History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume I Part 22

[Footnote 362: "Et le tres-crestien et bon roy Francois premier du nom, _a la priere du pape_, pardonna a tous, excepte a ceulx qui avoient touche a l'honneur du saint sacrement de l'autel." Soissons MS., Bulletin, xi. 254. Sturm to Melanchthon, July 6, 1535, says: "Pontificem etiam aiunt aequiorem esse, et haud paulo meliorem quam fuerunt caeteri.

Omnino improbat illam suppliciorum crudelitatem, et _de hac re dicitur misisse [literas ad Regem]_." Herminjard, iii. 311. Cf. Erasmus Op., 1513.]

[Footnote 363: "Sapendo, _come sua Maesta m'ha detto_, che Cesare in Fiandra aveva sospeso ogni esecuzione di morte contro questi eretici, ha anche egli concesso che contra ogni sorte di eretici si proceda come avanti, ma _citra mortem_, eccetto i sacramentarii." Relazione del clarissimo Marino Giustiniano (1535), Relaz. Venete, i. 155.]

[Footnote 364: Francis I. to the German Princes, February 1, 1535, Bretschneider, Corpus Reform., ii. 828, etc.]

[Footnote 365: Sturm to Melanchthon, March 4, 1535, Bretschneider, Corpus Reform., ii. 855, etc.]

[Footnote 366: A letter of Vore is found in Bretschneider, _ubi supra_, ii, 859.]

[Footnote 367: Melanchthon to Sturm, May 5, 1535, ibid., ii. 873.]

[Footnote 368: Ibid., ii. 879. The address was, "Dilecto nostro Philippo Melanchthoni."]

[Footnote 369: "Nihil est quod de vestro congressu non sperem," are Cardinal du Bellay's words, June 27th. Ibid., ii. 880, 881.]

[Footnote 370: Ibid., ii. 904, 905. The university had been temporarily removed from Wittemberg to Jena, on account of the prevalence of the plague.]

[Footnote 371: Luther to the Elector of Saxony, Aug. 17, 1535, Works (Ed. Dr. J. K. Innischer), lv. 103.]

[Footnote 372: August 28, 1535. The reasons alleged to Francis were, the injurious rumors the mission might give rise to, and the damage to the university from Melanchthon's absence. At some future time, the elector said, he would permit Melanchthon to visit the French king, should his Majesty still desire him to do so, and present hinderances be removed.]

[Footnote 373: "Subindignabundus hinc discessit." Luther to Justus Jonas, Aug. 19.]

[Footnote 374: "Daneben was eurer Person halb, dessgleichen auch in Sachen des Evangelii fur Trost, Hoffnung oder Zuversicht zu dem Franzosen zu haben, ist wohl zu bedenken, dieweil vormals wenig Treue oder Glaube von ihm gehalten, wie solches die offentliche Geschicht anzeigen." Letter of Aug. 24, 1535. The elector expressed himself at greater length to his chancellor, Dr. Bruck (Ponta.n.u.s). Such a mission would appear suspicious when the elector was on the point of having a conference with the King of Hungary and Bohemia. Melanchthon might make concessions that Dr. Martin (Luther) and others could not agree to, and the scandal of division might arise. Besides, he could not believe the French in earnest; they doubtless only intended to take advantage of Melanchthon's indecision. For it was to be presumed that those most active in promoting the affair were "more Erasmian than evangelical (_mehr Erasmisch denn Evangelisch_)." Bretschneider, ii. 909, etc.]

[Footnote 375: See the three letters, and other interesting correspondence, Bretschneider, ii. 913, etc. However it may have been with M., _Luther's_ regret at the elector's refusal was of brief duration. As early as Sept. 1st he wrote characteristically to Justus Jonas: "Respecting the French envoys, so general a rumor is now in circulation, originating with most worthy men, that I have ceased to wish that Philip should go with them. It is suspected that the true envoys _were murdered on the way, and others sent in their place_(!) with letters by the papists, to entice Philip out. You know that the Bishops of Maintz, Luttich, and others, are the worst tools of the Devil; wherefore I am rather anxious for Philip. I have therefore written carefully to him. The World is the Devil, and the Devil is the World." Luther's Works (Ed. Walch), xxi. 1426.]

[Footnote 376: That is, including the apocryphal books.]

[Footnote 377: "Qui est, Sire," they observe with evident amazement at the bare suggestion, "demander de nous retirer a eux, plus qu'eux se convertir a l'eglise." The _articles_ having been submitted through Du Bellay, August 7, 1535, the Faculty's answer was returned on the 30th of the same month, accompanied by a more elaborate _Instructio_, the former in French, the latter in Latin. Both are printed among the _Monumenta_ of Gerdes, 75-78, and 78-86.]

[Footnote 378: Florimond de Raemond (l. vii. c. 4), and others writers copying from him, represent Tournon as purposely putting himself in the king's way with an open volume of St. Irenaeus in his hands. Obtaining in this way his coveted opportunity of portraying the perils arising from intercourse with heretics, the prelate enforced his precepts by reading a pretended story related by St. Polycarp, that the Apostle John had on one occasion hastily left the public bath on perceiving the heretic Cerinthus within. Soldan (Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 163) sensibly remarks that little account ought to be made of the statements of a writer who a.s.sociates Louise de Savoie--in her later days a notorious enemy of the Reformation, _who had at this time been four years dead_--- with her daughter Margaret, in "importuning" the king to invite Melanchthon.]

[Footnote 379: Some years earlier, Du Bellay had, while on an emba.s.sy, set forth his royal master's pretended convictions in favor of the Reformation with so much verisimilitude as to alarm the papal nuncio, who dreaded the effect of his speeches upon the Protestants. "Non e piccola murmoration qu en Corte, ch'l Orator Francese _facea piu che l'officio suo richiede in animar Lutherani_." Aleander to Sanga, Ratisbon, July 2, 1532, Vatican MSS., Laemmer, 141.]

[Footnote 380: Sleidan, De statu rel. et reipubl., lib. ix., ad annum 1535. The Jesuit Maimbourg rejects the secret conference of Du Bellay as apocryphal, in view of Francis's persecution of the Protestants at Paris, and his declaration of January 21st. But Sleidan's statement is fully substantiated by an extant memorandum by Spalatin, who was present on the occasion (printed in Seckendorff, Gerdes, iv. 68-73 Doc., and Bretschneider, ii. 1014). It receives additional confirmation from a letter of the Nuncio Morone to Pope Paul III., Vienna, Dec. 26, 1536 (Vatican MSS., Laemmer, 178). Morone received from Doctor Matthias, Vice-Chancellor of the Empire, an account of Francis's recent offer to the German Protestants "_di condescendere nelle loro opinioni,_" on condition of their renouncing obedience to the emperor. He reserved only two points of doctrine as requiring discussion: the sacrifice of the ma.s.s, and the authority and primacy of the Pope. The Protestants rejected the interested proposal of the royal convert.]

[Footnote 381: The authors.h.i.+p of this interesting doc.u.ment, and the way it reached its destination, are equally unknown. It is published--for the first time, I believe--in Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss, Opera Calvini (1872), x. part ii. 55, 56.]

[Footnote 382: Senatus Argentoratensis Francisco Regi, July 3, 1536, ibid., x. 57-61.]

[Footnote 383: Senatus Turicensis Francisco Regi, July 13, 1536, ibid., x. 61.]

[Footnote 384: Edict of Lyons, May 31, 1536, Herminjard, iv. 192.]

[Footnote 385: Francois I^er aux Conseils de Zurich, Berne, Bale et Strasbourg, Compiegne, Feb. 20, and Feb. 23, 1537, Basle MSS., ibid., iv. 191-193. Cf. the doc.u.ments, mostly inedited, iv. 70, 96, 150.]

[Footnote 386: Le Conseil de Berne au Conseil de Bale, March 15, 1537, ibid., iv. 202, 203, Sleidan (Strasb. ed. of 1555), lib x. fol. 163 _verso_. It must, however, be remarked that the "evangelical cities"

would not take the rebuff as decisive, and, within a few months, were again writing to Francis in behalf of his persecuted subjects of Nismes and elsewhere. Le Conseil de Berne a Francois I^er, Nov. 17, 1537, Berne MSS., Herminjard, iv. 320.]

CHAPTER VI.

CALVIN AND GENEVA.--MORE SYSTEMATIC PERSECUTION BY THE KING.

[Sidenote: The placards of 1534 mark an epoch in the history of the Huguenots.]

In the initial stage of great enterprises a point may sometimes be distinguished at which circ.u.mstances, in themselves trivial, have shaped the entire future. Such a point in the history of the Huguenots is marked by the appearance of the "Placards" of 1534. The pusillanimous retreat of Bishop Briconnet from the advanced post he had at first a.s.sumed, robbed Protestantism of an important advantage which might have been retained had the prelate proved true to his convictions. But the "Placards," with their stern and uncompromising logic, their biting sarcasm, their unbridled invective, directed equally against the absurdities of the ma.s.s and the inconsistencies of its advocates, exerted a far more lasting and powerful influence than even the lamentable defection of the Bishop of Meaux. Until now the att.i.tude of Francis with respect to the "new doctrines" had been uncertain and wavering. It was by no means impossible that, imitating the example of the Elector of Saxony, the French monarch should even yet put himself at the head of the movement. Severe persecution had, indeed, dogged the steps of the Reformation. Fire and gibbet had been mercilessly employed to destroy it. The squares of Paris had already had the baptism of blood. But the cruelties complained of by the "Lutherans," if tolerated by Francis, had their origin in the bigotry of others. The Sorbonne and the Parisian Parliament, Chancellor Duprat and the queen mother, Louise of Savoie, are ent.i.tled to the unenviable distinction of having instigated the sanguinary measures of repression directed against the professors of the Protestant faith, of which we have already met with many fruits. The monarch, greedy of glory, ambitious of a.s.sociation with cultivated minds, and aspiring to the honor of ushering in the new Augustan age, more than once seemed half-inclined to embrace those religious views which commended themselves to his taste by a.s.sociation with the fresh and glowing ideas of the great masters in science and art. More than once had the champions of the Church trembled for their hold upon the sceptre-bearing arm; while as often their opponents, with Francis's own sister, had cherished illusory hopes that the eloquent addresses of Roussel and other court-preachers had left a deep impress on the king's heart.

[Sidenote: The orthodoxy of Francis no longer questioned.]

But the "Placards" effectually dissipated alike these hopes and these fears. There was no longer any question as to the orthodoxy of Francis.

Apologists for the Reformation might seek to undeceive his mind and remove his prejudices. His own emissaries might endeavor to persuade the Germans, of whose alliance he stood in need, that his views differed little from theirs. But there can be no doubt that, whatever his previous intentions had been, from this time forth his resolution was taken, to use his own expression already brought to the reader's notice, to live and die in Mother Holy Church, and demonstrate the justice of his claim to the t.i.tle of "very Christian." The audacity of the Protestant enthusiast who penetrated even into the innermost recesses of the royal castle, and affixed the placards to the very chamber door of the king, was turned to good account by Cardinal Tournon and other courtiers of like sentiments, and was adduced as a proof of the a.s.sertion so often reiterated, that a change of religion necessarily involved also a revolution in the State. The free tone of the placards seemed to reveal a contemptuous disregard of dignities. The ridicule cast upon the doctrine of transubstantiation was an a.s.sault on one of the few dogmas respecting which Francis had implicit confidence in the teachings of the Church. Henceforth the king figures on the page of history as a determined opponent and persecutor of the Reformation, less hostile, indeed, to the "Lutherans," than to the "Sacramentarians," or "Zwinglians," but nevertheless an avowed enemy of innovation. The change was recognized and deplored by the Reformers themselves; who, seeing Francis in the last years of his reign give the rein to shameful debauchery, and meantime suffer the public prisons to overflow with hundreds of innocent men and women, awaiting punishment for no other offence than their religious faith, pointedly compared him to the effeminate Sardanapalus surrounded by his courtezans.[387]

[Sidenote: Change in the courtiers.]

While so marked a change came over the disposition of the king, it is not strange that a similar revolution was noticed in the sentiments of the courtiers--a cla.s.s ever on the alert to detect the slightest variation in the breeze to which they trim their sails. The greater part of the high dignitaries, the early historian of the reformed churches informs us, adapting themselves to the king's humor, abandoned the study of the Bible, and in time became violent opponents of practices which they had sanctioned by their own example. Even Margaret of Navarre is accused by the same authority--and he honestly represents the belief of the contemporary reformers--of having yielded to these seductive influences. She plunged, like the rest, he tells us, into conformity with the most reprehensible superst.i.tions; not that she approved them, but because Gerard Roussel and similar teachers persuaded her that they were things indifferent. Thus, allowing herself to trifle with truth, she was so blinded by the spirit of error as to offer an asylum in her court of Nerac to Quintin and Pocques, blasphemous "Libertines" whose doctrines called forth a refutation from the pen of Calvin.[388]

[Sidenote: The French Reformation becomes a popular movement.]

[Sidenote: Geneva the centre of activity.]

The French Reformation was thus constrained to become a _popular_ movement. The king had refused to lead it. The n.o.bles turned their backs upon it. Its adherents, threatened with the gallows and stake, or driven into banishment, could no longer look for encouragement or direction toward Paris and the vicinage of the court. The timid counsels of the high-born were to be exchanged for the bold and fiery words of reformers sprung from the _people_. Excluded from the luxurious capital, the Huguenots were, during a long series of years, to draw their inspiration from a city at the foot of the Alps--a city whose invigorating climate was no less adapted to harden the intellectual and moral const.i.tution than the bodily frame, and where rugged Nature, if she bestowed wealth with no lavish hand, manifested her impartiality by more liberal endowments conferred upon man himself. Geneva henceforth becomes the centre of reformatory activity, of which fact we need no stronger evidence than the severe legislation of France to destroy its influence; and the same causes that gave the direction of the movement to the people shaped its theological tendencies. Under the guidance of Francis and Margaret, it must have a.s.sumed much of the German or Lutheran type; or, to speak more correctly, the direct influence of Germany upon France, attested by the name of "Lutherans," up to this time the ordinary appellation of the French Protestants, would have been rendered permanent. But now the persecution they had experienced, in consequence of their opposition to the papal ma.s.s, confirmed the French reformers in their previous views, and disinclined them to admit even such a "consubstantiation" as Luther's followers insisted upon.

[Sidenote: Geneva secures its independence.]

The same complicated political motives that led Francis to relax his excessive rigor against the Protestants of his realm, in order to avoid provoking the anger of the German princes, prompted him to a.s.sist in securing the independence of Geneva, which, at the time, he little dreamed would so soon become the citadel of French Protestantism. After a prolonged contest, the city on the banks of the Rhone had shaken off the yoke of its bishop, and had bravely repelled successive a.s.saults made by the Duke of Savoy. The first preachers of the Reformation, Farel and Froment, after a series of attempts and rebuffs for romantic interest inferior to no other episode in an age of stirring adventure, had seen the new wors.h.i.+p accepted by the majority of the people, and by the very advocates of the old system, Caroli and Chapuis. If the grand council had thus far hesitated to give a formal sanction to the religious change, it was only through fear that the taking of so decided a step might provoke more powerful enemies than the neighboring duke.

The latter, being fully resolved to humble the insubordinate burgesses, had for two years been striving to cut off their supplies by garrisons maintained in adjoining castles and strongholds; nor would his plans, perhaps, have failed, but for the intervention of two powerful opponents--Francis and the Swiss Canton of Berne.

[Sidenote: with the a.s.sistance of Francis I.]

Louise de Savoie was the sister of Duke Charles. Her son had a double cause of resentment against his uncle: Charles had refused him free pa.s.sage through his dominions, when marching against the Milanese; and, contrary to all justice, he persistently refused to give up the marriage portion of his sister, the king's mother. Francis avenged himself, both for the insult and for the robbery, by permitting a gentleman of his bedchamber, by the name of De Verez, a native of Savoy, to throw himself into the beleaguered city with a body of French soldiers.

[Sidenote: and the Bernese.]

While Geneva was thus strengthened from within, the Bernese, on receipt of an unsatisfactory reply to an appeal in behalf of their allies, came to their a.s.sistance with an army of ten or twelve thousand men.

Discouraged by the threatening aspect his affairs had a.s.sumed, Charles relaxed his grasp on the throat of his revolted subjects, and withdrew to a safe distance. His obstinacy, however, cost him the permanent loss not only of Geneva, but of a considerable part of his most valuable territories, including the Pays de Vaud--a district which, after remaining for more than two hundred and fifty years a dependency of Berne, has within the present century (in 1803), become an independent canton of the Swiss confederacy.[389]

[Sidenote: Calvin the apologist of the Protestants.]

The horrible slanders put in circulation abroad, in justification of the atrocities with which the unoffending Protestants of France were visited, furnished the motive for the composition and publication of an apology that instantly achieved unprecedented celebrity, and has long outlived the occasion that gave it birth. The apology was the "Inst.i.tutes;" the author, John Calvin. With the appearance of his masterpiece, a great writer and theologian, destined to exercise a wide and lasting influence not only upon France, but over the entire intellectual world, enters upon the stage of French history to take a leading part in the unfolding religious and political drama.

[Sidenote: His birth and training.]

[Sidenote: Studies at Paris;]