History of the Rise of the Huguenots

1166

Philip had evidently no intimation that a massacre was in contemplation. When Mr. Motley says (United Netherlands, i. 15): "It is as certain that Philip knew beforehand, and testified his approbation of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, as that he was the murderer of Orange," the statement must be interpreted in accordance with that other statement in the same author's earlier work (Rise of the Dutch Republic, ii. 388): "The crime was not committed with the connivance of the Spanish government. On the contrary, the two courts were at the moment bitterly opposed to each other," etc. As the eminent historian can scarcely be supposed to contradict himself on so important a point, we must understand him to mean that Philip had, indeed, long since instigated Catharine and her son to rid themselves of the Huguenot leaders by some form of treachery or other, but was quite ignorant of, and unprepared for, the particular means adopted by them for compassing the end.

1167

St. Goard to Charles, Sept. 12th, Bodel Nijenhuis, Supplement to Groen van Prinsterer, Archives de la maison d'Orange Nassau, 124-126. St. Goard was not deceived by Philip's pious congratulations. "Ce faict," he writes to Catharine, a week later (ibid., pp. 126, 127), "a esté aussi bien pris de se (ce) Roy comme on le peult penser, pour luy estre tant profitable pour ses affaires; toutesfois, comme il est le prince du monde qui sçait et faict le plus profession de dissimuler toutes choses, si n'a il sceu celler en ceste-cy le plaisir qu'il en a reçeu, et encores que je infère touts ses mouvements procedder du bien que en recepvoient ses affaires, lesquelles il voioit pour desplorer sans ce seul remedde, si a il faict croire à tout le monde par ces aparens (apparences) que c'estoit pour le respect du bon succez que voz Majestez avoient eu en si haultes entreprises, tantost louant le filz d'avoir une telle mère, l'aiant si bien gardé," etc.

1168

See the Mondoucet correspondence, Compte rendu de la commission royale d'histoire, second series, iv. (Brux., 1852), 340-349, pub. by M. Emile Gachet, especially the letter of Charles IX. of Aug. 12th, 1572.

1169

"El dicho embaxador me propusó … con grande instancia, que sin dilacion se devia executar la justicia en Janlis (Genlis) y en los otros sus complices que hay estan presos, y en los que se tomassen en Mons." Philip to Alva, Sept. 18th. Simancas MSS. Gachard, Particularités inédits sur la St. Barthélemy, Bulletin de l'académie royale de Belgique, xvi. (1849), 256.

1170

Charles IX. to Mondoucet, Aug. 31st, Mondoucet correspondence, p. 349; see also another letter of the same date, p. 348.

1171

"Estant l'un plus grands services que se puisse faire pour la Chrestienté, que de la prendre et passer tout au fil de l'espée." St. Goard to Charles IX., Sept. 19th, Supp. to Archives de la maison d'Orange Nassau, 127.

1172

Philip to Alva, ubi supra.

1173

Alva to Philip, Oct. 13th, Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II. (Brux., 1848), ii. 287.

1174

Mondoucet to Charles IX., Aug. 29th, Bull. de l'acad. roy. de Brux.

1175

Bulletin de l'acad. roy. de Bruxelles, ix. (1842), 561.

1176

Philip to Alva, ubi supra.

1177

Bulletin of Alva from the report of his agent, the Seigneur de Gomicourt, published by M. Gachard, from MSS. of Mons, in Bull. de l'acad. de Bruxelles, ix. (1842), 560, etc.

1178

Despatch of Sept. 14, 1572, Correspondance diplomatique, v, 121.

1179

Charles IX. to La Mothe Fénélon, Aug. 22, 1572, Corresp. dipl., vii. 322, 323.

1180

See ante, chap, xviii., p. 490.

1181

"Ni que j'y aye aucune volonté."

1182

"C'est bien la chose que je déteste le plus."

1183

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

1184

Charles IX. to La Mothe Fénélon, Aug. 25, 1572, ibid., 325, 326.

1185

Charles IX., Aug. 26th and 27th, Corresp. dipl., vii. 331, etc., and a justificatory "Instruction à M. de la Mothe Fénélon."

1186

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

1187

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

1188

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

1189

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

1190

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

1191

La Mothe Fénélon to Catharine, ibid., v. 164.

1192

Letter of Sept. 26th, Digges, 262.

1193

See ante, chapter xviii., p. 495.

1194

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

1195

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

1196

Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 150.

1197

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

1198

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

1199

Froude, x. 444, 445.

1200

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

1201

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

1202

"Toute ma negociation s'en estoit allée en fumée." Schomberg to M. de Limoges, Nov. 8th, De Noailles, iii. 300.

1203

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

1204

"Als die sonder zweifel die welsche bibel 'El principe Macchiavelli' auch studirt."

1205

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

1206

Bp. of Valence to M. Brulart, Konin, Nov. 20th, Colbert MSS. apud De Noailles, iii. 218.

1207

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

1208

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

1209

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

1210

Registres de la compagnie, 1er août, 1572, apud Gaberel, Histoire de l'église de Genève, ii. 320.

1211

Reg. du conseil, 30 août, 1572; Reg. de la compagnie, Gaberel, ii. 321.

1212

Gaberel, ii. 321, 322.

1213

Ibid., ii. 322.

1214

Ibid., ii. 307. See also in the Pièces justificatives, pp. 213-217: "Liste des réfugiés de la St. Barthélemy dont les familles existent de nos jours à Genève."

1215

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

1216

Gaberel, ii. 326.

1217

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

1218

Gaberel, ii. 330-333.

1219

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

La voici l'heureuse journéeQue Dieu a faite à plein désir —

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

1220

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

1221

Harangue de M. de Bellièvre aux Suisses à la diette tenue à Baden, Mackintosh, Hist. of England, iii., Appendix L.

1222

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

1223

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

1224

Smith to Walsingham, Digges, 252.

1225

Leicester to Walsingham, Sept. 11th, Digges, 251.

1226

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

1227

Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 29, 30.

1228

Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 29 (liv. i., c. 6).

1229

Letter of May 22, 1571/2, Digges, 193.

1230

Relation of Sigismondo Cavalli. I follow the résumé of Baschet, La diplomatie vénitienne, 556, 562.

1231

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

1232

Mémoires de Sully, i. 28, 29.

1233

See ante, p. 530-532.

1234

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

1235

Pii Quinti Epistolæ, 111.

1236

Ibid., 150.

1237

Ibid., 152. See ante, chapter xvi, p. 308.

1238

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

1239

"Catholicæ religionis hostes aperte ac libere ad internecionem usque oppugnaverit." Ibid., 155.

1240

"Deletis omnibus," etc. Ibid., 155.

1241

Ibid., 160, 161.

1242

Ibid., 166.

1243

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

1244

"Hæreticæ pravitatis inquisitores per singulas civitates constituere." Ibid., 242.

1245

Letter of Jan. 29, 1570, ibid., 267.

1246

Letter of April 23, 1570, ibid., 275.

1247

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

1248

Letter to Charles IX., January 25, 1572, ibid., 443.

1249

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

1250

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

1251

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

1252

Gabutius, ubi supra.

1253

Jean de Serres, Commentaria de statu rel. et reipublicæ, iv., fol. 60 verso. I have made use, up to 1570, of the first edition of this work, published in three volumes in 1571, my copy being one formerly belonging to the library of Ludovico Manini, the last doge of Venice. From 1570 on I refer to the edition of 1575, which comprises a fourth and rarer volume, bringing down the history to the close of the reign of Charles. A comparison between this edition and the later edition of 1577 brings out the interesting circumstance that many Huguenots of little courage, who at first apostatized, afterward returned to their old faith. Thus, the edition of 1575 reads (iv. 51 v.): "Vix enim dici possit, quam multi ad primum illum impetum a Religione resiluerint, mortis amittendarumque facultatum metu, quorum plerique etiamnum hærent in luto." The words I have italicized are omitted in the edition of 1577, as quoted by Soldan, ii. 473.

1254

Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 61.

1255

Ib., ubi supra.

1256

Borrel, Histoire de l'église réformée de Nîmes (Toulouse, 1856), pp. 77, 78, from Archives of the Hôtel-de-ville.

1257

J. de Serres, iv., fols. 68-70; Borrel, Hist. de l'égl. réf. de Nîmes, 78, 79; De Thou, iv. 663.

1258

See ante, chapter xviii., p. 480.

1259

Agrippa d'Aubigné, Hist. univ., ii. 38 (liv. i., c. 8). Neither De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 659, nor J. de Serres (either in his Commentaria de statu rel. et reip., iv. 68, or in his Inventaire général de l'histoire de France, Genève, 1619), makes any allusion to Regnier's combat, while the former expressly, and the latter by implication, refer to his agency in persuading the inhabitants of Montauban to espouse the Protestant cause in arms. I incline to think, nevertheless, that D'Aubigné has neither misplaced nor exaggerated a brilliant little affair which was certainly to his taste.

1260

J. de Serres, De statu, etc., iv., fol. 63; De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 647.

1261

Reveille-Matin, 200; Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi (1574), i. 57.

1262

Arcère, Histoire de la Rochelle, i. 405. The records of the customs showed that 30,000 casks of wine were brought in. An ample supply of powder was also secured by offering a bonus of ten per cent, to all that imported it from abroad.

1263

Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 65; De Thou, iv. 649.