[260] Sanctesius: Ad Edicta vet. princ. de Licentia Sect. 1561.

[261] Complainte apologétique au Roi, p. 288.

[262] Thierry: Recueil des Monumens inéd. de l’Hist. du Tiers État, ii. p. 683 (4to. Paris).

[263] Thierry: Tiers État, ii. p. 712.

[264] “Nostros potius quam adversarios metuo.” (4th Nov. 1561). Baum’s Beza.

[265] “Me non minus severe in rabiosos istos impetus vindicaturum.” Ibid. ii. Anhang, 129.

[266] This was Pierre Craon, called Nez d’Argent, because he had lost his nose in a drunken brawl, and it was replaced by one of silver. He was at one time Professor of Humanity at Rheims, but resigned his chair on turning Protestant, and removed to Paris. The children used to sing a song about him. He was “fort renommé en science,” and worked quite a revolution in pronunciation and orthography, sounding c like ch, and substituting k for c in calendrier, Catherine, etc. He also introduced parentheses, commas, accents, diphthongs, and apostrophes. One account says he was hanged in December, 1561. See Jean Lefèvre: Hist. des Troubles, i. p. 140.

[267] Arrêt du Parlement; Archives curieuses, tom. iv.; Histoire véritable (a Huguenot account): ibid. p. 49–75.

[268] “Un altro simile spettacolo.” Lett. to Card. Borromeo.

[269] Forbes, ii. pp. 337–338.

[270] Davila: Hist. Guerres civiles de France, I. p. 78 (4to. Paris, 1657).

[271] Psalm xci. (Vulgate, xc.): “Non timebis ab incursu et dæmonio meridiano.”

[272] Beza Calvino, 6th January, 1562. Baum. App. The Posidonius of the text is evidently the admiral.

[273] See Varillas, i. p. 121; Gacon: Cour de Cath. d. Méd.

[274] “A rigidioribus pontificiis accusatur Lutheranismi ... jam pulchre simulet ... videatur non multum a nostris dissentire.” Languet, Epist. 44, lib. 2. p. 112; 45, p. 116; 63, p. 159 (26th November, 1561).

[275] The original report of the Saverne Conference is given in the Bulletin de l’Hist. Prot. Français, iv. p. 184.

[276] It is hardly necessary to caution the reader against accepting these numbers literally.

[277] A print in Montfauçon, which has been often copied, represents the duke himself stabbing a woman.

[278] There are many contemporary and contradictory accounts of the Vassy massacre. Description du Saccagement exercé cruellement en la Ville de Vassy. Caen, 1562; Discours au Vrai de ce qui est dernièrement advenu à Vassi. Paris, 1562. This account says that the duke heard mass at Dampmartin, and then went on to Vassy, where he alighted at the convent. The Discours entier de la Persecution ... en la Ville de Vassy, le 1 mars 1562, says that the duke was disturbed at mass by the singing of the Huguenots [who were outside the walls], and that on his sending to desire them to “wait until mass was over, when they might sing till they burst,” they sang all the louder. See also Alberi: Vita di Caterina de Medici, p. 92, note. Dr. Lingard asserts that Brantome was present at the massacre, but the abbé says plainly, “Je n’y étais pas.” The account in the text is substantially Davila’s; the duke’s own statement is in Castelnau.

[279] The duke afterward attempted to justify himself on the ground that the Protestants had begun the attack; but it is not probable that a body of unarmed persons, including many women and children, would have provoked an armed body of men commanded by one of the first soldiers in France. If what Davila says is true, the duke did not regret this opportunity of showing how much he detested the January edict (liv. iii.).

[280] Ste Croix, 15th March, 1562; Cimber, vi. 51.

[281] “Magnifico apparatu,” says Eytzinger; “with 2000 gentlemen and 3000 horses,” says Brulart. The date is uncertain, the authorities giving 15th, 16th, and 20th March.

[282] Monceaux was an undefended country-house, 1½ leag. S.W. of St. Denis, and ¾ leag. E. of Neuilly.

[283] Letter of 12th April, 1562; Mém. de Condé, ii. 53.

[284] La Noue: Politicke Discourses, Lond. 1587. This translation preserves much of the spirit of the original French.

[285] Luillier to Lymoges, 20th April, 1562. Paris: Cabinet Historique, ii. p. 291.

[286] In spite of the disarming edicts, the arms had not been given up, the Huguenots retaining theirs in some districts. Accordingly, on 28th April, 1562, the king wrote to De la Mothe Gondrin, ordering the arms to be restored to the Catholics, “pour leur sûreté et conservation, leur défendant néanmoins très-expressement, de par moy, de n’en mal user, et de n’entreprendre aucune chose de mauvais, sous peine d’être punis et châtiés exemplairement.” Ordinances and letters of Charles IX. in Archives of Lyons.

[287] This statement, if correct, must be the number on paper merely, and even then it would be one in four of the whole population of Paris.

[288] From the Enqueste sur la Profession religieuse de noble homme Jehan de Montruillon, 1570, it would appear, that the certificate required to be signed by the parish priest and his curate, the church-wardens and sexton, the district judges and others. It states that the bearer attends mass and confession, that he is married, and that his children were christened in the parish church.

[289] “Ut occidendorum penuria interficiendi finem fecerit.” Eytzinger: Leo Belg. p. 31.

[290] It may be objected that, as some of the cases cited in the text occurred after Condé’s revolt, they can not be used to justify it. They are introduced to show the state of public feeling at the time.

[291] See also letter to church of Blois, 18th September, 1557.

[292] “Nobis bellum non esse bonæ voluntatis, ut pax, sed necessitatis ... necessitas quæ nos premit nullam patitur legem contra naturam.”

[293] The reformer Brentius was at one time a decided advocate of the principle of non-resistance; but as he grew older, and witnessed the terrible persecutions of the emperor, he altered his mind, and contended that the subordinate powers, as being also of God, were called upon to resist the higher powers, if they should turn their swords against the people of God.

[294] “Fuerunt aliqui, qui maluerint, plagas accipere quam stringere gladios, ego non fui in ea sententia.” Epist. ii. 149 (12th October, 1562).

[295] Trebutien: Caen, Précis de son Histoire; also, Recherches et Antiquités de Caen.

[296] Talcy (dép. Loir et Cher) is on the right bank of the Loire, not far from Beaugency. One room in the chateau is still called the “chambre de Médicis.” There is a tradition that the Bartholomew Massacre was planned here. It is now in the possession of a Protestant; but, owing to frequent alteration, little remains of the original building, except the donjon and a tower or two.

[297] This edict is computed to have caused the death of 50,000 persons. Jean de Serres (Engl. transl.), p. 703; Mém. de Condé; Brulart’s Journal (13th June, 1562); Gacon, i. 58. Castelnau speaks of the “licence débordée de mal faire.”

[298] Medicis MSS.

[299] Claude Haton reckons that 800 or 900 heretics were killed in Paris in June, 1562, and adds: “God knows that many porters and rag-gatherers were made rich, and many Huguenots poor.”

[300] The Pincourt or Paincourt of the plans. It was in the Faubourg St. Jacques, beyond the walls, and on the road to Ménilmontant. The Rue Popincourt forms the chief communication between the Rue Ménilmontant and the Faubourg St. Antoine.

[301] Les Tragiques: Les Fers, p. 226 (ed. Jannet, Paris, 1857).

[302] Pasquier: Lettres, p. 272; Bayle, sub voce “Lorraine.”

[303] Revue Retrospective, v. p. 81.

[304] Sommaire des Choses accordées entre les Ducs de Guise, de Montmorenci et Marèchal Saint-André. Capefigue recognizes the authenticity of this atrocious document.

[305] Chaloner writes from Madrid (1st May, 1562): “They devise how the Guisians may be assisted, for ... the prevailment of that side importeth them as the ball of their eyes.” Haines: State Papers, p. 382.

[306] Throckmorton writes: “The Pope hath lent 100,000 crowns, and doth monthly pay besides 6000 soldiers.” Forbes: State Papers, ii. p. 4.

[307] Forbes: State Papers, ii. pp. 16–20, 22–25.

[308] Ibid. p. 54; see Latin version of letter, pp. 55–57.

[309] The popular tradition says that Chassebœuf was hanged after the St. Bartholomew, by order of Henry of Guise.

[310] In order to disappoint the enemy, the clergy often appropriated the church treasures, and thus the circulating medium of the kingdom was quadrupled. Brantome declares that “there was now in France more millions of gold than there had previously been livres of silver.”

[311] Paris: Cab. Hist. vi. p. 205. Perissin’s vigorous engraving, “Le massacre fait à Tours par la populace, 1562,” represents dead bodies lying naked on the river bank gnawed by dogs and birds; men in boats braining with clubs such as tried to save themselves by swimming, soldiers shooting at them in the water; men tied to trees and disemboweled, etc.

[312] Vie de Coligny, p. 269.

[313] For an English account of the siege, see Forbes: State Papers, pp. 117–127.

[314] La Poupelière, whom some writers have confounded with the historian, La Popelinière, says: “En tous les rencontres de ceux de la religion, il a fait piller, ne laissant que les murailles et que les terres qui ne se pouvaient emporter.” Canton d’Athis, p. 44.

[315] Cf. De Bras de Bourgeville, a contemporary. Mém. de l’Acad. de Caen, 1852.

[316] “Par l’oreille, l’épaule, et l’œil Dieu a mis trois rois au cercueil;” meaning Francis II., Navarre, and Henry II.

[317] Jean de Troyes, abbot of Gastines, and Sapin, a councillor of parliament. The life of a third, Odo de Selves, was spared, but he died a few days after of fright.

[318] “Errants et vacables par les champs.” Floquet: Hist. du Parl. de Norm. ii. p. 408. The Registres of the Hôtel-de-Ville of Rouen (4th Nov., 1562) contain a conciliatory letter from Catherine worthy of more attention than it has hitherto received.

[319] Castelnau, p. 125; Throckmorton to Queen, 3d January, 1563, in Forbes, State Papers, pp. 251, 263, 276.

[320] “The cavalry left their ranks, thinking it no shame to enrich themselves with the spoils of the Papists.” Vie de Coligny, p. 277.

[321] Montaigne, liv. i. ch. xlv. (De la Battaille de Dreux), highly extols this movement, comparing it with that where Philopœmen defeated Machanidas.

[322] Damville was the constable’s second son.

[323] “The constable, so hated by the Reformed, had met with the same fate, but for the interference of a gentleman named Vesines, who showed them the baseness of the act.” Vie de Coligny, p. 277.

[324] “Ita tantæ pugnæ exitum moderatus est Deus, neutra uti pars victa aut victrix dici possit.” Eytzinger, p. 43; Throckmorton’s letter in Forbes, p. 251; and Andelot’s on p. 263.

[325] Paré: Œuvres, p. 796 (fol. Lyons, 1641). La Noue estimates the killed alone at 9000; but nothing can be more hap-hazard than the way in which writers of the period speak of numbers. Jean de Serres says the prince lost about 2200 foot and 150 horse. 800 gentlemen alone were killed. Forbes, p. 276. Beza speaks of 150 horse killed and taken; but on the enemy’s side “infinita sunt vulnera et cædes maxima.” Walsingham reckons the admiral’s force after the battle as 5000 horse and 2000 foot, while Guise had 3000 horse and 16,000 foot. Forbes, p. 259. Coligny writes to Elizabeth: “Notre cavalerie est intacte.”

[326] Martin thinks the account of the Bishop of Riez “evidemment arrangé, surtout en ce qui regarde Vassi.” Hist. France, ix. p. 152, note.

[327] Forbes, p. 277.

[328] Ibid. pp. 339 and 343.

[329] Schardius redivivus (fol. 1673): Responsio, iii. p. 113; Epistola, iii. 119.

[330] Labitte, p. 15.

[331] Paris: Cab. Hist. ii. p. 289; iii. p. 48; Vie de Coligny, p. 289; Recueil des Chants Hist. Paris, 1842.

[332] Wright’s Elizabeth, i. 125.

[333] Letter dated 29th March, 1563.

[334] Correro, the Venetian embassador, writes: “Come cominciorno a rubare, rovinare e ammazzare, usando mille crudeltà, questo fu avvertimento alle povere gente, che da loro istessi cominciorno a dire: Ma che religione è questa? Costoro che fanno professione d’intender meglio l’evangelio di nissuno altra, e dove trovano mai che Cristo comandasse che se pigliasse la robba del prossimo e si ammazzasse il compagno? E con simili considerazioni si frenevano, ne piu si precipitavano come prima.” Tommaseo, ii. p. 118.

[335] Jean de Serres puts a similar reply into the mouth of the Duke of Guise, when a complaint was made to him that, in these “uncivil tumults” many Catholics were slain: “There is no remedy,” he made answer; “we have too much people in France. I will deal so as victuals shall be good cheap.” Hist. p. 703 (transl.).

[336] The particulars of this plot are given in a letter from Claude of Lorraine to Damville, the date of which has been fraudulently altered from 1563 to 1560. See Vauvilliers, i. 315. Tavannes says the plot was concocted at Trent by the cardinal, and Lestoile dates the League from this period.

[337] Blaise de Montluc: Commentaires (Panthéon Littéraire, Paris, 1836). His shattered monument may still be seen at Estillac near Agen. The warrior, armed from head to foot, lies bare-headed on a marble slab, his arms crossed over his breast; his features are coarse and bold, his beard and mustache thick and long.

[338] The Abbé Caveyrac in his Apology for Louis XIV. (note, p. 7) says of the subsequent recantation of this blood-thirsty renegade, that “he returned sincerely to God.” Let us hope he did, but on better grounds than Caveyrac’s word for it.

[339] Le Baron de Chapuys-Montlaville: Hist. de Dauphiné, ii. p. 358 (8vo. Paris, 1829).

[340] “Ruboribus interfusa, ut lutum sanguine maceratum.” Thuanus: De Vita sua, lib. i. p. 1165.

[341] Archives curieuses, iii. 227; Varillas: Hist. Charles IX. (Cologne, 1684).

[342] Discours de ce qui a été faict ès villes de Vallence et Lyon. 1562. A party pamphlet to be read with great caution.

[343] In one of these convents was found “La machination écrite et signée faisant rôles des maisons des évangelistes et de toutes autres personnes (qui n’avaient point de maison), pour les mettre à mort, hommes, femmes et enfants, dans le 4 du dit mois de Mai.” This “machination” had no existence but in the imagination of the writer.

[344] Pilot: Occupation de Grenoble par les Protestants.

[345] Arcère: Hist. de la Ville de Rochelle, i. p. 358 (4to. Rochelle, 1756); Vincent: Recherches sur les commencements de Rochelle: “La maladie d’abattre les images était quasi universelle.”

[346] One George Bosquet wrote a justification of this massacre: “Hugoneorum heret. Tolosæ conjur. profligatio memoriæ posita,” which was condemned by the council as a defamatory libel (18th June, 1563).

[347] Imberdis, p. 3.

[348] Jean de Serres (Serranus) adds that in the following year, 1563, a troop of fifty horse surprised the town, tied Ralet to the top of his house, and fired at him until they killed him (p. 701).

[349] Vitet: Hist. Dieppe, p. 77. (Paris, 1844.)

[350] De Bras: Antiquités de Caen, p. 170.

[351] The whole of this frightful catalogue will be found in the “Théâtre des cruautés des hérétiques de notre temps, 1588.” Reprinted in the Archives curieuses de France (Cimber and Danjou), tom. vi. series 1. p. 299. See also in the same collection, chap. xiv. of the Discours sur le Saccagement des Églises, etc. en 1562, by Claude de Sainctes, and the Vrai Tocsain. We must not accept for truth all recorded by this writer, but after the most ample deduction from his narrative there remains much to lament and condemn.

[352] Wright’s Elizabeth, i. 118.

[353] Ibid. i. 131.

[354] This letter was partly the composition of L’Hopital, and was written by Montaigne, the essayist, at that time one of the royal secretaries.

[355] Langueti Epist. ii. 281, (20th January, 1564): “Se enim satis expertum quantum malorum.... Reginam nihil jam minus cogitare quam....”

[356] Instructions dated 1562, in Le Plat, v. pp. 151, 155.

[357] See a remarkable dispatch on this subject in the Rouen Library, Leber, Bundle D, No. 5725.

[358] A portrait of Alva, by Titian, is at Warwick Castle.

[359] See Freer: Elizabeth de Valois, ii. ch. 2. In this chapter we prefer to call the queen by her Spanish name, Isabella.

[360] Per il gran caldo. Li Grandissimi Apparati, etc. Padova, 1565.

[361] Walsingham to Smith, 14th September, 1572. Digges: Compleat Ambassador, p. 241.

[362] The attendants of the court were so numerous, that they could not be accommodated in the town, but had to lodge in the adjacent villages or live in tents pitched in the surrounding fields.

[363] Abel Jouan: Voyage de Charles IX., printed by Baschi, Baron d’Aubais, in his Pièces fugitives pour servir à l’histoire de France. 4to. Paris, 1759. See also Mém. de Marguerite.

[364] Recueil des choses notables qui ont esté faites à Bayonne, etc. 8vo. Paris, 1566; Li Grandissimi Apparati e Reali Trionfi fatti nella città di Baiona. 8vo. Padova, 1565.

[365] Raumer: Illustrations, i. p. 121.

[366] Papiers d’État de Granvelle, ix. p. 298. 4to. Paris, 1852, ed. Weiss.

[367] “Che a loro sono occorse questi ruine per non aver voluto creder e far quello che lui più di 8 anni li avvisò,” etc. 7th May, 1568.

[368] Davila gives the same idea in different words: lib. iii. Mathieu (Hist. France, i. 283) says his authority was Calignon, a Catholic, whose Memoirs were published by Gomberville in his Supplement to the Memoirs of Nevers.

[369] Baschet: La Diplomatie Vénitienne, p. 522. Paris, 1862.

[370] It is clear from Alva’s letters first published in the Papiers d’Etat du Cardinal Granvelle, ix. pp. 281–330, that the general belief in a league to exterminate the Huguenots is erroneous, although Adriani (Storia Fiorent.) says expressly that Catherine had agreed upon what they called “Sicilian Vespers,” and that the king was to retire to the strong castle of Moulins in the Bourbonnais, where he would be safe. But Adriani is the only person who ever saw the MSS. in which he professed to read this. De Thou evidently did not believe the story (ii. 377, scribunt is his word); and Castelnau (liv. vi. ch. 1) implies as much.

[371] Monitorium et Citatio in Mém. de Condé. 4to. 1743. The French protest and remonstrance are in the same collection. A remarkable memoir by Bapt. Dumesnil is given in Bouchel: Bibl. du Droit Franç. p. 549; and Preuves des lib. Egl. Gall. chap. iv. No. 27.

[372] The cardinal had occasioned great scandal by taking a wife and calling her Countess of Beauvais, after his diocese.

[373] Some authorities give “Paris,” for even in a matter which ought to be well known do the contemporary accounts differ.

[374] Paris: Cab. Hist. iii. p. 56.

[375] “Qu’il n’avait fait, ni fait faire l’homicide, et qu’il ne l’avait approuvé ni approuvait.” Brulart’s Journal, 29th January, 1566. This is hardly consistent with what he wrote at the time of the murder: supra, p. 222.

[376] Jean de Serres.

[377] Lettres, liv. v. lett. 3.

[378] Remonstrance envoyée au Roi par la Noblesse de la R. R. du Maine. 1565.

[379] Cimber, vi. 309; Discours des troubles (5th June, 1566).

[380] This was said in the hearing of L’Hopital. Davila, i. 163 (Fr. transl.).

[381] “Il y sera comme s’il était mort.” Archives de l’Empire, Papiers Simancas, carton B. In reading Catherine’s letters to her daughter we must not forget that they were to be seen by Philip also, and that she could not be truthful, even when writing to her own children.

[382] Brantome speaks in rapture of this “gentille et gaillarde armée,” which was accompanied by “quatre cents courtisanes à cheval, belles et braves comme princesses, et huit cents à pied, bien en point aussi.”

[383] Had Coligny’s proposal to stop Alva’s march been adopted, France might have been saved much misery; for among other things it would have satisfied the craving for war felt by that restless nation: “A quoi (sc. la guerre) la plûpart étaient portés par le génie de la nation, qui ne saurait demeurer en repos.” Vie de Coligny, p. 319.

[384] Schardius: De Rebus gest. sub. Maximil. ii. 64.

[385] Bouillon: Mém. i. p. 21.

[386] Capefigue: La Réforme, ch. xxxii., gives the text of the “Instruction à M. Feuquières.” La Noue speaks of “certain intercepted letters coming from Spain,” p. 389 (Engl. transl.).

[387] La Noue, p. 390 (Engl. transl.); De Thou, liv. xlii.

[388] La Popelinière, xiii. 81.

[389] Alva to king, 28th June, 1567: “Es increible el contentamiente con que estan los catolicos de Francia de ver pasar estas fuerzas de VM. en Flandres, que les paresce ser esta su redempcion; y así me dijo un secretario del Card. de Lorena ... que el Card. su amo y toda la casa de Guisa estavan resueltos como las fuerzas de VM. estuviesen en Flandres, irse ellos á la corte, donde entien que esto les hará tan gran sombra que serán vistos diferentemente de como lo han sido hasta aqui.” Navarrete: Docum. ined. vi. 371.

[390] “Certo sciverunt Pontif. Rom. et reliquos principes ... constituisse jam tentare Galliam ... conduxit itaque rex ad eam rem perficiendam xx. signa Helvetiorum.”—To the same purport writes Castelnau, 383.

[391] “Habillé en ménagier faisant ses vendanges.” Pasquier, Lettres, ii. 117 (ed. 1723).

[392] La Noue, p. 395 (Engl. transl.).