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Volume Second - Book Seventeenth
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| Chapter 1 | HENRY II AND PARTIES IN FRANCE. Francis I—His Last Illness—Waldensian Settlement in Provence— Fertility and Beauty—Massacre—Remorse of the King — His Death— Lying in State—Henry II—Parties at Court—The Constable de Montmorency— Thc Guises—Diana of Poictiers—Marshal de St. Andre—Catherine de Medici. |
| Chapter 2 | HENRY II AND HIS PERSECUTIONS. Bigotry of Henry II—Persecution—The Tailor and Diana of Poictiers— The Tailor Burned—The King Witnesses his Execution—Horror of the King—Martyrdoms—Progress of the Truth—Bishop of Macon—The Gag — First Protestator Congregation—Attempt to Introduce the Inquisition—National Disasters—Princes and Nobles become Protestants —A Mercuriale—Arrest of Du Bourg—A Tournament—The King Killed —Strange Rumors. |
| Chapter 3 | FIRST NATIONAL SYNOD OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANT CHURCH. Early Assemblies of French Protestants—Colportage—Holy Lives—The Planting of Churches throughout France—Play at La Rochelle—First National Synod—Confession of Faith of the French Church— Constitution and Government—Gradation of Courts - Order and Liberty - Piety Flourishes. |
| Chapter 4 | A GALLERY OF PORTRAITS. National Decadence—Francis II—Scenes Shift at Court—The Guises and the Queen-mother—Anthony de Bourbon—His Paltry Character— Prince of Conde—His Accomplishments—Admiral Coilgny—His Conversion— Embraces the Reformed Faith—His Daily Life—Great Services—Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre—Greatness of her Character—Services to French Protestantism—Her Kingdom of Navarre—Edict Establishing the Reformed Worship in it—Her Cede— Her Fame. |
| Chapter 5 | THE GUISES, AND THE INSURRECTION OF AMBOISE. Francis II—Pupilage of the King—The Guises Masters of France—Their Tool, the Mob—Chambres Ardentes —Wrecking —Odious Slanders — Confiscation of Huguenot Estates—Retribution— Conspiracy of Amboise—Its Failure—Executions — Tragedies on the Loire — Carrier of Nantes Renews these Tragedies in 1790—Progress of Protestantism— Condemnation of Conde—Preparations for his Execution —Abjuration Test—Death of Francis II—His Funeral. |
| Chapter 6 | CHARLES IX—THE TRIUMVIRATE—COLLOQUY AT POISSY. Mary Stuart—Charles IX—Catherine de Medici Regent—Meeting of States-General—Chancellor de l'Hopital on Toleration—Speeches of the Deputies—The Church's Advocate calls for the Sword—Sermons at Fontainebleau—The Triumvirate—Debt of France—Colloquy at Poissy—Roman Members—Protestant Deputies—Beza—His Appearance—Points of Difference—Commotion in the Conference— Cardinal of Lorraine's Oration—End of Colloquy—Lesson—Impulse to Protestantism— Preaching of Pierre Viret—Dogmas and their Symbols—Huguenot Iconoclasts. |
| Chapter 7 | MASSACRE AT VASSY AND COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WARS. Spring-time of French Protestantism—Edict of January—Toleration of Public Worship—Displeasure of the Romanists—Extermination—The Duke of Guise—Collects an Army—Massacres the Protestants of Vassy —The Duke and the Bible — He Enters Paris in Triumph—His Sword Supreme—Shall the Protestants take up Arms?—Their Justification— Massacres—Frightful State of France—More Persecuting Edicts— Charlotte Laval—Coligny sets out for the Wars. |
| Chapter 8 | COMMENCEHENT OF THE HUGUENOT WARS. Conde Seizes Orleans–His Compatriot Chiefs – Prince of Porcian– Rochefoucault–Rohan-Grammont–Montgomery–Soubise–St. Phale –La Mothe–Genlis–Marvellous Spread of the Reformed Faith–The Popish Party–Strength of Protestantism in France – Question of the Civil Wars – Justification of the Huguenots–Finance–Foreign Allies. |
| Chapter 9 | THE FIRST HUGUENOT WAR, AND DEATH OF THE DUKE OF GUISE. Final Overtures–Rejection–The Two Standards–Division of France– Orleans the Huguenot Headquarters–Conde the Leader–Coligny– The Two Armies Meet–Catherine's Policy–No Battle–Rouen Besieged–Picture of the Two Camps–Fall of Rouen– Miseries – Death of the King of Navarre–Battle of Dreux – Duke of Guise sole Dictator–Conde a Prisoner–Orleans Besieged–The Inhabitants to be put to the Sword–The Duke of Guise Assassinated– Catherine de Medici Supreme–Pacification of Amboise. |
| Chapter 10 | CATHERINE DE MEDICI AND HER SON, CHARLES IX– CONFERENCE AT BAYONNE–THE ST. BARTHOLOMEW
MASSACRE PLOTTED. The Peace Satisfactory to Neither Party–Catherine de Medici comes to the Front–The Dance of Death at the Louvre–What will Catherine's Policy be–the Sword or the Olive-branch?–Charles IX–His Training–A Royal Progress–Iconoclast Outrages–Indignation of Charles IX–The Envoys of the Duke of Savoy and the Pope– Bayonne–Its Chateau–Nocturnal Interviews between Catherine de Medici and the Duke of Alva–Agreed to Exterminate the Protestants of France and England–Testimony of Davila–of Tavannes–of Maimbourg–Plot to be Executed at Moulins, 1566–Postponed. |
| Chapter 11 | SECOND AND THIRD HUGUENOT WARS. Peace of Longjumeau–Second Huguenot War–Its One Battle–A Peace which is not Peace – Third Huguenot War–Conspiracy–An Incident –Protestant Chiefs at La Rochelle–Joined by the Queen of Navarre and the Prince of Bearn–Battle of Jarnac–Death of the Prince of Conde– Heroism of Jeanne d'Albret–Disaster at Montcontour – A Dark Night –Misfortunes of Coligny–His Sublimity of Soul. |
| Chapter 12 | SYNOD OF LA ROCHELLE. Success as Judged by Man and by God—Coligny's Magnanimous Counsels—A New Huguenot Army—Dismay of the Court—Peace of St. Germain-en-Laye—Terms of Treaty—Perfidiousness—Religion on the Battle-field—Synod of La Rochelle — Numbers and Rank of its Members —It Ratifies the Doctrine and Constitution of the French Church as Settled at its First Synod. |
| Chapter 13 | THE PROMOTERS OF THE ST. BARTHOLOMEW MASSACRE. Theocracy and the Punishment of Heresy—The League—Philip II— Urges Massacre—Position of Catherine de Medici—Hopelessness of Subduing the Huguenots on the Battle-field — Pius V — His Austerities— Fanaticism—Becomes Chief Inquisitor—His Habits as Pope—His Death —Correspondence of Pius V with Charles IX and Catherine de Medici— Massacre distinctly Outlined by the Pope. |
| Chapter 14 | NEGOTIATIONS OF THE COURT WITH THE HUGUENOTS. Dissimulation on a Grand Scale — Proposed Expedition to Flanders— The Prince of Orange to be Assisted—The Proposal brings Coligny to Court—The King's Reception of him — Proposed Marriage of the King's Sister with the King of Navarre—Jeanne d'Albret comes to Court — Her Sudden Death—Picture of the French Court—Interview between Charles IX and the Papal Legate—The King's Pledge—His Doublings. |
| Chapter 15 | THE MARRIAGE, AND PREPARATIONS FOR THE MASSACRE. Auguries—The King of Navarre and his Companions arrive in Paris— The Marriage—The Rejoicings—Character of Pius V—The Admiral Shot— The King and Court Visit him—Behavior of the King—Davila on the Plot —The City-gates Closed—Troops introduced into Paris—The Huguenot Quarter Surrounded—Charles IX Hesitates—Interview between him and his Mother—Shall Navarre and Conde be Massacred? |
| Chapter 16 | THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. Final Arrangements—The Tocsin—The First Pistol-shot—Murder of Coligny—His Last Moments—Massacre throughout Paris—Butchery at the Louvre—Sunrise, and what it Revealed—Charles IX Fires on his Subjects—An Arquebus—The Massacres Extend throughout France— Numbers of the Slain—Variously Computed—Charles IX Excusing Accuses himself—Reception of the News in Flanders—in England — in Scotland—Arrival of the Escaped at Geneva—Rejoicings at Rome—The Three Frescoes — The St. Bartholomew Medal. |
| Chapter 17 | RESURRECTION OF HUGUENOTISM—DEATH OF CHARLES IX. After the Storm — Revival—Siege of Sancerre—Horrors—Bravery of the Citizens—The Siege Raised—La Rochelle—The Capital of French Protestantism — Its Prosperous Condition—Its Siege—Brave Defense— The Besiegers Compelled to Retire—A Year after St. Bartholomew—Has Coligny Risen from the Dead?—First Anniversary of the St. Bartholomew — The Huguenots Reappear at Court—New Demands— Mortification of the Court—A Politico-Ecclesiastical Confederation formed by the Huguenots—The Tiers Parti— Illness of Charles IX. — Hie Sweat cf Blood — Remorse — His Huguenot Nurse — His Death. |
| Chapter 18 | NEW PERSECUTIONS—REIGN AND DEATH OF HENRY III. Henry III—A Sensualist and Tyrant—Persecuting Edict—Henry of Navarre—His Character—The Protestants Recover their Rights—The League—War—Henry III Joins the League—Gallantry of "Henry of the White Plume"—Dissension between Henry III and the Duke of Guise— Murder of Guise—Murder of the Cardinal of Lorraine—Henry III and Henry of Navarre Unite their Arms—March on Paris—Henry III Assassinated—Death of Catherine de Medici. |
| Chapter 19 | HENRY IV AND THE EDICT OF NANTES. Henry IV—Birth and Rearing—Assumes the Crown—Has to Fight for the Kingdom—Victory at Dieppe—Victory at Ivry—Henry's Vacillation— His Double Policy—Wrongs of the Huguenots—Henry turns towards Rome—Sully and Duplessis—Their Different Counsel— Henry's Abjuration—Protestant Organization—The Edict of Nantes— Peace— Henry as a Statesman—His Foreign Policy — Proposed Campaign against Austria—His Forebodings—His Assassination—His Character. |
RESEARCH INDEX ----New WindowWe have rapidly traced the line of Waldensian story from those early ages when
the assembled barbes are seen keeping watch around their lamp in the Pra del Tor,
with the silent silvery peaks looking down upon them, to those recent days when the
Vaudois carried that lamp to Rome and set it in the city of Pius IX. Our desire to
pursue their conflicts and martyrdoms till their grand issues to Italy and the world
had been reached has carried us into modern times. We shall return, and place ourselves
once more in the age of Francis I.
We resume our history at the death-bed of that monarch. Francis died March 31st,
1547, at the age of fifty-two, "of that shameful distemper," says the Abbe
Millot, "which is brought on by debauchery, and which had been imported with
the gold of America."[1]
The character of this sovereign was adorned by some fine qualities, but his
reign was disgraced by many great errors. It is impossible to withhold from him the
praise of a generous disposition, a cultivated taste, and a chivalrous bearing; but
it is equally impossible to vindicate him from the charge of rashness in his enterprises,
negligence in his affairs, fickleness in his conduct, and excess in his pleasures.
He lavished his patronage upon the scholars of the Renaissance, but he had nothing
but stakes wherewith to reward the disciples of Protestantism. He built Fontainebleau,
and began the Louvre. And now, after all his great projects for adorning his court
with learned men, embellishing his capital with gorgeous fabrics, and strengthening
his throne by political alliances, there remains to him only "darkness and the
worm." Let us enter the royal closet, and mark the setting of that sun which
had shed such a brilliance during his course. Around the bed upon which Francis I
lies dying is gathered a clamorous crowd of priests, courtiers, and courtesans,[2] who watch his last moments
with decent but impatient respect, ready, the instant he has breathed his last, to
turn round and bow the knee to the rising sun. Let us press through the throng and
observe the monarch. His face is haggard. He groans deeply, as if he were suffering
in soul. His starts are sudden and violent. There flits at times across his face
a dark shadow, as if some horrible sight, afflicting him with unutterable woe, were
disclosed to him; and a quick tremor at these moments runs through all his frame.
He calls his attendants about him and, mustering all the strength left him, he protests
that it is not he who is to blame, inasmuch as his orders were exceeded. What orders?
we ask; and what deed is it, the memory of which so burdens and terrifies the dying
monarch?
We must leave the couch of Francis while we narrate one of the greatest of the crimes
that blackened his reign. The scene of the tragedy which projected such dismal shadows
around the death-bed of the king was laid in Provence. In ancient times Provence
was comparatively a desert. Its somewhat infertile soil was but thinly peopled, and
but indifferently tilled and planted. It lay strewn all over with great boulders,
as if here the giants had warred, or some volcanic explosion had rained a shower
of stones upon it. The Vaudois who inhabited the high-lying valleys of the Pied-montese
Alps, cast their eyes upon this more happily situated region, and began to desire
it as a residence. Here, said they, is a fine champaign country, waiting for occupants;
let us go over and possess it. They crossed the mountains, they cleared the land
of rocks, they sowed it with wheat, they planted it with the vine, and soon there
was seen a smiling garden, where before a desert of swamps, and great stones, and
wild herbage had spread out its neglected bosom to be baked by the summer's sun,
and frozen by the winter's winds. "An estate which before their establishment
hardly paid four crowns as rental, now produced from three to four hundred."[3] The successive generations
of these settlers flourished here during a period of three hundred years, protected
by their landlords, whose revenues they had prodigiously enriched, loved by their
neighbors, and loyal to their king.
When the Reformation arose, this people sent delegates—as we have related in the
previous book—to visit the Churches of Switzerland and Germany, and ascertain how
far they agreed with, and how far they differed from themselves. The report brought
back by the delegates satisfied them that the Vaudois faith and the Protestant doctrine
were the same; that both had been drawn from the one infallible fountain of truth;
and that, in short, the Protestants were Vaudois, and the Vaudois were Protestants.
This was enough. The priests, who so anxiously guarded their territory against the
entrance of Lutheranism, saw with astonishment and indignation a powerful body of
Protestants already in possession. They resolved that the heresy should be swept
from off the soil of France as speedily as it had arisen. On the 18th of November,
1540, the Parliament of Aix passed an arret to the following effect: — "Seventeen
inhabitants of Merindol shall be burnt to death" (they were all the heads of
families in that place); "their wives, children, relatives, and families shall
be brought to trial, and if they cannot be laid. hold on, they shall be banished
the kingdom for life. The houses in Merindol shall be burned and razed to the ground,
the woods cut down, the fruit-trees torn up, and the place rendered uninhabitable,
so that none may be built there."[4]
The president of the Parliament of Aix, a humane man, had influence with the
king to stay the execution of this horrible sentence. But in 1545 he was succeeded
by Baron d'Oppede, a cruel, intolerant, bloodthirsty man, and entirely at the devotion
of Cardinal Tournon—a man, says Abbe Millot, "of greater zeal than humanity,
who principally enforced the execution of this barbarous arret."[5] Francis I offered them pardon if within three months they
should enter the pale of the Roman Church. They disdained to buy their lives by apostacy;
and now the sword, which had hung for five years above their heads, fell with crushing
force. A Romanist pen shall tell the sequel: —
"Twenty-two towns or villages were burned or sacked, with an inhumanity of which
the history of the most barbarous people hardly presents examples. The unfortunate
inhabitants, surprised, during the night, and pursued from rock to rock by the light
of the fires which consumed their dwellings, frequently escaped one snare only to
fall into another; the pitiful cries of the old men, the women, and the children,
far from softening the hearts of the soldiers, mad with rage like their leaders,
only set them on following the fugitives, and pointed out the places whither to direct
their fury. Voluntary surrender did not exempt the men from execution, nor the women
from excesses of brutality which made Nature bhsh. It was forbidden, under pain of
death, to afford them any refuge. At Cabrieres, one of the principal towns of that
canton, they murdered more than seven hundred men in cold blood; and the women, who
had remained in their houses, were shut up in a barn filled witth straw, to which
they set fire; those who attempted to escape by the window were driven back by swords
and pikes. Finally, according to the tenor of the sentence, the houses were razed,
the woods cut down, the fruit-trees pulled up, and in a short time this country,
so fertile and so populous, became uncultivated and uninhabited."[6]
Thus did the red sword and the blazing torch purge Provence. We cast our eyes
over the purified land, but, alas! we are unable to recognize it. Is this the land
which but a few days ago was golden with the yellow grain, and purple with the blushling
grape; at whose cottage doors played happy children; and from whose meadows and mountain-sides,
borne on the breeze, came the bleating of flocks and the lowing of herds? Now, alas!
its bosom is scarred and blackened by smouldering ruins, its mountain torrents are
tinged with blood, and its sky is thick with the black smoke of its burning woods
and cities.
We return to the closet of the dying monarch. Francis is still protesting that the
deed is not his, and that too zealous executioners exceeded his orders. Nevertheless
he cannot banish, we say not from his memory, but from his very sight, the awful
tragedy enacted on the plains of Provence. Shrieks of horror, wailings of woe, and
cries for help seem to resound through his chamber. Have his ministers and courtiers
no word of comfort wherewith to assuage his terrors, and fortify him in the prospect
of that awful Bar to which he is hastening with the passing hours? They urged him
to sanction the crime, but they leave him to bear the burden of it alone. He summons
his son, who is so soon to mount his throne, to his bedside, and charges him with
his last breath to execute vengeance on those who had shed this blood.[7] With this slight reparation the unhappy king goes his dark
road, the smoking and blood-sprinkled Provence behind him, the great Judgment-seat
before him.
Having breathed his last, the king lay in state, preparatory to his being laid in
the royal vaults at St. Denis. Two of his sons who had pre-deceased him—Francis and
Charles—were kept unburied till now, and their corpses accompanied that of their
father to the grave. Of the king's lying-in-state, the following very curious account
is given us by Sleidan:—
"For some days his effigies, in most rich apparel, with his crown, scepter,
and other regal ornaments, lay upon a bed of state, and at certain hours dinner and
supper were served up before it, with the very same solemnity as was commonly performed
when he was alive. When the regal ornaments were taken off, they clothed the effigies
in mourning; and eight-and-forty Mendicant friars were always present, who continually
sung masses and dirges for the soul departed. About the corpse were placed fourteen
great wax tapers, and over against it two altars, on which from daylight to noon
masses were said, besides what were said in an adjoining chapel, also full of tapers
and other lights. Four-and-twenty monks, with wax tapers in their hands, were ranked
about the hearse wherein the corpse was carried, and before it marched fifty poor
men in mourning, every one with a taper in his hand. Amongst other nobles, there
were eleven cardinals present."
Henry II now mounted the throne of France. At the moment of his accession all seemed
to promise a continuance of that prosperity and splen-dor which had signalized the
reign of his father. The kingdom enjoyed peace, the finances were flourishing, the
army was brave and well-affected to the throne; and all men accepted these as auguries
of a prosperous reign. This, however, was but a brief gleam before the black night.
France had missed the true path. Henry had worn the crown for only a short while
when the clouds began to gather, and that night to descend which is only now beginning
to pass away from France. His father had early initiated him into the secrets of
governing, but Henry loved not business. The young king sighed to get away from the
council-chamber to the gay tournament, where mailed and plumed warriors pursued,
amid applauding spectators, the mimic game of war. What good would this princedom
do him if it brought him not pleasure? At his court there lacked not persons, ambitious
and supple, who studied to flatter his vanity and gratify his humors. To lead the
king was to govern France, and to govern France was to grasp boundless riches and
vast power. It was under this feeble king that those factions arose, whose strivings
so powerfully influenced the fate of Protestantism in that great kingdom, and opened
the door for so many calamities to the nation. Four parties were now formed at court,
and we must pause here to describe them, otherwise much that is to follow would be
scarcely intelligible. In the passions and ambitions of these parties, we unveil
the springs of those civil wars which for more than a century deluged France with
blood.
At the head of the first party was Anne de Montmorency, High Constable of France.
Claiming descent from a family which had been one of the first to be baptised into
the Christian faith, he assumed the glorious title of the First Christian and Premier
Baron [8] of France. He possessed
great strength of will, and whatever end he proposed to himself he pursued, without
much caring whom he trod down in his way to it. He had the misfortune on one occasion
to give advice to Francis I which did not prosper, and this, together with his head-strongness,
made that monarch in his latter days banish him from the court. When Francis was
dying he summoned his son Henry to his bedside, and earnestly counselled him never
to recall Mont-morency, fearing that the obstinacy and pride which even he had with
difficulty repressed, the weaker hands to which he was now bequeathing his crown
[9] would be unequal to
the task of curbing.
No sooner had Henry assumed the reins of government than he recalled the Constable.
Montmorency's recall did not help to make him a meeker man. He strode back to court
with brow more elate, and an air more befitting one who had come to possess a throne
than to serve before it. The Constable was beyond measure devout, as became the first
Christian in France. Never did he eat flesh on forbidden days; and never did morning
dawn or evening fall but his beads were duly told. It is true he sometimes stopped
suddenly in the middle of his chaplet to issue orders to his servants to hang up
this or the other Huguenot, or to set fire to the corn-field or plantation of some
neighbor of his who was his enemy; but that was the work of a minute only, and the
Constable was back again with freshened zeal to his Paternosters and his Ave-Marias.
It became a proverb, says Brantome, "God keep us from the Constable's beads."[10] These singularities
by no means lessened his reputation for piety, for the age hardly placed acts of
religion and acts of mercy in the same category. Austere, sagacious, and resolute,
he constrained the awe if not the love of the king, and as a consequence his heavy
hand was felt in every part of the kingdom.
The second party was that of the Guises. The dominancy of that family in France marks
one of the darkest eras of the nation. The House of Lorraine, from which the Lords
of Guise are descended, derived its original from Godfrey Bullen, King of Jerusalem,
and on the mother's side from a daughter of Charlemagme. Anthony, flourishing in
wealth and powerful in possessions, was Duke of Lorraine; Claude, a younger brother,
crossed the frontier in 1513, staff in hand, attended by but one servant, to seek
his fortunes in France. He ultimately became Duke of Guise. This man had six sons,
to all of whom wealth seemed to come at their wish. Francis I, perceiving the ambition
of these men, warned his son to keep them at a distance.[11] But the young king, despising the warning, recalled Francis
de Lorraine as he had done the Constable Montmorency, and the power of the Guises
continued to grow, till at last they became the scourge of the country in which they
had firmly rooted themselves, and the terror of the throne which they aspired to
mount.
The two brothers, Francis and Charles, stood at the head of the family, and figured
at the court. Franzis, now in the flower of his age, was sprightly and daring; Charles
was crafty, but timid; Laval says of him that he was "the cowardliest of all
men." The qualities common to both brothers, and possessed by each in inordinate
degree, were cruelty and ambition. Rivals they never could. become, for though their
ambitions were the same, their spheres lay apart, Francis having chosen the profession
of arms, and Charles the Church. This division of pursuits doubled their strength,
for what the craft of the one plotted, the sword of the other executed. They were
the acknowledged heads of the Roman Catholic party. "But for the Guises,"
says Mezeray, "the new religion would perhaps have become dominant in France."
The third party at the court of France was that of Diana of Poictiers. This woman
was the daughter of John of Poicters, Lord of St. Valier, and had been the wife of
Seneschal of Normandy. She was twenty years older than the king, but this disparity
of age did not hinder her from becoming the mistress of his heart. The populace could
not account for the king's affection for her, save by ascribing it to the philtres
which she made him drink. A more likely cause was her brilliant wit and sprightly
manners, added to her beauty, once dazzling, and not yet wholly faded. But her greed
was enormous. The people cursed her as the cause of the taxes that were grinding
them into poverty; the nobility hated her for her insulting airs; but access there
was none to the king, save through the good graces of Diana of Poictiers, whom the
king created Duchess of Valentinois. The title by embellishing made only the more
conspicuous the infamy of her relation to the man who had bestowed it. The Constable
on the one side, and the Guises on the other, sought to buttress their own power
by paying court to Diana.[12]
To such a woman the holy doctrines of Protestantism could not be other than
offensive; in truth, she very thoroughly hated all of the religion, and much of the
righteous blood shed in the reign of Henry II is to be laid at the door of the lewd,
greedy, and cruel Diana of Poictiers.
The fourth and least powerful faction was that of the Marshal de St. Andre. He was
as brave and valiant as he was witty and polite; but he was drowned in debt. Though
a soldier he raised himself not by his valor, but by court intrigues; "under
a specious pretense for the king's service he hid a boundless ambition, and an unruly
avarice," said his Romanist friends, "and was more eager after the forfeited
estates than after the overthrow of the rebels and Huguenots."[13] Neither court nor country was likely to be quiet in which
such a man figured.
To these four parties we may add a fifth, that of Catherine de Medici, the wife of
Henry. Of deeper passions but greater self-control than many of those around her,
Catherine meanwhile was "biding her time." There were powers in this woman
which had not yet disclosed themselves, perhaps not even to herself; but when her
husband died, and the mistress no longer divided with the wife the ascendency over
the royal mind, then the hour of revelation came, and it was seen what consummate
guile, what lust of power, what love of blood and revenge had slumbered in her dark
Italian soul. As one after another of her imbecile sons, each more imbecile than
he who had preceded him—mounted the throne, the mother stood up in a lofty and yet
loftier measure of truculence and ambition. As yet, however, her cue was not to form
a party of her own, but to maintain the poise among the other factions, that by weakening
all of them she might strengthen herself.
Such were the parties that divided the court of Henry II. Thrice miserable monarch!
without one man of real honor and sterling patriotism in whom to confde. And not
less miserable courtiers! They make a brave show, no doubt, living in gilded saloons,
wearing sumptuous raiment, and feasting at luxuriant tables, but their hearts all
the while are torn with envy, or tortured with fear, lest this gay life of theirs
should come to a sudden end by the stiletto or the poison-cup. "Two great sins,"
says an old historian, "crept into France under this prince's reign—atheism
and magic."
CHAPTER 2 Back
to Top
HENRY II AND HIS PERSECUTIONS.
Bigotry of Henry II—Persecution—The Tailor and Diana of Poictiers— The Tailor Burned—The
King Witnesses his Execution—Horror of the King—Martyrdoms—Progress of the Truth—Bishop
of Macon—The Gag — First Protestator Congregation—Attempt to Introduce the Inquisition—National
Disasters—Princes and Nobles become Protestants —A Mercuriale—Arrest of Du Bourg—A
Tournament—The King Killed —Strange Rumors.
Henry II walked in the ways of his father, Francis, who first made France to sin
by beginning a policy of persecution. To the force of paternal example was added,
in the case of Henry, the influence of the maxims continually poured into his ear
by Montmorency, Guise, and Diana of Poictiers. These counselors inspired him with
a terror of Protestantism as pre-eminently the enemy of monarchs and the source of
all disorders in States; and they assured him that should the Huguenots prevail they
would trample his throne into the dust, and lay France at the feet of atheists and
revolutionista The first and most sacred of duties, they said, was to uphold the
old religion. To cut off its enemies was the most acceptable atonement a prince could
make to Heaven. With such schooling, is it any wonder that the deplorable work of
burning heretics, begun by Francis, went on under Henry; and that the more the king
multiplied his profilgacies, the greater his zeal in kindling the fires by which
he thought he was making atonement for them?[1]
The historians of the time record a sad story, which unhappily is not a solitary
instance of the bigotry of the age, and the vengeance that was beginning to animate
France against all who favored Protestantism. It affectingly displays the heartless
frivolity and wanton cruelty two qualities never far apart—which characterized the
French court. The coronation of the queen, Catherine de Medici, was approaching,
and Henry, who did his part so ill as a husband in other respects, resolved to acquit
himself with credit in this. He wished to make the coronation fetes of more than
ordinary splendor; and in order to this he resolved to introduce what would form
a new feature in these rejoicings, and give variety and piquancy to them, namely,
the burning piles of four Huguenots. Four victims were selected, and one of these
was a poor tailor, who, besides having eaten flesh on a day on which its use was
forbidden, had given other proofs of being not strictly orthodox. He was to form,
of course, one of the coronation torches; but to burn him was not enough. It occurred
to the Cardinal of Lorraine that a little amusement might be extracted from the man.
The cardinal pictured to himself the confusion that would overwhelm the poor tailor,
were he to be interrogated before the king, and how mightily the court would be diverted
by the incoherence of his replies. He was summoned before Henry, but the matter turned
out not altogether as the Churchman had reckoned it would. The promise was fulfilled
to tike confessor, "When ye shall be brought before kings and rulers for my
sake and the Gospel's, it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak."
So far from being abashed, the tailor maintained perfect composure in the royal presence,
and replied so pertinently to all interrogatories and objections put by the Bishop
of Macon, that it was the king and the courtiers who were disconcerted. Diana of
Poictiers—whose wit was still fresh, if her beauty had faded—stepped boldly forward,
in the hope of rescuing the courtiers from their embarrassment; but, as old Crespin
says, "the tador cut her cloth otherwise than she expected; for he, not being
able to endure such unmeasured arrogance in her whom he knew to be the cause of these
cruel persecutions, said to her, 'Be satisfied, Madam, with having infected France,
without mingling your venom and filth in a matter altogether holy and sacred, as
is the religion and truth of our Lord Jesus Christ.'"[2] The king took the words as an affront, and ordered the man
to be reserved for the stake. When the day of execution came (14th July, 1549), the
king bade a window overlooking the pile be prepared, that thence he might see the
man, who had had the audacity to insult his favorite, slowly consuming in the fires.
Both parties had now taken their places, the tailor burning at the stake, the king
reposing luxuriously at the window, and Diana of Poictiers seated in haughty triumph
by his side. The martyr looked up to the window where the king was seated, and fixed
his eye on Henry. From the midst of the flames that eye looked forth with calm steady
gaze upon the king. The eye of the monarch quailed before that of the burning mam.
He turned away to avoid it, but again his glance wandered back to the stake. The
flames were still blazing around the martyr; has limbs were dropping off, his face
was growing fearfully livid, but his eye, unchanged, was still looking at the king;
and the king felt as if, with Medusa-power, it was changing him into stone.
The execution was at an end: not so the terror of the king. The tragedy of the day
was reacted in the dreams of the night. The terrible apparition rose before Henry
in his sleep. There again was the blazing pile, there was the martyr burning in the
fire, and there was the eye looking forth upon him from the midst of the flames.
For several successive nights was the king scared by this terrible vision. He resolved,
nay, he even took an oath, that never again would he be witness to the burning of
a heretic. It had been still better had he given orders that never again should these
horrible executions be renewed [3]
.
So far, however, was the persecution from being relaxed, that its rigor was greatly
increased. Piles were erected at Orleans, at Poictiers, at Bordeaux, at Nantes —
in short, in all the chief cities of the kingdom. These cruel proceedings, however,
so far from arresting the progress of the Reformed opinions, only served to increase
the number of their professors. Men of rank in the State, and of dignity in the Church,
now began, despite the dis-favor in which all of the "religion" were held
at court, to enroll themselves in the Protestant army. But the Gospel in France was
destined to owe more to men of humble faith than to the possessors of rank, however
lofty. We have mentioned Chatelain, Bishop of Macon, who disputed with the poor tador
before Henry II. As Beza remarks, one thing only did he lack, even grace, to make
him one of the most brilliant characters and most illustrious professors of the Gospel
in France. Lowly born, Chatelain had raised himself by his great talents and beautiful
character. He sat daily at the table of Francis I, among the scholars and wise men
whom the king loved to hear discourse. To the accomplishments of foreign travel he
added the charms of an elegant latinity. He favored the new opinions, and undertook
the defense of Robert Stephens, the king's printer, when the Sorbonne attacked him
for his version of the Bible.[4]
These acquirements and gifts procured his being made Bishop of Macon. But
the miter would seem to have cooled his zeal for the Reformation, and in the reign
of Henry II we find him persecuting the faith he had once defended. Soon after his
encounter with the tailor he was promoted to the See of Orleans, and he set out to
take possession of his new bishopric. Arriving at a monastery in the neighborhood
of Orleans, he halted there, intending to make his entry into the city on the morrow.
The Fathers persuaded him to preach; and, as Beza remarks, to see a bishop in a pulpit
was so great a wonder in those days, that the sight attracted an immense crowd. As
the bishop was thundering against heretics, he was struck with a sudden and violent
illness, and had to be carried out of the pulpit. He died the following night.[5] At the very gates of
his episcopal city, on the very steps of his episcopal throne, he encountered sudden
arrest, and gave up the ghost.
Five days thereafter (9th July, 1550), Paris was lighted up with numerous piles.
Of these martyrs, who laid gloriously with their blood the foundations of the French
Protestant Church, we must not omit the names of Leonard Galimar, of Vendome, and
Florent Venot, of Sedan. The latter endured incredible torments, for no less a period
than four years, in the successive prisons into which he was thrown. His sufferings
culminated when he was brought to Paris. He was there kept for six weeks in a hole
where he could neither lie, nor stand upright, nor move about, and the odour of which
was beyond measure foul and poisonous, being filled with all manner of abominable
filth. His keepers said that they had never known any one inhabit that dreadful place
for more than fifteen days, without losing either life or reason. But Venot surmounted
all these sufferings with a most admirable courage. Being burned alive in the Place
Maubert, he ceased not at the stake to sing and magnify the Savior, till his tongue
was cut out, and even then he continued to testify his joy by signs.[6]
In the following year (1551) a quarrel broke out between Henry and Pope Julius
III, the cause being those fruitful sources of strife, the Duchies of Parma and Placentia,
The king showed his displeasure by forbidding his subjects to send money to Rome,
and by protesting against the Council of Trent, the Fathers having returned for the
second time to that town. But this contention between the king and the Pope only
tended to quicken the flames of persecution. Henry wished to make it clear to his
subjects that it was against the Pope in his temporal and not in his spiritual character
that he had girded on the sword; that if he was warring against the Prince of the
Roman States, his zeal had not cooled for the Holy See; and that if Julius the monarch
was wicked, and might be resisted, Julius the Pope was none the less entitled to
the obedience of all Christians.[7]
To teach the Protestants, as Maimbourg observes, that they must not take advantage
of these quarrels to vent their heresies, there was published at this time (27th
June) the famous Edict of Chateaubriand, so called from the place where it was given.
By this law, all former severities were re-enacted; the cognizance of the crime of
heresy was given to the secular power; informers were rewarded with the fourth part
of the forfeited goods; the possessions and estates of all those who had fled to
Geneva were confiscated to the king; and no one was to hold any office under the
crown, or teach any science, who could not produce a certificate of being a good
Romanist.[8] This policy has at all
times been pursued by the monarchs of France when they quarrelled with the Pope.
It behooved them, they felt, all the more that they had incurred suspicion, to vindicate
the purity of their orthodoxy, and their claim to the proud title of "the Eldest
Son of the Church."
Maurice, Elector of Saxony, was at this time prosecuting his victorious campaign
against Charles V. The relations which the King of France had contracted with the
Protestant princes, and which enabled him to make an expedition into Lorraine, and
to annex Metz and other cities to his crown, moderated for a short while the rigors
of persecution. But the Peace of Passau (1552), which ratified the liberties of the
Protestants of Germany, rekindled the fires in France. "Henry having no more
measures to observe with the Protestant princes," says Laval, "nothing
was to be seen in his kingdom but fires kindled throughout all the provinces against
the poor Reformed."[9]
Vast numbers were executed in this and the following year. It was now that
the gag was brought into use for the first time. It had been invented on purpose
to prevent the martyrs addressing the people at the stake, or singing psalms to solace
themselves when on their way to the pile. "The first who suffered it,"
says Laval, "was Nicholas Noil, a book-hawker, who was executed at Paris in
the most barbarous manner."[10]
The scene of martyrdom was in those days at times the scene of conversion.
Of this, the following incident is a proof. Simon Laloe, of Soisson, was offering
up his life at Dijon. As he stood at the stake, and while the faggots were being
kindled, he delivered an earnest prayer for the conversion of his persecutors. The
executioner, Jacques Sylvester, was so affected that his tears never ceased to flow
all the time he was doing his office. He had heard no one before speak of God, or
of the Gospel, but he could not rest till he was instructed in the Scriptures. Having
received the truth, he retired to Geneva, where he died a member of the Reformed
Church.[11] The same stake that
gave death to the one, gave life to the other.
The insatiable avarice of Diana of Poictiers, to whom the king had gifted the forfeited
estates of the Reformed, not less than zeal for Romanism, occasioned every day new
executions. The truth continued notwithstanding to spread. "When the plague,"
says Maimbourg, "attacks a great city, it matters little what effort is made
to arrest it. It enters every door; it traverses every street; it invades every quarter,
and pursues its course till the whole community have been enveloped in its ravages:
so did this dangerous sect spread through France. Every day it made new progress,
despite the edicts with which it was assailed, and the dreadful executions to wlfich
so many of its members were consigned."[12] It was in the midst of this persecution that the first congregations
of the Reformed Church in France were settled with pastors, and began to be governed
by a regular discipline.
The first Church to be thus constituted was in Paris; "where," says Laval,
"the fires never went out." At that time the disciples of the Gospel were
wont to meet in the house of M. de la Ferriere, a wealthy gentleman of Maine, who
had come to reside in the capital. M. de la Ferriere had a child whom he wished to
have baptized, and as he could not present him to the priests for that purpose, nor
undertake a journey to Geneva, he urged the Christians, who were wont to assemble
in his house, to elect one of themselves to the office of pastor, with power to administer
the Sacraments. They were at last prevailed upon, and, after prayer and fasting,
their choice fell on Jean Maqon de la Riviere. IIe was the son of the king's attorney
at Angers, a rich man, but a bitter enemy of Protestantism. He was so offended at
his son for embracing the Reformed faith, that he would have given him up to the
judges, had he not fled to Paris. The sacrifice which M. de la Riviere had made to
preserve the purity of his conscience, fixed the eyes of the little flock upon him.
In him we behold the first pastor of the Reformed Church of France,[13] elected forty years after Lefevre had first opened the door
for the entrance of the Protestant doctrines. "They chose likewise," says
Laval, speaking of this little flock, "some amongst them to be elders and deacons,
and made such other regulations for the government of their Church as the times would
allow. Such were the first beginnings of the Church of Paris in the month of September,
1555, which increased daily during the war of Henry II with Charles V."[14]
If France blazed with funeral piles, it was day by day more widely illuminated
with the splendor of truth. This gave infinite vexation and torment to the friends
of Rome, who wearied themselves to devise new methods for arresting the progress
of the Gospel. Loud accusations and reproaches passed between the courts of jurisdiction
for not showing greater zeal in executing the edicts against heresy. The cognizance
of that crime was committed sometimes to the royal and sometimes to the ecclesiastical
judges, and sometimes parted between them. The mutual recriminations still continued.
A crime above all crimes, it was said, was leniently treated by those whose duty
it was to pursue it without mercy.
At last, in the hope of attaining the requisite rigor, the Cardinal of Lorraine stripped
the Parliament and the civil judges of the right of hearing such causes, and transferred
it to the bishops, leaving nothing to the others but the mere execution of the sentence
against the condemned. This arrangement the cardinal thought to perfect by establishing
the Inquisition in France on the Spanish model. In this, however, he did not succeed,
the Parliament having reftused its consent thereto.[15]
The calamities that befell the kingdom were a cover to the evangelization.
Henry II had agreed on a truce with the Emperor Charles for five years. It did not,
however, suit the Pope that the truce should be kept. Paul IV sent his legate to
France to dispense Henry from his oath, and induce him to violate the peace. The
flames of war were rekindled, but the French arms were disgraced. The battle of St.
Quentin was a fatal blow to France, and the Duke of Guise was recalled from Italy
to retrieve it. He recovered in the Low Countries the reputation which he had lost
in Sicily;[16]
but even this tended in the issue to the weakening of France. The duke's influence
at court was now predominant, and the intrigues which his great rival, Montmorency,
set on foot to supplant him, led to the Treaty of Cateau Cambresis (1559), by which
France lost 198 strongholds,[17]
besides the deepening of the jealousies and rivalships between the House of
Lorraine and that of the Constable, which so nearly proved the ruin of France. One
main inducement with Henry to conclude this treaty with Philip of Spain, was that
it left him free to prosecute the design formed by the Cardinal of Lorraine and the
Bishop of Arras for the utter extirpation of the Reformed.
In fact, the treaty contained a secret clause binding both monarchs to combine their
power for the utter extirpation of heresy in their dominions. But despite the growing
rigor of the persecution, the shameful slanders which were propagated against the
Reformed, and the hideous deaths in-fiicted on persons of all ages and both sexes,
the numbers of the Protestants and their courage daily increased. It was now seen
that scarcely was there a class of French society which did not furnish converts
to the Gospel. Mezeray says that there was no town, no province, no trade in the
kingdom wherein the new opinions had not taken root. The lawyers, the learned, nay,
the ecclesiastics, against their own interest, embraced them.[18] Some of the greatest nobles of France now rallied round the
Protestant standard. Among these was Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendome, and first
prince of the blood, and Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Conde, his brother. With these
were joined two nephews of the Constable Montmorency, the Admiral Gaspard de Coligny,
and his brother, Francois de Chatilion, better known as the Sire d'Andelot. A little
longer and all France would be Lutheran. The king's alarm was great: the alarm of
all about him was not less so, and all united in urging upon him the adoption of
yet more summary measures against an execrable belief, which, if not rooted out,
would most surely overthrow his throne, root out his house, and bring his kingdom
to ruin. Might not the displeasure of Heaven, evoked by that impious sect, be read
in the many dark calamities that were gathering round France.
It was resolved that a "Mercuriale," as it is called in France, should
be held, and that the king, without giving previous notice of his coming, should
present himself in the assembly. He would thus see and hear for himself, and judge
if there were not, even among his senators, men who favored this pestilent heresy.
It had been a custom from the times of Charles VIII (1493), when corruption crept
into the administration, and the State was in danger of receiving damage, that representatives
of all the principal courts of the realm should meet, in order to inquire into the
evil, and admonish one another to greater vigilance. Francis I had ordered that these
"Censures" should take place once every three months, and from the day
on which they were held—namely, Wednesday (Dies Mercurii)— they were named "Mercuriales."[19]
On the 10th of June, 1559, the court met in the house of the Austin Friars,
the Parliament Hall not being available, owing to the preparations for the wedding
of the king's daughter and sister. The king suddenly appeared in the assembly, attended
by the princes of the blood, the Constable, and the Guises. Having taken his seat
on the throne, he delivered a discourse on religion; he enlarged on his own labors
for the peace of Christendom, which he was about to seal by giving in marriage his
daughter Elizabeth to Philip of Spain, and his only sister Margaret to Philibert
Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy; and he concluded by announcing his resolution to devote
himself henceforward to the healing of the wounds of the Christian world. He then
ordered the senators to go on with their votes.
Though all felt that the king was present to overawe them in the expression of their
sentiments, many of the senators declared themselves with that ancient liberty which
became their rank and office. They pointed to the fact that a Council was at that
moment convened at Trent to pronounce on the faith, and that it was unjust to burn
men for heresy before the Council had decreed what was heresy. Arnold du Ferrier
freely admitted that the troubles of France sprang out of its religious differences,
but then they ought to inquire who was the real author of these differences, lest,
while pursuing the sectaries, they should expose themselves to the rebuke, "Thou
art the man that troubles Israel."
Annas du Bourg, who next rose, came yet closer to the point. There were, he said,
many great crimes and wicked actions, such as oaths, adulteries, and perjuries, condemned
by the laws, and deserving of the severest punishment, which went without correction,
while new punishments were every day invented for men who as yet had been found guilty
of no crime. Should those be held guilty of high treason who mentioned the name of
the prince only to pray for him? and should the rack and the stake be reserved, not
for those who raised tumults in the cities, and seditions in the provinces, but for
those who were the brightest patterns of obedience to the laws, and the firmest defenders
of order! It was a very grave matter, he added, to condemn to the flames men who
died calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. Other speakers followed in the same strain.
Not so the majority, however. They recalled the examples of old days, when the Albigensian
heretics had been slaughtered in thousands by Innocent III; and when the Waldenses,
in later times, had been choked with smoke in their owal dwellings, and the dens
of the mountains; and they urged the instant adoption of these time-honored usages.
When the opinions of the senators had been marked, the king took possession of the
register in which the votes were recorded, then rising up, he sharply chid those
members who had avowed a preference for a moderate policy; and, to show that under
a despot no one could honestly differ from the royal opinion and be held guiltless,
he ordered the Constable to arrest Du Bourg. The captain of the king's guard instantly
seized the obnoxious senator, and carried him to the Bastile. Other members of Parliament
were arrested next day at their own houses.[20]
The king's resohtion was fully taken to execute all the senators who had opposed
him, and to exterminate Lutheranism everywhere throughout France. He, would begin
with Du Bourg, who, shut up in an iron cage in the Bastile, waited his doom. But
before the day of Du Bourg's execution arrived, Henry himself had gone to his account.
We have already mentioned the delight the king took in jousts and tournaments. He
was giving his eldest daughter in marriage to the mightiest prince of his time —
Philip II of Spain—and so great an occasion he must needs celebrate with fetes of
corresponding magnificence. Fourteen days have elapsed since his memorable visit
to his Parliament, and now Henry presents himself in a very different assemblage.
It is the last day of June, 1559, and the rank and beauty of Paris are gathered in
the Faubourg St. Antoine, to see the king tilting with selected champions in the
lists. The king bore himself "like a sturdy and skillful cavalier" in the
mimic war. The last passage-at-arms was over, the plaudits of the brilliant throng
had saluted the royal victor, and every one thought, that the spectacle was at an
end. But no; it wan to close with a catastrophe of which no one present. so much
as dreamed. A sudden resolve seizing the king yet farther to display his prowess
before the admiring multitude, he bade the Count Montgomery, the captain of his guard,
make ready and run a tilt with him. Montgomery excused himself, but the king insisted.
Mounting his horse and placing his lance in rest, Montgomery stood facing the king.
The trumpet sounded. The two warriors, urging their steeds to a gallop, rushed at
each other:
Montgomery's lance struck the king with such force that the staff was shivered. The
blow made Henry's visor fly open, and a splinter from the broken beam entered his
left eye and drove into his brain. The king fell from his horse to the ground. A
thrill of horror ran through the spectators. Was the king slain? No; but he was mortally
wounded, and the death-blow had been dealt by the same hand—that of the captain of
his guard which he had employed to arrest the martyr Du Bourg. He was carried to
the Hotel de Tournelles, where he died on the 10th of July, in the forty-first year
of his age.[21]
Many strange things were talked of at the time; and have been related by contemporary
historians, in connection with the death of Henry II. His queen, Catherine de Medici,
had a dream the night before, in which she saw him tilting in the tournament, and
so hard put to, that in the morning when she awoke she earnestly begged him that
day not to stir abroad; but, says Beza, he no more heeded the warning than Julius
Caesar did that of his wife, who implored him on the morning of the day on which
he was slain not to go to the Senate-house. Nor did it escape observation that the
same palace which had been decked out with so much magmiflcence for the two marriages
was that in which the king breathed his last, and so "the hall of triumph was
changed into the chamber of mourning." And, finally, it was thought not a little
remarkable that when the bed was prepared on which Henry was to lie in state, and
the royal corpse laid upon it, the attendants, not thinking of the matter at all,
covered it with a rich piece of tapestry on which was represented the conversion
of St. Paul, with the words in large letters, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me?" This was remarked upon by so many who saw it, that the officer who had
charge of the body ordered the coverlet to be taken away, and replaced with another
piece.[22] The incident recalled
the last words of Julian, who fell like Henry, warring against Christ: "Thou
hast overcome, 0 Galilean!"
CHAPTER 3 Back
to Top
FIRST NATIONAL SYNOD OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANT CHURCH.
Early Assemblies of French Protestants—Colportage—Holy Lives—The Planting of Churches
throughout France—Play at La Rochelle—First National Synod—Confession of Faith of
the French Church— Constitution and Government—Gradation of Courts - Order and Liberty
- Piety Flourishes.
The young vine which had been planted in France, and which was beginning to cover
with its shadow the plains of that fair land, was at this moment sorely shaken by
the tempests; but the fiercer the blasts that warred around it, the deeper did it
strike its roots in the soil, and the higher did it lift its head into the heavens.
There were few districts or cities in France in which there was not to be found a
little community of disciples. These flocks had neither shepherd to care for them,
nor church in which to celebrate their worship. The violence of the times taught
them to shun observation; nevertheless, they neglected no means of keeping alive
the Divine life in their souls, and increasing their knowledge of the Word of God.
They assembled at stated times, to read together the Scriptures, and to join in prayer,
and at these gatherings the more intelligent or the more courageous of their number
expounded a passage from the Bible, or delivered a word of exhortation. These teachers,
however, confined themselves to doctrine. They did not dispense the Sacraments, for
Calvin, who was consulted on the point, gave it as his opinion that, till they had
obtained the services of a regularly ordained ministry, they should forego celebrating
the Lord's Supper. They were little careful touching the fashion of the place in
which they offered their united prayer and sang their psalm. It might be a garret,
or a cellar, or a barn. It might be a cave of the mountains, or a glen in the far
wilderness, or some glade shaded by the ancient trees of the forest. Assemble where
they might, they knew that there was One ever in the midst of them, and where he
was, there was the Church. One of their number gave notice to the rest of the time
and place of meeting. If in a city, they took care that the house should have several
secret doors, so that, entering by different ways, their assembling might attract
no notice. And lest their enemies should break in upon them, they took the precaution
of bringing cards and dice with them, to throw upon the table in the room of their
Bibles and psalters, as a make-believe that they had been interrupted at play, and
were a band of gamblers instead of a congregation of Lutherans.[1]
In the times we speak of, France was traversed by an army of book-hawkers.
The printing-presses of Geneva, Lausanne, and Neuchatel supplied Bibles and religious
books in abundance, and students of theology, and sometimes even ministers, assuming
the humble office of colporteurs carried them into France. Staff in hand, and pack
slung on their back, they pursued their way, summer and winter, by highways and cross-roads,
through forests and over marshes, knocking from door to door, often repulsed, always
hazarding their lives, and at times discovered, and dragged to the pile. By their
means the Bible gained admission into the mansions of the nobles, and the cottages
of the peasantry. They employed the same methods as the ancient Vaudois colporteur
to conceal their calling. Their precious wares they deposited at the bottom of their
baskets, so that one meeting them in city alley, or country highway, would have taken
them for vendors of silks and jewelry—a deception for which Florimond de Raemond
rebukes them, without, however, having a word in condemnation of the violence that
rendered the concealment necessary. The success of these humble and devoted evangelists
was attested by the numbers whom they prepared for the stake, and who, in their turn,
sowed in their blood the seed of new confessors and martyrs.
At times, too, though owing to the fewness of pastors it was only at considerable
intervals, these little assemblies of believing men and women had the much-prized
pleasure of being visited by a minister of the Gospel. From him they learned how
it was. going with their brethren in other parts of France. Their hearts swelled
and their eyes brightened as he told them that, despite the fires everywhere burning,
new converts were daily pressing forward to enroll themselves in the army of Christ,
and that the soldiers of the Cross were multiplying faster than the stake was thinning
them. Then covering the table, and placing upon it the "bread" and "cup,"
he would dispense the Lord's Supper, and bind them anew by that holy pledge to the
service of their heavenly King, even unto the death. Thus the hours would wear away,
till the morning was on the point of breaking, and they would take farewell of each
other as men who would meet no more till, by way of the halter or the stake, they
should reassemble in heaven. The singular beauty of the lives of these men attracted
the notice, and extorted even the praise, of their bitterest enemies. It was a new
thing in France. Florimond de Raemond, ever on the watch for their halting, could
find nothing of which to accuse them save that "instead of dances and Maypoles
they set on foot Bible-readings, and the singing of spiritual hymns, especially the
psalms after they had been turned into rhyme. The women, by their deportment and
modest apparel, appeared in public like sorrowing Eves, or penitent Magdalenes, as
Tertullian said of the Christian women of his day. The men too, with their mortified
air, seemed to be overpowered by the Holy Ghost."[2] It does not seem to have occurred to the monkish chronicler
to inquire why it was that what he considered an evil tree yielded fruits like these,
although a true answer to that question would have saved France from many crimes
and woes. If the facts were as Raemond stated them—if the confessors of an heretical
and diabolical creed were men of preeminent virtue the conclusion was inevitable,
either that he had entirely misjudged regarding their creed, or that the whole moral
order of things had somehow or other come to be reversed. Even Catherine de Medici,
in her own way, bore her testimony to the moral character of Protestantism. "I
have a mind," observed she one day, "to turn to the new religion, to pass
for a prude and a pious woman." The persecutors of that age are condemned out
of their own mouths. They confess that they "killed the innocent."
Truly wonderful was the number of Protestant congregations already formed in France
at the time of the death of Henry II. "Burning," yet "not consumed,"
the Reformed Church was even green and flourishing, because refreshed with a secret
dew, which was more eiticacious to preserve its life than all the fury of the flames
to extinguish it. We have already recorded the organization of the Church in Paris,
in 1555. It was followed in that and the five following years by so many others in
all parts of France, that we can do little save recite the names of these Churches.
The perils and martyrdoms through which each struggled into existence, before taking
its place on the soil of France, we cannot recount. The early Church of Meaux, trodden
into the dust years before, now rose from its ruins. In 1546 it had seen fourteen
of its members burned; in 1555 it obtained a settled pastor.[3] At Angers (1555) a congregation was formed, and placed under
the care of a pastor from Geneva. At Poictiers, to which so great an interest belongs
as the flock which Calvin gathered together, and to whom he dispensed, for the first
time in France, the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, a congregation was regularly
organized (1555). It happened that the plague came to Poictiers, and drove from the
city the bitterest enemies of the Reformation; whereupon its friends, taking heart,
formed themselves into a Church, which soon became so flourishing that it supplied
pastors to the congregations that by-and-by sprang up in the neigh-bourhood.[4] At Alevert, an island lying off the coast of Saintonge, a
great number of the inhabitants received the truth, and were formed into a congregation
in 1556. At Agen, in Guienne, a congregation was the same year organized, of which
Pierre David, a converted monk, became pastor. He was afterwards chaplain to the
King of Navarre.
At Bourges, at Aubigny, at Issoudun, at Blois, at Tours, at Montoine, at Pau in Bearn,
Churches were organized under regular pastors in the same year, 1556. To these are
to be added the Churches at Montauban and Angouleme.[5]
In the year following (1557), Protestant congregations were formed, and placed
under pastors, at Orleans, at Sens, at Rouen in Normandy, and in many of the towns
and villages around, including Dieppe on the shores of the English Channel. Protestantism
had penetrated the mountainous region of the Cevennes, and left the memorials of
its triumphs amid a people proverbially primitive and rude, in organized Churches.
In Brittany numerous Churches arose, as also along both banks of the Garonne, in
Nerac, in Bordeaux, and other towns too numerous to be mentioned. In Provence, the
scene of recent slaughter, there existed no fewer than sixty Churches in the year
1560. [6]
The beginnings of the "great and glorious" Church of La Rochelle
are obscure. So early as 1534 a woman was burned in Poitou, who said she had been
instructed in the truth at La Rochelle. From that year we find no trace of Protestantism
there till 1552, when its presence there is attested by the barbarous execution of
two martyrs, one of whom had his tongue cut out for having acted as the teacher of
others; from which we may infer that there was a little company of disciples in that
town, though keeping themselves concealed for fear of the persecutor.[7]
In 1558 the King and Queen of Navarre, on their way to Paris, visited La Rochelle,
and were splendidly entertained by the citizens. In their suite was M. David, the
ex-monk, and now Protestant preacher, already referred to. He proclaimed openly the
pure Word of God in all the places through which the court passed, and so too did
he in La Rochelle. One day during their majesties' stay at titis city, the town-crier
announced that a company of comedians had just arrived, and would act that day a
new and wonderful piece. The citizens crowded to the play; the king, the queen, and
the court being also present.
When the curtain rose, a sick woman was seen at the point of death, shrieking in
pain, and begging to be confessed. The parish priest was sent for. He arrived in
breathless haste, decked out in his canonicals. He began to shrive his penitent,
but to little purpose. Tossing from side to side, apparently in greater distress
than ever, she cried out that she was not well confessed. Soon a crowd of ecclesiastics
had assembled round the sick woman, each more anxious than the other to give her
relief. One wouldhave thought that in such a multitude of physicians a cure would
be found; but no: her case baffled all their skill. The friars next took her in hand.
Opening great bags which they had brought with them, they drew forth, with solemn
air, beads which they gave her to count, relics which they applied to various parts
of her person, and indulgences which they read to her, with a perfect confidence
that these would work an infallible cure.
It was all in vain. Not one of these renowned specifics gave her the least mitigation
of her sufferings. The friars were perfectly non-plussed. At last they bethought
them of another expedient. They put the habit of St. Francis upon her. Now, thought
they, as sure as St. Francis is a saint, she is cured. But, alas! attired in cowl
and frock, the poor sick woman sat rocking from side to side amid the friars, still
grievously tormented by the pain in her conscience, and bemoaning her sad condition,
that those people understood not how to confess her. At that point, when priest and
friar had exhausted their skill, and neither rosary nor holy habit could work a cure,
one stepped upon the stage, and going up to the woman, whispered into her ear that
he knew a man who would confess her right, and give her ease in her conscience; but,
added he, he goes abroad only in the night-time, for the day-light is hurtful to
him. The sick person earnestly begged that that man might be called to her. He was
straightway sent for: he came in a lay-dress, and drawing near the bolster, he whispered
something in the woman's ear which the spectators did not hear. They saw, however,
by her instant change of expression, that she was well pleased with what had been
told her. The mysterious man next drew out of his pocket a small book, which he put
into her hand, saying aloud, "This book contains the most infallible recipes
for the curing of your disease; if you will make use of them, you will recover your
health perfectly in a few days." Hereupon he left the stage, and the sick woman,
getting out of bed with cheerful air, as one perfectly cured, walked three times
round the stage, and then turning to the audience, told them that that unknown man
had succeeded where friar and priest had failed, and that she must confess that the
book he had given her was full of most excellent recipes, as they themselves might
see from the happy change it had wrought in her; and if any of them was afflicted
with the same disease, she would advise them to consult that book, which she would
readily lend them; and if they did not mind its being somewhat hot in the handling,
and having about it a noisome smell like that of a fagot, they might rest assured
it would certainly cure them. If the audience desired to know her name, and the book's
name, she said, they were two riddles which they might guess at.[8]
The citizens of La Rochelle had no great difficulty in reading the riddle.
Many of them made trial of the book, despite its associations with the stake and
the fagot, and they found that its efficacy sufficiently sovereign to cure them.
They obtained deliverance from that burden on the conscience which had weighed them
down in fear and anguish, despite all that friar or penance could do to give them
ease. From that time Protestantism flourished in La Rochelle; a Church was formed,
its members not darng as yet, however, to meet for worship in open day, but assembling
under cloud of night, as was still the practice in almost all places in France.
We are now arrived at a new and most important development of Protestantism in France.
As has been already mentioned, the crowns of France and Spain made peace between
themselves, that they might be at liberty to turn their arms against Protestantism,
and effect its extermination. Both monarchs were preparing to inflict a great blow.
It was at that hour that the scattered sections of the French Protestant Church drew
together, and, rallying around a common standard, presented a united front to their
enemies.
It was forty years since Lefevre had opened the door of France to the Gospel. All
these years there had been disciples, confessors, martyrs, but no congregations in
our sense of the term. The little companies of believing men and women scattered
over the country, were cared for and fed only by the Great Shepherd, who made them
lie down int he green pastures of his Word, and by the still waters of his Spirit.
But this was an incomplete and defective condition. Christ's people are not only
a "flock," but a "kingdom," and it is the peculiarity of a kingdom
that it possesses "order and government" as well as subjects. The former
exists for the edification and defense of the latter.
In 1555 congregations began to be formed on the Genevan model. A pastor was appointed
to teach, and with him was associated a small body of laymen to watch over the morals
of the flock. The work of organizing went on vigorously, and in 1560 from one to
two thousand Protestant congregations existed in France. Thus did the individual
congregation come into existence. But the Church of God needs a wider union, and
a more centralized authority.
Scattered over the wide space that separates the Seine from the Rhone and the Garonne,
the Protestant Churches of France were isolated and apart. In the fact that they
had common interests and common dangers, a basis was laid, they felt, for confederation.
In this way would the wisdom of all be available for the guidance of each, and the
strength of each be combined for the defense of all.
As the symbol of such a confederation it was requisite that a creed should be drafted
which all might confess, and a code of discipline compiled to which all would submit.
Not to fetter the private judgment of individual Christians, nor to restrict the
rights of individual congregations, was this creed framed; on the contrary, it was
intended as a shield of both liberty of opinion and liberty of Christian action.
But in order to effect this, it was essential that it should be drawn from the doctrines
of the Bible and the models of apostolic times, with the same patient investigation,
and the same accurate deduction, with which men construct a science from the facts
which they observe in nature, but with greater submission of mind, inasmuch as the
facts observed for the framing of a creed are of supernatural revelation, and with
a more anxious vigilance to avoid error where error would be so immensely more pernicious
and destructive, and above all, with a dependence on that Spirit who inspired the
Word, and who has been promised to enlighten men in the true sense of it. As God
has revealed himself in his Word, so the Church is bound to reveal the Word to the
world. The French Protestant Church now discharged that duty to its nation.
It was agreed between the Churches of Paris and Poictiers, in 1558, that a National
Synod should be held for the purpose of framing a common confession and a code of
discipline. In the following spring, circular letters were addressed to all the Churches
of the kingdom, and they, perceiving the benefit to the common cause likely to acrue
from the step, readily gave their consent. It was unanimously agreed that the Synod
should be held in Paris. The capital was selected, says Beza, not because any preeminence
or dignity was supposed to belong to the Church there, but simply because the confluence
of so many ministers and elders was less likely to attract notice in Paris than in
a provincial town.[9]
As regards rank, the representative of the smallest congregation stood on
a perfect equality with the deputy of the metropolitan Church.
The Synod met on the 25th of May, 1559. At that moment the Parliament was assembling
for the Mercuriale, at which the king avowed his purpose of pursuing the Reformed
with fire and sword till he had exterminated them. From eleven Churches only came
deputies to this Synod: Paris, St. Lo, Dieppe, Angers, Orleans, Tours, Poictiers,
Saintes, Marennes, Chatellerault, and St. Jean d'Angely.[10] Pastor Francois Morel, Sieur of Cellonges, was chosen to
preside. Infinite difficulties had to be overcome, says Beza, before the Churches
could be advertised of the meeting, but greater risks had to be run before the deputies
could assemble: hence the fewness of their number. The gibbet was then standing in
all the public places of the kingdom, and had their place of meeting been discovered,
without doubt, the deputies would have been led in a body to the scaffold. There
is a simplicity and a moral grandeur appertaining to this assembly that compels our
homage. No guard stands sentinel at the door. No mace or symbol of authority traces
the table round which the deputies of the Churches are gathered; no robes of office
dignify their persons; on the contrary, royal edicts have proclaimed them outlaws,
and the persecutor is on their track. Nevertheless, as if they were assembled in
peaceful times, and under the shadow of law, they go on day by day, with calm dignity
and serene power, planting the foundations of the House of God in their native land.
They will do their work, although the first stones should be cemented with their
blood.
We can present only an outline of their great work. Their Confession of Faith was
comprehended in forty articles, and agrees in all essential points with the Creed
of the Church of England. They received the Bible as the sole infallible rule of
faith and manners. They confessed the doctrine of the Trinity; of the Fall, of the
entire corruption of man's nature, and his condemnation; of the election of some
to everlasting life; of the call of sovereign and omnipotent race; of a free redemption
by Christ, who is our righteousness; of that righteousness as the ground of our justification;
of faith, which is the gift of God, as the instrument by which we obtain an interest
in that righteousness; of regeneration by the Spirit to a new life, and to good works;
of the Divine institution of the ministry; of the equality of all pastors under one
chief Pastor and universal Bishop, Jesus Christ; of the true Church, as composed
of the assembly of believers, who agree to follow the rule of the Word; of the two
Sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper; of the policy which Christ has established
for the government of his Church; and of the obedience and homage due to rulers in
monarchies and commonwealths, as God's lieutenants whom he has set to exercise a
lawful and holy office.[11]
Their code of discipline was arranged also in forty articles. Dismissing details,
let us state in outline the constitution of the Reformed Church of France, as settled
at its first National Synod. Its fundamental idea was that which had been taught
both at Wittemberg and Geneva, namely, that the government of the Church is diffused
throughout the whole body of the faithful, but that the exercise of it is to be restricted
to those to whom Christ, the fountain of that government, has given the suitable
gifts, and whom their fellow Church members have called to its discharge. On this
democratic basis there rose four grades of power:—
Correspending with these four grades of power there
were four circles or areas — the Parish, the District, the Province, and the Kingdom.
Each grade of authority narrowed as it ascended, while the circle within which it
was exercised widened. What had its beginning in a democracy, ended in a constitutional
monarchy, and the interests of each congregation and each member of the Church were,
in the last resort, adjudicated upon by the wisdom and authority of all. There was
perfect liberty, combined with perfect order.
Let us sketch briefly the constitution of each separate court, with the sphere within
which, and the responsibilities under which, it exercised its powers. First came
the Consistory. It bore rule over the congregation, and was composed of the minister,
elders, and deacons. The minister might be nominated by the Consistory, or by the
Colloquy, or by the Provincial Synod, but he could not be ordained till he had preached
three several Sundays to the congregation, and the people thus had had an opportnnity
of testing his gifts, and his special fitness to be their pastor. The elders and
deacons were elected by the congregatiom
The Colloquy came next, and was composed of all the congregations of the district.
Each congregation was represented in it by one pastor and one elder or deacon. The
Colloquy met twice every year, and settled all questions referred to it from the
congregations within its limits. Next came the Provincial Synod. It comprehended
all the Colloquies of the Province, every congregation sending a pastor and an elder
to it. The Provincial Synod met once a year, and gave judgment in all cases of appeal
from the court below, and generally in all matters deemed of too great weight to
be determined in the Colloquy.
At the head of this gradation of ecclesiastical authority came the National Synod.
It was composed of two pastors and two elders from each of the Provincial Synods,
and had the whole kingdom for its domain or circle. It was the court of highest judicature;
it determined all great causes, and heard all appeals, and to its authority, in the
last resort, all were subject. It was presided over by a pastor chosen by the members.
His preeminence was entirely official, and ended at the moment the Synod had closed
its sittings.
In the execution of their great task, these first builders of the Protestant Church
in France availed themselves of the counsel of Calvin. Nevertheless, their eyes were
all the while directed to a higher model than Geneva, and they took their instructions
from a higher authority than Calvin. They studied the New Testament, and what they
aimed at following was the pattern which they thought stood revealed to them there,
and the use they made of Calvin's advice was simply to be able to see that plan more
clearly, and to follow it more closely. Adopting as their motto the words of the
apostle — "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren"—they
inferred that there must be government in the Church—" One is your Master"—that
the source of that government is in heaven, namely, Christ; that the revelation of
it is in the Bible, and that the depository of it is in the Church — "All ye
are brethren." Moving between the two great necessities which their motto indicated,
authority and liberty, they strove to adjust and reconcile these two different but
not antagonistic forces—Christ's royalty and his people's brotherhood. Without the
first there could not be order, without the second there could not be freedom. Their
scheme of doctrine preceded their code of discipline; the first had been accepted
before the second was submitted to; thus all the bonds that held that spiritual society
together, and all the influences that ruled it, proceeded out of the throne in the
midst of the Church. If they, as constituted officers, stood between the Monarch
and the subjects of this spiritual empire, it was neither as legislators nor as rulers,
strictly so called. "One" only was Master, whether as regarded law or government.
Their power was not legislative but administrative, and their rule was not lordly
but ministerial; they were the fellow-servants of those among whom, and for whom,
their functions were discharged.
The Synod sat four days; its place of meeting was never discovered, and its business
finished, its mermbers departed for their homes, which they reached in safety. Future
councils have added nothing of moment to the constitution of the French Protestant
Church, as framed by this its first National Synod.[12]
The times subsequent to the holding of this assembly were tunes of great prosperity
to the Protestants of France. The Spirit of God was largely given them; and though
the fires of persecution continued to burn, the pastors were multiplied, congregations
waxed numerous, and the knowledge and purity of their members kept pace with their
increase. The following picture of the French Church at this era has been drawn by
Quick:—"The holy Word of God is duly, truly, and powerfully preached in churches
and fields, in ships and houses, in vaults and cellars, in all places where the Gospel
ministers can have admission and conveniency, and with singular success. Multitudes
are convinced and converted, established and edified. Christ rideth out upon the
white horse of the ministry, with the sword and the bow of the Gospel preached, conquering
and to conquer. His enemies fall under him, and submit themselves unto him."
"Oh! the unparalleled success of the plain and earnest sermons of the first
Reformers! Multitudes flock in like doves into the windows of God's ark. As innumerable
drops of dew fall from the womb of the morning, so hath the Lord Christ the dew of
his youth. The Popish churches are drained, the Protestant churches are filled. The
priests complain that their altars are neglected; their masses are now indeed solitary.
Dagon cannot stand before God's ark. Children and persons of riper years are catechized
in the rudiments and principles of the Christian religion, and can give a satisfactory
account of their faith, a reason of the hope that is in them. By this ordinance do
their pious pastors prepare them for communion with the Lord at his holy table."[13]
CHAPTER 4 Back
to Top
A GALLERY OF PORTRAITS.
National Decadence—Francis II—Scenes Shift at Court—The Guises and the Queen-mother—Anthony
de Bourbon—His Paltry Character— Prince of Conde—His Accomplishments—Admiral Coilgny—His
Conversion— Embraces the Reformed Faith—His Daily Life—Great Services—Jeanne d'Albret,
Queen of Navarre—Greatness of her Character—Services to French Protestantism—Her
Kingdom of Navarre—Edict Establishing the Reformed Worship in it—Her Cede— Her Fame.
Henry II went to his grave amid the deepening shadows of fast-coming calamity.
The auspicious signs which had greeted the eyes of men when he ascended the throne
had all vanished before the close of his reign, and given place to omens of evil.
The finances were embarrassed, the army was dispirited by repeated defeat, the court
was a hotbed of intrigue, and the nation, broken into factions, was on the brink
of civil war. So rapid had been the decline of a kingdom which in the preceding reign
was the most flourishing in Christendom.
Henry II was succeeded on the throne by the eldest of his four sons, under the title
of Francis III. The blood of the Valois and the blood of the Medici —two corrupt
streams—were now for the first time united on the throne of France. With the new
monarch came a shifting of parties in the Louvre; for of all slippery places in the
world those near a throne are the most slippery. The star of Diana of Poictiers,
as a matter of course, vanished from the firmament where it had shone with bright
but baleful splendor. The Constable Montmorency had a hint given him that his health
would be benefited by the air of his country-seat. The king knew not, so he said
to him, how to reward his great merits, and recompense him for the toil he had undergone
in his service, save by relieving him of the burden of affairs, in order that he
might enjoy his age in quiet, being resolved not to wear him out as a vassal or servant,
but always to honor him as a father.[1]
The proud Constable, grumbling a little, strode off to his Castle of Chantilly,
ten leagues from Paris. The field cleared of these parties, the contest for power
henceforward lay between the Guises and the Queen-mother.
Francis II was a lad of sixteen, and when we think who had had the rearing of him,
we are not surprised to learn that he was without principles and without morals.
Feeble in mind and body, he was a tool all the more fit for the hand of a bold intriguer.
At the foot of the throne from which she had just descended stood the crafty Italian
woman, his mother, Catherine de Medici: might she not hope to be the sovereign-counselor
of her weak-minded son? During the lifetime of her husband, Henry II, her just influence
as the wife had been baulked by the ascendency of the mistress, Diana of Poictiers.
That rival had been swept from her path, but another and more legitimate competitor
had come in the room of the fallen favorite. By the side of Francis II, on the throne
of France, sat Mary Stuart, the heir of the Scottish crown, and the niece of the
Guises. The king doted upon her beauty,[2]
and thus the niece was able to keep open the door of the royal closet, and
the ear of her husband, to her uncles. This gave the Guises a prodigious advantage
in the game that was now being played round the person of the king. And when we think
how truculent they were, and how skilled they had now become in the arts by which
princes' favor is to be won, it does not surprise us to learn that in the end of
the day they were foremost in the race. Catherine de Medici was a match for them
any day in craft and ambition, but with the niece of her rivals by the king's side,
she found it expedient still to dissemble, and to go on a little while longer disciplining
herself in those arts in which nature had fitted her to excel, and in which long
practice would at last make her an expert, and then would she grasp the government
of France.
The question which the Queen-mother now put, "What shall be my policy?"
was to be determined by the consideration of who were her rivals, and what the tactics
to which they were committed. Her rivals, we have just said, were the Guises, the
heads of the Roman Catholic party. This threw Catherine somewhat on the other side.
She was nearly as much the bigot as the Cardinal of Lorraine himself, but if she
loved the Pope, still more did she love power, and in order to grasp it she stooped
to caress what she mortally hated, and reigned to protect what she secretly wished
to root out. Thus did God divide the counsels and the arms of these two Powerful
enemies of his Church. Had the Guises stood alone, the Reformation would have been
crushed in France; or had Catherine de Medici stood alone, a like fate would have
befallen it; but Providence brought both upon the scene together, and made their
rivalry a shield over the little Protestant flock. The Queen-mother now threw herself
between the leaders of the Reformed, and the Guises who were for striking them down
without mercy. The new relation of Catherine brings certain personages upon the stage
whom we have not yet met, but whom it is fitting, seeing they are to be conspicuous
actors in what is to follow, we should now introduce.
The first is Anthony de Bourbon, Duke of Vendome, and first prince of the blood.
From the same parent stock sprang the two royal branches of France, the Valois and
the Bourbon. Louis IX (St. Louis) had four sons, of whom one was named Philip and
another Robert. From Philip came the line of the Valois, in which the succession
was continued for upwards of 300 years. From Robert, through his son's marriage with
the heiress of the Duchy of Bourbon, came the house of that name, which has come
to fill so large a space in history, and has placed its members upon the thrones
[3] of France, and Spain,
and Naples. Princes of the blood, and adding to that dignity vast possessions, a
genius for war, and generous dispositions, the Bourbons aspired to fill the first
posts in the kingdom. Their pretensions were often troublesome to the reigming monarch,
who found it necessary at times to visit their haughty bearing with temporary banishment
from court. They were under this cloud at the time when Henry II died. On the accession
of Francis II they resolved on returning to court and resuming their old influence
in the government; but to their chagrin they found those places which they thought
they, as princes of the blood, should have held, already possessed by the Guises.
The latter united with the Queen-mother in repelling their advances, and the Bourbons
had again to retire, and to seek amid the parties of the country that influence which
they were denied in the administration.
Anthony de Bourbon had married Jeanne d'Albret, who was the most illustrious woman
of her time, and one of the most illustrious women in all history. She was the daughter
of Margaret of Valois, Queen of Navarre, whose genius she inherited, and whom she
surpassed in her gifts of governing, and in her more consistent attachment to the
Reformation. Her fine intellect, elevated soul, and deep piety were unequally yoked
with Anthony de Bourbon, who was a man of humane dispositions, but of low tastes,
indolent habits, and of paltry character. His marriage with Jeanne d'Albret brought
him the title of King of Navarre; but his wife was a woman of too much sense, and
cherished too enlightened a regard for the welfare of her subjects, to give him more
than the title. She took care not to entrust him with the reins of gevernment. Today,
so zealous was he for the Gospel, that he exerted himself to have the new opinions
preached in his wife's dominions; and tomorrow would he be so zealous for Rome, that
he would persecute those who had embraced the opinions he had appeared, but a little
before, so desirous to have propagated. "Unstable as water," he spent his
life in travelling between the two camps, the Protestant and the Popish, unable long
to adhere to either, and heartily despised by both.[4] The Romanists, knowing the vulgar ambition that actuated
him, promised him a territory which he might govern in his own right, and he kept
pursuing this imaginary princedom. It was a mere lure to draw him over to their side;
and his life ended without his ever attaining the power he was as eager to grasp
as he was unable to wield. He died fighting in the ranks of the Romanists before
the walls of Rouen; and, true to his character for inconsistency to the last, he
is said to have requested in his dying moments to be re-admitted into the Protestant
Church.
His brother, the Prince of Conde, was a person of greater talent, and more manly
character. He had a somewhat diminutive figure, but this defect was counterbalanced
by the graces of his manner, the wit of his discourse, and the gallantry of his spirit.[5] He shone equally among
the ladies of the court and the soldiers of the camp. He could be oozy with the one,
and unaffectedly frank and open with the other. The Prince of Conde attached himself
to the Protestant side, from a sincere conviction that the doctrines of the Reformation
were true, that they were favorable to liberty, and that their triumph would contribute
to the greatness of France. But the Prince of Conde was not a great man. He did not
rise to the true height of the cause he had espoused, nor did he bring to it that
large sagacity, that entire devotion of soul, and that singleness of purpose which
were required of one who wouht lead in such a cause. But what was worse, the Prince
of Conde had not wholly escaped the blight of the profligacy of the age; although
he had not suffered by any means to the same extent as his brother, the King of Navarre.
A holy cause cannot be effectually succoured save by holy hands. "It may be
asked whether the Bourbons, including even Henry IV, did not do as much damage as
service to the Reformation. They mixed it up with politics, thrust it into the field
of battle, dragged it into their private quarrels, and then when it had won for them
the crown, they deserted it."[6]
The next figure that comes before us is a truly commanding one. It is that
of Gaspard de Coligny, better known as Admiral de Coligny. He towers above the Bourbon
princes, and illustrates the fact that greatness of soul is a much more enviable
possession than mere greatness of rank. Coligny, perhaps the greatest layman of the
French Reformation, was descended from an ancient and honorable house, that of Chatillon.
He was born in the same year in which Luther commenced the Reformation by the publication
of his Theses, 1517. He lost his father on the 24th of August, 1522, being then only
five years of age. The 24th of August was a fatal day to Coliguy, for on that day,
fifty years afterwards, he fell by the poignard of an assassin in the St. Bartholomew
Massacre. His mother, Louise de Montmorency, a lady of lofty virtue and sincere piety,
was happily spared to him, and by her instructions and example those seeds were sown
in his youthful mind which afterwards bore so noble fruit in the cause of his country's
religion and liberty. He was offered a cardinal's hat if he would enter the Church.
He chose instead the profession of arms. He served with great distinction in the
wars of Flanders and Italy, was knighted on the field of battle, and returning home
in 1547 he married a daughter of the illustrious house of Laval—a woman of magnanimous
soul and enlightened piety, worthy of being the wife of such a man, and by whose
prompt and wise counsel he was guided at more than one critical moment of his life.
What he might have been as cardinal we do not know, but in his own profession as
a soldier he showed himself a great reformer and administrator. Brantome says of
the military ordinances which he introduced into the French army, "They were
the best and most politic that have ever been made in France, and, I believe, have
preserved the lives of a million of persons; for, till then, there was nothing but
pillage, brigandage, murders, and quarrels, so that the companies resembled hordes
of wild Arabs rather than noble soldiers."[7]
At an early age Coligny was taken prisoner by the Spaniards, and to beguile the solitary
hours of his confinement, he asked for a Bible and some religious books. His request
was complied with, and from that incident dates his attachment to the Reformed doctrines.
But he was slow to declare himself. He must be fully persuaded in his own mind before
openly professing the truth, and he must needs count the cost. With Coligny, Protestantism
was no affair of politics or of party, which he might cast aside if on trial he found
it did not suit. Having put his hand to the plough, he must not withdraw it, even
though, leaving castle and lands and titles, he should go forth an outcast and a
beggar. For these same doctrines men were being every day burned at the stake.
Before making profession of them, Coligny paused, that by reading, and converse with
the Reformed pastors, he might arrive at a full resolution of all his doubts. But
the step was all the more decisive when at last it was taken. As men receive the
tidings of some great victory or of some national blessing, so did the Protestants
of France receive the news that Coligny had cast in his lot with the Reformation.
They knew that he must have acted from deep conviction, that his choice would never
be reversed, and that it had brought a mighty accession of intellectual and moral
power to the Protestant cause. They saw in Coligny's adherence an additional proof
of its truth, and a new pledge of its final triumph. Protestantism in France, just
entering on times of awful struggles, had now a leader worthy of it. A captain had
risen up to march before its consecrated hosts, and fight its holy battles.
From the moment he espoused the Protestant cause, Coligny's character acquired a
new grandeur. The arrangements of his household were a model of order. He rose early,
and having dressed himself, he summoned his household to prayers, himself leading
their devotion. Business filled up the day and not a few of its hours were devoted
to the affairs of the Church; for deputies were continually arriving at the Castle
of Chatillon from distant congregations, craving the advice or aid of the admiral.
Every other day a sermon was preached before dinner when it chanced, as often happened,
that a minister was living under his roof. At table a psalm was sung, and a prayer
offered. After an early supper came family devotions, and then the household were
dismissed to rest. It mattered not where Colby was, or how occupied— in the Castle
of Chatillon surrounded by his children and servants, or in the camp amid the throng
of captains and soldiers—this was ever the God-fearing manner of his life. Not a
few of the nobles of France felt the power of his example, and in many a castle the
chant of psalms began to be heard, where aforetime there had reigned only worldly
merriment and boisterous revelry.
To the graces of Christianity there were added, in the character of Coligny, the
gifts of human genius. He excelled in military tactics, and much of his life was
passed on the battle-field; but he was no less fitted to shine in senates, and to
guide in matters of State. His foresight, sagacity, and patriotism would, had he
lived in happier times, have been the source of manifold blessings to his native
country. As it was, these great qualities were mainly shown in arranging campaigns
and fighting battles.
Protestantism in France, so at least Coligny judged, had nothing for it but to stand
to its defense. A tyranny, exercised in the king's name, but none the less art audacious
usurpation, was trampling on law, outraging all rights, and daily destroying by horrible
deaths the noblest men in France, and the Protestants felt that they owed it to their
faith, to their country, to the generations to come, and to the public liberties
and Reformation of Christendom, to repel force by force, seeing all other means of
redress were denied them. This alone made Coligny unsheathe the sword. The grand
object of his life was freedom of worship for the Reformed in France. Could he have
secured that object, most gladly would he have bidden adieu for ever to camps and
battle-fields, and, casting honors and titles behind him, been content to live unknown
in the privacy of Chatillon. This, however, was denied him. He was opposed by men
who "hated peace," and so he had to fight on, almost without intermission,
till the hour came when he was called to seal with his blood the cause he had so
often defended with his sword.
Before quitting this gallery of portraits, there is one other figure which must detain
us a little. Her name we have already mentioned incidentally, but her great qualities
make her worthy of more lengthened observation. Jeanne d'Albret was the daughter
of the accomplished and pious Margaret of Valois; but the daughter was greater than
the mother. She had a finer genius, a stronger character, and she displayed the graces
of a more consistent piety. The study of the Bible drew her thoughts in her early
years to the Reformation, and her convictions ripening into a full belief of its
truth, although untoward circumstances made her long conceal them, she at last, in
1560, made open profession of Protestantism. At that tune not only did the Protestant
cause underlie the anathemas of Popes, but the Parliament of Paris had put it beyond
the pale of law, and having set a price upon the heads of its adherents, it left
them to be hunted down like wild beasts. Jeanne d'Albret, having made her choice,
was as resolute as her husband, Anthony de Bourbon, was vacillating. Emulating the
noble steadfastness of Coligny, she never repented of her resolution. Whether victory
shone or defeat lowered on the Reformed cause, Jeanne d'Albret was ever by its side.
When overtaken by disaster, she was ever the first to rally its dispirited adherents,
and to bring them succor. Her husband forsook her; her son was taken from her; nothing
daunted, she withdrew t
