[129] Claude repeats all the popular scandals against the Protestants, but he speaks generally, refraining from charging with such infamies those of his own town (Provins), whom he knew from personal observation.
[130] See note at end of chapter.
[131] “Pauperculus librarius.” De Thou.
[132] Regnier de la Planche: De l’Estat de France, pp. 312, 313 (Coll. du Panthéon).
[133] Wright’s Elizabeth, i. p. 33.
[134] Aubespine Correspondence, pp. 431, 433, 434, 442, 501.
[135] The instructions were signed by the King and Catherine, Guise, Montmorency, the Cardinal of Lorraine, L’Hopital, and Charles of Bourbon. See Le Plat, v. p. 561.
[136] Aubespine: Corresp. 12th April, 1560, pp. 342, 361.
[137] Ibid. 1st October, 1560.
[138] Ibid. p. 655.
[139] Aubespine: Corresp. 14th October, 1560.
[140] Regnier de la Planche, p. 290.
[141] “Quand un homme ayant mauvaise opinion faisait l’amende honorable, et prononçait les mots d’icelle, il ne changeait pour cela son cœur, l’opinion se muant par oraisons à Dieu, parole, et raison persuadée.” Commentaires, p. 73 verso.
[142] Commentaires, p. 101 verso. Regnier assigns the duke’s retort to his brother the Cardinal. See also Mignet, Journal des Savants, 1859, p. 25; Bouillé: Hist. Guise, ii. p. 86.
[143] “Sans être perpétuellement damné.” Mayer, États gén. x. 296.
[144] Baschet, p. 506.
[145] Mayer: Coll. États gén. x. p. 310.
[146] Letter of Francis II. to Anthony, April 15: Colbert, MSS. vol. xxviii.
[147] Castelnau in his Mémoires says, that the queen-mother assured them they might come “without fear,” and would be as safe in Orleans as in their own houses. Both stories may be true, and this is not the only time when her public and private opinions were at variance.
[148] Voltaire: Essai sur les Guerres civiles.
[149] Comment. de l’Estat, p. 112. Regnier adds: “Dont il (the cardinal) fut tellement contristé qu’il n’eut recours qu’ á ses larmes.”
[150] Hardwicke: State Papers, i. p. 129; Letter to the Queen, 17th of November, 1560.
[151] The duke and the cardinal openly boasted that, at two blows, they would cut off the heads of heresy and rebellion. Davila, liv. ii.
[152] “Seria mas acertado castigar poco á poco los culpados que prender tantos de un golpe.” Simancas Archives: Journ. des Savants, 1839, p. 39.
[153] I give this incident as I find it, but hold it to be a fiction. It is inconsistent with the king’s character and the state of his health at the time.
[154] Throckmorton to Chamberlayne, 21st November, 1560; Wright’s Elizabeth, i. p. 57.
[155] Vie de Coligny, p. 221.
[156] Calvin to Sturm, 16th Dec. 1560. Bonnet: Lettres de Calvin.
[157] “Non minus fœdo quam inexpectato mortis genere sustulit. Mortuo nullus, ut regi, honos habitus.... Lutherano more sepultus Lutheranorum hostis.” Beza to Bullinger, 22d Jan. 1561; Baum’s Theodor Beza, ii. p. 18, Suppl.
[158] Paris: Cabinet historique, ii. p. 57.
[159] The following were the twelve leading provinces: Normandy, governed by the Dauphin; Brittany, by the Duke of Etampes; Gascony, by the King of Navarre; Languedoc and the Isle of France, by Constable Montmorency; Provence, by the Count of Tende; Dauphiny and Champagne, by Guise; Lyonnais and the Bourbonnais, by Marshal St. André; Burgundy, by the Duke of Nevers; and Picardy, by Coligny.
[160] Mém. de Marguérite de Valois, p. 18.
[161] There were rewards for killing these beasts: 5 sols for a wolf, 10 sols for a she-wolf. MS. penes auct.
[162] Du Tillet: Recueil des Roys, ii p. 192; Chronique (4to. 1618).
[163] MS. penes auct.
[165] “Un douzième de la prisaie du produit.” Monteil MSS. i. 250.
[166] MS. penes auct.
[167] From a list of delicacies supplied in December, 1578, to the wife of Charles de Vienne, Governor of Burgundy, when in childbed, we learn that a Mayence ham cost 50 sols, Italian sausages 15 sols a lb., olives 12 sols, an ounce of musk 18 crowns of the sun, fine white sugar 23 sols a lb., inferior sort 22 sols, dried currants 12 sols, and preserved pears 3 sols. At Mende, in 1568, a quintal of hay at 20 sols, and of straw at 8 sols, were reckoned very dear; the horse-soldier’s pay being arranged on the supposition that he could get those quantities of hay and straw for 8 and 4 sols, and a setier of oats for 25. (L’Abbé Bosse: Le Gevaudan pendant la dernière Guerre civile. Mende, 1864.) At Toulouse a soldier’s food cost 4 sols a day, probably equivalent to rather more than 20 sols or a franc now. About this time the salary of a president in the Toulouse Parliament was 100 sols a day, and of his huissier or beadle 30 sols.
[168] “Sans ce grain (le sarrasin) qui nous est venu depuis 60 ans, les pauvres gens auraient beaucoup á souffrir.” Contes d’Eutrapel.
[169] “Celui-là même que nous avons en délices ès jours maigres.” Bélon: Observations, etc. 1563.
[170] Champier wonders how people could eat such an insect.
[171] Without going to the Pyrenees, or even to Burgundy, the English traveler may still see relics of the old time in the high cap of the Normande bonne and in the dress of the fishing-classes in the Pas de Calais, where the girl who ventures to wear a bonnet is looked upon as lost.
[172] The Ordonnance of Orleans (1560) forbids the “manans et habitans de nos villages toutes sortes de dorures sur plomb, fer, ou bois.”
[173] St. Allais: Ancienne France, i. 558, gives extracts from the edicts of 1561.
[175] De Thou describes his mother “in equo post tergum sessoris domestici tapeti et stapedæ insidens.”
[176] Corrozet: Antiquités de Paris, p. 210 (ed. 1577).
[177] Calculating the actual value of the livre tournois at francs 4·50, according to the quantity of corn it represented, on the average of frs. 31·71 the setier.
[178] In 1540 the marc d’or (= 8 onces, or 244·75 grammes) was worth £165 7s. 6d. of our money; in 1561 it had risen to £185, and in 1573 to £200.
[179] The sol par livre seems to have been the constitutional tax, which Francis raised to two sols. The Traicté des Aydes, by L. du Crot, may be consulted with advantage.
[180] Francis I. took away the silver rails that had been set by Louis XI. round the tomb of St. Martin of Tours.
[181] Du Crot: Traicté des Aydes, ad fin.
[182] The salt tax, oppressive enough by itself, was made more so by the way in which it was levied. It sometimes reached 25 sols the pound, and purchasers were forced to buy a certain quantity, and renew their store every three months, whether it was consumed or not. Bernard Palissy gives a curious account of the working of this tax.
[183] A relic of this custom still exists in the practice of closing Temple Bar on the accession of a new sovereign.
[184] “Sono stati forzati ad abbandonnar il paesi.” Relazione, iii. (Ser. I.) p. 423. Du Crot confirms this: Traicté des Aydes, p. 114.
[185] La Noue sets it down at twenty million francs.
[186] Mém de Condé, tom. vi. p. 603 (Collect. Michaud).
[187] “Fas esse interficere ... nisi obedire evangelio Calviniano.” De justa Reipubl. Christi in Regis Auctorit. 386 recto. See Labitte: Démoc. de la Ligue, p. li.
[188] Arcère: Hist. Rochelle (4to. 1756), i. p. 333.
[189] “Il prete francese [non] molto libidinoso e inclinato solo al vizio della crapula (gluttony).” The sense requires the addition of the negative non.
[190] Révue rétrospective, i. 1833.
[191] Démonomanie, p. 152. This man, according to Mezeray, gave Charles the names of 1200 of his associates. In Bodin and L’Estoile the numbers are set down at 30,000 and 3000; Boguet says “trois cents mil.”
[192] The following title of a libelous pamphlet throws a curious light upon the subject in the text: Les Sorcelleries de Henri de Valois, et les Oblations qu’il faisoit au Diable dans le Bois de Vincennes, avec la Figure des Démons d’Argent doré auxquels il faisoit Offrande, et lesquels se voyent encore en ceste Ville. Paris, 1589.
[194] Isambert: Anciennes Lois Franç, xiv. p. 71; Ordonnance of Orleans, January, 1560.
[195] Gregorius: Tertia Syntag. Juris Univ. Pars, lib. 74, c. 21. The evidence would hardly satisfy an English jury.
[196] Gregorius: Tertia Syntag. Juris Univ. Pars, lib. 74, c. 21.
[197] Coryat, Crudities, p. 8.
[198] Joannes Millæus: Praxis Criminis persequendi (fol. Paris, 1541), contains well-executed plates representing various kinds of torture.
[199] Claude Haton, ii. 704.
[200] Giovanni Soranzo (1558) says 400,000 or more.
[201] Corrozet (dd. 1568) says: “... Cette ville est de unze portes.... Lequel enclos sept lieues lors contient.” See also Tommaseo, p. 43; Coryat’s Crudities, p. 17.
[202] Brun and Hogenburg: Théâtre des principales Villes.
[203] Mém. de Vieilleville (Panthéon Litt.), 1836, p. 510.
[205] Marino Giustiniano in Tommaseo.
[206] C’est la déduction du sumptueux ordre de Rouen, etc. Small 4to. Rouen, 1551.
[207] Favin: Hist. de Navarre, an. 1565; Godefroy: Cérémonial de France, i. p. 909; Aubigné: Hist. liv. iv. ch. 5; Popelinière, i. liv. 10; Abel Jouan: Voyage de Charles IX.
[209] Régistres du Conseil de Toulon, B, No. 10, fol. 247.
[210] A General Hist. of France, by John de Serres (Serranus). Fol. Lond. 1624, p. 692.
[211] Beza had a favorable opinion of the boy-king, but not of the mother: “De rege optimam spem esse, et hoc tibi, ut certissimum, confirmo. Sed puer est et matrem habet.” Beza to Haller, 24th January, 1561, in Baum’s Beza, ii. p. 25, App.
[212] Baschet, p. 510.
[213] Aubespine Négotiations, p. 781. The translation of this unctuous letter is from Miss Freer’s Elizabeth of Valois, i. p. 230.
[214] Walsingham describes her as “naturally timid;” Travannes (Mém. ii. 256): “ambitieuse et craintive;” Suriano: “timida e irresoluta;” and again, “per paura di se stessa;” and Languet (Epist. i. 41): “Regina, ut est mulier, territa.”
[215] Baschet, p. 518.
[216] The chief members of this council were Anthony of Navarre; the Cardinals of Bourbon, Lorraine, Tournon, Guise, and Chatillon; the Prince of Roche-sur-Yon; the Dukes of Guise and Aumale, the Chancellor, Marshals St. André and Brissac, with the Bishops of Orleans, Valence, and Amiens. Condé could not act, being in prison.
[217] The lawyers and parliaments were always jealous of the States-General. Pasquier, who was a “parliamentarian,” calls the appeal to the Three Estates a “vieille folie courant en l’esprit français.”
[218] F. Bourquelot: Hist. de Provins, ii. p. 132. An ordonnance of 1565 throws a curious light on the morals of the clergy:—“Ad instantiam promotoris inhibitum fuit omnibus et singulis hujus ecclesiæ [St. Quiriace at Provins], canonicis, capellariis, vicariis, et aliis habituatis (?) ne, quovis quæsito colore, audeant mulieres scandalosas de lapsu et incontinentia carnis, quovis modo suspectas, in eorum domos claustrales introducere vel intromittere, et si quas habeant, illico et incontinenti ejiciant et expellant, sub pœna excommunicationis et amendæ summæ decem librarum et amplius.”
[219] On the calculation that a livre would purchase as much in 1560 as twelve francs would now, the debt was equivalent to twenty millions sterling.
[220] MSS. L’Ordre et Séance, etc.
[221] “Ipsius audaciam nobilitas et plebs magno cum fremitu repulissent.” Beza to Bullinger; Baum’s Beza, ii. p. 20, App.
[222] “Habere quædam in mandatis quæ contra ipsum card. promere jubebantur.” Thuanus, v. lib. 27, p. 14 (Paris, 1609).
[223] The assembly acted up to this principle by ordering (7th January) the release of all prisoners confined on account of religion; but it was done secretly “for fear of scandal.”
[224] The language of their cahiers was more moderate than Quentin’s speech; but in the text they have, for obvious reasons, been treated as one document.
[225] “Ut auferatur malum de medio nostri.”
[226] Lobineau, Hist. Bretagne, ii. 280; Bertrand d’Argentré to the Duke of Estampes.
[227] Chantonnay to Catherine, 22d April, 1561; Mém de Condé, ii. p. 6.
[228] It is hinted in a contemporary letter, that many feared to speak their minds lest they should be treated like Du Bourg. Languet disapproves of the Edict of July, and says of Catherine: “Non mihi videtur caute egisse.” Lib. ii. Ep. liv. p. 137.
[229] Mém. de Castelnau; see also Mignet, Journ. des Savants, 1847, pp. 651–659. In a letter (dated 1565) Castelnau says of Elizabeth: “Je ne la vis jamais plus belle ni plus jolie, et vous promets qu’il y a telle fille de quinze ans, qui pense être belle, qui n’en approche point. Au reste, elle a de grandes et rares vertus, et un grand royaume” (no doubt in his eyes her greatest virtue).
[230] “Elle leur donne à entendre qu’elle veut faire instruire le roi son fils en leur religion.” Discours Merveilleux, p. xxi. On this matter we may suppose the writer of that scurrilous pamphlet to be well informed, though we may doubt Catherine’s sincerity. See also Agrippa d’Aubigné (liv. iv. ch. 3) on the “langage de Canaan” the queen employed in her conversations with the Protestant pastors. Sec also Laboureur (i. p. 283), where she is described as “infected with this venom.”
[231] Chantonnay advised that the heretics should be punished, Catherine replied: “Il n’était pas possible, vu le grand nombre ... sans ruiner toute chose et exciter une guerre civile.” Lett. of 8th January, 1561; Mém. de Condé, ii. p. 601.
[232] Mém. de Condé, ii. p. 11.
[233] “Vestido como putas.” Chantonnay to Philip II., 28th October, 1561; Simancas Archives: Journal des Savans, 1859, p. 159.
[234] In 1561, Micheli, the Venetian embassador, says that three-fourths of the kingdom are filled with heresy. They met and preached without any regard to the royal prohibition; and he notes it as very remarkable, that “priests, monks, and nuns, and even bishops, and many of the most distinguished prelates, had caught the infection.... Excepting the common herd, all have fallen away.”
[235] The queen-mother was specially excepted.
[236] There were actually six confederates, the three others being Cardinal Tournon, Marshal Brissac, and M. de Montpensier. Chantonnay to Philip II., 9th April, 1561; Bouillé, ii. 132.
[237] “Tous articles ... soient décidés et résolus par la seule parole de Dieu.” Bibl. Impér. 8927, États de Pontoise.
[238] “Audio Reginam curasse scribi formam emendationis ecclesiarum.” Languet (11th December, 1561), Epist. ii. 184. Also Chantonnay (22d January, 1561): “Aussi verrez-vous un discours que l’on sème faussement avoir été envoyé par la Reine au Pape.” He hints that it was written by Montluc, Bishop of Valence, “pour (sous prétexte de piété) semer la fausse doctrine.” Mém. de Condé, ii. 20.
[239] Alberi: Vita di Caterina de’ Medici (Firenze, 1838), p. 291. See also letter in Bayle’s Dictionary, art. Marot, dated 26th August, 1559.
[240] Calvin writes to P. Martyr: “Audio quidem Regis matrem ita esse tui audiendi cupidam.” 17th August, 1561. Baum’s Theodor Beza, ii. p. 40, App. Peter Martyr, who had a great reputation for eloquence, waited upon Catherine as soon as he reached Paris. After a long and friendly interview she dismissed him saying: “Quod deinceps sæpius mecum sed secreto colloqui vellet.” P. Martyr Senatui Turicensi, 12th September, 1561. Ibid. p. 63.
[241] Bèze à M. d’Espeville, 25th August, 1561; Baum’s Theodor Beza, ii. p. 45, Append. There is a Latin copy of this letter which differs in several respects from the French.
[242] Beza tells us that his escort numbered a hundred horsemen, and that the Duke of Guise received him “vultu quam maximè potuit ad humanitatem composito.” Beza Calvino, 12th September, 1561, Baum. ii. p. 60, App.
[243] Chantonnay’s dispatch confirms this. He says that the king and the chancellor “ne bougeraient de là, que l’on n’eut trouvé ordre pour apaiser les tumultes de ce royaume.” Mém. de Condé, ii. 16.
[244] Some historians reckon twelve ministers and a score of lay delegates; but the difference is unimportant. Besides Beza and Peter Martyr there were present Viret, Marlorat and Jean Malo, ex-priests, Reimond, and others.
[245] Beza afterward found it necessary to explain himself more fully upon this point in a letter to the queen-mother: “Il y a grande différence de dire que Jésus-Christ est présent en la Sainte Cène, en tant qu’il nous y donne veritablement son corps et son sang; et de dire que son corps et son sang sont conjoints avec le pain et le vin. J’ai confessé le premier, j’ai nié le dernier.”
[246] “Adeo exasperati atque exacerbati sunt, ut proruperint: Blasphemavit, blasphemavit Deum!” Struckius ad Hubertum, 18th September, 1561; Baum ii. p. 66, App. Catherine, writing to the Bishop of Rennes, embassador to the emperor, complains of Beza’s speech: “Etant enfin tombé sur le fait de la Cène il s’oublia en une comparaison si absurde et tant offensive des oreilles de l’assistance, que peu s’en fallut que je ne lui imposasse silence.” (14th September, 1561.)
[247] “Ut saltem æquiores nobis fiant.” Beza Calvino, 27th September, 1561.
[248] His orthodoxy was suspected. “Homo quidem doctus, sed nullius religionis, ut verè dicam ἄθεος.” Belcarius: Rer. Gall. Comment. p. 937. “Il cancelliere che è scoperto nemico della religione cattolica.” Tommaseo, i. 530.
[249] De Lisle to the king, 6th November, 1561. Mém pour le Concile de Trente (4to ed.), p. 110.
[250] “Una gran parte del popolo crede a costoro talmente che col mezzo loro si potranno ridurre alla via buona, come che altrimente siano per diventare Anabatisti o peggio.” Santa Croce to Cardinal Borromeo.
[251] Vie de Coligny, p. 242; La Noue, p. 350 (Engl. transl.). Pasquier writes of 8000 and 9000 assembling in October, and of an “incredible concourse.” Lettres, p. 233. Languet speaks of 12,000 to 13,000 present at a sermon in Orleans (Arcana Secreta, Ep. lv.); in Ep. lxii. he describes a meeting at which he was present: “non ducenti aut trecenti, sed duo, tria, et interdum novem aut decem millia ... hodie vero existimo non pauciores 15,000 interfuisse.” p. 155.
[252] After the massacre of Vassy (February, 1562), Condé offered the queen-mother the support of 2150 Reformed churches. Montfauçon, Monumens de la Monarchie, fol. 1733, v. p. 109. In 1598, the date of the Edict of Nantes, it was calculated that there were in France 694 public chapels and 257 private, over which 2800 ministers and 400 curates presided. There were 274,000 families, making about 1,250,000 souls, and of those families 2468 were noble. In 1561 there may have been 250,000 more.
[253] “Maxima nobilium parte ad eos accedente adeo ut cœtus Calvinistarum magna frequentia omnibus prope et nobilissimis quidem regni urbibus habebantur palam.” Eytzinger: Leo Belg. p. 25 (anno 1560).
[254] Beza Calvino, 23d October, 1561; in Baum: Leben Bezas, p. 210.
[255] Castelnau, p. 68.
[256] Baum (30th October, 1561), p. 117. Languet writes (26th October, 1561). “Dummodo non plures quam 200 conveniant, et sine armis.” Arc. Secr. ii. p. 153.
[257] “Admodum severe nunc exequuntur edictum de usu armorum interdicto.” Languet (26th October, 1561): Arc. Secr. ii. p. 153. The Huguenots were allowed to retain their arms: “Sotto pretesto che non avrebbe a seguir qualche seditione ... gli Ugonotti la portassero per sicurtà sua.” Barbaro: Relazione, 1564.
[258] “Calvinistis infestissimo doctore.” Sanctesius: Resp. ad Apolog. Bezæ (ap. Lannoium, Hist. Gym. Navarræ, p. 770).
[259] Sermon cath. sur les Dimanches, ii. p. 25. This sermon, though actually of a later date, is a fair specimen of the style of the day.