FOOTNOTES:
[1] In judging these and other great historical criminals, we must bear in mind the age in which they lived. To borrow the language of Mr. Hepworth Dixon in his eloquent vindication of Lord Bacon: “The cry of pain, the gasp of death, were no such shocks to the gentle heart as they would be in a softer time. Men had been hardened in the [martyrs’] fire. Minds were infected by the atrocities of [Huguenot] plots. The ballads sung in the streets were steeped in blood.” In such times of frenzy even the merciful become cruel.
[2] Hist. of Popes, i. 120 (Mrs. Austin’s).
[3] From a sermon quoted by Sismondi, Hist. des Français.
[4] Mém. de l’Acad. Stanislas, Nancy, 1862, p. 369.
[5] Here are some of the objects once preserved in the cathedral of Clermont:—“Imprimis de umbilico Filii Dei cum quinque unguibus de sinistra manu; præpucium ipsius cum duabus unguibus de dextra manu, et de pannis quibas fuit involutus, et undecimam partem sudarii quod fuit ante oculos ejus cum sanguine ipsius, et de tunica, et de barba, et de capillis, et de præcincto ejus cum sanguine et tres ungues ejus ex recisione manus dexteræ et partem spinæ coronæ, et de pane quem ipse benedixit, et ex spongia ejus, et ex virgis quibus cæsus fuit, et de capillis Beatæ Mariæ tres et brachiale ejus, et de vestimento ipsius cum lacte.”—Baluze, ii. p. 39; Dulaure, Descript. Auvergne, p. 197.
[6] Réponse à quelque apologie, etc. 1558, fol. 2.
[7] “De plano, sine strepitu et figura judicii, prout in similibus consuevit.”—Isambert: Recueil des Lois Fr. t. xii. p. 231.
[8] Florimond de Rémond: Histoire de la naissance, etc. de l’hérésie de ce siècle, bk. vii. p. 931.
[9] Beza: Hist. Eccles. liv. i. For this “Affair of the Placards” see Merle d’Aubigné: Reform. in time of Calvin, vol. iii. bk. iv. ch. 9 to 12. A passage like this must have been as offensive as it was unjustifiable: “Nous ne voulons croire à vos idoles, à vos lieux nouveaux et nouveaux Christs, qui se laissent manger aux bêtes et à vous pareillement, qui êtes pires que bêtes, en vos badinages lequels vous faites à l’entour de votre dieu de pâte duquel vous vous jouez comme un chat d’une souris,” etc.
[10] Eustathius de Knobelsdorff to George Cassander, in Illustr. et Clar. Viror. Epist. Selectæ., Lugd. Bat. 1617, quoted in Baum: Leben Beza’s.
[11] Hist. des guerres dans le Venaissin, etc. i. p. 39. Published anonymously, but the author was Father Justin, a Capuchin monk. See also Muston: Israël des Alpes, 1851.
[12] Bossuet (Hist. des Variations, liv. xi. § 143) acknowledges their piety, but calls it “feigned,” and ascribes their virtues to the inspiration of the devil.
[13] Cabasse: Hist. Parl. Provence.
[14] Il n’existe plus rien du bourg florissant de Mérindol. Lacretelle: Guerres de Rél. i. p. 31.
[15] Mezeray, iii. p. 1034.
[16] Some years ago a cave in a wild and almost inaccessible valley of the Maritime Alps, near the village of Castiglione, was pointed out to me as one of these places of refuge. It could be reached only by a rope, and consisted of at least three chambers, one below the other. In the Vivarrais there are many such caverns.
[17] Bouche calls them, “plutôt ignorans que rebelles,” and adds, “On trouve dans l’histoire des nations les plus fanatiques et les plus sauvages peu d’exemples d’une atrocité pareille.”—Essai sur l’Hist. de Provence, ii. p. 83. See Papon, Hist. de Provence, for a less favorable account of the Vaudois.
[19] All the papers connected with this inquiry have perished. One of the accused was the famous sea-captain Baron de la Garde, the same who disputed the command of the Channel against Henry VIII., and occupied the Isle of Wight in 1533. In the religious wars he sided with the Huguenots.
[20] Capefigue: Hist. de la Réforme, ch. xvi.
[21] Non ego sum qui, ut quisque a nobis opinione dissentit, statim eum odio habeam.
[22] In a poem composed at this time, he says, with more of Pagan stoicism than Christian fortitude—
[23] Imberdis: Hist. Guerres Civ. 8vo. Moulins, 1840.
[24] A curious apology has been made for Francis I. Mezeray, answering an Italian writer, who had insinuated that the king had permitted the spread of heresy by taking no heed of it, says:—“Quoi donc, faire six ou sept rigoureux édits pour l’étouffer, convoquer plusieurs fois le clergé, assembler un concile provincial, dépêcher à toute heure des ambassades vers tous les princes de la chrétienté pour en assembler un général, brûler les hérétiques par douzaines, les envoyer aux galères par centaines, et les bannir par milliers: est-ce là permettre, ou n’y prendre pas garde,” etc. ii. p. 1038.
[25] P. Castellani Vita, auct. P. Gallandio, 8vo. 1674.
[26] Petri Paschalii Histor. Fragm. Dupuy MSS. Raumer: Hist. 16th and 17th Centuries, i. 261.
[27] Matteo Dandolo in 1542 and Lorenzo Contarini in 1551 describe Henry in nearly the same terms. See Alberi: Relazioni degli Ambas. Veneti. (8vo. Firenze.) Ser. I. vol. iv. 1860, pp. 27 and 60.
[28] M. Capefigue has attempted this in his one-sided fashion; but Alberi extols her as a model of almost every Christian virtue.
[29] Sismondi says she was only 13, but from her birth, 13th April, 1519, to her wedding-day is 14½ years.
[30] “Li occhi grossi proprj alla casa de’ Medici.” Suriano. On the ceiling of a room in the château of Tanlay, between Tonnerre and Moutbard, which once belonged to the Chatillons, there was (and probably still is) a figure of Catherine as Juno, with two faces: one, masculine and sinister, the other with a remarkable sweetness and dignity of expression. In the gallery at Eu there were two portraits (probably copies) representing her as exceedingly fair: in one, the hair was of a reddish tinge; in the other, the eyebrows were light and the eyes hazel.
[31] Giovanni Soranzo, 14th August, 1557. Relazioni, p. 8.
[32] “Non si troveria persona che non si lasciasse cavare del sangue per fargli avere un figlio.”—Matt. Dandolo.
[33] His tomb, by Jean Goujon, is in Rouen cathedral.
[34] Brantome describes her at the age of sixty-five as being “so lovely that the most insensible person could not look upon her without emotion;” and ascribes her beauty to a bouillon she took every morning composed of “or potable et autres drogues que je ne sais pas.” De Thou says she made Henry constant to her “philtris et magicis (ut creditur) artibus.” A hideous story of her bathing in blood to preserve her beauty is told of “cette Hérodias” in the Mélange critique de Littérature, ii. p. 113. At Dijon there is a three-quarter portrait of her entirely undraped. The form is exceedingly lovely, the face a long oval, the eyes dark, eyebrows delicate, hair a bright auburn, and complexion fair.
[35] They were the emblems of mourning which widows in those days never put off.
[36] “Particolarmente la dispensazione delli benefici ecclesiastici è in man sua.”—Soranzo.
[37] “Il quale l’ha amata, ed ama e godi cosi vecchia come è.” L. Contarini (1551): Relazioni Veneti, iv. 1860, p. 78; Baschet: La Diplomatie vénitienne, p. 432. G. Soranzo (1558) writes to the same effect; but M. Cavalli is of quite a contrary opinion. “Questo amore non sia lascivo, ma come materno filiale.”—Raumer, i. p. 259.
[38] The pope significantly sent her a pearl necklace shortly after Henry’s accession. The French have recently erected a statue to her memory. It is painful to see a noble nation so deficient in self-respect as to make idols of the mistresses of their sovereigns—Agnes Sorel, Diana, Gabrielle d’Estrées, and others.
[39] “Au col de sa jument.”—Gargantua, liv. i. ch. 17.
[40] “Il ne savait ni lire ni écrire.”—Marsollier: Hist. duc de Bouillon, i. 7 (Paris, 1719).
[41] He was named Anne, after his godmother Anne of Brittany. He had four sons and five daughters; his sister Louisa, a widow, married Gaspard de Coligny, the father of the Admiral. Louisa’s first husband was the Marshal de Maille, and her daughter Dame de Roye was mother of the Dame de Rove who married Condé.
[42] These “crescents,” so often found interlaced with H, are supposed to be the device of Diana of Poitiers; I am more inclined to regard them as a fanciful C, to indicate Catherine.
[43] Félibien: Hist. de la Ville de Paris, tom. ii. liv. xx. p. 1031 (fol. 1725).
[44] Félibien, tom. v. p. 378.
[45] The intellect of the day was on the side of the Reform: “Peintres, orlogiers, imagiers, orfèvres, libraires, imprimeurs, et autres, qui en leurs métiers, ont quelque noblesse d’esprit.”—Flor. de Remond, an unimpeachable witness.
[46] Bras de Bourgueville: Recherches sur Caen, 2e partie, p. 162; Cte Hector de la Ferrière-Percy: Hist. du Canton d’Athis. 8vo. Paris, 1858.
[47] Montluc says the nobles adopted the Reform out of a spirit of opposition. “Il n’était fils de bonne maison qui ne voulut goûter de cette réforme nouvelle.”
[48] About the same time another edict forbade the faithful to send money to Rome.—Lacretelle.
[49] On the 19th June, 1551, the papal nuncio represented to the king that he “must forbid the printing and circulation of all heretical books.... If your majesty fail to punish these damnable writers, the evil may proceed so far as to defy all remedy.”—Raumer, i. 262. The severities of the Chateaubriant edict proving ineffectual, it was declared by another edict (27th May, 1558), that the illegal printing of any book on religion would be punished by “confiscation de corps et de biens.”
[50] Matthew Ory, of the order of Preaching Friars, had been invited from Italy by Cardinal de Tournon, and by letters patent of Francis I. (30th May, 1536) permitted to exercise the office of inquisitor at Lyons, in which post he was confirmed by the edict of Henry II. (22d June, 1550).
[51] On this point see the continuation of Longueval’s Hist. Eglise Gall. by J. M. Prat (4to, 1847), t. xix. p. 96.
[52] “L’autorité et souveraineté tant du roi que de sa couronne serait grandement diminuée quand les sujets naturels du roi seraient prévenus et entrepris par un official ou inquisiteur.”—Hist. des Martyrs. f. 463.
[53] Minute of Secretary Ribier, p. 677; Sismondi, xviii. p. 59. See also Belcarius: Rer. Gall. Comment. p. 868.
[54] “Existimant omnis publicæ cladis, omnis popularis incommodi Christianos esse causam. Si Tiberis ascendit in mœnia, si Nilus non ascendit in arva, sicœlum stetit, si terra movet, si fames, si lues, statim—Christianos ad leonem!”—Tertullian, Apol. c. 40.
[55] Pasquier: Lettres, p. 195 (ed. Arras. 1598) says it happened in August, three days after the battle of St. Laurent, before the walls of St. Quentin, which was taken six weeks later. But these letters were written for effect—many of them some time after the events they record. Drion (Chronol.) says “May.”
[56] Her favorite, Madame de Crussol, Duchess of Usez, held the Reformed opinions.
[57] Bonnet: Lettres de Calvin, ii. 125, note. Letter from Fr. Morel. The prisoners were 120 to 130 in number.
[58] Raynald: Ann. Eccles. ad an. 1557; Sarpi: Concil. Trent, lib. v. No. 33.
[59] “Aut integras urbes absumere aut veritati locum aliquem concedere.”—Baum: Leben Beza’s, i. p. 453.
[60] Florimond de Remond: Hist. des Martyrs, fol. 395.
[61] Strada: De Bello Belg. dec. i. lib. 3.
[62] Marot translated fifty, Beza the remainder.
[63] Somewhat later (in 1561) the Sorbonne formally declared the singing of Psalms not contrary to the Catholic faith.
[64] The Pré aux Clercs exists no longer, not even in name. It was a pleasant meadow on the banks of the Seine, between the abbey of St. Germain des Prés and the Invalides.
[65] Hist. Heres. f. 1033.
[66] “Criant par dépit comme crieurs d’oublies.”—MS. de Médicis.
[67] This probably is what the English commissioner alludes to, when writing in January, 1559, he says: “There was an appointment made between the late pope, the King of Spain, and the French king, for the joining of their forces together for the suppression of religion.”—Forbes: Full View of the Public Transactions in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, i. p. 196 (fol. Lond. 1740).
[68] Vauvilliers, i. p. 89.
[69] During the period embraced in this volume there were only eight Parliaments, those of Paris, Toulouse, Grenoble, Bordeaux, Dijon, Rouen, Aix, Rennes.
[70] La vraie Hist. de la Proc. contre Du Bourg.: Mém. de Condé, i. 220.
[71] Mem. de Vieilleville, p. 705 (Panthéon Litt.)
[72] The date is uncertain; some give the 10th March, but the discussion did not begin until the 26th April. Felice says the 10th August, which must be a misprint.
[73] Throckmorton to Queen, 19th June, 1559, gives an account of this remarkable sitting, in which the Cardinal of Lorraine displayed his usual violence of language. Forbes: Full View, i. p. 126.
[74] Abbé Caveyrac says: “It was his fixed intention to destroy the Protestants.”—Apologie de Louis XIV. p. 33.
[75] Groen van Prinsterer: Archives, Ser. I. 1841, vol. i. p. 34. The plot was first made known in the Apology published by the Prince of Orange. Alva said that Henry had made peace, “para que el quedasse la mano libera para remediar lo.”—Gachard, ii. p. 181; Raynald: Ann. Eccles.
[76] Du Puis, a Jacobite priest, asserted “qu’à leur prêche les femmes s’abandonnaient,” etc. See Flocquet: Hist. parl. de Normandie, ii. p. 365.
[77] This organization was to a great extent the work of a gentleman of Maine, by name La Ferrière, who had removed to Paris to escape religious surveillance (1555).
[78] Calvin: Serm. sur Timothée, p. 65 (4to 1563).
[79] Alva to Philip: Journ. des Savants, 1857, p. 171.
[80] Art de vérifier les dates. Other authorities give June 21 and 24.
[81] Throckmorton to Council, 1st July, 1559; Forbes, i. 151; Lettere dei Principi (14th July, 1559), iii. 196. Montgomery escaped to England, where he embraced the Reformed doctrines.
[82] Some authorities state that, though Henry lingered eleven days, he never recovered either speech or reason. In the Chanson de Montgommery (1574) we read that he “prononça à voix haute, Que n’avais nullement vers lui commis la faute.”
[83] Mezeray, ii. 1137. Claude Haton charges the Protestants with trying to kill Henry in 1558, considering him “le tyran persécuteur de l’église de Jésus Christ.”
[84] Gail: Tableaux chronologiques, p. 96 (8vo. Paris, 1819); also Brantome.
[85] This discipline was in reality the work of Coligny.
[86] Claude Haton.
[87] Aubespine: Doc. Hist. François II., tom. ii. p. 428.
[88] Born 20th January, 1544, N.S. The medals say he was crowned on the 17th, Mezeray the 19th, and De Thou the 20th Sept., 1559. Such are the discrepancies continually to be met with even in trivial matters.
[89] Card. Santa Croce writes: “La Regina di Scotia un giorno gli disse che non sarebbe mai altro che figlia di un mercante.”
[90] Le Plat, v. p. 517.
[91] “Pulchro aspectu, procera statura, facie oblonga [the true Lorraine face], fronte ampla et eminente.” Gallia purpurata. Beza said: “Had I the cardinal’s eloquence, I should hope to convert half France.”
[92] Auberi: Hist. Card. Richelieu, i. liv. ii. p. 87 (ed. 1666).
[93] “Me participem fecit, ut tentationum ct passionum quibus per tot annos quotidie moriebatur, omni hora de vita periclitabatur ... tam parum timidus quam nimium esse putabatur.” Bayle, sub voce.
[94] “Licenziosissimo per natura ... ingordizia inestimabile ... gran duplicità.” Relazioni d. Amb. Ven. (ed. Alberi), p. 441.
[95] 9th April, 1561. MS. in Rouen Library; Leber, bundle B, No. 5720. On the other side, see the “Supplication,” etc., reprinted in Bouillé: Hist. Guise, p. 77.
[96] Micheli speaks of the “odio universale conceputo contro di lui per i molti effetti d’offesa che mostrò verso ognuno mentre nel governo ebbe l’autorità.”
[97] In the museum of Orleans there is a striking portrait of the cardinal and of his nephew, Henry, the hero of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.
[98] He was born in 1518, and in 1548 married the heiress of Navarre (born 1528), whose dowry consisted of the principality of Béarn and the counties of Armagnac, Albret, Bigorre, Foix, and Comminges. Upper Navarre had been seized by Spain.
[99] Marc Duval’s engraving of the three brothers is well known, and has often been copied. In the Lenoir Collection (now belonging to the Duke of Sutherland) there is a painting of the three brothers; and, if I am correctly informed, there are other portraits at Knowle Park.
[100] Brantome quotes an Italian saying: “Dio me guarda del bel gigneto del Principe (di Condé) e dell’ animo e stecco dell’ Amiraglio.” There was another saying: “Défiez-vous du cure-dents de l’Amiral, du non du Connétable, et du oui de Catherine.”
[101] Mr. Crowe, who seems to have taken his history of this period from Davila, calls Coligny “a man of bold and imposing character,” and says that he and Andelot were the inspiring causes of the religious wars. So far as the admiral is concerned, this is quite contrary to the fact.
[102] Rer. Scot. Hist. lib. xvi. p. 567 (ed. 1668).
[103] Lippomano in Baschet, p. 494; Throckmorton to Queen, 13th July, 1560, in Forbes, i. p. 159.
[104] Throckmorton says that the cardinal took pattern from the proclamations and injunctions of Pole and Bonner. Forbes, i. p. 161 and 233.
[105] Regnier de la Planche, p. 227.
[106] December 12th, 1559. This same Stuart claimed Queen Mary’s protection as a blood-relation. He made the constable prisoner at Dreux, mortally wounded him at St. Denis, and being taken at Jarnac, fighting on the Huguenot side, was murdered by permission, if not by order, of Henry of Anjou. Claude Haton has a story that he was hanged at Paris in July, 1569. He was in the Amboise plot, and escaped by flight.
[107] Authors differ as to the day of his death; the dates given are 20th November; 20th, 21st, 22d, and 23d December. “Duodecimo kal. Januarii,” says Belcarius, p. 921.
[108] Mezeray, Abrégé Chron. He appears to be copying Regnier de la Planche.
[109] Hist. de l’Hérésie, p. 865.
[110] Hist. des Perséc. de l’Église de Paris, p. lxiv.
[111] Hist. État de France sous François II. (8vo. 1576). This work is generally ascribed to La Planche, but if so, he would hardly sneer at himself (p. 404) as “plus politique que religieux.” It was probably written by Jean de Serres, author of the Commentarii de Statu Religionis.
[112] “Certains garnements n’avaient plutôt crié: Au luthérien, au christandin—qu’ils ne fussent non seulement quittes de leurs dettes.” Regnier de la Planche.
[113] Forbes, i. p. 262.
[114] Ibid., p. 292.
[115] The Défense contre les Tyrans of Hubert Languet treats of the limits of obedience to kings, of the causes which justify arming, and when foreign aid may be sought. Davila confesses that the Protestants were forced to measures of self-defense, “per liberarsi della durezza della condizione presente.”
[116] Barthold: Deutschland und die Huguenotten, i. p. 262.
[117] The “mute chief” was certainly Condé. Belcaire calls him “ducem ἀνώνυμον.”
[118] “At si viribus superiores fuissent, haud dubium quin utrumque [of the Guises] immaniter trucidaverint, quibus Franciscum Stuardumque reginam addidissent, aut saltem hanc ad Elizabetham Angliæ reginam, æmulam et ejus conjurationis consciam, (?) misissent.” Belcarius: Rer. Gall. Comment. There is not the slightest ground for supposing Elizabeth knew any thing of the Amboise plot.
[119] “The French king removeth hence toward Amboise the 5th February.” Killigrew to Queen, 28th Jan. 1560; Forbes, i. pp. 315, 320. “The 23d, the French king arrived, which was two days sooner than he was looked for.” Forbes, i. p. 334.
[120] Of this Des Avenelles there are very contradictory accounts. He was rewarded with a judicial appointment in Lorraine, and De Thou adds that he remained a Protestant until death.
[121] Throckmorton to Cecil, 7th March; Forbes, i. 353.
[122] “Il s’en trouvait en la rivière tantôt 6, 8, 10, 12, 15 attachés à desperches.... Les rues d’Amboise étaient coulantes de sang, et tapissées de corps morts, si qu’on ne pouvait durer par la ville pour la puanteur et infection.” Regnier de la Planche, p. 257; Montfauçon: Monuments de la Monarchie Fr. v. p. 81; Forbes, i. 378.
[123] This poisoned ball, says Brantome, was of mixed metal, so hard that no armor could resist it.
[124] See a plate in De Leone Belg., representing the execution of Villemangis.
[125] Throckmorton, writing to the Lords of the Council on the 21st March, speaks of the general pardon offered the insurgents if they should disperse quietly, and goes on to say: “Although things be thus calmed, yet the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine live still in marvelous great fear, and know not whom they may well trust.” Forbes, i.
[127] Taillandier: Nouv. Recherches sur de l’Hopital, p. 273 (Paris, 1861). “Les Huguenots de religion, pour ne pouvoir supporter plus la rigueur et cruauté exercées à l’encontre d’eux; et les Huguenots d’état, pour ne plus comporter l’usurpation faite par lesdits de Guise.” Commentaires, p. 63. This is what Regnier de la Planche told the queen-mother.
[128] There has been much dispute about the origin of this word, but it probably came from Geneva, where the citizens had long been divided into two politico-religious parties, known as the Mamelukes and Huguenots. Merle d’Aubigné: Reformation in Time of Calvin, vol. i. p. 118.