sumed his unfeeling treatment of the heretics, who had not all fled and who had not yet all been burned.' He cared not for the Protestants in Germany nor for those in his own land, but had he been able to effect a doctrinal union he might have become a Protestant for political purposes as long as that policy would have served his objects against Charles V. Through his privy councilor, du Bellay, he undertook to bring about a compromise of doctrine with Bucer in Strasburg (1533). In 1535 he even went so far as to invite Bucer and Melanchthon to Paris to treat with the theologians of the Sorbonne. Melanchthon, who was at this time clutching at every hope of doctrinal union, was anxious to go, and Luther favored it for Melanchthon's sake. But John Frederick had political reasons for declining to allow Melanchthon to respond. 2 CHAPTER XXXIII. PROTESTANTISM IN FRANCE TO THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. FROM the year of the placards onward for nearly a century the history of Protestantism in France is one of blood. The persecutions in which Francis I avenged the aggressions of the reformed party were followed in 1545 by frightful cruelties visited upon the Waldenses. Upon the accession of Henry II, in 1547, personal and political feuds began to mark the relations between Protestantism and Romanism, and led to a series of religious civil wars, during which the Protestants suffered untold horrors, but which resulted in the edict of Nantes and other later provisions for the religious freedom of the Reformed Church. CATHERINE Henry's queen, Catherine de' Medici, a niece of Pope Clement VII, was influential during the reign of her husband, and especially of her son, Charles IX. The constable, Montmorency, DE'MEDICI. was Henry's prime minister and commander in chief. Both Catherine and Montmorency were bitter enemies of the Protestants. They were powerfully supported by the Guises, of whom Charles was archbishop of Rheims, and Francis count of Aumale. This was a strong political combination in favor of Romanism. But on the other side there were Margaret of Angoulême, until her death in 1549, and her talented daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, together with her husband, Prince Anton of Bourbon, king of Navarre, and his brother, Duke Louis of Condé. They had the constant and powerful support of Admiral Coligny, one of the noblest of the Huguenots, and his brother, Francis de Coligny. The Guises and the Bourbons represented therefore, respectively, the Roman Catholic and the Reformed faith. It is characteristic of the French Reformation that while the new faith was hated, and its adherents maligned, by the common people, it was favored by an ever-increasing number of the nobility. The lack of a popular leader on the one side, and the attitude of Margaret on the other, doubtless account for this peculiarity. For a time Henry's political relations with the German Protestants gave the French Reformation an opportunity for growth. But after the treaty of Passau, in 1555, by which Henry and the pope became better friends, the Guises led in a persecution of the rapidly grow ing and consolidating Reformed Church. Henry died in 1559, before he could carry out his plan to join Philip II of Spain in a crusade against Geneva. The brief reign of Francis II (part of 1560), who was a minor, was controlled by the Guises, and characterized by the burning of heretics. The conspiracy of Amboise, under the lead of the prince of Condé, and in which Protestants and Roman Catholics joined to rid the land of the Guises, ended unfavorably for the Protestants.' CHARLES IX. Upon the accession of Charles IX, in 1560, his mother, Catherine de'Medici, became queen regent. She took at first a middle course. To the conspirators of Amboise was granted amnesty, and Anton of Navarre, an outspoken Protestant, was made lieutenant general. The colloquy of Poissy, arranged by Catherine and participated in by Beza and Peter Martyr, led to nothing but the increased self-consciousness of the Huguenot party, and a special royal council, under the leadership of the chancellor, l'Hôpital, granted them a restricted religious freedom, gratifying in the main the Protestants' wishes. Francis, duke of Guise, declared that he would resist that measure by the sword, and in March, 1562, engaged in the massacre of the Huguenot congregation at Vassy, thus occasioning the first of the long series of religious and civil wars. In the first of them Francis of Guise paid the penalty of his rashness with his life. ADMIRAL Not alone did these wars seem to guarantee the rights of the Protestants. Coligny became a favorite with the king, and was influential enough to displace the queen mother and Henry of Anjou. One of Coligny's plans was to reconcile the different parties by the marriage of Henry of Navarre, son of Anton and of Jeanne d'Albret, with Margaret of Valois, the king's sister. The wedding took place on the 18th of August, 1572, and was attended by vast numbers of the Huguenot nobility from various portions of France. Instigated by jealousy of Coligny's influence, Catherine and Henry of Anjou employed an emissary to attempt the life of the admiral. He was wounded, but not killed. The king suspected the Guises, together with his mother and brother, as the projectors of the deed. At first very angry, he finally allowed himself to be persuaded by them that Coligny had on hand plans for the overthrow of his majesty's government, and that the Huguenots were preparing for such a conflict all over France. COLIGNY. 1 Gieseler gives a brief but clear, though not always trustworthy, account of the French Reformation, with valuable copies of original documents--iv, 294-308. They suggested that it would be sufficient to have Coligny murdered. NIGHT OF OMEW. Charles, weary of religious wars, and accepting without investigation the statements of his mother and brother, declared that Coligny should not die alone. While the wedding festivities were still in progress, on the night of St. Bartholomew,' the fearful massacre began with the murder of Coligny. The king, his mother, and brother watched the scene. The Guises, under pretense of obedience to the king's command, and as though contrary ST. BARTHOL to their own wish, led the assault. In every quarter of Paris the blood of Protestants flowed in streams. The number of killed in the city alone has been variously estimated at from one thousand to ten thousand. From the capital the massacre spread to the provinces. The news of the king's wish that the Huguenots should be exterminated traveled faster than his orders to stop the massacre. The Protestants were without their accustomed leader; he was the first victim of the bloody tumult, and they had no time to rally for defense. The entire number of the victims is reckoned at from ten thousand to one hundred thousand. With just what degree of premeditation this frightful affair was planned and conducted it is impossible to determine. Varying reports were authorized by the government according as was thought best. At Rome and in Spain it was represented as premeditated. To the Germans the blame was laid at the door of the Guises. To the Parliament it was declared to be necessary in self-defense. Romanism had so utterly failed to inculcate the virtue of veracity that it is impossible to distinguish the true from the false in the whole affair. This, however, is sure, that the Huguenots had not planned any such scheme as Catherine and Henry professed to reveal to the king. The pope, Gregory XIII, indeed, was innocent beforehand of the massacre, but when he heard of it he congratulated the king, illuminated Rome, instituted processions in honor of the event, caused Te Deums to be sung, and in every possible way expressed his joy at what had occurred. tempt to make the affair purely political under such circumstances is impossible. The principal cause of the massacre was religious hate and intolerance, and the pope gave the sanction of the Church to the awful crime. THE POPE'S The at 1 See a full description of the massacre, and all the events leading up to and following it, in Soldan, ii, 429-480, and Baird, History of the Rise of the Huguenots in France, ii, 426-569. EDICT OF Charles had professed to hope that by such a massacre he might save himself from farther religious wars, but it rather embittered those which were to follow under his own rule and under that of Henry III. The Huguenots became, strictly speaking, a political as well as a religious party, and while the first religious war after St. Bartholomew (the fourth of the entire series) ended unfavorably for the Huguenots, owing to their enfeebled condition, others which followed compelled for them increasingly better conditions. In 1589 Henry of Navarre ascended the throne as Henry IV. His sympathies were with the Protestants, but he could not do as he would, and was compelled to become nominally a Romanist. But in 1598 he succeeded in securing the Reformation by the issue of the edict of Nantes. According to this famous document the Roman Catholic was the ruling religion of the State, and its festivals were to be observed by all, but the Reformed Church was no longer to be persecuted. In and around Paris for a distance of five miles, in Rheims, Toulouse, Dijon, Lyons, and in the army no reformed public religious services were to be held. But an exception was to be made in those departments of the army in which adherents of the reformed faith were in command. The church tithes and the marriage laws were binding upon all. But to the reformed were granted access to all civil offices, while special parliamentary commissions, one half of whom were in every case to be Protestants, were provided. Public services were permitted wherever they had been in existence prior to 1597, and buildings were allowed for the purpose, while those which had been forcibly taken from them were to be restored. The children of reformed parents might not be compelled to accept Roman Catholic training. During eight years their fortresses and cities of refuge were granted to them. The Romanists, on the other hand, were permitted to restore religious services to two hundred and fifty cities and two thousand villages.' From this point forward for many years the Reformed Church, regarded as a "State within a State," was able to secure its rights and to grow with great rapidity. There were those who returned to Rome, and the Jesuits, driven away, were permitted to return. Louis XIII, in 1620, forcibly reintroduced the Roman Church into Bearn, the most reformed of the French reformed districts. Richelieu strove to destroy the city of La Rochelle, the last remaining city of Protestant refuge, which was captured in 1628. The new edict of Nismes was issued in 1629, according to which 1 See the excellent summary of the edict in Möller, iii, 299, 300. 2 |