conspired to guard the French Protestants
from unfriendly legislative action.
"The government," says Bernard, the jesuitical
biographer of Louis XIV., "was engrossed by the
disputes between the king, his mother, and his
brother, and by the exciting foreign events; so
that, deeming this a favorable opportunity for an
insurrection of the Huguenots, efforts were made
to hold them tranquil by granting the most reasonable of their demands."*
Emboldened by the liberal temper of the cardinal, the Huguenots held a synod at Charenton in
September, 1631;t and two ministers, Amivault and
De Villars, were deputed to present a statement of
Bernard, Vie de Louis XIV., p. 280.  t Browning, p. 358.
2I1




490          THE HUGUENOTS.
their grievances to the king, then sojourning at
Conmpi6gne. The assembly petitioned for the reacknowledgment of the right of their clergy to preach
in any Protestant temple, a recent governmental
decision having forbidden them to abandon their
individual charges. They also requestedl a cessation of proceedings instituted against some Languedocian ministers for inculcating the avowed doctrines of the Reformation, and the liberation of
some of their friends chained in the galleys for
their opinions.*
From this modest list of their demands an idea
mnay be formed of the condition of the Huguenots
at this epoch.
* Browning, p. 358.




THE DRAGONADES.               491
CH APTER XXXIV.
THE DRAGONNADES.
FROM the pacification of 1629 until 1661, the
general history of the Huguenots presents few important incidents. There were from time to time
individual causes of complaint and isolated instances of hostility, for the spirit of the League was not
extinct, and the more zealous partisans of Rome
were only restrained from  urging their favorite
measures by the imperious genius of the celebrated
cardinals who successively administered the government of France, and by the preoccupation of the
court. Popular prejudice would frequently burst
forth in an excess of animosity, under the garb of
religion; and whenever, through some technicality,
the protecting clauses of the Edict of Nantes could
be invaded or infringed, the circumstance was considered as a victory over heresy.*
In December, 1642, Richelieu died; and five
months later, consistent even in death, the lackey
monarch Louis XIII. followed the famous statesman
to the tomb; lie could not even die till Richelieu
showed him how.  In the following year, Louis
XIV., a boy of five, succeeded to the throne. From
1643 till 1651 the history of France is the history
of the regency of Anne of Austria and the faction
B 3rowning, p. 361..




492          THE HUGUENOTS.
of the Fronde, when the "grand monarch" was
merely the puppet of the queen mother and her
minister; from Louis' majority until the death of
Mazarin, in 1661, it is the history of that subtle
alid intriguing cardinal.
Not Rtichelieu himself had ruled France more
absolutely than did Mazarin.  Like his predecessor, he was a great secular statesman rather than
an ardent churchman; as such he never permitted
the interests of the Tatican to lure him from the
path of national policy. He was enabled to maintain this position because France was now strong
and consolidated. Spain had already commenced
her descent into the tier of second-rate states; the
peace of Westphalia had changed the tactics of
several of the European cabinets; and the rise of
the Commonwealth had altered the aspect of French
diplomacy with Englalnd.*
Mazarin. prized Cromwell's alliance; he was
aware of the jealous care with which the mighty
Protector guarded the interests of menaced Protestantism. The duke of Savoy had ventured to
persecute the feeble remnant of the primitive Waldeuses, who lived obscurely in the Lombard vallies,
and all Europe saw Cromwell's powerful arm stretch
across the Channel and across the Alps to snatch
the Yandlois from the greedy maw of the Savoyaid,
while England's statesman-poet chanted peans, and
the fast-anchored island shouted glad Amen.t
D ]wrnet, History of his Own Times, vol. 1, p. 38.
t Ibid. Life of John Milton, prblihsed by Am. Tr. Soo.. 1866,




THE DRAGONADES.                493
Mazarin had no disposition to provoke Cromwell's intervention in French affairs; he knew the
chord of sympathy which united the Puritans and
the HIuguenots; this made him cautious of overtly
assailing the privileges of the reformed church in
France.*
Besides, pretexts were wanting. The Huguenot
party, after the capture of Rochelle, definitively
disbanded its political organization; Henri de Roban was their last armed chieftain. Weary of war,
and perhaps persuaded that it corresponded not
with the peaceful tenets of their creed, they sought
in seclusion the simple liberty of praising God..What the sword had been unable to effect, they
thought that civilization and open Bibles would
accomplish.
Of their loyalty and quietude at this epoch, hostile writers bear ready and ample witness. "I have
no complaint to make of the little flock," said M3azarin; "if they graze on noxious herbs, at least
they do not stray."t,
Through the 6nzeutes of the Fronde, they furnished devoted soldiers to the menaced governnment. MIazarin  recognized their important services; he never spoke of the pastors of Montauban
without calling them his "good friends;" and Count
d'Harcourt said to the deputies of that city, "The
crown was tottering on the king's head, but you
have steadied it."t'~ James, Life of Mazarin.
t Felice, list. of Prot. of France., vol. 1, p. 341.  $: Ibid.




494          THE HUGUENOTS.
Louis XIV. expressed his gratitude more than
once. In a declaration published in MIay, 1652, he
said, "Forasmuch as our subjects of the pretended
reformed religion have given us reiterated proofs
of their affection and fidelity, with which we are
well pleased, be it hereby known, that for these
causes they be maintained and secured, and we do
now maintain and secure them, in the full and entire enjoyment of the Edict of Nantes."*
This is the monarch who soon after inflicted
long, odious, and Satanic persecutions upon these
faithful subjects who had "steadied the crown upon
his brow."
In conmparative repose the years of MIazarin's
vizierate passed away. The Huguenots, industrious, intelligent, and docile, were the pattern subjects in the kingdom.t
But in 1661 the death of the great cardinal occurred, and at once ebbing persecution began to
rise towards its flood-tide.
Louis XIV. assumed the direction of affairs.
In the heyday of his youth, the royal libertine,
trampling with equal readiness upon the laws of
God and man, was comparatively careless in religious matters. This circumstance, together with the
fierce dispute between the Jesuit and the Jansenist
parties, which menaced Rome with another schism,'i
restrained for a space the reactive tendency. But
* Soulief, Hist. du Calvinisme, p. 552.
t Acnre, vol. 2, p. 345.
% Duclos, Mlem. de Louis XIV., vol. 1, p. 102.




THE DRAGONADES.                495
with the subjugation of Port Royal, the relapse
occurred. At the outset the assault was insidious.
Every five years the secular clergy held ecclesiastical assemblies, and these never adjourned without
tearing away some new shred from the laws of toleration.*
BIoney in immense sums was supplied from the
exchequer of the state to suborne heresy.t The
king judged men in general by the conduct of those
who breathed the atmosphere of his court. As he
beheld continual sacrifices of honor and principle
in the halls of the Louvre, souls bartered for gold
or titles, he came to think that the HIIuguenots held
out to obtain good terms; he thought that they
could be seduced by rendering their interests subservient to their abjuration.
Among the nobles the eloquence of corruption
made many proselytes; men of high birth were
dazzled by the proffer of honors and rank. But to
the lasting honor of the middle and lower classes,
let it be recorded that they could not be bribed by
such inducements to shut their Bibles and deny
their God.  The peaceable manufacturers, the
tradesmen, the cunning artificers, continued steadfast in the faiith.$
Every device which wit could suggest to enforce
proselytism was eagerly adopted; favors of every
kind were lavished upon those whom fear or avarice had converted to Romanism; they were exQ Felice, list. Protestants, etc., vol. 1, p. 342.
t Soulier. list du Calvinisme.: Ibid.




496           THE HIUGUENOTS.
erupted from taxation, from guardianship, from local
contributions; were excused the payment of their
debts, delivered from the coercion of parental aluthority, and advanced in the several professions to
which they devoted their talents.*
Far different was the fate of those who clung to
their persecuted creed for conscience' sake. They
were constantly made the victims of new hardships
and indignities; their colleges were closed; their
youth barred out from every avenue of profit and
honor; their churches were interdicted; their inheritances were wrested from them through technicalities; and their dead were not permitted to rest
in their ancestral sepulchres.-iThe infinite hard fights which God's suffering
children now waged with self-interest, with abounding  temptation, satanically devised  and spread
about them, may not be recorded. But fast anchored, through all vicissitudes they clung to the
heavenly throne; they refused to dwell in Sodom,and they would not tarry in Gomorrah.
The reformers now had implacable and tireless
enemies in the men who swayed tile councils of the
state. In the foremost rank figured the Jesuits,
created expressly to extirpate heresy, the born foes
of the Huguenots, monks doubly formidable as the
confessors of kings, and because their system of
morality authorized the use of any means. Falsehood, trickery, injustice, traffic in consciences,
* Pardoe, Louis XIV., and the Court of France, vol. 2, p. 339A
t Ibid. Anquetil, Hist. de France.




THE DRAGONADES.                 497
brute force, spoliation, banishment, nay, even murder —all were good in their eyes, if they tended to
accomplish their end.*
Under the direction of the Jesuits, the government marched steadily from one tyranny to another.
Ere long the judiciary system was tampered with.
In rare instances the courts of law had given im-.
partial decisions.  By a legal trick this hope of
justice was destroyed.t
In despair, many of the Huguenots began to
emigrate: England, Germany, the Hag-Le, all stretched forth welcoming hands.
But soon the exodus was stopped; a decree,
issued in 1669, forbade emigration. The Huguenots not only might not enjoy in France the equal
protection of the laws, they could not hope to find
an asylum abroad.:l: Edict followed edict in rapid
succession: a peculiar dress was prescribed for the
Protestants; they were shut out from many species
of employment other than political; and the penalties which awaited an unsuccessful effort to escape
proceeded in an awful gradation from fine to imprisonment, and from the galleys to death.~
Yet still the Huguenots persisted in their worship and clung to their creed. The king, now become the complete slave, in civil matters, of his
mistress; Madame de Maintenon, herself a renegade Protestant,lI and the tool of the Jesuits in
* Felice, vol. 1, p. 342.  t Benoit, vol. 3, p. 453.
$ Ibid.                     ~ Browning, p. 365.
it Ibid. Pardoe, Louis XIV., etc.




498           THE HUGUEJN OTS.
religion, dissatisfied with the slow progress made
in the subornation of heresy, determined to force
conversion.  Booted missiocnaries were dispatched
into the Huguenot provinces to harry the reformers into adherence to Rome.
The dragonades commenced.
The persecution which raged for several years
subsequent to 1681, surpassed in cold-blooded malignity that of the sixteenth century; for the undisguisecl hostility of the last kings of the house of
Valois, although barbarous, was frank; their object
was avowed; the Hiuguenots themselves were militant, and the conflict was undisguised. But now
all pretext had ceased; the Jesuits were crafty;
insidious enactments rendered it almost impossible
to avoid contravention; and liberty of worship was
destroyed even while the Edict of Nantes remained
the formal law,* so powerless are naked statutes.
The Jesuit La Chaise was the king's confessor.
Like Milton's Belial, this monk
"Seemecd
For dignity composed and high exploit;
But all was false and hollow, though his tongue
Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear.
The better reason, to perplex and dash
Maturest counsels; for his thoughts were low,
To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds
Timorous and slothful."t
La Chaise reminded Louis that the Roman year of
jubilee occurred in 1676, and he urged the monarch
to signalize his piety by extirpating heresy, since; Browning, p. 370.  -V Paradise Lost, book 2, p. 30.




THE DRAGONADES.                 499
the days of pilgrimages were gone, and he could no
longer acquire fame by heading a crusade, or by
travelling on foot with staff and scrip to the Holy
Land.  "Sire," said he, "a new Christian hero is
to arise; perhaps he may find another Tasso to
immortalize his name;" and the royal voluptuary,
bloated with license, gouty with excess, quitted the
side of his mistress for a moment to beg his ghostly
confessor to inform him how he might acquire the
reputation of a Christian hero.
La Chaise, Louvois the king's minister, and
Madame de Maintenon, a congenial trinity, united
their efforts to exterminate the Huguenots.
A brutal soldiery were quartered on the " heretics;" devastation, pillage, torture —there was nothing that they recoiled at; indeed they gave such
loose rein to their passions, that their frightful excesses would have shamed a horde of brigands.*
Benoit has filled many pages of his Histoire de
{'Edit de Nanties with hideous details of these atrocities. " The soldiers," he says, "tied crucifixes to
the end of their carbines, and these they compelled
the Huguenots to kiss; if any offered resistance,
they thrust the crucifix in the face or stomach of
the victim. Neither children nor persons of advanced age were spared; they fell on all without
compassion: some were cudgelled to death; some
were beaten to a jelly with the flat side of a sword;
others were stabbed with the bayonet-crucifix fixed
* Narrative of the Sufferings of a French Protestant Finmiiy,
by John 3Migallt. London, 1824, p. 182, et seq.




500           THE HUGUENOTS.
at the end of their carbines.  These wretches inflicted similar cruelties on women. They whipped
them; struck them with rattans across the face to
disfigure them; dragged them  by the hair of the
head through mire and over stones.  Sometimes,
finding the laborers at their ploughs, the soldiers
hurried them  off to the Romish church, pricking
them  along like bullocks with their own goads to
quicken their reluctant pace."*
Behind the dragonaders were a legion of friars,
Capuchins, Franciscans, Carmelites, an ignorant
and restless soldiery, who worked on the fanaticism of the mob, and marched, whenever an opportunity occurred, to make an assault upon heresy.
Emigration, which had been interdicted by the
edict of 1669, now began again on a still vaster
scale, and thousands of families quitted France.
The Protestant countries, England, Switzerland,
Holland, and Denlmark, offered them  a shelter in
official declarations.it  But the ordinances prohibiting emigration were reenacted with  increased
severity.
The law against emigration, and that against
relapsed heretics, put a two-edged sword in the
hands of the persecutors. The condition of the
a- Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes, tome 4, pp. 479, 480. Those who
desire to know the situation of the Huguenots in detail at this
epoch, should consult this work. The author has filled five quarto
volumes with his narrative of the hideous cruelties inflicted on his
coreligionists, from the reign of Henry IV. to the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes.
t Felice, vol. 2, p. 45.




THE DRAGONADES.               501
Huguenots was pitiable.  In France they would
not recognize them as any thing but RIomanists;
on reaching the frontiers they were seized as heretics.  Rulhi6res, the panegyrist of Louis XIV.,
says that the misfortunes of the Reformed were
chiefly owing to the combined operation of these
two laws, which formed the boast of Father La
Cbaise as masterpieces of genius.*
Such were the means employed by Louis XIV.
to convert France to Latin orthodoxy. " Concerning this monarch," says -Macauley, "the world
seems at last to have formed a correct judgment.
He was not a great general; he was not a great
statesman; but he was in one sense a great king.
Never was there so consummate a master of what
James I. called kcingcrcaft-of all those arts which
most advantageously display the merits of a prince,
and most completely hide his defects. Though his
i:nternal administration was bad; though the military triumphs which gave splendor to the early part
of his reign were not achieved by himself; though
his later years were crowded with defeats and humiliations; though he was so ignorant that he
scarcely understood the Latin of his mass-book;
though he fell under the control of a cunning Jesuit
and of a still more cunning old woman, he succeeded in passing himself off upon the people as a being
above humanity.
"Death and time have exposed the deception.
The body of the'grand monarch' has been meas* Rulhieres, Eclaircissements Historiques, vol. 1.




502          THE HUGUENOTS.
ured more justly than it was measured by the cour.
tiers who were afraid to look above his shoetie.
HIis public character has been scrutinized by men
free from the hopes and fears of ]3oileau and Moli6re. In the grave, the most mnajestic of princes is
only five feet eight. In history the hero and politician dwindles into a vain and feeble tyrant, the
slave of priests and women, little in war, little in
government, little in every thing but the art of simnulating greatness."*
0 Macauley, Essays, Louis XIV.




IREVOCATION OF THE EDICT.  5t03
CHAPTER XXXV.
PEVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES.
UNTIL the year 1685, the efforts of the booted
missioncaries were confined to one or two provinces;
but now they were extended into other sections.
Bearn was harried; Languedoc was bled; the
Vivarias was changed into a Golgotha. The most
sinister acts of the dark ages are white when
set against the blackness of this modern infamy.
France, to borrow the striking language of the
Hebrew poet, was "a land of darkness, as darkness itself, and where the light was as darkness."
Every engine which a satanic wit could invent
was put in motion to cajole, to overawe, and to torture steadfast martyrs into a denial of their faith.
Pellisson, the administrator of the corruption fund,
regularly handed the king lists of six, eight, ten
hundred converts, vouched for by fraudulent certificates; and his miracles were daily chronicled in
the Gazette. He avoided publishing that the few
proselytes he did make were exclusively from the
dregs of the people; either knaves who periodically
made a trade of their consciences, or starving beggars who took the money to get a piece of bread.*
Venial and licentious scribblers lauded the triumph.
The court at Versailles, dripping with wine, drunk* Felice, vol. 2, p. 33.




504          THE HIUGUENOTS.
en with blasphemy, bloated with gluttony, and reeling in obscene dances, paused a moment in its frightful orgy, to cross itself and hiccough a viva. The
king was astonished at the number of his "converts;" the prelates applauded; Bossuet harangued,
and Boileau dogmatized; while the Jesuits stood
by with a cunning leer. But reasonable people did
not credit Pellisson's Mlunchausenisms. Even MIadame de Mlaintenon wrote, "I think that all these
conversions are not sincere; but at least the children will be Romanists."*
The jubilant court was soon undeceived. Sixteen Huguenot deputies from Languedoc, Corennes,
Vivarias, and Dauphiny assembled at Toulouse, and
decided to recommence worship in all interdicted
places simultaneously, without ostentation, but without secrecy; either with open doors, or on the ruins of their demolished temples. At the same time
union, repentance, prayer, and faith, "mighty to
the pulling down of strong-holds," were recommended.t
In hundreds of thousands the Huguenots assembled.  " The roses and the myrtles of devotion
bloomed unchilled on the verge of the avalanche."
The king was enraged; the satyrs of the court
sputtered vengeance; the Jesuits spat fresh venom.
"It was believed," says the abb6 Soulier, "that the
Calvinists, being reduced to have few public exercises, would more willingly listen to the instructions
which the prelates gave in their dioceses to draw
* Letter to the Countess de St. Geran.  t Felice, vol. 2, p 49.




REVOCATION OF THE EDICT.   505
them from error; and that the money which the
king distributed to assist the new converts would
induce the religionists to enter almost voluntarily
into the bosom of thile church: but as these measures had not all the effect which was anticipated,
and as it appeared, on the contrary, that the Calvinists, far from listening to the missionaries, became
more obstinate, his majesty deemed it necessary to
use stronger measures to draw them from that lethargy into which their birth had unfortunately thrown
them. The king's troops were employed to co6perate with the missionaries, that thus what had
been effected in Poitiers, where forty thousand of
the Huguenots had been subjugated, might be done
in the other infected provinces.",
As to the means employed, the testimony of another papist, Rulhi6re, may be cited: " Whatever
can be imagined of military licentiousness was exercised against the Calvinists. It is attributed to
Foucault, intendant of Bearn, that he improved
upon the most exquisite refinements of torture. Invention was,employed to discover torments which
should be painful without being mortal, and cause
the unhappy victims to undergo the utmost which
the human body can sustain without expiring."tThus tabooed in society, outlawed from trade,
and battered and racked by the dragoons, the Huguenots had nothing to do but die or recant. The
firmest suffered martyrdom; those whose spirit was
* Soulier, Hist. du Calvinisme, pp. 598, 599.
t Rulhiere, vol. 1, p. 291.
Huaguenots.       22




506          THE HUGUENOTS.
willing, but whose flesh was weak, pretended to
abjure.
"That which struck men in general more than
any thing else, was the material injury inflicted by
the dragonades. The spiritual mischief of a forced
participation in the sacrament weighed much more
heavily with men of reflection and piety. To open
the mouth of a heretic with the point of the bayonet, and thrust into it the host-that consecrated
host which the Roman church professes to esteem
it a most heinous offence to take unworthily-this
offence was prescribed by those very men who
decided that it was a crime of the most flagrant
nature.  The Spanish Inquisition had at least
sufficient sense of shame to prevent its prisoners
from receiving the communion and attending mass.
There were a few noble protestations against it in
the age of Louis XIV., especially from the abbey of
p:ort Royal and among the Jansenists; but the majority of the clergy, hurried on by the Jesuits, forced
their unhappy converts to receive the host while
their very paleness and shuddering horror, as Basnage tells us, showed how their whole heart revolted at the ceremony."*
But the dragonaders did not care for sincerity;
they looked only for the Jclat of an immense army
of proselytes.
The king's council, which only regarded outward
acts, was as much astonished as delighted at the
countless abjurations.  "Sixty thousand conver-  Felice, vol. 2, p. 60.




REYOCATION OF THE EDICT.   507
Sons have been made in the generality of Bordeaux," wrote Iouvois to his father the chancellor,
early in September, 1685; "twenty thousand have
been won in Montauban. The rapidity with which
it all takes place is such, that by the end of the
month there will not be ten thousand of the heretics alive where thirty days back there were a hundred and fifty thousand."*
The duke de Noailles announced to Louvois at
the same time multitudes of forced conversions at
Nimes, Uz6s, Alais, Yilleneuvre. "The rack is a
famous proselyter," said he with a jeer.  "The
leading people of Nimes," he continues, " made their
abjuration in the church on the day of my arrival.
There was then a chill; but things were put in a
good train by quartering the military on the obstinate. The number of heretics in this province is
about two hundred and forty thousand. I expect
soon that I shall see all these hounds leashed to
the car of Rome."t.
The hour was now considered ripe for the abolition of the nominal law of toleration. Frittered
away as the statute had been until it was little
more than the shadow of a law, it was still an
accusing phantom in the statute book; and the
government now undertook to lay this ghost: unfortunately the perturbed spirit of reform would
not " down" at the king's bidding.
Louis XIY., overreached and persuaded by his
confessor, his chancellor, his minister of war, and
* Felice, vol. 2, p. 60.     t Ibid., p. 61.




508          THE HUGUENOTS.
hlis mistress, ill-informed perhaps as to the real
condition of the kingdom, rejoicing over fictitious
conversions, and duped because he lived surrounded
by flatterers, like an Asiatic sultan in the recesses
of his palace-Louis XIV, to whom Louvois and
La Chaise had promised that "not a drop of blood
should be shed,"* having consulted Harlai and Bossuet, signed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
on the 18th of October, 1685,t and enshrined his
name for ever as a monument of execration. It
was at this time that he added to his other mottoes
that of Lex una sub uno.4  There was no need to
write it in blood at Versailles; the hand of death
had already engraved it on the frontlet of the monarchy. God left this king, broken by age, soured
by disappointment, humiliated, his early glories
turned to ashes on his shrivelled lips, to occupy
the throne for thirty disgraceful years after this
unhappy event, to bear the load of the crime he
had conmmitted.
The preamble of the Act of Revocation contains
a brazen falsehood; what then can be expected of
the body of a paper which opens with a lie? "We
behold now," says the king, "with just gratitude to
God, that our cares have attained the end which we
proposed; the greater and better part of our sub.
jects of the pretended reformed religion have embraced the Roman faith, and the execution of the
* CEuvres Completes de Louis de St. Lucien, vol. 2, p. 53.
t Felice, Browning, Rulhiere, Soubier, Noailles, and others.
$ Louis XIV.; et son Siecle.




REVOCATION OF THE EDICT.   509
Edict of Nantes is therefore unnecessary."  This is
an abstract of the act: All further exercise of the
reformed worship in the kingdom illegal. The Hugaenot pastors ordered to quit the realm within a
fortnight; and meantime to perform no clerical
function, on pain of being sent to the galleys. A
promise to all ministers who should become converts, of a stipend greater by one third than that
which they had hitherto enjoyed, with the reversion
of a moiety to their widows. A dispensation from
academical studies to those which wished to practice at the bar. Parents forbidden to instruct their
children in the reformed religion, and commanded
to have them christened in the Romish churches, on
pain of five hundred livres fine. All refugees ordered to return to France within four months, or
forfeit their property. All religionists forbidden to
emigrate, under penalty of the galleys if men, or
seclusion for life if women. And all laws against
relapsed heretics confirmed.*
Such were the main enactments of this atrocious
act. "It gave," says M. Felice, "a fatal blow to
the traditional policy of France-to the policy of
Henry IV., Rtichelieu, Mazarin, and even to that
of Louis XIV. himself. It was no longer possible
to retain the natural allies of France in Protestant
Europe, when Christendom resounded with the lanmentations of the Huguenots. Protestantism rose en
masse against the " grand monarch."  Its chief was
MWilliam of Orange, and the parliamentary resoli" Felice, vol. 2, p. 62.




510            THE HUGUENOTS.
tion of 1688 was the response to the royal crime of
1685."5*
Meantime the act was put in force.  "We have
reached the end,"t said the old chancellor Letellier as he affixed the seal of state to the nascent
edic<t, and chanted the Nunc dimittis of the holy
Simeon with blasphemous triumph. Letellier, of
whom the count de Grammont once said, on seeing
him  emerge from  the king's closet, "I picture to
myself a polecat who has just killed some fowls, and
is licking his jaws, yet stained with their blood "$Letellier was mistaken; for the sequel proved this:
that it is easier to make martyrs than apostates, and
that the power of conviction is stronger than material forces.
The Act of Revocation was carried out with
special rigor against the pastors; even the letter of
the edict was exceeded: that granted them a fortnight's delay; but Claude,~ the famous pastor of
the Parisian Huguenots, whose learning and acremen had worsted the brilliant Bossuet, received
orders to quit the capital within twenty-four hours
after the signature of the paper; and this seditious
fellow, as 3Madame de Maintenon termed him,lj was
* Felice, vol. 2, p. 63.
Burnet, vol. 1, p. 402. Benoit, vol. 4.
$ Vallaire La Beaumelle; also cited by Browning, p. 381.
~ Jean Claude was born at La Sabretat, in Rouerque, in 1619.
I{ Letter to the countess de St. Grau, dated 25th October, 1685.
lie was a man of piety, a learned theologian, a skilful orator, a
vise and moderate writer, endowed with judgment and a readiness of mind which never deserted him. He was singularly well
qualified to withstand the champions of the Roman church; and




TIEVOCATION OF THE EDICT.   511
accompanied by one of the king's footmen, who did
not lose sight of hinm for a moment till he crossed
the frontier.  The other preachers of the larger
towns were given two days in which to prepare for
departure. Those living in the provinces had a
while his genius did not equal that of Bossuet, with whom he contended publicly, he was that great orator's superior in the solidity
of his learning and the force of his argumentation. F6lice, vol.
2, p. 9.
Pierre Dubose was another celebrated pastor of the Huguenots.
He was born at Bayeux, in 1623, and was esteemed one of the
greatest preachers in the reformed church of his century.  "It
may be said of him without flattery," says his contemporary Eli
Benoit, "that he possessed all the qualifications of a Christian
orator. His mind was enlightened by an acquaintance with belleslettres. He was a good philosopher, a sound theologian, and a
judicious critic. His figure was good, his voice at once sweet and
powerful, and his action well regulated. The church at Charenton, in 1658, sent him the most urgent invitation to come to -Paris.
Marshal Turenne, the marquis de la Force, and other persons of
rank added their solicitations; but Dubose refused to leave his
charge at Caen, because he held that a pastor cannot with a good
conscience leave his flock without first obtaining their express consent. When this invitation was repeated in 1670, the archbishop
of Paris went thrice in the week to beg the king not to confirm the
appointment. Was it that he thought the eloquence of Bourdaloue and Bossuet inadequate to the task of maintaining the Romanist cause against his assault? Let an anecdote answer. Dubose,
who was often sent by the oppressed churches to plead their cause,
was commissioned in 1688 to ask the king to enforce the Edict of
Nantes. When Dubose began to speak, Louis appeared listless;
but gradually he began to listen, and at last gave evident marks
of great attention. The bearing, the voice, the serious and natural
manner, the eloquent words of the orator completely triumphed
over the repugnance which he had been taught to feel towards the
heretical ministers.  "Madame," said he to the queen, who stood
by, " I have just heard the best speaker in my kingdom."  Thean
turning to the courtiers, he added, "I certainly never heard any
one speak so well." Benoit, Hist. de 1'Edit de Nantes.




512          THE HUGUENOTS.
little longer space; but in open defiance of all the
rights of nature, they were all deprived of those of
their children who were more than seven years old.
Some were even forced to abandon infants at the
breast, and others supported broken-hearted wives
who accompanied them on the road to banishment.
Abjurations had been counted on; few were
made. Nearly all those preachers who, in a moment of stupefaction and terror, had denied their
faith, returned to it again, and accepted serenely
the penalty of their relapse.* Old men of ninety
might be seen summoning up their remaining
strength to set out on distant travel, and more than
one perished ere he reached the asylum where he
had hoped to rest his faltering steps and weary
head.t
So long as the Huguenots had any thing to lose,
though but the shadow of their ancient liberties,
the empty name of Henry Quatre's great edict, the
majority confined themselves to presenting petitions and praying for a redress of grievances. They
cherished a hope that the sanctity of law, justice,
and humanity would be reawakened in the breast
of their monarch; and so far did they carry their
endurance, as to give rise to the proverbial expressi n, a IIuytuenot's patience.:t  But when they lost
all, absolutely all, they consulted only what was
due to conscience and to their outraged faith; and
by continuing to brave the most barbarous of edicts,
* Benoit, Hist. de I'Edit de Nantes.
t Felice, vol. 2, p. 69.              I Tbid.




REVOCATION OF THIE EDICT.   513
in the face of exile, the galleys, and death, they
wore out the ferocity of their tormentors.
Emigration now attained gigantic proportions.
In spite of cunning preventive measures-in spite
of constantly reiterated decrees, denouncing death
upon all who should venture to pass the French
frontier —in spite of cordons of soldiers stationed
to dragoon back all refugees, the tide of emigration set resolutely, irresistibly towards Protestant
Europe. England, Switzerland, Holland, Prussia,
Denmark, and Sweden generously relieved their
first necessities.
The depopulation of the kingdom was frightful.
The best authorities estimate that France lost five
hundred thousand of her best, most intelligent,
moral, and industrious citizens.*  She lost besides
sixty millions of francs in specie, and her most flourishing nmanufactures;t while four hundred thousand lives paid the forfeit of the reign of terror.:t
This was what it cost to suppress the truth in
France.
Thousands of emigrants perished of fatigue, cold,
and hunger, besides those lost by shipwreck, and
those shot by the soldiers while attempting to escape.
Thousands more were talken, chained to assassins
and other desperate criminals, then marched across
the kingdom, that the sight of them  might strike
their coreligionists with terror; then they were condemned to row with the convict crews. The gal* Sismondi, Mlem. de St. Simon. Felice, vol. 2, p. pD. 73, 74,
et.               ~t Ibid.             $ Felice.
22*




514          THE HUGUENOTS.
leys at Marseilles were crowded with these Chris.
tians; and among them were magistrates, officers,
gentlemen, and octogenarlans.*  The convents and
the town of Constance at Aigue-MIortes were crowded with devoted women. But neither threats, barbarities, nor brutal and unheard of punishments
could conquer the patience, the firmness, the energy, the sublime faithfulness of these oppressed
consciences.
Of the moral results of this wholesale and
most infamous proscription it is needless to speak.
They are palpable.  The revocation of the Edict
of Nantes was the avccnt courier of the Revolution of
1789. The religion of reason was the inevitable
outgrowth of the religion of bestiality. Robespierre
was the counterpart of Letellier. The act of 1685
exiled Christ and struck the people; the frenzy of
1789 was the return blow of the people ignorant
of Christ: the Revolution was France smiting the
tyranny which Louis XIV. inaugurated; it was the
explosion of ten centuries of wickedness, of bigotry,
of oppression, of perfidy, in an awful crash. It was
GOD raining his vengeance upon the Sodom of the
monarchy and on the Gomorrah of the papacy.
Multitudes of writers bear ample witness to
the economic ruin which the revocation caused.
"Trade," says St. Simon, "was ruined; a quarter
of the kingdom  was perceptibly depopulated."t
"Whole villages were deserted," says Sismondi;
" many of the larger towns lost half their denizens;
* Felice.                t Mem. de St. Simhon.




REVOCATION OF THE EDICT.   515
hundreds of factories were closed; some branches
of industry became altogether extinct; and vast
districts absolutely ached for hands to cultivate
them."*  "The HEuguenots," remarks Lamartine,
"repaid the generous hospitality of those peoples
with whom they found a home, by contributing the
riches of their cunning labor, by the example of
their faith, by their lives of integrity; and while
they thus enriched their adopted countries, France
was impoverished."t Lemnontey says, "The French
Protestants carried into England the secret of those
valuable machines which have laid the foundations
of her vast wealth, while the complaints of these
proscribed exiles cemented an avenging league at
Augsburg.":t
Thus it should seem that the revocation of the
Ecdict of Nantes was economic suicide as well as
religious death. That fatal act not only filled the
salons of modern France with infidel philosophers,
it also brought pecuniary ruin. France colonized
her hands away from her mouth.
Only one other nation has been guilty of so barbarous an act. In the sixteenth century, Philip II.
expelled the Moors from his kingdom. Bankrupt
and despicable, largely in consequence of that edict,
Spain stands to-day "wicked but in will, of means
bereft," serving, like the drunken helot, to show
how disgusting and ruinous mean vice is.
* Sismondi, Hist. de France.   t Lamartine.
$ Essai sur l'Etablissenlent Monarchique de Louis XIV, p.
413.




516         THE HIUGUENOTS.
But the exile of the Huguenots, though it could
not be more ruinous than the Spanish perfidy, touch-.ed a meaner depth. The 3Moors were pagans, and
in one sense interlopers; the Huguenots were Christians and Frenchmen. When France drove them
into exile, she banished her manufacturers, her
traders, her artisans; and in consequence, industry
languished for three generations. Indeed, France
has never regained the vantage-ground which she
lost, and which the wiser policy of Great Britain
won, at that epoch. The cunning of England lassoed Lyons and Marseilles and Paris to thefeet of
London and Manchester and Liverpool, and she
has ever since kept them there. Holland, in a material sense, gained more by this act than she had
lost by the victorious invasions of Louis XIV.;
while the Huguenot colonies planted on the Cape
of Good Hope, on the snowy steppes of the Cordilleras, and, beside the sounding Atlantic, gained the
New World for God, and compensated for the mischief woe red his cause by the iniquitous politics of
the eldel continent.




A RE'SUMP.                517
CHAPTER XXXVI.
A Rt SUM i.
IT is estimated by authoritative historians that,
despite the enormous exodus of the proscribed reformers after the suppression of Henry Quatre's
edict, there still remained a million Huguenots in
France, living under the ban and at the peril of the
law.*
Meted and peeled,, they clung to their faith with
stubborn devotion.  Their unwearied appeals for
justice reached Paris borne on every breeze. But
steeled and unmoved, the king only shrugged his
shoulders, and muttered, "Persecute," while the
servile magistracy echoed, "So stands the law."
But the conscience of a generous people may
not always be fettered by cruel parchments. Live
growths rive dead matter. Pulse-beats smite down
the strongest tyrannies. Give it time, and a spear
of grass will topple over the Pyramids. Gradually
France, educated by the suffering of three centuries, grew broader than her statute-book. Iniquity
was indeed enacted into law; bigotry was the incorporated, fundamental, avowed policy of the state.
Yet the last years of the reign of Louis XIV. were
gilded by the dawn of a larger charity. Religion
was milder when it breathed through F6n6lon. Phio Sismondi, Hist. de France; Felice, Meem. de Nevers, and
others.




518            THE HIJGUENOTS.
losophy was gentler when it spoke through the lips
of Pascal.* Harsh statutes were construed int6 inlpotence wher D'Aguesseau pronounced judgment.
Letters were humaner; the collectors of lewd anecdotes, the gatherers of the broken crumbs of history,
recorlers of the gossip of ccafs and the whispers of
the back-stairs of the Louvre, no longer monopolized literature; and soon, through the tragedy of
"ESTHER," Racine raised his voice against intolerance.This was the insurrection of civilization.  "It
was the human mind which, constantly persecuted,
opposed, headed off, has disappeared only to appear again; and passing from one labor to another,
has taken successively, from age to age, the figure
of all the great reformers. It was the human mind
which was called John Huss, and which did not die
on the funeral-pile of Constance; which was named
Luther, and shook Romanism to its centre; which
was called Calvin, and organized the Reformation;
which, since history began, has transformed societies according to a law progressively acceptable to
~* laise Pascal, a famous French mathematician and philosopher, born 1623, died 1662. He figured in the controversy between the Jesuits and the Port Royal school; and his " Provincial
Letters" are said to have been the origin of the hostile feeling
against the " Society of Jesus" which, a century later, drove them
out of France for the second time.
t Racine depicted Louvois in the blackest colors; and to avoid
all chance of misconstruction, he put into Haman's mouth the
precise words of Louvois, which escaped him in the delirium oA
his pride. Nor did the poet scruple to refer to Louis:
"Et le roi trop credule a sign6 et edit."




A RESUML.                519
reason; which has been theocracy, aristocracy,
monarchy, and which is to-clay religious democracy; which has been Babylon, Tyre, Jerusalem,
Athens, Rome; which has been by turns error, illusion, schism, protestation, truth; but which has alWays groped towards the Just, the Beautiful, the
True, enlightening multitudes, ennobling life, raising more and more the head of the people towards
the Right, and the head of the individual towards
God."*
The government of France might slaughter individuals, might annihilate Paris to the last pavement, and the kingdom to the last hamlet, still it
would have done nothing. " There would yet remain to be destroyed something always paramount,
above the generations, between man and his Maker;
something which has written the books, invented
the arts, discovered the worlds, founded the civilizations; something which will always grasp, under
the form of revolution, what is not yielded under
the form of progress; something which is unseizable as the light, unapproachable as the sun, and
which God calls the human mind."t
But while the premonitory phases of a revolution were beginning to appear, the law stood long
unchanged, pitiless.  The war of the Camisards
stained the seventeenth century; it was a frightful
tragedy enacted by the Huguenot peasants of the
Vivavais, frenzied by that "oppression" which, as
o Victor Hugo, Speech in the National Assembly, 1851,
t Ibid.




520           THE HUGUENOTS.
Solomon says, "makes the wise man mad."  After
the employment of fiend-like cruelties, in which the
demoniacal ingenuity of Indian torture was comnbined with the scientific inventions of semi-civilization, the Camisards were subjugated —the throats
of a whole population were cut.*
Thus passed away the age of Louis XIV.; the
penal code unsoftened, but public opinion liberalized.
The first years of the reign of Louis XV. were
barren of good fruit.  Spasmodic acts of bigotry
occurred, but the lawyers lingered more and more
in the execution of the prescribed barbarities; and
when a nation shudders at its laws, they are already
half abolished. There were even instances of judgments pronounced by judges directly against the
obnoxious statutes;t they preferred to see their
decisions reversed by appeal, rather than suffer the
humiliation of having them confirmed-obeying juslice in disobeying the law.
Disgusted by the mumnmeries of the Vatican,
France began at this period to imbibe the poison
of infidelity; but the scholars of the philosophical
school did not bestow one good word upon the Huguenots. This was happy; the benediction of infidel savancs would not have been appropriate. Mon-'> Pardoe, Louis XIV. and the Court of France, vol. 2, p. 341.
Bruey's Hist. du Fanaticisme, vol. 1, p. 183. Browning, p. 38i5,
et seq.
t Witness the judicial records of France in this age. Some ot
these decisions may be found in Felice; they are referred to in'Hungenots in France and America," vol. 2.




A RESUMIE,c                    521
tesquieu did not mention these oppressed children
of God's right hand; Rousseau, the child of Calvin's
own city, attacked Rominanism more than he defended the Protestant idea. Between this bastard philosophy and Christianity there was little in common, no point d'appmi.
In 1744, a Huguenot synod was convened at
Nismes. Denied baptism, burial, and the marriage
ceremony, deprived of a legal status, they determined  to  hold  their services in  the  open  air.
"This," said one, "is better than the catacombs of
the earliest Christians; since God gives us the field,
let us praise him there."* These meetings were
called "Assemble&es dut desert."  To avoid awakening
the suspicion of the government, the Huguenots
repaired unarmed to their forest rendezvous. There,
"In the darkling wood,
Amid the cool and silence they knelt down,
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks
And supplications; for their simple hearts
Might not resist the sacred influences
Which, from the stilly twilight of the place,
And from the gray old trunks, that high in heaven
Mingled their mossy boughs, and from the sound
Of the invisible breath, that swayed at once
All their green tops, stole over them, and bowed
Their spirits with the thought of boundless power
And inaccessible majesty."
And here, under the canopy of heaven, the sacraments were celebrated, the rites of sepulture were
performed, and the union of affection was sanctified
by religion. Yet the marriages of the desert, as they
* Lemontey, Essai sur l'Ftablissement Monarchique de Louis
Quatorze.




522          TH'E HUGUENOTS.
were called, were afterwards termed concubinage,
and the hereditary estates of the posterity of persons so united were forfeited.*
tBut though a crushing yoke rested upon the
necks of the Huguenots, each year brought some
alleviation. Four generations of persecutors and
of victims passed away. Le bien aime, as the most
indolent and sensual of kings was ironically nicknamed, was huddled into the tomb of Hugh Capdt.
Louis XVI. commenced his inauspicious reign; and
MIarie Antoinette, beautiful as Burke described her,
shared the fatal throne. Then, in 1787, the statute
of toleration glittered on the horizon. It was the
offspring of patience and persistence, of faith and
prayer.  The Huguenots wearied out the Inquisition.
The edict of toleration, clutched from tile unwilling grip of the government by the impetuous
statesmanship of the impending Revolution one
lhundred and two years after the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes, was narrow and niggardly in its
main features; but it granted to the non-conformists four things: the right to live in France, and to
practise a profession or carry on a trade without
molestation on account of religion; permission to
marry legally; an authorization to certify births
before the judge of their place of residence; regulations as to the burial of those who could not be
interred according to the Roman ritual.t
*Lemontey, Essai sur l'Ptablissement, etc.
t RMpertoire Ecclesiast., pp. 6, 7.




A RP SUME.               523
So ran the text; but the practice was not so
narrow as the precept. The Huguenots had gained
a legal status, and although they were forbidden to
assemble for public worship, yet no penalty enforced
the prohibition. They had not been deterred from
the exercise of their religion by the fiercest prohibitory legislation; should they now desist when there
was no punishment?
The heroic congregations of the wilderness held
grateful jubilee; their forty years seemed well-nigh
ended, and Canaan loomed up before their glistening eyes. "At length," cried Lafayette, himself
one of the most strenuous advocates of every species of equality on either continent, great in the
beneficence of goodness, "at length Protestants are
permitted to become husbands and fathers."*
But the frail breakwater of this decree was not
of sufficient importance to arrest the surging tide
which now began to gurgle round the throat of
France. One by one the liberties of the kingdom
had been entrapped and bound. Socialist manifestoes terminated in a Jesuitical policy. An immense intrigue was baptized with the name of government.
Then intervened the Revolution.  Into that
yawning abyss tumbled every thing-law, order,
religion. The heads of Romanist and Protestant
alike fell under the indiscriminating revolutionary
hatchet.t The frenzied insurgents propped up the
corpse of martyred liberty upon its gory tomb;' Hiuguenots in France, etc., vol. 2.    t Felice, vol. 2.




524          THE HUGUENOTS.
then hastening to the market-place, they crowned
the goddess of a spurious reason with garlands of
flowers. Thus the ecclesiasticism of the Vatican,
which had been rampant in France for a thousand
years, inciting every crime, lauding every infamy,
gloating over every outrage upon human nature,
"stealing the livery of heaven to serve the devil
n " —this monstrosity called Romanism ended fitly
ill a scoff and a blasphemy.'T is a history full of blood and full of tears.
"Never," says Lanmartine, "did weaknesses more
quickly engender faults; faults, crimes; crimes,
punishment.  That retiibutive justice which God
has implanted in our very acts, as a conscience
more sacred than the fatalism of the ancients, never
manifested itself more unequivocally; never was
the law of morality illustrated by more ample testimony, or avenged more mercilessly. Blood spilled
like water not only shrieks in accents of terror and
of pity, but gives a lesson and an example to mankind."*
At length the phantom of this bastard liberty
was laid; " Cg ira" and the "liarseillaise" lost
their fierceness; the tamed insurrectionary cho-.
ruses died out in a plaintive wail; the revolution
sobbed itself to sleep in curses. The frightful days
of 1793 passed into history; above the subsiding
waves reappeared the turrets and towers of old
institutions.  Even before the overthrow  of the
Republic, the "Goddess of Reason" was depos* Lamartine, History of the Girondists, vol. 1. introduction.




A RVSUME'.                 525
ed;* and the dismal inscription, "Death is an eternal sleep," ceased to insult God and the human
heart.t  Once awakened from their awful trance,
men came to feel that "there would be' no dignity
in life, that it would not be worth the holding, if ill
death we wholly perish.  All that lightens labor
and sanctifies toil; all that renders man brave,
good, wise, noble, patient, benevolent, just, humble, and at the same time great, worthy of intelligence, worthy of liberty, worthy of God, is to have
perpetually before him the vision of a better world
darting its rays of celestial splendor through the
dark shadows of this present life. No one shall
unjustly  or needlessly suffer in  the hereafter.
Death is restitution. By limiting man's end and
aim to this terrestrial and material existence, we
aggravate all his miseries by the terrible negation
at its close. No; there is an ulterior life. In that;,
mercy reigns through Christ; hope is its beacon,
and the'perfect liberty of the sons of God' is its
fruition. The law of the material world is gravitation; of the moral world, equity. At the end of
all reappears God,'Judge of the quick and the
dead.' "$
When Napoleon usurped the government, one
of his first acts was to reestablish religion.  In
1795, a decree was issued authorizing the free exercise of religious worship. But anxious to win
the benediction of the pope, Bonaparte leaned in
a Thiers. Consulate and Empire.       t Ibid.
$ Victor Hugo, Speech in the National Assembly, 1851.




526          THE HUGUENOTS.
his policy towards the Vatican, and Protestantism
was shackled by mild conditions.*
Under the restoration, Bonaparte's edict remainedl substantially unaltered.  Charles X. left
the law untouched, and on his flight bequeathed it
to Louis Philippe. When the government of the
citizen king went down before an after-dinner
speech and an epigram, when a cab carried the
new royalty into exile, toleration did not follow it.
Firm through the days of the second Republic, it
likewise survived the coup d'etat of Louis Bonaparte in 1852, and soon received the imppr.matur of
the Empire.
Napoleon, anxious, like his uncle, to reestablish
the principle of authority, which in France is based
on the ancient traditions of the papacy, has placated the Vatican by a succession of complaisant acts
which have given Romanism the eclat of the national
religion, and whose tendency is to suppress the
growth of the dissenters. Napoleon perceives that
the natural, inevitable gravitation of Protestantism
is towards democracy. He remembers De Tocqueville's prophecy that all Europe is gradually marching to that goal.t- Hence the emperor, at the head
of an abnormal government, cannot but look with
suspicion upon the non-conformists.
Still, despite the open unfriendliness of the
state and the sinister efforts of the Romanist party,
the descendants of the Huguenots maintain their
* Thiers, Consulate and Empire.
t De Tocqueville, Democracy in America.




A RtSURn E.               527
ground.  The Revolution robbed the ultramontanists of great prestige by the confiscation of the immense church property; it also made the people
suspicious of their ascendency in the etat civile.
This gives the reformers a fulcrum upon which to
rest their lever. They have several colleges, one
at Montauban, one at Mlismes, one at Paris.*  The
south of France, the ancient strong-hold of the
Reformation, is yet the rendezvous of Protestantism.t The Lutheran, the Wesleyan, the Calvinist
denominations are militant;: and they can afford
to be patient, sure that, since their essential principles are in conformity with the fundamental tenets
of the New Testament, the future is theirs, and that
they will eventually subdue the conscience of the
human race beneath their sway.
"Wrong," says Yictor Hugo, "is but a hideous
flash in the darkness; right is an eternal ray."
The object of the Huguenots was the demolition of idols, the purification of the sanctuary, the
reinauguration of primitive Christianity; to bring
man to God through the divine Redeemer, the
"one Mediator," by the abolition of an impious,
mediatorial priest-caste, and the promulgation of
the golden truth which Luther reaffirmed, and
which Calvin echoed, "justification by faith" in
Christ, the invocation of His sole intercession at
the heavenly bar.
Standing in the sunlight of the nineteenth cen* Felice, Hist. of French Protestantism. Browning.
t Ibid.                     ~ Browning, p. 439.




528          THE HUGUENOTS.
tury, the age of unfettered lips, of myriad churches;
of open Bibles, whose great heart throbs with that
love of God which is "perfect liberty," who shall
say that the Huguenots have not grandly performed
their work?
Let each of us reverently thank God for the
light of their example; let us determine to be
worthy of the past, and the apostles of a sublimer
future.