History of the Rise of the Huguenots

935

It is astonishing to see what considerable distances the Protestants were obliged to go in order to enjoy any religious privileges, and what fatigue they willingly underwent in order to avail themselves of them. In 1563, immediately after the close of the first civil war, instead of being assigned a place for worship in the suburbs, according to the terms of the edict, the Protestants of Troyes were told to go to Céant-en-Othe – full eight leagues, or about twenty-four miles; nor could they obtain justice by any remonstrances with the court! As they went to Céant, in spite of its inconvenient distance, and of the death of several children taken thither to be baptized, the Romanists, in 1570, actually proposed to remove the Protestant prêche still farther off, to Villenauxe, thirteen leagues from Troyes! Happily, after a while, they availed themselves of the hospitality of a feudal lord nearer by. Recordon, Le protestantisme en Champagne (MSS. of N. Pithou), 136, etc., 149, 163.

936

Ibid., pp. 168, 169. The Roman Catholics of Troyes sent, about the middle of August, two deputies to get the Protestant place of worship removed from Isle-au-Mont, who were present at the massacre.

937

Baschet, La diplomatie vénitienne, p. 540.

938

This confession exists in manuscript in the National Library of Paris (Fonds de Bouhier, 59), under the heading: "Discours du Roy Henry troisiesme à un personnage d'honneur et de qualité estant près de sa majesté, sur les causes et motifs de la St. Barthélemy." It is printed in an appendix to the Mémoires de Villeroy (Petitot ed., xliv. 496-510). Its authenticity is vouched for by Matthieu, the historiographer of Louis XIII., and is corroborated by its remarkable agreement with what we can learn from other sources. Cf., especially, Soldan, Frankreich und die Bartholomäusnacht, 224-226. Some suppose that M. de Souvré, and not Miron, was the person with whom the conversation at Cracow was held. Martin, Hist. de France, x. 315.

939

Discours du Roy Henry III., Mém. de Villeroy, 499, 500.

940

See J. Bonnet, Vie d'Olympia Morata (Paris, 1850), 20, etc.

941

Discours du Roy Henry III., ibid., p. 501. The nuncio, Salviati, informs us that young Guise urged his mother herself to kill Coligny.

942

The article on the massacre in the North British Review for October, 1869 – an article to which I shall have occasion more than once to refer – brings forward a number of passages in the diplomatic correspondence, especially of the minor Italian states, pointing in this direction. They can all, I am convinced, be satisfactorily explained, without admitting the conclusion, to which the writer evidently leans, of a distinct, though not a long premeditation.

943

"Mad. la Regente venuta in differenza di lui, risolvendosi pochi giorni prima, gli la fece tirare, e senza saputa del Re, ma con participatione di M. di Angiu, di Mad. de Nemours, e di M. di Guisa suo figlio; e se moriva subito non si ammazzava altri," etc. Salviati, desp. of Sept. 22, 1572, apud Mackintosh, Hist. of England, vol. iii., Appendix K. It will be remembered that these despatches were given to Sir James Mackintosh by M. de Châteaubriand, who had obtained them from the Vatican. I need not say how much more trustworthy are the secret despatches of one so well informed as the nuncio, than the sensational "Stratagema" of Capilupi, which pretends (ed. of 1574, p. 26) that Charles placed Maurevel in the house from which he shot at Coligny, on discovering that the admiral had formed the plan of firing Paris the next night. To believe these champions of orthodoxy, the Huguenots were born with a special passion for incendiary exploits. It does not seem to strike them that burning and pillaging Paris would not be likely to appear to Coligny a probable means of furthering the war in Flanders. Besides, what need is there of any such Huguenot plot, even according to Capilupi's own view, since he carries back the premeditation of the massacre on the part of Charles at least four years?

944

Le Reveille-Matin des François, etc., Archives curieuses, vii. 173; Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi (1574), i. 33. It has been customary to interpret this language and similar expressions as covertly referring to the massacre which was then four days off. But this seems absurd. Certainly, if Charles was privy to the plan for Coligny's murder, he must have expected him to be killed on Friday – that is, within less than two days. If so, what peculiar significance in the four days? For, if a general massacre had been at first contemplated, no interval of two days would have been allowed. Everybody must have known that if the arquebuse shot had done its work, and Coligny had been killed on the spot, every Huguenot would have been far from the walls of Paris long before Sunday. As it was, it was only the admiral's confidence, and the impossibility of moving him with safety, that detained them.

945

Capilupi, Lo stratagema di Carlo IX., 1574. Orig. ed., pp. 24, 25, and the concurrent French version, pp. 42, 43. This version is incorporated verbatim in the Mémoires de l'estat de France sous Charles IX. (Archives curieuses), vii. 89, 90. In like manner the "Mémoires," which are in great part a mere compilation, take page after page from the "Reveille-Matin."

946

"Ainsi qu'il sortoit presentement du Louvre, pour aller disner en son logis." Charles's letter of the same day to La Mothe Fénélon, Corresp. dipl., vii. 322.

947

It is of little moment whether the assassin at his window was screened by a lattice, or by a curtain, as De Thou says, or by bundles of straw, as Capilupi states. I prefer the account of the "Reveille-Matin," as the author tells us that he was one of the twelve or fifteen gentlemen in Coligny's suite – "entre lesquels j'estoy" (p. 174). So the Latin ed., Euseb. Philad. Dialogi, i. 34.

948

The Rue de Béthisy was the continuation of the Rue des Fossés Saint Germain l'Auxerrois, through which he was walking when he was shot. In the sixteenth century the street bore the former name, beginning at the Rue de l'Arbre Sec, at the corner of which Coligny appears to have lodged. In later times the name was confined to the part east of Rue de Roule. Dulaure, Histoire de Paris, iv. 259. The extension of the Rue de Rivoli, under the auspices of Napoleon III., has not only destroyed the house in which Coligny was murdered, but obliterated the Rue de Béthisy itself.

949

"Qu'il n'aviendroit que ce qu'il plairoit à Dieu." Reveille-Matin, 175; Euseb. Philad. Dialogi (1574), i. 35; Mémoires de l'estat, 94.

950

See ante, chapter xvi.

951

Reveille-Matin, ubi sup., 175; and Euseb. Philad. Dialogi. i. 34, 35; Mémoires de l'estat, ubi sup., 93, etc.; Jean de Serres (1575), iv. fol. 25; Tocsain contre les Massacreurs (orig. ed.), 113, etc.; Registres du Bureau de la ville de Paris (Archives curieuses, vii. 211); despatch of Salviati of Aug. 22. App. F to Mackintosh, Hist. of England, iii. 354; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 574; Jehan de la Fosse, 147, 148; Baschet. La diplomatie vénit., 548.

952

Mémoires de l'estat, ubi sup., 94; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fols. 25, 26; Reveille-Matin, 176; Euseb. Philad. Dial., i. 35; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 574.

953

Tocsain contre les massacreurs, Archives cur., vii. 45; Reveille-Matin, 177; Mémoires de l'estat, 98.

954

Gasparis Colinii Vita (1574), 108-110; Mémoires de l'estat de Charles IX., ubi supra, 94-98. The two accounts are evidently from the same hand.

955

Mémoires de l'estat, ubi supra, 98.

956

Damville, Méru and Thoré, were sons of the constable. Their eldest brother, Marshal Francis de Montmorency, whose greatest vice was his sluggishness and his devotion to his ease, had left Paris a few days before, on the pretext of going to the chase. His absence at the time of the massacre was supposed to have saved not only his life, but that of his brothers. The Guises would gladly have destroyed a family whose influence and superior antiquity had for a generation been obnoxious to their ambitious designs; but it was too hazardous to leave the head of the family to avenge his murdered brothers.

957

There was no need of going far, Coligny responded, to discover the author. "Qu'on en demande à Monsieur de Guise, il dira qui est celuy qui m'a presté une telle charité; mais Dieu ne me soit jamais en aide si je demande vengeance d'un tel outrage." Mém. de l'estat, ubi supra, 104, 105.

958

Gasparis Colinii Vita, 114-121; Mémoires de l'estat, ubi supra, 102-106. The two accounts agree almost word for word. There is a briefer narrative in Reveille-Matin, 178, 179; and Euseb. Philad. Dialogi, i. 37.

959

Discours du roy Henry III., ubi supra, 502-505.

960

Le roi à Mandelot, 22 août, Correspondance du roi Charles IX. et du sieur de Mandelot (Paris, 1830), 36, 37.

961

Corresp. dipl. de La Mothe Fénélon, vii. 322, 323.

962

Mémoires de l'estat, ubi supra, 106, 107.

963

Ibid., 108.

964

There is here, however, a direct contradiction, which I shall not attempt to reconcile, between the account of Henry and that of the younger Tavannes, who represents Retz as one of the most violent in his recommendations. According to Tavannes, it was his father, Marshal Tavannes, that advocated moderation. In other respects the two accounts are strongly corroborative of each other.

965

Discours du roy Henry III., 505-508.

966

Mémoires de Gaspard de Saulx, seigneur de Tavannes, by his son, Jean de Saulx, vicomte de Tavannes (Petitot edition), iii. 293, 294.

967

"Reginam quidem certum est dictitare solitam, edita strage, 'se tantum sex hominum interfectorum sanguinem in suam conscientiam recipere.'" Jean de Serres (ed. of 1575), iv., fol. 29. The whole passage is interesting.

968

"Le roy Henry quatriesme disoit que ce qu'il ne m'avoit tenu promesse estoit en vengeance des services faicts par le sieur de Tavannes mon père aux batailles de Jarnac et Montcontour, mais le principal, parce qu'il l'accusoit d'avoir conseillé la Sainct Barthélemy; ce qu'il disoit à ses familiers, et à tort, parce que ledict sieur de Tavannes en ce temps-là fut cause qu'il ne courust la mesme fortune que le sieur admiral de Coligny." Mémoires de Tavannes (Petitot edit.), iii. 222.

969

To ascribe the conduct of Catharine de' Medici herself to any such motive is the extreme of absurdity. Even the author of the "Tocsain contre les massacreurs" rejects the supposition without hesitation. (Original edition, p. 157.) Catharine was certainly a free-thinker, probably an atheist.

970

Mémoires de l'estat, ubi supra, 108.

971

Ibid., 109.

972

Mémoires de l'estat, ubi supra, 110, 111.

973

Ibid., 111; Gasparis Colinii Vita (1575), 124.

974

Mémoires de l'estat, ubi supra, 112.

975

Reveille-Matin, ubi supra, 179; Mémoires de l'estat, ubi sup., 113.

976

Capilupi, 30, 31; Mém. de l'estat, ubi sup., 107, 108.

977

Extrait des Registres et Croniques du Bureau de la ville de Paris, Archives curieuses, vii. 213.

978

The successive orders are given in the Archives curieuses, vii. 215-217.

979

Discours du roy Henry III., 509.

980

Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 121; Mém. de l'estat, ubi sup., 116; Jean de Serres, iv. (1575), fol. 31.

981

Jean de Serres, iv. (1575), fol. 30.

982

Mém. de l'estat, ubi sup., 117, 118; Jean de Serres (1575), iv. 32.

983

The startling inconsistency evidently struck Capilupi very strongly, for he tries to reconcile it, but succeeds only poorly. According to him, it was either a ruse to throw Charles IX. off his guard by a pretence of confidence in his good faith, or an act of consummate folly. Any way, great thanks are due to Heaven! "Et sia stato fatto questo da lui, ò con arte, per dimostrar di non dubitare della fede del Re, per tanto più assicurar sua Maestà, fin che fosse in termine d'effettuar i diabolici suoi pensieri; ò vero scioccamente, non diffidando veramente di cosa alcuna; in tutti modi si ha da riconoscer da gratia particolare di Dio," etc. Lo stratagema di Carlo IX., 1574, 80.

984

The topography of the massacre is made the subject of a paper, entitled: "Les victimes de la Saint-Barthélemy," Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., ix. (1860) 34-44.

985

G. Colinii Vita (1575), 127. Mém. de l'estat, ubi sup., 114.

986

Mém. de l'estat, 118, 119; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 32; Reveille-Matin, 180; Euseb. Philad. Dialogi (1574), 39, 40.

987

Joh. Wilh. von Botzheim, in his narrative, gives several versions of the words. According to one they were: "Behem– 'N'est tu pas Admiral?' Admiralius– 'Ouy, je le suis. Mais vous estes bien un jeune souldat pour parler ainsi avec un vieil capitaine, pour le moins au respect de ma vielesse.' Behem– 'Je suis assez aage (agé) por te faire ta reste.'" Cyclopica illa atque inaudita hactenus detestanda atque execranda laniena, quæ facta est Lutetia, Aureliis, etc., published in F. W. Ebeling, Archivalische Beiträge zur Geschichte Frankreichs unter Carl IX. (Leipsic, 1872), 107, 108.

988

Capilupi puts in Besme's mouth the words: "Now, traitor, restore to me the blood of my master, which thou didst impiously take away from me!" It is not at all improbable that he used some such expression. Lo stratagema di Carlo IX., 34.

989

Jean de Serres, De statu reipub. et rel. (1575), iv., fols. 32, 33; Mémoires de l'estat, ubi supra, 119-122; Vita Gasparis Colinii Castellonii, magni quondam Franciæ Amirallii (sine loco, 1575), pp. 127-131; 178-180. These latter accounts, which agree perfectly, are the best. Reveille-Matin, ubi sup., 182, and Euseb. Philad. Dialogi (1574), i. 39, 40; Tocsain contre les massacreurs (Rheims, 1579), 121-123; Capilupi, Lo stratagema di Carlo IX. (1574), 33, etc.; Journal d'un curé ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 148, 149; Relation of Olaegui, secretary of D. de Cuñiga, Spanish ambassador at Paris; Particularités inédites sur la St. Barthélemi, Gachard in Bulletins de l'Académie royale de Belgique, xvi. (1849), 252, 253; Alva's bulletin prepared for distribution, ibid., ix. (1842), 563. Both are very inaccurate. De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 584, 585; Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 16 (liv. i., c. 4).

990

"Le lundy d'après, ayant la teste ostée et les parties honteuses coupées par les petits enfans, fut d'iceulx petits enfans qui estoient jusques au nombre de 2 ou 300, traîné, le ventre en haut, parmy les ruisseaux de la ville de Paris." Jehan de la Fosse, 149. See the long account in Von Botzheim's narration, ubi supra, 113.

991

Mémoires de l'estat, ubi supra, 122.

992

Letter of Mandelot to Charles IX., Sept. 5, 1572, Correspondance du roi Charles IX. et du sieur de Mandelot (Edited by P. Paris, Paris, 1830), 56-58.

993

Of this memorable enterprise Coligny has left "Mémoires" which are contained in the collection of Petitot, etc. It is the only military treatise we possess coming from the admiral's hand, and it enters into the subject with technical minuteness. The destruction by his royal murderers of the admiral's papers (including diaries that would have thrown great light upon the transactions of the last two years of his life), see Vita Gasparis Colinii (1575), i. 138, was an irretrievable loss to history. We are told also of a much more recent act of vandalism, not even palliated by the miserable excuse of political expediency: "In 1810, an inhabitant of Châtillon having discovered in the solitary remaining tower of the old castle a walled chamber wherein were the archives of the Coligny family and of the family of Luxemburg, burned all the papers from motives of private interest. Some fragments that escaped this conflagration, and which are preserved in the mairie, prove that a correspondence between Catharine de' Medici and Coligny had been laid away in this repository." Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire du prot. français, iii. (1854) 351.

994

Ante, chapter xiii.

995

Testament olographe de l'amiral Coligny, Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. français, i. (1852) 263, etc. The authenticity of this document, though called in question on historical grounds, has been conclusively established by M. Jules Bonnet, Bulletin, xxiv. (1875) 332-335.

996

Albèri, Relazioni Venete, vol. iv., 1st series, apud Baschet, La diplomatie vénitienne, i. 536, 537. There is, however, the greatest improbability in the story that Coligny advanced such claims in his own behalf as his admirers made for him. We may reject as apocryphal – for they stand in palpable contradiction with the whole tenor of his utterances – the words ascribed by Lord Macaulay to the great Huguenot hero (History of England, New York, 1879, iv. 488): "'In one respect,' said the Admiral Coligni, 'I may claim superiority over Alexander, over Scipio, over Cæsar. They won great battles, it is true. I have lost four great battles; and yet I show to the enemy a more formidable front than ever.'" Cf. Davila, bk. v., p. 179.

997

Vita Gasparis Colinii (1575), pp. 133-137, translated by D. D. Scott, under the title, "Memoirs of the Admiral de Coligny," 183-187. I have abridged the account by omitting some less important particulars.

998

Discours sur les causes de l'exécution faicte és personnes de ceux qui avoient conjuré contre le Roy et son estat. A Paris, à l'olivier de P. l'Huillier, rue St. Jacques. 1572. Avec privilège. (Archives curieuses, vii. 231-249.) Capilupi, Lo stratagema di Carlo IX., 1574, p. 26.

999

Mémoires de l'estat, ubi supra, 123; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 30; Reveille-Matin, 182; Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi, i. 40.

1000

"La Royne ma mère respond, que s'il plaisoit à Dieu je n'auroit point de mal; mais quoy que ce fust, il falloit que j'allasse, de peur de leur faire soupçonner quelque chose qui empeschast l'effect."

1001

Mémoires de Marguerite de Valois, 32, 33.

1002

See ante, chapter xvi.

1003

Mémoires de l'estat, ubi supra, 123, 124; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 34; Reveille-Matin, 182; Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi, i. 40; Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 125, 126.

1004

Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 18 (liv. i., c. 4).

1005

Mémoires de Marguerite de Valois, 345.

1006

Reveille-Matin, ubi supra, 183; Euseb. Philad. Dialogi, i. 40; Mém. de l'estat, ubi supra, 126. Charles was not generally so complaisant. Fervaques in vain interceded for his friend Captain Moneins. Tocsain, 126.

1007

Mém. de l'estat, ubi sup., 124; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 35; Reveille-Matin, 182; Euseb. Philadelphi Dial., i. 40; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 590.

1008

"Avec une contenance fort esmeue et abatue." Mém. de l'estat. "Humilissimo animo et consternate ore." Jean de Serres, ubi supra.

1009

Jean de Serres's "consternatiori tamen animo" is an evident misprint for "constantiori tamen animo."

1010

Mémoires de l'estat, 124, 125; Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 35 verso; Reveille-Matin, 183; Eusebii Philad. Dial. (1574), i. 40; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 590; Agrippa d'Aubigné, Hist. univ., ii. 19 (liv. i., c. 4).

1011

Eusebii Phil. Dialogi, i. 40, 41; Reveille-Matin, ubi sup., 183, copied verbatim in Mém. de l'estat, 126. The Reveille-Matin removes the apparent contradiction between the various accounts respecting the bell that gave the signal for the massacre by showing that both bells were rung. So also Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 16 (liv. i., c. 4), after mentioning how Catharine, for the time being, removed Charles's hesitation by alleging the necessity of cutting off the corrupt members in order to save the Church, the Bride of Christ, and citing the saying: "Che pietà lor ser crudele. Che crudeltà lor ser pietosa," adds: "Le roi se resout, et elle avance le tocsain du Palais, en faisant sonner une heure et demie devant celui de Sainct Germain de l'Auxerrois." By neglecting the clue thus given, the chronological order of the events of the day has been lost by a number of historians. It will be noticed that the number of the royal guards reported to have been slain was, strangely enough, derived from that of the Huguenot gentlemen butchered in the Louvre by those very guards. The story may have been perpetuated by misapprehension of the facts; it could have arisen only from wilful falsehood.

1012

Tocsain contre les massacreurs (Rheims, 1579), 124, 125; Reveille-Matin, 126; Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi, i. 41; Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 18; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 586.

1013

Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 125; Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 18; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 586; Euseb. Philad. Dialogi, ubi supra.

1014

"The courtiers and the soldiers of the royal guard were the executioners of this commission on the (Huguenot) noblesse, terminating, they said, by the sword and general disorder, those processes which pens and paper and the order of justice had hitherto failed to bring to an issue." Reveille-Matin, ubi supra, 184; Eusebii Philad. Dialogi, i 41; Mémoires de l'estat, 127.

1015

Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 18.

1016

Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 136, 137.

1017

Reveille-Matin, ubi supra, 184, 185; Eusebii Philad. Dial., i. 42; Mém. de l'estat, 127; Jean de Serres (1575), iv. 38; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 588; Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 18. The minor details of the story are given, with variations, by different authors. D'Aubigné gives us Biron's answer to the commands and menaces with which Madame de la Châtaigneraie sought to gain possession of young La Force: "I would certainly intrust him in the hands of his relative, in order to take care of him, but not in the hands of his next heir, who took too great care of him yesterday morning," ii. 21. It must be noted, however, that the "Mémoires authentiques de Jacques Nompar de Caumont, Duc de la Force, Maréchal de France, recueillis par le Marquis de la Grange" (Paris, 1843), i. 2-37, so far from accusing the sister of La Force, ascribe the persistent attempts to secure his death solely to Archan (or Larchant), who had married this sister; and they state that, at her death, she left her property, including what she had inherited from her husband, to her brother.