The History of Protestantism [2]

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The

H

ISTORY

OF

Protestantism BY THE

Rev.

WITH

FIVE

J. A.

WYLIE,

HUNDRED BY

THE

AND

FIFTY

LL.D.

ILLUSTRATIONS

BEST ARTISTS

Protestantism, the sacred cause of God’s Light and Truth against the Devil’s Falsity and Darkness ”—Carlyle

Vol.

CASSELL

and

II.

COMPANY,

Limited

LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK .

PROTESTANTISM IN FRANCE FROM DEATH OF FRANCIS I. (1547) TO EDICT OF NANTES (1598). I.—Henry II. II.—Henry II. III. —First IV. —A

and Parties in France and his Persecutions

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Guises, and the Insurrection of Amboise

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VI.—Charles IX.—The Triumvirate—Colloquy at Poissy

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VII.—Massacre at Vassy and Commencement of the Civil W^rs VIII.—Commencement of the Huguenot Wars

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National Synod of the French Protestant Church

Gallery of Portraits

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IX.—The First Huguenot War, and Death of the Duke of Guise X.—Catherine de Medici and her Son, Charles IX.—Conference at Bayonne—The St, Bartholomew Plotted

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XI.—Second and Third Huguenot Wars XII.—Synod of La Rochelle

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XIII. —The Promoters of the St. Bartholomew Massacre XIV. —Negotiations of the Court with the Huguenots ;

XV.—The Marriage, and Preparations for the Massacre XVI.—The Massacre of St. Bartholomew

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XVII.—Resurrection of Huguenotism—Death of Charles IX. XVIII.—New Persecutions—Reign and Death of Henry III. XIX.—Henry IV. and the Edict of Nantes

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Calvin Refusing the Lord’s Supper to the Libertines, in St. Peter’s Cathedral, Geneva View in Prague : the Bridge-Tower

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Phillip II. of Spain

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Stockholm

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Interior of Seville Cathedral .

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Gustavus Yasa Upsala

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Pastor Olaf at the Conference at Upsala . Coronation of Gustavus Yasa

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View in Stockholm, showing the Cathedral

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Death of Charles IX. of Denmark

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View of Copenhagen View of Yiborg

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Paul Elia Threatened by the Soldiers at Yiborg ....

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The Protestant Worshippers entering Malmoe

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Defeat of the Fleet of Christian II. A Danish Chateau . .

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Return of the Swiss from the Battle of Pavia View in Bern

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The Student-Messengers arriving at Baden with Letters from Zwingle The Protestant Cavalcade on the way to Bern Street in Bern . . . .

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Dr. Haller Dispensing the Lord’s Supper in Bern Cathedral The Iconoclasts at Basle Burning Images and Idols The Departure of Erasmus from Basle View on Lake Maggiore Zurich The Death of Zwingli

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Doorway of Ratisbon Cathedral .

54 55 60 61 66 £ TOURKOV RHXDIKG XI£P PBQTESTANT PLACARD TO PBANCIS I-

(£k* *x flffOA

212

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

“exasperated the executioners. ‘ Wait a bit/ they said, ‘ we will stop your prating.’ They sprang upon him, opened his mouth, caught hold of his tongue, and bored a hole through it; they then, with refined cruelty, made a slit in his cheek, through which they drew the tongue, and fastened it with an iron pin. Some cries were heard from the crowd at this most horrible spectacle; they pro¬ ceeded from the humble Christians who had come to help the poor bricklayer with their compas¬ sionate looks. Poille spoke no more, but his eye still announced the peace he enjoyed. He was burnt alive.”1 For some time each succeeding day had its victim. Of these sufferers there were some whose only crime was that they had printed and sold Luther’s writ¬ ings ; it was not clear that they had embraced his sentiments; their persecutors deemed them well deserving of the stake for simply having had a hand in circulating them. This indiscriminate vengeance, which dragged to a common pile the Protestants and all on whom the mere suspicion of Protestantism had fallen, spread a general terror in Paris. Those who had been seen at the Protestant sermons, those who had indulged in a jest at the expense of the monks, but especially those who, in heart, although not confessing it with the mouth, had abandoned Rome and turned to the Gospel, felt as if the eye of the lieutenant-criminal was upon them, and. that, at any moment, his step might be heard on their threshold. Paris was no longer a place for them ; every day and every hour they tarried there, it was at the peril of being burned alive. Accordingly, they rose up and fled. It was bitter to leave home and country and all the de¬ lights of life, and go forth into exile, but it was less bitter than to surrender their hope of an endless life in the better country; for at no less a cost could they escape a stake in France. A few days made numerous blanks in the society of Paris. Each blank represented a convert to the Gospel. When men began to look around them and count these gaps, they were amazed to think how ihany of those among whom they had been living, and with whom they had come into daily contact, were Lutherans, but wholly unknown in that character till this affair brought them to light. Merchants vanished suddenly from their places of business; tradesmen disappeared from their work¬ shops ; clerks were missing from the countinghouse ; students assembled at the usual hour, but the professor’s chair was empty; their teacher, not waiting to bid his pupils adieu, had gone forth, and was hastening towards some more friendly land. 1 Crespin, Marty rol., fol. 113, verso. D’Aubigne, iii. 143.

The bands of fugitives now hurrying by various routes, and in various disguises, to the frontiers of the kingdom, embraced all ranks and all occupa¬ tions. The Lords of Roygnac and Roberval, of Fleuri, in Briere, were among those who were now fleeing their country and the wrath of their sove¬ reign. Men in government offices, and others high at court and near the person of the king, made the first disclosure, by a hasty flight, that they had embraced the Gospel, and that they preferred it to place and emolument. Among these last was the privy purse-bearer of the king. Every hour brought a new surprise to both the friends and the foes of the Gospel. The latter hated it yet more than ever as a mysterious thing, possessing some extraordinary power over the minds of men. They saw with a sort of terror the numbers it had already captivated, and they had uneasy misgivings as to wliereunto this affair would grow. Margaret wept, but the fear in which she stood of her brother made her conceal her tears. Her three preachers—Roussel, Berthaud, and Courault —had been thrown into prison. Should she make supplication for them'? Her enemies, she knew, were labouring to inflame the king against her, and bring her to the block. The Constable Mont¬ morency, says Brantome, told the king that he “ must begin at his court and his nearest relations,” pointing at the Queen of Navarre, “if he had a mind to extirpate the heretics out of his kingdom. ”2 Any indiscretion or over-zeal, therefore, might prove fatal to her. Nevertheless, she resolved on braving the king’s wrath, if haply she might rescue her friends from the stake. Bigotry had not quite quenched Francis’s love for his sister; the lives of her preachers were given her at her request; but, with the exception of one of the three, their ser¬ vices to the Protestant cause ended with the day on which they were let out of prison. Roussel retired to his abbey at Clairac; Berthaud resumed his frock and his beads, and died in the cloister; Courault contrived to make his escape, and turning his steps toward Switzerland, he reached Basle, became minister at Orbe, and finally was a fellowlabourer with Calvin at Geneva. Meanwhile another, and yet another, rose up and fled, till, the band of self-confessed and selfexpatriated disciples of the Gospel swelled to between 400 and 500. Goldsmiths, engravers, notably printers and bookbinders, men of all crafts, lawyers, teachers of youth, and even monks and priests were crowding the roads and by-ways of France, fleeing from the persecutor. Some went to Strasburg; some to Basle; and a few placed the 2 Laval., Hist. Reform. France, vol. i., p. 31.

FIRST FRENCH PROTESTANT EXILES. Alps between them and their native land.

Among

213

exiles had been cultivating her soil ; if, during those

these fugitives there is one who deserves special

300 years, their artistic bent had been improving

mention—Mathurin Cordier, the venerable school¬

her manufactures; if, during these 300 years, their

master, who was the first to detect, and who so

creative genius and analytic power had been enrich¬

largely helped to develop, the wonderful genius of

ing her literature and cultivating her science; if their

Calvin.

Millon and Du Bourg and Poille we have

wisdom had b'een guiding her councils, their bravery

seen also depart j but their flight was by another

fighting her battles, their equity framing her laws,

road than that which these fugitives were now

and the religion of the Bible strengthening the in¬

They

tellect and governing the' conscience of her people,

had gone whither the persecutor could not follow

wdiat a glory would at this day have encompassed

treading in weariness and hunger and fear.

France!

them. The men who were now fleeing from France were the first to tread a path which was to be trodden again and again by hundreds of thousands of their countrymen in years to come.

During the

What a great,

country—a pattern

prosperous,

to the

and happy

nations—would

she

have been! But a blind and inexorable bigotry chased from her soil every teacher of virtue, every champion of

following two centuries and a half these scenes

order, every honest defender of the throne; it said

were renewed at short intervals.

to the men who would have made their country a

Scarcely was

there a generation of Frenchmen during that long

“ renown and glory ” in the earth, “ Choose which

period that did not witness the disciples of the

you will have, a stake or exile V’

Gospel fleeing before the insane fury of the perse¬

ruin of the State was complete ; there remained

cutor, and carrying with them the intelligence, the

no more conscience to be proscribed;

no more

arts, the industry, the order, in which, as a rule,

religion to be dragged to the stake;

no more

they pre-eminently excelled, to enrich the lands in

patriotism to be chased into banishment; revolu¬

which they found an asylum.

tion now entered the morally devastated

And in proportion

as they replenished other countries with these good

At last the

land,

bringing in its train scaffolds and massacres, -and

If all that

once more crowding the roads, and flooding the

was now driven away had been retained in France;

frontiers of France with herds of miserable exiles;

if, during these 300 years, the industrial skill of the

only there was a change of victims.

gifts did they empty their own of them.

CHAPTER XXI. OTHER AND MORE DREADFUL MARTYRDOMS.

A Great Purgation Resolved on—Preparations—Procession—The Pour Mendicants—Relics : the Head of St. Louis; the True Cross, &c.—Living Dignitaries—The Host—The King on Foot—His Penitence—Of what Sins does he Repent P—The Queen—Ambassadors, Nobles, &c.—Homage of the Citizens—High Mass in Notre Dame—Speech of the King—The Oath of the King—Return of Procession—Apparatus of Torture—Martyrdom of Nicholas Yaleton —More Scaffolds and Victims—The King and People’s Satisfaction—An Ominous Day in the Calendar of France— The 21st of January. As yet we have seen only the beginning of the

king.1

tragedy; its more awful

follow.

in France, that he was the eldest son of the Church,

planted in

that this title it became him to preserve unsul¬

Paris, but these did not slake the vengeance of the

lied, and transmit with honour to his posterity,

scenes

are

Numerous stakes had already been

to

They reminded him that this was a crisis

more victims must be immolated if

and they urged him to proceed with all due rigour

expiation was to be done for the affront offered to

in the performance of those bloody rites by which

Heaven in the matter of the placards, and more

his throne and

persecutor;

kingdom were

to

be

purged.

blood shed if the land was to be cleansed from the frightful pollution it had undergone.

Such was

the talk which the priests held in presence of the

1 Chronique du Boi Franqois I., p. 113, quoted by D’Aubigne, vol. iii., p. 149.

214

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

Francis I. was but too willing to obey. procession,

A grand

which was to be graced by bloody

the van of the procession was carried the head of St.

Louis,

the

patron saint of

France.

There

interludes, was arranged, and the day on which it

followed a bit of the true cross, the real crown of

was to come off was the 21st of January, 1535.

thorns, one of the nails, the swaddling clothes in

The horrors which will make this day famous to

which Christ lay, the purple robe in which He was

all time were not the doings of the king alone;

attired, the towel with which He girded Himself at

they were not less the acts of the nation which by

the Last Supper, and the spear-head that pierced His

its constituted representatives countenanced the

side.

ceremonial and

bit of himself to grace the procession, and nourish

put its

hand to its cruel and

sanguinary work.

Many saints of former times had sent each a

the devotion of the on-lookers—some an arm, some

The day fixed on arrived.

Great crowds from

the country began to pour into Paris.

In the city

a tooth, some a finger, and others one of the many heads which, as it would seem, each had worn in

great preparations had been made for the spectacle.

his lifetime.

The houses along the line of march were hung with

closed by the shrine of Genevieve, the patron saint

mourning drapery,

This goodly array of saintly relics was

and altars rose at intervals

of Paris, borne by the corporation of butchers, who

where the Host might repose as it was being borne

had prepared themselves for this holy work by the

along to its final resting-place on the high altar of

purification of a three days’ fast.4

Notre Dame. streets.

A throng of sight-seers filled the

After the dead members of the Church, whose

Not only was every inch of the pavement

relics were enshrined in silver and gold, came a

occupied by human beings, but every door-step had

crowd of living dignitaries, in their robes and the

its little group, every window its cluster of faces ;

insignia of their ecclesiastical rank.

even the roofs were black with on-lookers, perched

abbot, archbishop and bishop were there, in the

on the beams or hanging on by the chimneys.

glory of scarlet hat and purple gown, of cope and

“ There was not,” says Simon Fontaine, a chronicler

mitre and crozier.

of that day, and a doctor of the Sorbonne, “ the

grand show, the Host; and in it the spectators

Cardinal and

Now came the heart of this

smallest piece of wood or stone, jutting out of the

saw One mightier than any dead saint or living

walls, on which a spectator was not perched, pro¬

dignitary in all that great procession.

vided there was but room enough, and one might

was carried by the Bishop of Paris under a magni¬

have fancied the streets were paved with human

ficent

heads.”1

supported by four princes of the blood—the three

Though it was day, a lighted taper was

stuck in the front of every house “ to do reverence to the blessed Sacrament and the holy relics.”2

the

four pillars of

which were

sons of the king, and the Duke of Vendome. After the Host walked the king.

At the early hour of six the procession marshalled at the Louvre.

canopy,

The Host

The severe

plainness of his dress was in marked and studied

First came the banners and crosses

contrast to the magnificence of the robes in which

of the several parishes; next appeared the citizens,

the ecclesiastics that preceded and the civic func¬

walking two and two, and bearing torches in their

tionaries that followed him were arrayed.

hands.

on that day wore no crown, nor robe of state, nor

The four Mendicant orders followed; the

Francis I.

Dominican in his white woollen gown and black

was he borne along in chariot or litter.

cloak; the Franciscan in his gown of coarse brown

peared walking on foot, his head uncovered, his

He ap¬

cloth, half-shod feet, and truncated cowl covering

eyes cast on the ground, and in his hand a lighted

his shorn head ; the Capuchin in his funnel-shaped

taper.5

cowl,

penitent.

and

patched brown cloak,

girded with a

The king was there in the character of a He was the chief mourner in that great

white three-knotted rope ; and the Augustine with

national act of humiliation and repentance.

a little round hat on his shaven head, and wide

mourned with head bowed and eyes cast down, but

He

black gown girded on the loins with a broad sash.

with heart unbroken.

After the monks walked the priests and canons of

monarch of France, do penance h

the city.

eries that defiled his palace h for the righteous blood

For what did Francis I., For the debauch¬

The next part of the procession evoked, in no

that stained the streets of his capital 1 for the

ordinary degree, the interest and the awe of the

violated oaths by which he had attempted to over¬

spectators.

reach those who trusted him at home, and those

On no former occasion had so many

relics been paraded on the streets of Paris.3

1 Felice, vol. i., p. 29. 2 Chronique du Roi Frangois L, p. 114. 3 Felice, vol. i., p. 30.

In

who were transacting with him abroad ?

No; these

4 Felice, vol. i., p. 30. D’Aubigne, vol. iii., pp. 152—154. 5 Gamier, Hist, de France, xxiv., p. 556. D’Aubigne, vol. iii., p. 154.

ORATION OF FRANCIS I.

215

were venial offences; they were not worth a thought

to us—was touching and eloquent.

on the part of the monarch.

the many favours Providence had conferred on

The King of France

He dwelt on

did penance for the all but inexpiable crime of his

France; her enemies had felt the weight of her

Protestant subjects in daring to attack the mass,

sword; her friends had had good cause to rejoice

and publish in the face of all France their Protest

in her alliance; even when punished for her faults

against its blasphemy and idolatry.

great mercy had been mingled with the chastise¬

The end of the procession was not yet; it still

ment ; above all, what an honour that France should

swept on, at slow pace, and in mournful silence,

have been enabled to persevere these long centuries

save when some penitential chant rose upon the air.

in the path of the Holy Catholic faith, and had so

Behind the king walked the queen; she was fol¬

nobly worn her glorious title the “Most Christian.”

lowed by all the members of the court, by the

But now, continued the king, she that has been

ambassadors of foreign sovereigns, by the nobles

preserved hitherto from straying so little, seems on

of the realm, by the members of Parliament in

the point of a fatal plunge into heresy; her soil

their scarlet robes, by judges, officers, and the guilds

has begun to produce monsters; “God has been

of the various trades,

each with the symbol of

penitence in his hand, a lighted candle.

The mili¬

attacked

in

the

Holy

Sacrament,”

France

has

been dishonoured in the eyes of other nations, and

tary guard could with difficulty keep open the way

the cloud of the Divine displeasure is darkening

for the procession through the dense crowd, which

over her.

pressed forward to touch some holy relic or kiss

day of sorrow and disgrace !

some image of saint.

dawned upon us ! ”

They lined the whole route

taken by the processionists, and did homage on bended knee to the Host as it passed them.1 The long procession rolled in at the gates of Notre Dame.

The Host, which had been carried

“ Oh, the crime, the blasphemy,

the

Oh, that it had never

These moving words drew tears from nearly all present, says the chronicler who reports the scene, and who was probably an eye-witness of it.2 and sighs burst from the assembly.

Sobs,

After a pause

thither with so much solemnity, was placed on the

the king resumed : “ What a disgrace it will be if

high altar; and a solemn mass proceeded in the

we do not extirpate these wicked creatures ! If you

presence of perhaps a more brilliant assemblage

know any person infected by this perverse sect, be

than had ever before been gathered into even the

he your parent, brother, cousin, or connection, give

great national temple of France.

information against him.

mony was

When the cere¬

concluded the king returned to the

bishop’s palace, where he dined.

After dinner he

By concealing his mis¬

deeds you will be partakers of that pestilent fac¬ tion.”

The

assembly,

says the chronicle, gave

adjourned with the whole assembly to the great

numerous signs of assent.

hall, where he ascended a throne which had been

he resumed, “ that the greatest, the most learned,

fitted up for the occasion.

“ I give thanks to God,”

It was understood that

and undoubtedly the majority of my subjects, and

the king was to pronounce an oration, and the

especially in this good city of Paris, are full of zeal

assembly kept silence, eager to hear what so august

for the Catholic religion.” Then, says the chronicle,

a speaker, on so great an occasion, would say.

you might have seen the faces of the spectators

The king presented himself to his subjects with a

change in appearance, and give signs of joy; ac¬

sorrowful countenance; nor is it necessary to sup¬

clamations prevented the sighs, and sighs choked

pose that that sorrow was feigned.

The affair of

the placards threatened to embroil him with both

the acclamations.

“ I warn you,” continued the

king, “ that I will have the said errors expelled and

friend and foe; it had crossed his political projects;

driven from my kingdom, and will excuse no one.”

and we can believe, moreover, that it had shocked

Then he exclaimed, says our historian, with extreme

his feelings and beliefs as a Roman Catholic; for

anger, “As true, Messieurs, as I am your king, if I

there is little ground to think that Francis had

knew one of my own limbs

begun to love the Gospel, and the looks of sadness

with this detestable rottenness, I would give it you

in which he showed himself to his subjects were

to cut off. . . . And farther, if I saw one of my

not wholly counterfeited.

children defiled by it, I would not spare him. . . .

The speech which Francis I. delivered on this

spotted or infected

I would deliver him up myself, and would sacrifice

occasion—and several reports of it have come down

him to God.”3

1 This procession has been described by several French chroniclers—among others, Florimond Remond, Hist. Heres., ii. 229; Journal d’un Bourgeois de Paris; Fontaine. Hist. Catholique ; Maimbourg; and the Chronique du Roi

proceed; he burst into tears.

The king was so agitated that he was unable to

Francois I.

with him.

The assembly wept

The Bishop of Paris and the provost of

2 Chronique du Roi Francois I.

3 Ibid., p. 125.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

216

the merchants now approached the monarch, and

were to mark every step of the way back to the

kneeling before him swore, the first in the name of

Louvre, but Francis and his courtiers were to gaze

the clergy, and the second in that of the citizens,

with pitiless eye and heart on these horrors.

“ Thereupon all the

The procession in returning made a circuit by

spectators exclaimed, with voices broken by sobbing,

the Church of Genevieve, where now stands the

• We will live and die for the Catholic religion! ”n

Pantheon.

to make war against heresy.

At short distances scaffolds had been

MARGARET OP VALOIS, AFTERWARDS QUEEN OP NAVARRE. (From the Portrait in

“

Portraits des Personnages Frangais du XVle Siecle,” by P. G. J. Niel.)

Having sworn this oath in Notre Dame—the roof under which, nearly three centuries after, the

erected on which

certain

Protestant Christians

were to be burned alive, and it was arranged that

Goddess of Reason sat enthroned—the assembly re¬

the faggots should be lighted at the moment the

formed and set forth to begin the war that very

king approached, and that the procession should

hour.

halt to witness the execution.

Their zeal for the “faith” was inflamed to

the utmost; but they were all the better prepared to witness the dreadful sights that awaited them.

The men set apart

to death were first to undergo prolonged and ex¬

A

cruciating tortures, and for this end a most ingenious

terrible programme had been sketched out; horrors

but cruel apparatus had been devised, which let us describe.

D’Aubigne, vol. iii.. p. 161.

First rose an upright beam, firmly planted

in the ground ; to that another beam was attached

FRENCH PROTESTANT MARTYRS. crosswise, and worked by a pulley and string.

The

martyr was fastened to one end of the movable

suffer are repeated aloud.

217 But when any one is

executed for Lutheranism, as they call it—that is,

beam by his hands, which were tied behind his

if any person hath disputed for justification by

back, and then he was raised in the air.

He was

faith, not by works, that the saints are not to be

After

invocated, that Christ is the only Priest and Inter¬

a minute or two’s broiling he was raised again, and

cessor for mankind; or if a man has happened to

next let down into the slow fire underneath.

PORTION OF THE LOUVRE, PARIS.

a second time let drop into the fire; and thus was

eat flesh upon forbidden days; not a syllable of all

he raised and lowered till the ropes that fastened

this is published, but in general they cry that he

him to the pole were consumed, and he fell amid

hath renounced God Almighty . . . and violated

the burning coals, where he lay till he gave up the

the decrees of our common mother, Holy Church.

“The custom in France,” says Sleidan,2

This aggravating way makes the vulgar believe such

describing these cruel tragedies, “is to put male¬

persons the most profligate wretches under the cope

ghost.1

first

of heaven; insomuch that when they are broiling in

silence is cried, and then the crimes for which they

the flame, it is usual for the people to storm at them,

factors to death in the afternoon;

where

cursing them in the height of their torments, as if 1 Sleidan, bk. ix., p. 175.

27*

2 Ibid., bk. ix., p. 178.

they were not worthy to tread upon the earth.”

HISTOKY OF PKOTESTANTISM.

218 The first to be brought Valeton,

the

forth was

Christian whom we have

Nicholas

over again, inasmuch as they come laden with the

already

same good or evil fortune to which they had as it

mentioned as frequently to be seen searching the

were been consecrated.

innermost recesses and nooks of the booksellers’

days.

shops in quest of the writings of the Eeformers.

day in the calendar of France.

The priests

he

day summoned up spectacles of horror; twice has1

“ My faith,” he replied, “ has a con¬

it seen deeds enacted which have made France

offered him a pardon provided

would recant.

Every nation has such

The 21st of January is a noted and ominous Twice has that

fidence in God, which will resist all the powers of

and the world shudder;

hell.”1

gurated an era of woes and tragedies which stand

He was dealt with as we have already de¬

and twice has it inau¬

scribed ; tied to the beam, he was alternately raised

without a parallel in history.

in the air and lowered into the flames, till the cords

January is that whose tragic scenes we have just

The first 21st of

described, and which opened an era that ran on till

giving way, there came an end to his agonies. Other two martyrs were brought forward, and

the close of the eighteenth century, during which

three times was this cruel sport enacted, the king

the disciples of the Gospel in France were pining

and all the members of the procession standing by

in dungeons and in the galleys, were enduring cap¬

the while, and feasting their eyes on the torments

tivity and famine, were expiring amid the flames,

of the sufferers.

or dying on the field of battle.

The King of France, like the

Eoman tyrant, wished that his victims should feel

The second notable 21st of January came round in 1793.

themselves die. This was on the road between the Church of Genevieve and the Louvre.

The scene of this

This day had, too, its procession through

the streets of Paris ; again the king was the chief figure; again there were tumult and shouting; again

tragedy, therefore, could not be very far from the

there was heard the cry for more victims;

spot where, somewhat more than 250 years after,

there were black scaffolds; and again the scenes of

the scaffold was set up for Louis XVI., and 2,800

the day were closed by horrid executions; Louis.

The spectacles of

XVI., struggling hand to hand with his gaolers,

On the line of march

and executioners, was dragged forward to the block,,

other victims of the Kevolution. the day were not yet closed.

again

the lieutenant-criminal had prepared other scaffolds,

and there held down by main force till the axe

where the cruel apparatus of death stood waiting its

had fallen, and his dissevered head rolled on the

prey; and before the procession reached the Louvre,

scaffold.

there were more halts, more victims, more expia¬

Have we not witnessed a third dismal 21st of

tions ; and when Francis I. re-entered his palace

January in France h

and reviewed his day’s work, he was well pleased to

Four months has Paris suffered siege ; the famine

It is the winter of 1870—71.

think that he had made propitiation for the affront

is sore in the city; the food of man has disappeared

offered to God in the Sacrament, and that the cloud

from her luxurious tables; her inhabitants raven¬

of vengeance which had lowered above his throne

ously devour unclean and abominable things—the

and his kingdom was rolled away.

The priests

vermin of the sewers, the putrid carcasses of the

declared

Church

that

the

triumph

of

the

in

streets.

Within the city, the inhabitants are pining

France was now for ever secured; and if any

away with cold and hunger and disease; without,,

there were among the spectators whom these cruel

the sword of a victorious foe awaits them.

deaths had touched with pity, by neither word nor

will rouse herself, and break through the circle

sign dared they avow it.

The populace of the

capital were overjoyed; they had tasted of blood and were not soon

to forego their relish for it,2

of fire and steel that hems her in. made, but fails.

Paris

The attempt is;

Her soldiers are driven back before

the victorious German, and again are cooped up

nor to care much in after-times at whose expense

within

they gratified it.

January, 1871, it was resolved.to capitulate to the

As there are events so like to one another in

her

miserable walls.

On

the

21st of

conqueror.3

their outward guise that they seem to be the same repeated, so there are days that appear to return

1 Crespin, Martyrol.

2 D’Aubigne, vol. iii., p. 165.

3 The German forces shortly afterwards left the land, and with marvellous rapidity, under the skilled guidance of the illustrious Thiers, the gallant nation recovered its position among the countries of Europe.

219

CHAPTER BASLE AND

THE

XXII.

“INSTITUTES.”

Glory of the Sufferers—Francis I. again turns to the German Protestants—They Shrink back—His Doublings—New Persecuting Edicts—Departure of the Queen of Navarre from Paris—New Day to Bearn—Calvin—Strasburg— Calvin arrives {here—Bucer, Capito, &c.—Calvin Dislikes their Narrowness—Goes on to Basle—Basle—Its Situation and Environs—Soothing Effect on Calvin’s Mind—His Interview with Erasmus—Erasmus “Lays the Egg”— Terrified at what Comes of it—Draws back—Calvin’s Enthusiasm—Erasmus’ Prophecy—Catherine Klein—First Sketch of the Institutes—What led Calvin to undertake the Work—Its Sublimity, but Onerousness. We described in our last chapter the explosion that

selves when they ascended the altar to die. France,

followed the publication of the manifesto against

let us hope, will not always be ignorant of her true

the mass.

In one and the same night it was

placarded over great part of France, and when the

heroes.

These have shed around her a renown

purer and brighter, a hundred times, than all the

morning broke, and men came forth and read it,

glory she has earned on the battle-field from the

there were consternation and anger throughout the

days of Francis I. to those of the last Xapoleon.

kingdom.

It proclaimed only the truth, but it was

truth before its time in France.

Hardly had Francis I. concluded his penitential

It was a bolt flung

procession when he again turned to the Protestant

at the mass and its believers, which might silence

princes of Germany, and attempted to resume ne¬

and crush them, but if it failed to do this it would

gotiations with them.

rouse them into fury, and provoke a terrible retalia¬

of him an explanation of his recent proceedings.

tion.

Why so anxious to court the favour of the Protes¬

It did the latter.

The throne and the whole

They not unnaturally asked

kingdom had been polluted; the Holy Sacrament

tants of Germany when he was burning the Pro¬

blasphemed;

testants of France ?

the land was in danger of

being

Were there two true faiths in

smitten with terrible woes, and so a public atone¬

the world, the creed of Rome on the west of the

ment was decreed for the public offence which had

Rhine, and the religion of Wittenberg on the east

been offered.

of that river?

Not otherwise, it pleased the king,

But the king was ready with his

his prelates, and his nobles to think, could France

excuse, and his excuse was

escape the wrath of the Most High.

persecutors of every age.

The terrible rites of the day of expiation we have already chronicled.

that

of almost all

The king had not been

burning Lutherans, but executing traitors. If those

Was the God that France

he had put to death had imbibed Reformed sen¬

worshipped some inexorable and remorseless deity,

timents, it was not for their religion, but for their

seeing she propitiated him with human sacrifices ?

sedition that they had been punished.

The tapers carried that day by the penitents who

the excuse which Francis gave to the German

swept in long procession through the streets of the

princes in his letter of the 15 th of February.

capital, blended their lights with the lurid glare of

stop this plague of disloyalty from spreading, he

Such was “ To

the fires in which the Lutherans were burned; and

punished its originators severely, as his ancestors

the loud chant of priest and chorister rose amid no

had also done in like cases.”1

cries and sobs from the victims.

to induce Melanchthon to take up his abode in Paris,

These noble men,

He even attempted

who were now dragged to the burning pile, uttered

where he would have received him with honour,,

no cry; they shed no tear; that were a weakness

and burned him a few months afterwards.

that would have stained the glory of their sacrifice.

these untruths and doublings availed Francis little.

But

They stood with majestic mien at the stake, and

Luther had no faith in princes, least of all had he

looked with calmness on the tortures their enemies

faith in Francis I.

had prepared for them, nor did they blanch when

to promote conciliation, yet refused to enter a city

the flames blazed up around them.

on the streets of which the ashes of the fires in

The sacrifice of

Melanchthon, anxious as he was

old, when led to the altar, was crowned with gar¬

which the disciples of Christ had been burned were

lands.

not yet cold.

So it was with these martyrs. They came to

And the Protestant princes, though

the altar to offer up their lives crowned with the

desirous of strengthening their political defences,

garlands of joy and praise.

nevertheless shrank back from a hand which they

Their faith,

their

courage, their reliance on God when suffering in

saw was red with the blood of their brethren.

His cause, their vivid anticipations of future glory, were the white robes in which they dressed them¬

1 Sleidan, bk. ix., p. 17&

The

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

220

situation in France began to be materially altered.

were now beginning to become.

The king’s disposition had undergone a change for

went to her grave, in 1549, she left a greater to

When Margaret

the worse; a gloomy determination to crush heresy

succeed her in the government of the little ter¬

had taken possession of him, and was clouding his

ritory which had so rapidly risen from rudeness

better qualities.

to wealth and civilisation,

The men of letters who had shed

Her daughter, Jeanne

a lustre upon his court and realm were beginning

d’Albret, is one of the most illustrious women in

to withdraw.

history.

They were terrified by the stakes

which they saw around them, not knowing but that their turn might come next.

The monks were

again looking up, which augured no good for the interests of learning. O

Not content with the execu-

We return to Calvin, in the track of whose foot¬ steps it is that the great

movement, set for the

rising of one kingdom and the fall of another, is to be sought.

He now begins to be by very much the

tions of the terrible 21st of January, the king con¬

chief figure of his age.

tinued to issue edicts against the sect of “ Lutherans

Charles Y. with his armies, are powers more im¬

Francis I. with his court,

still swarming in the realmhe wrote to the pro¬

posing but less real than Calvin.

vincial parliaments,

the stage with a great noise, but half-a-century

exhorting

them

to

furnish

They pass across

money and prisons for the extirpation1 of heresy;

afterwards, when we come to examine the traces

lastly, he indited an ordinance declaring printing

they have left behind them, it is with difficulty that

abolished all over France, under pain of the gallows.2

we can discover them; other kings and other armies

That so barbarous a decree should have come from

are busy effacing them, and imprinting their own

a prince who gloried in being the leader of the

in their room.

literary movements of his age, would not have been

goes forward with the ages.

credible had it not been narrated by historians of

little before the bursting of the storm, leave Paris,

name.

nevermore to enter its gates.

It is one among a hundred proofs that

literary culture is no security against the spirit of persecution.

It is Calvin’s work that endures and We have seen him, a

Setting out in the direction of Germany, and travelling on horseback, he arrived in due course at

Of those who now withdrew from Paris was Margaret of Yalois, the king’s sister.

Strasburg.

Its name, “ the City of the Highways,”

We have

sufficiently indicates its position, and the part it

seen the hopes that she long and ardently cherished

was expected to play in the then system of Europe.

that her brother would be won to the Reformation;

Strongly fortified, it stood like a mailed warrior at

but now that Francis I. had cast the die, and sealed

the point where the great roads of Northern Europe

his choice by the awful deeds of blood we have

intersected one another.

narrated, Margaret, abandoning all hope, quitted

Alsace, which was an independent territory, thrown

Paris, where even the palace could hardly protect

in as it were, in the interests of peace, between

It was the capital of

her from the stake, and retired to her own kingdom

Eastern and Western Europe, and therefore its

of Bearn.

Her departure, and that of the exiles

fortifications were on purpose of prodigious strength.

who had preceded her, if it was the beginning of

As kings were rushing at one another, now pushing

that social and industrial decadence which ever

eastward from France into Germany,

since has gone on, amid many deceitful appearances,

rushing across the Rhine from Germany into France,

and now

in France, was the dawn of a new day to Bearn.

eager to give battle and redden the earth with

Her court became the asylum of the persecuted.

blood, this man in armour—the City of the High¬

Many refugee families transported their industry

ways, namely—who stood right in their path com¬

and their fortune to her provinces, and the pros¬

pelled them to halt, until their anger should some¬

perity which had taken a long adieu of France,

what subside, and peace might be maintained.

began to enrich her little kingdom.

Soon a new

face appeared upon the state of the Bearnais. laws were reformed,

The

schools were opened, many

A yet more friendly office did Strasburg discharge to the persecuted children of the Reformation. Being a free city, it offered asylum to the exiles from sur¬

branches of industry were imported and very suc¬

rounding countries.

cessfully cultivated, and, in short, the foundations

its citizens intelligent;

Its magistrates were liberal;

were now laid of that remarkable prosperity which

famous; the strong walls and firm gates that would

its

college was

already

made the little kingdom in the Pyrenees resemble

have resisted the tempests of war had yielded to

an oasis amid the desert which France and Spain

the Gospel, and the Reformation had found entrance into Strasburg at an early period.

1 Bulletin de la S octet d de la Histoire du Protestantisme, Francois I., p. 828—D’Aubigne, vol. iii., p. 167. 2 Sismondi, Hist, des Francois, xvi„ p. 455.

Bucer, Capito,

and Hedio, whom we have already met with, were living here at the time of Calvin’s visit, and the pleasure of seeing them, and conversing with them.

BASLE AND ITS SCENERY.

221

had no small share in inducing the Reformer to

Its situation is pleasant, and may even in some

turn his steps in the direction of this city.

respects be styled romantic.

In one respect he was not disappointed.

He

Its chief feature is the

Rhine, even here within sight, if one may so speak,

much relished the piety and the learning of these

of the mountains where it was born :

men, and they in turn were much impressed with

majestic river, sweeping past the town with rapid

the seriousness and greatness of character of their

flow,3 or rather dividing it into two unequal parts,

young visitor.

the Little Basle lying on the side towards Germany,

But in another respect he was dis¬

appointed in them. lacked depth and

Their views of Divine truth comprehensiveness,

and

their

a broad,

and joined to the Great Basle by a long wooden bridge, now changed into one of stone.

Crowning

scheme of Reformation was, in the same propor¬

the western bank of the Rhine, in the form of a

tion, narrow and defective.

The path which they

half-moon, are the buildings of the city, conspicuous

loved, a middle way between Wittenberg and Rome,

among which are the fine towers of the Minster.

was a path which Calvin did not, or would not,

Looking from the esplanade of the Cathedral one’s

understand.

To him there were only two faiths, a

true and a false,

and to him there

eye lights on the waters

of the . river,

on the

be

fresh and beautiful valleys through which it rolls;

but two paths, and the attempt to make a third

on the gentle hills of the Black Forest beyond,

between the two was, in his judgment, to keep

sprinkled with dark pines, and agreeably relieved

open the road back to Rome.

could

All the greater minds

by the sunny glades on which their shadows fall;

of the Reformation were with Calvin on this point.

while a short walk to the south of the town brings

Those only who stood in the second class among

the tops of the Jura upon the horizon, telling the

the Reformers gave way to the dream of reconciling

traveller that he has reached the threshold of a

Rome and the Gospel: a circumstance which we

region of mountainous grandeur.

must attribute not to the greater charity of the

custom which is become a law,” says the traveller

“ They have a

latter, but to their incapacity to comprehend either

to whom we

the system of Rome or the system of the Gospel

Basle, “ and which is singular and very commend¬

in all the amplitude that belongs to each.

able ; ’tis that whoever passes through Basle, and

Calvin grew weary of hearing,

have referred above,

speaking

of

day after day,

declares himself to be poor, they give him victuals

plans propounded which, at the best, could have

—I think, for two or three days; and some other

but patched and soldered a hopelessly rotten system,

relief, if he speaks Latin.”4

but would have accomplished no Reformation, and

Much as the scene presents itself to the tourist of

so, after a sojourn of a few months, he took his

to-day, would it appear to Calvin more than three

departure from Strasburg, and began his search for

centuries ago.

the “ quiet nook”1 where he might give himself to

“ milk-white” floods to the sea, nor was he ignorant

There was the stream rolling its

the study of what he felt must, under the Spirit,

of the fact that it had borne on its current the ashes

be his great instructor—the Bible.

of Huss and Jerome, to bury them grandly in the

The impression

was growing upon him, and his experience at Stras¬

ocean.

burg had deepened that impression, that it was not

spans the Rhine,

from others that he was to learn the Divine plan;

buildings drawn along the brow of the opposite

he must himself search it out in the Holy Oracles;

bank.

he must go aside with God,

whose shadow

like Moses on the

mount, and there he would be shown the fashion of

There was the long wooden bridge that with the crescent-like line of

There were the Minster towers, beneath CEcolampadius,

already dismissed

from labour, was resting in the sleep of the tomb.5

that temple which he was to build in Christendom. Following the course of the Rhine, Calvin went on to Basle.

Basle is the gate of Switzerland as

one comes from Germany, and being a frontier town, situated upon one of the then great highways of Europe, it enjoyed a large measure of prosperity. The Huguenot traveller, Misson, who visited it somewhat more than a century after the time of which we speak, says of it:

“ The largest, fairest,

richest city now reckoned to be in Switzerland.”2

1 "TJt in obscuro aliquo angulo abditus quiete diu Eiegata fmerer.” (Prcefatio ad Psalmos-- Calvini Opp.) 2 Misson, A New Voyage to Italy, vol. ii., part ii., p. 493.

3 The watermen when they descended the Rhine weekly sold their boats at Strasburg and returned on foot, the strength of the current not permitting them to row their craft against it. (Fynes Moryson, Travels, part i., bk. i., ch. 2; fol.; Lond., 1617.) 4 Misson, New Voyage, vol. ii., part ii., p. 502, 5 The tomb of CEcolampadius is to be seen in the Cathedral, with the following epitaph, according to Misson 'rf D. Joh. CEcolampadius, professione theologus; trium linguarum peritissimus; auctor Evangelicse doctrinse in hac urbe primus; et templi hujus verus episcopus; ut doctrina, sic vitas sanctimonia pollentissimus, sub breve saxum hoc reconditus est. Anno salutis ob. 21 November, 1531. Mt. 49.” (Dr. John CEcolampadius, by profession a divine; most skilful in three languages; first author of the Reformed religion in this city, and

HISTOEY OF PBOTESTANTISM.

222

Tliere were the emerald valleys, enclosing the town

troubled was the world around; the passions of

with a carpet of the softest green; there were the

men were raising frightful tempests in it; armies

sunny glades, and the tall dark pines on the eastern

and battles and stakes made it by no means a

hills; and in the south were the azure tops of the

pleasant dwelling-place; but these quiet valleys and

Jura peering over the landscape.

those distant peaks spoke of peace, and so the exile,

GASP Alt HEDIO.

this,

A scene like

(From the Portrait in Paul Freher’s “ Theatrum Vivorum Clarorum”)

so finely blending quietude and sublimity,

weary of foot, and yet more weary of heart—for

must have had a soothing influence on a mind like

his brethren were being led as sheep to the slaughter

Calvin’s; it must have appeared to him the very

—very unobtrusively but very thankfully entered

retreat he had so long sought for, and fain would

within those gates to which Providence had led

he be to turn aside for awhile here and rest. Much

him, and where he was to compose a work which still keeps its place at the head of the Heformation literature—the Institutes.

true bishop of this church ; as in doctrine so in sanctity of life most excellent, is laid under this short stone. He died in the year of our Lord, 21st November, 1531, aged forty-nine years.)

On his way from Strasburg to Basle, Calvin had an interview with a very remarkable man.

The

person whom he now met had rendered to the

INTERVIEW BETWEEN ERASMUS AND

CALVIN.

(See p.

224.)

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

224

Gospel no small service in the first days of the

would have continued to play the champion on

Reformation, and lie might have rendered it ten

the Protestant side.

times more had his courage been equal to his genius,

girding on the sword,

and his piety as profound as his scholarship.

convulsed—things he had not reckoned on when

We

But when he saw monarchs nations beginning

to be

refer to Erasmus, the great scholar of the sixteenth

he gave the first touch to the movement by the

century.

Pie was at this time living at Freiburg,

publication of his New Testament—and especially

in Brisgau—the progress, or as Erasmus deemed

when he saw confessors treading the bitter path of

it,

martyrdom, it needed on the part of Erasmus a

the excesses of the

Reformed

faith having

frightened him into leaving Basle, where he had

deeper sense of the value of the Gospel and a

passed so many years, keeping court like a prince,

higher faith in God than, we fear, he possessed, to

and receiving all the statesmen and scholars who

stand courageously on the side of the Reformation.

chanced to visit that city.

Erasmus’ great service

How unlike the two men who now stood face to

to the Reformation was his publication of the New

face !

Testament in the year 1516.1

sought it on a different line, and each had pic¬

The fountain sealed

Both were on the side of progress, but each

all through the Dark Ages was anew opened, and

tured to himself a different future.

the impulse given to the cause' of pure Christianity

the embodiment of the Renaissance, the other was

thereby was greater than we at this day can well

the herald of a more glorious day.

imagine.

light of the Renaissance, which promised so much,

This was the service of Erasmus.

“ He

Erasmus was In the first the

laid the egg,” it has been said, “ of the Reformation.”

had already begun to wane—sprung of the earth, it

The great scholar, in his early and better days,

was returning to the earth; but where Erasmus

had seen with unfeigned joy the light of letters

stopped,

breaking over Europe.

He hated the monks with

While the shadows of the departing day darkened

his whole soul, and lashed their ignorance and vice

the face of the sage of Rotterdam, Calvin’s shone

there

Calvin

found

his

starting-point.

with the unsparing vigour of his satire; but now

with the brightness of the morning.

he was almost seventy, he had hardly more than

interrogatories, to which Erasmus replied hesita¬

After a few

another year to live,2 and the timidity of age was

tingly, Calvin freely gave vent to the convictions

creeping over him.

that filled his soul.3

He had never been remarkable

Nothing, he believed, but a

for courage; he always took care not to come within

radical reform could save Christendom.

wind of a stake, but now he was more careful than

have no bolstering up of an edifice rotten to its

ever not to put himself in the way cf harm.

foundations.

He

had hailed the Reformation less for the spiritual

He would

He would sweep it away to its last

stone, and he would go to the quarry whence were

blessings which it brought in its train than for the

dug the materials wherewith the Christian Church

literary elegances and social ameliorations which

was fashioned in the first age, and he would anew

it shed around it.

draw forth the stones necessary for its reconstruc¬

Besides, the Pope had been approaching him on his weak side.

Paul III.

fully understood the

tion.

Erasmus

shrank

back

as if

he saw the

toppling ruin about to fall upon him and crush

importance of enlisting the pen of Erasmus on

him.

behalf of Rome.

the Church—against the Church,”4 exclaimed the

The battle was waxing hotter

“ I see a great tempest about to arise in

every day, and the pen was playing a part in the

scholar, in whose ear Calvin’s voice sounded as the

conflict which was not second to even that of the

first hoarse notes of the coming storm.

sword.

Erasmus

which

A cardinal’s hat was the brilliant prize the

Pope

dangled

before

the

scholar.

misjudged !

The

How much

Renaissance—calm,

classic, and conservative as it seemed—was in truth

ErasmuS had the good sense not to accept, but the

the tempest.

flattery implied in the offer had so far gained its

the soil of Christendom, helped largely to unchain

The pagan principles it scattered in

end that it had left Erasmus not very zealous in

those furious winds that broke out two centuries

the Reformed cause, if indeed he had ever been

after.

so.

Could the conflict have been confined to the

schools, with nothing more precious than ink shed 11

it, and nothing more weighty than a little lite¬

rary reputation lost by it, the scholar of Rotterdam

The interview now suddenly closed.

Pursuing

journey,

with

his

travellers at length reached Basle. long bridge, and climbing the they entered

1 See ante, vol. i., bk. viii., ch. 5, p. 428. 2 Erasmus died in 1536; he was buried in the Cathedral of Basle, and his epitaph, on a pillar before the choir, indicates his age by the single term septuagenariiis, about seventy. The exact time of his birth is unknown.

his

inseparable

companion, the young Canon Du Tillet, the two

the city.

Crossing the

opposite acclivity,

It was the seat of a

3 The interview has been related by a chronicler of the same century—Flor. Remond, Hist, Heresii., p. 2510 4 Ibid,

ORIGIN OF THE “INSTITUTES.”

225

university founded, as we

have already said, in

acquaintance.

1459, by Pope Pius II.,

who gave it all the

business sharpens the observing powers, and breeds

privileges of that of Bologna.

It had scholars,

divines, and some famous printers.

But Calvin

did not present himself at their door.

The purpose

Intercourse with the world and its

dexterity ; but the soul that is to grow from day to day and from year to year, and at last embody its matured and concentrated strength in some great

for which he had come to Basle required that he

work, must dwell in solitude.

should remain unknown.

seclusion and retreat, that Calvin sketched the first

He wished to have

perfect unbroken quietude for study.

It was here, in this

Accordingly

outline of a work which was to be not merely the

he turned into a back street where, he knew, lived

basis of his own life-work, but the corner-stone of

a pious woman

the Reformed Temple, and which from year to year

in humble condition, Catherine

Klein, who received the disciples of the

Gospel

he was to develop and perfect, according to the

when forced to seek asylum, and he took up his

measure of the increase of his own knowledge and

abode in her lowly dwelling.

light, and leave to succeeding generations as the

The penetration of this good woman very soon discovered the many high qualities of the thin palefaced stranger whom she had received under her roof.

When Calvin had fulfilled his career, and

grandest of his and of his age’s achievements. The Institutes first

sprang

into form

in the

following manner :—While Calvin was pursuing his studies in his retirement at Basle, dreadful tidings

his name and doctrine were speading over the

reached the banks of the Rhine.

earth, she was wont to dilate with evident pleasure

outbursts of royal wrath, the cruel torturings and

The placard, the

on his devotion to study, on the beauty of his life,

burnings that followed, were all carried by report

and the charms of his genius.

to Basle.

He seldom went

First came tidings of the individual

out,1 and when he did so it was to steal away

martyrs; scarcely had the first messenger given in

across the Rhine, and wander among the pines on

his tale, when another—escaped from prison or from

the eastern hill, whence he could gaze on the city

the stake, and who could say, as of old, “ I only

and its environing valleys, and the majestic river

am left to tell thee ”—arrived with yet more dread¬

whose “ eternal” flow formed the link between the

ful tidings of the wholesale barbarities which had

everlasting hills of its birth-place, and the great

signalised the terrible 21st of January in Paris.

ocean where was its final goal—nay, between the

The news plunged Calvin into profound sorrow.

successive generations which had flourished upon

He could but too vividly realise the awful scenes,

its banks, from the first barbarian races which had

the tidings of which

drunk its waters, to the learned men who were fill¬

anguish.

so wrung his heart with

It was but yesterday that he had trodden

ing the pulpits, occupying the university chairs, or

the streets in which they were enacted.

working the printing-presses of the city below him.

the men who had endured

Calvin had found at last his “ obscure corner,” and he jealously preserved his incognito.

(Eco-

lampadius, the first Reformed Pastor of Basle, was

They were his brethren.

He knew

these cruel deaths.

He had lived in their

houses ; he had sat at their tables.

How often had

he held sweet converse with them on the things

now, as we have said, in his grave; but Oswald

of God !

Myconius, the friend of Zwingli, had taken his

world was not worthy :. and yet they were ac¬

place as President of the Church.

counted as the off-scouring of all things, and as

In him Calvin

knew he would find a congenial spirit.

There was

He knew them to be men of whom the

sheep appointed to the slaughter were killed all

another man living at Basle at that time, whose

day long.

fame as a scholar had reached the Reformer—

were being condemned and drawn to death %

Symon Grynseus.

yet what could he do h

Grynseus was the schoolfellow

Could he be silent when his brethren And

The arm of the king he

of Melanchthon, and when Erasmus quitted Basle

could not stay.

he was invited to take his place at the university,

their cause, for that would be to set up his own

He could not go in person and plead

which he filled with a renown second only to that

stake.

of his great predecessor.

vindicating his brethren in the face of Christendom.

He was as remarkable

He had a pen, and he would employ it in

for his modesty and the sweetness of his disposition

But in what way should he best do this %

as for his learning.

vindicate these martyrs effectually not otherwise

Calvin sought and enjoyed

He could

the society of these men before leaving Basle, but

than by vindicating their cause.

meanwhile, inflexibly bent on the great ends for

mation that was being vilified, condemned, burned,

which he had come hither, he forbore making their

in the persons of these men • it was this, therefore, that he must vindicate.

1 “ Cum incognitas Basilese later era.” ment. on Psalms.)

{Preface to Com¬

It was the Refor¬

It was not merely a few

stakes in Paris, but the martyrs of the Gospel in all lands that he would cover with his regie.

HISTOKY OF FEOTESTAXTISM.

226

Tlie task that Calvin now set for himself was sublime, but onerous.

and order, which it was accused of being, it was

He would make it plain to

the very salt of society—a bulwark to the throne

all that the faith which was being branded as

and a protection to law; and being drawn from

heresy, and for professing which men were being-

the Bible, it opened to man the gates of a moral

burned alive, was no cunningly devised system of

purification in this life, and of a perfect and endless

man, but the Old Gospel; and that so far from

felicity in the next.

being an enemy of kings, and a subverter of law

plished in his Christiance Religioms Institutio.

CHAPTER THE

This was what Calvin accom¬

XXIII.

“ INSTITUTES.”

Calvin Discards the Aristotelian Method—How a True Science of Astronomy is Formed—Calvin Proceeds in the same way in Constructing his Theology—Induction—-Christ Himself sets the Example of the Inductive Method —Calvin goes to the Field of Scripture—His Pioneers—The Schoolmen—Melanchthon—Zwingli—The Augsburg Confession—Calvin’s

System

more

Complete—Two

Tremendous

Facts—First

Edition

of

the

Institutes—

Successive Editions—The Creed its Model—Enumeration of its Principal Themes—God the Sole Fountain of all things—Christ the One Source of Bedemption and Salvation—The Spirit the One Agent in the Application of Bedemption—The Church—Her Worship and Government.

We shall now proceed to the consideration of that

logical discovery.

work which has exercised so vast an influence on

method as a vicious one, though the fashionable

They discarded the Aristotelian

the great movement we are narrating, and which

and, indeed, the only one until

all will admit, even though they may dissent from

they adopted the Baconian method, though Bacon

some of its teachings, to be, in point of logical com¬

had not yet been born to give his name to his

pactness, and constructive

comprehensive genius,

system.

truly grand.

of

that dis¬

dark cftoset of one’s own mind, as the schoolmen

closes its solidity and gigantic proportions to the

did, and out of such materials as they were able to

casual or

It

is

not

passing glance.

contemplated.

a

kind

It must be leisurely

their time, and

Calvin saw the folly of retiring into the

create, fashioning a theology.

Taking his stand

In the case of some kingly moun¬

upon the open field of revelation, he essayed to

tain, whose feet are planted in the depths but

glean those God-created and Heaven-revealed truths

whose top is lost in the light of heaven, we must

which lie there, and he proceeded to build them up

remove to a distance, and when the little hills

into a system of knowledge which should have

which had seemed to overtop it when we stood at

power to enlighten the intellect and to sanctify

its base have sunk below the horizon, then it is

the hearts of the men of the sixteenth century.

that the true monarch stands out before us in un¬

Calvin’s first question was not, “ Who am II” but

approached and unchallenged supremacy.

So with

“ Who is God

the Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Xo such

stand-point of

production

had emanated

from

the

theological

intellect since the times of the great Father of the W est—Augustine. During the four centuries that preceded Calvin,

He looked at God from the the human

conscience, with the

torch of the Bible in his hand. the beginning of knowledge. said, “ Know thyself.”

God was to him The heathen sage

But a higher Authority had

said, “ The fear,” that is the knowledge, “of the

there had been no lack of theories and systems.

Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

The schoolmen had toiled to put the world in pos¬

light that all things are seen.

session of truth; but their theology was simply

In chemistry, in botany,

It is in the

“ God is light.” in astronomy, he is

abstraction piled upon abstraction, and the more

the best philosopher who most carefully studies

elaborately they speculated the farther they strayed.

nature,

Their systems had no basis in fact : they had no

most skilfully arranges them into a system or

most

industriously

collects

facts,

and

root in the revelation of God; they were a specu¬

science.

lation, not knowledge.

material universe, and the mutual relations of the

Luther and Calvin struck out a new path in theo¬

Not

otherwise

can

the

laws of

bodies that compose it> be discovered.

the

We must

THE INDUCTIVE THEOLOGY.

227

proceed in theology just as we proceed in natural

the City of God, however splendid as a dissertation,

science.

is yet as a system much inferior to the Institutes,

He is the best theologian who most care¬

fully studies Scripture, who most accurately brings

in completeness as well as in logical power.

out the meaning of its individual statements or

Augustine there comes a long and dreary interval,

After

truths, and who so classifies these as to exhibit

during which no attempt was made to classify and

that whole scheme of doctrine that is contained in

systematise the truths of revelation.

the Bible.

of Johannes Damascenus, in the eighth century, is

Not otherwise than by induction can

The attempt

we arrive at a true science : not otherwise than

a very defective performance.

by induction can we come into possession of a true

were the efforts of the schoolmen. The most notable

theology.

of these were the four books of Sentences by Peter

The botanist, instead of shutting him¬

Not more successful

self up in his closet, goes forth into the field and

Lombard, and the Summa of Thomas Aquinas, but

collects into classes the flora spread profusely, and

both are defective and erroneous.

without apparent order, over plain and mountain,

theological productions of that age, we become

grouping plant with plant, each according to its

painfully sensible of strength wasted, owing to the

In perusing the

kind, till not one is left, and then his science of

adoption of an entirely false method of interpret¬

botany is perfected.

The astronomer, instead of

ing the Word of God—a method which, we ought

descending into some dark cave, turns his telescope

to say, was a forsaking rather than an interpreting

to the heavens, watches the motions of its orbs,

of the Scriptures;

and by means of the bodies that

a body of ingenious and laborious men, who have

are

seen, he

for in the schoolmen we have

deduces the laws and forces that are unseen, and

withdrawn themselves from the light of the Bible

thus order

into the dark chamber of their own minds, and are

springs up

before his eye,

and the

system of the universe unveils itself to him.

What

weaving systems of theology out of their brains

the flora of the field are to the botanist, what the

and the traditions of their Church, in which errors

stars of the firmament are to the astronomer, the

are much more plentiful than truths, and which

truths scattered over the pages of the Bible are to

possess no power to pacify the conscience, or to

the theologian.

purify the life.

The Master Himself has given us

the hint that it is the inductive method which we

When we reach the age of the Reformation the

are to follow in our search after Divine truth;

true light again greets our eyes.

nay, He has herein gone before us and set us the

systematiser on a great scale; Melanchthon made a

example, for beginning at Moses and the prophets,

more considerable essay in that direction.

He expounded to His disciples “in all the Scrip¬

Communes, or Common Places, published in 1521,

tures the things concerning Himself.”

were a prodigious advance on the systems of the

these pages that Calvin turned.

It was to

He searched them

schoolmen.

Luther was no His Loci

They are quickened by the new life,

through and through, he laid all the parts of the

but yet their mould is essentially mediaeval, and

Word of God under contribution : its histories and

is too rigid and unbending to permit a free display

dramas, its Psalms and prophecies, its Gospels and

of the piety of the author.

Epistles.

Vera et Falsa Religione, or Commentary on the True

With profound submission of mind he

accepted whatever he found taught there;

The Commentarius de

and

and False Religion, of Zwingli, published in 1525,

having collected his materials, he proceeded with

is freed from the scholastic method of Melanchthon’s

the severest logic, and in the exercise of a mar¬

performance,

vellous constructive genius, to frame his system—

system of theology.

to erect the temple.

but

is

still

defective as a formal

The Confession of Augsburg

To use the beautiful simile of

(1530) is more systematic and complete than any of

D’Aubigne, “He went to the Gospel springs, and

the foregoing, but still simply a confession of faith,

there collecting into a golden cup the pure and

and not such an exhibition of Divine Truth as the

living waters of Divine revelation, presented them

Church required.

to the nations to quench their thirst.”1

it this.

We have said that Calvin was the first to open

It remained for Calvin to give

The Institutes of the Christian Religion

was a confession of faith,2 a system of exegesis, a

this path, but the statement is not to be taken

body of polemics and apologetics, and an exhibition

literally and absolutely.

of the rich practical effects which flow from Chris¬

He had several pioneers

in this road; but none of them had trodden it

tianity—it was all four in one.

with so firm a step, or left it so thoroughly open

reader by the hand and conducts him round the

for

men to follow,

as Calvin did.

greatest of his pioneers was Augustine. 1 D’Aubigne, vol. iii., p. 203.

Calvin takes his

By far the But even

2 Pro Confessione Fidei offertur, says the title-page of the first edition of the Institutess now before us, dated Basilese, 1536.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

228

entire territory of truth.; he shows him the strength

an answer to all charges whether from the Roman

and grandeur of its central citadel—namely, its

camp or from the infidel one, and her justification

God-given doctrines; the height and solidity of its

alike before those now living and the ages to come,

ramparts; the gates by which it is approached; the

against the violence with which the persecutor was

order that reigns within;

seeking to overwhelm her.

the glory of the Lamb

revealed in the Word that illuminates it with con¬

The first edition of the Institutes contained only

tinual day; the River of Life by which it was

six chapters.

watered—that is, the Holy Spirit;

to elaborate and perfect the work.

this, he ex¬

During all his life after he continued Edition after

claims, is the “ City of the Living God,” this is the

edition continued to issue from the press.

“ Heavenly Jerusalem ;” decay or overthrow never

were published in Latin, but afterwards rendered

These

can befall it, for it is built upon the foundation of

into French, and translated into all the tongues of

prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ Himself being

Europe.

the chief corner-stone.

Into this city “ there en-

gener, “ the book increased in every edition, not as

“ During twenty-four years,” says Bun-

tereth nothing that defileth, or maketh a lie,” and

an edifice to which additions are made, but as a

the “ nations of them that are saved shall walk in

tree which develops itself naturally, freely, and

the light thereof.”

without the compromise of its unity for a moment.”1

That Calvin’s survey of the field of supernatural

It is noteworthy that the publication of the work

truth as contained in the Bible was complete; that

fell on the mid-year of the Reformer’s life. Twenty-

his classification of its individual facts was perfect;

seven years had he been preparing for writing it,

that his deductions and conclusions were in all cases

and twenty-seven years did he survive to expand

sound, and that his system was without error, Calvin

and perfect it;

himself did not maintain, and it would ill become

ments

even the greatest admirer of that guarded, quali¬

modify.

fied, and balanced Calvinism which the Reformer

the Reformation.2

or

nevertheless, not one of its state¬

doctrines did

he

essentially alter

or

It came, too, at the right time as regards

taught—not that caricature of it which some of his followers have presented, a Calvinism which disjoins the means from the end, wThich destroys the freedom of man and abolishes his accountability; which is fatalism, in short, and is no more like the Calvinism of Calvin than Manommedanism is like Christianity—it would ill become any one, we say, to challenge for Calvin’s system an immunity from error which he himself did not challenge for it.

He found

himself, in pursuing his investigations in the field of Scripture, standing face to face with two tremendous facts—God’s sovereignty and man’s freedom; both he believed to be facts; he maintained the last as firmly as the first; he confessed that he could not reconcile the two, he left this and all other mysteries connected with supernatural truth to be solved by the deeper researches and the growing light of the ages to come, if it were meant that they should ever find their solution on earth. This work was adopted by the Reformed Church, and after some years published in most of the languages of

Christendom.

The

clearness

and

strength of its logic; the simplicity and beauty of its exposition; the candour of its conclusions; the fulness of its doctrinal statements, and not less the warm spiritual life that throbbed under its deductions, now bursting out in rich practical ex¬ hortation, and now soaring into a vein of lofty speculation, made the Church feel that no book like this had the Reformation given her heretofore; and she accepted it, as at once a confession of her faith,

1 Calvin : his Life, his Labours, and his Writings, p. 43. 2 The following valuable note was communicated to the Author by the late Mr. David Lamg, LL.D. Than Mr. Laing’s there is no higher authority upon the subject to which it refers, and his note may be regarded as set¬ ting finally at rest the hitherto vexed question touching the publication of the Institutes:— “ It is now a long while ago, when I was asked by Dr. McCrie, senior, to ascertain in what year the first edition appeared of Calvin’s Institutes. At the time, although no perfect copy of the 1536 volume was accessible, the conclusion I came to was that the work first appeared in a small volume, pp. 519, with the title Christianas Religionis Institutio, etc. Joanne Calvino, Autore. Basilece, MDXXXVI. At the end of the volume are added the names of the printers at Basle and the date—f Mense Martio, Anno 1536.’ During the many subsequent years, with inquiries at various great public libraries, both at home and abroad, I have not been able to find anything to make me change this opinion, or to imagine that an earlier edition in French had ever existed. In the dedi¬ cation there is a variation in the date between the French and Latin copies, apparently accidental. In the Latin it is dated ‘Basilese, X Calendas Septembres’ [1535]—that is, August 23, 1535—while in the French translation by the author, in his last revised translation of 1559, the date is given f De Basle, le premier jour d’Aoust, mil cinq cens trente cinq.’ "I have subsequently obtained a perfect copy, and have seen two or three others. The former possessor of my copy has a note written perhaps a century ago, as to its great rarity:—f Editio ista albis corvis rarior, princeps sine dubio, quidquid dicat P. Baylius, cujus exemplaria ita sunt rarissima, ut ipsa Bibliotheca G-enevensis careat integro qui ipse asservatur ibidem tantum mutilum.’ [This edition, rarer than a white crow, is without doubt the first. Instances of it, as P. Bayle says, are so very rare, that in the Library of Geneva even there is not a perfect copy; the one there preserved is mutilated.]

METHOD OF THE “INSTITUTES. We shall briefly examine the order and scope of the book.

It proposes two great ends, the know-

ledge of God and the knowledge of man. the first to attain the second,

It employs

229

dim and now defaced image, but to turn our eye upon the undimmed and glorious Original—the Being in whose likeness man was created,

“ The whole sum of

The image of God, it is argued, imprinted upon

wisdom,” said the author at the outset, “ is that by

our own souls would have sufficed to reveal Him to

knowing God each of us knows himself also.”1

If

us if we had not fallen.

But sin has defaced that

man was made in the image of God, then surely the

image.

true way to know what our moral and spiritual

for God has graciously given us a second revelation

powers are, or ought to be, what are the relations

ef Himself in His Word.

VIEW

OF

in which we stand to God, and what the service of love and obedience we owe Him, is not to study the

Nevertheless, we are not left in darkness,

BASLE.

holding it aloft, Calvin proceeds on his way, and bids all who would know the eternal mysteries follow that shining light.

I may add, the copy in the Library at Geneva is mu¬ tilated, the noble dedication to Francis the First having been cut out. The first enlarged edition is the one at Strasburg, f Argenterati/ 1539, folio. Some copies have the pseudonym f Auetore Alcuino/

Grasping that torch, and

Thus it was that the

all-sufficiency and supreme and sole authority of the Scriptures took a leading place in the system of the Reformer. The order of the work is simplicity itself. borrowed from the Apostles’

“"The earliest edition of this French version has neither place nor date, but was published between 1540 and 1543; and in a subsequent edition printed at Geneva, 1553, 4to, the title reads. Institution de la Religion Chrestienne: composee en Latin par Jean Calvin, et translatee en Francois par luymesme, et encores de nouveau reveue et augmentSe. This seems conclusive that the work was originally written in Latin, dated 1535, published 1536, and after¬ wards translated by the author.”

first book.

1 f,'Yera hominis sapientia sita est in cognitione Dei Creatoris et Bedemptoris.” (Qalvini Opp. 3 vol. ix.)

world.

Gfceed,

It is

whose four

cardinal doctrines furnish the Reformer with the argument of the four books in which he finally arranged the Institutes. I. “/ believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth!

Such is the argument of the

In it Calvin brings God before us in

His character of Creator and sovereign Ruler of the But we must note that his treatment of.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

230 this theme is eminently moral.

It is no scenic

answers,

is the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit works

exhibition of omnipotent power and infinite wis¬

faith in the sinner, and by that faith, as with a

dom, as shown in the building of the fabric of the

hand, he receives a two-fold benefit—a righteous¬

heavens and the earth, that passes before us.

ness which is imputed to him, and a regeneration

From

the first line the author places himself and us in

which is wrought within him.

the eye of conscience.

Can the

obtains the justification of his person, by the second

knowledge of God as Creator conduct to salvation h

the sanctification of his soul, and a fitness for that

leads the Reformer to discuss in successive chapters

glory everlasting of which he became the heir in

the doctrine of the fall; the necessity of another

the moment of his justification.

and clearer revelation; the proofs of the inspiration

corollary from all this is that man’s salvation is

of the Bible.

The question,

He winds up with some chapters on

Providence, as exercised in the government of all In these

The one grand

exclusively, and from first to last, of God’s sovereign grace. Thus do Calvin and Luther meet.

things, and in the superintendence of each par¬ ticular thing and person in the universe.

By the first he

They have

travelled by different routes ; the first has advanced

chapters Calvin lays the foundations for that tre¬

by

mendous conclusion at which he arrives in the book

second has by a sudden inspiration, as it were,

touching election, which has been so stumbling to

grasped the truth; but here at last the two mighty

many, and which is solemn and mysterious to all.

chiefs stand side by side on the ground of “ Sal¬

II.

u And

Son A

in

long

and magnificent demonstration,

the

Jesus Christ, His only-begotten

vation of God,” and taking each other by the hand,

The knowledge of God as Redeemer is the

they direct their united assault against the fortress

argument of book second.

This ushers the author

upon a higher stage, and places him amid grander themes.

a

All that led up to the redemption accom¬

plished on Calvary, as well as itself, is here discussed.

the redemption

Sin, the ruin of man, and

his inability to be his own saviour;

the moral

of Rome, “ Salvation of man.” The moment in which Calvin arrived at this con¬ clusion formed an epoch in the history of Chris¬ tianity—that is, of the human race.

It was the full

and demonstrated recovery of a truth that lies at the foundation of all progress, inasmuch as it is the

law; the gracious purpose of God in giving it,

channel of those supernatural and celestial influences

namely, to convince man of sin, and make him feel

by which the human soul is quickened, and society

his need of a Saviour; such are the successive and

advanced.

majestic steps by which Calvin advances to the

which St. Paul had been led to put on record so full

Cross.

and clear an exposition, early began to be corrupted.

Arrived there, we have a complete Christo-

The doctrine of justification by faith, of

logy : Jesus very God, very Man, Prophet, Priest,

By the times of Augustine even, very erroneous

and King; and His death an eternal redemption,

views were held on this most important subject;

inasmuch as it was an actual, full, and complete

and that great Father was not exempt from the

expiation of the sins of His people.

obscurity of his age.

The book

After his day the corruption

closes with the collected light of the Bible con¬

rapidly increased.

centrated upon the Cross, and revealing it with a

simply an elaborate and magnificent exhibition of

noonday clearness, as a fully accomplished redemp¬

the doctrine of “ Salvation by works.”

tion, the one impregnable ground of the sinner’s

guage of all its dogmas, and every one of its rites,

hope.

was

III. “ I believe in the Holy Ghost A

The

“ Man his own

Church

saviour.”

of

Rome was The lan¬

Luther

placed

That part

underneath the stupendous fabric of Rome the

of redemption which it is the office of the Spirit to

doctrine which, driven by his soul-agonies to the

accomplish, is the argument to which the author

Divine page, he had there discovered—“ Salvation

now addresses himself.

by grace ”—and the edifice fell to the ground.

The theme of the second

book is a righteousness accomplished without the

This

was the application that Luther made of the doctrine.

sinner : in the third book we are shown a righteous¬

The use to which Calvin put it was more extensive ;

ness accomplishedl within him.

Calvin insists not

he brought out its bearings upon the whole scheme

less emphatically upon the last as an essential part

of Christian doctrine, and made it the basis of the

of redemption than upon the first.

Reformation of the Church in the largest and widest

The sinner’s

destruction was within him, his salvation must in

sense of the term.

like manner be within him ; an atonement without

power of the doctrine which strikes us; in those of

In the hands of Luther it is the

him will not save him unless he have a holiness

Calvin it is its truth, and universality, lying en¬

within him.

But what, asks the author, is the bond

trenched as it were within its hundred lines of

of connection between the sinner and the righteous¬

doctrinal circumvallation, and dominating the whole

ness accomplished without him h

territory of truth in such fashion as to deny to

That bond, he

CALVIN ON PREDESTINATION,

231

error, of every sort and name, so much as a foot-

the first and second precepts of the Decalogue, and

breadth on which to take root and flourish.

therefore to be condemned as idolatrous; but that in

IV. UI believe in the Holy Catholic Church.”

the mass they were without warrant in the Word of

The term Church, in its strict sense, he applied to

God, and were therefore to be rejected as unlawful.

the children of God; in its looser sense, to ail who made profession of the Gospel, for the instruc¬

In regard to

Church government, the means

which the Reformer adopted for putting an end to

tion and government of whom, God had instituted,

all existing corruptions and abuses, and prevent¬

he held, pastors and teachers.

ing their

Touching the wor¬

recurrence,

are well

summed

up by

ship and government of the Church, Calvin laid

Dr. Cunningham.

down the principle of the unlawfulness of intro¬

—“ First, by putting an end to anything like the

He sought to attain this end

ducing anything without positive Scripture sanction.

exercise of monarchical authority in the Church, or

“ This, he thought, would go to the root of the

independent power vested officially in one man, which

matter, and sweep away at once the whole mass of

was the origin and root of the Papacy.

sacramentalism and ceremonialism, of ritualism and

falling back upon the combination of aristocracy and

hierarchism,

which had

grown up between the

apostolic age and the Reformation. ”1

Augustine

Second, by

democracy, which prevailed for at least the first two centuries of the Christian era, when the Churches

deplored the prevalence of the rites and ceremonies

were governed by the common council of Presbyters,

of his time, but he lacked a definite principle with

and these Presbyters were chosen by the Churches

which to combat and uproot them.

These cere¬

themselves, though tried and ordained by those

monies and rites had become yet more numerous

who had been previously admitted to office.

in Luther's day; but neither had he any weapon

by providing against the formation of a spirit of a

wherewith to grapple effectually with them.

Third,

He

mere priestly caste, by associating with the minis¬

opposed them mainly on two grounds : first, that

ters in the administration of ecclesiastical affairs,

they were burdensome;

and secondly, that they

a class of men who, though ordained Presbyters,

contained more or less the idea of merit, and so

were usually engaged in the ordinary occupations

tended to undermine the doctrine of justification

of society;

by faith.

Calvin sought for a principle which

repetition of the history of the rise and growth of

should clear the ground of that whole noxious

the prelacy and the Papacy, through the perversion

and fourth, by trying to prevent a

growth at once, and he judged that he had found

of the one-man power, by fastening the substance

such a principle in the following—namely, that not

of these great principles upon the conscience of the

only were many of these ceremonies contrary to

Church as binding j are clivino. ”2

CHAPTER XXIV. CALVIN

ON

PREDESTINATION

AND

ELECTION.

Calvin’s Views on the Affirmative Side—God as the Author of all things Ordains all that is to come to pass—The Means equally with the End comprehended in the Decree—As Sovereign, God Executes all that comes to pass— Calvin’s Views on the Negative Side—Man a Free Agent—Man an Accountable Being—Calvin maintained side by side God’s Eternal Ordination and Man’s Freedom of Action—Cannot Reconcile the Two—Liberty and Necessity—Tremendous Difficulties confessed to Attach to Both Theories—Explanations—Locke and Sir William Hamilton—Growth of the Instit utes. We have reserved till now our brief statement of

the clearness, fairness, and brevity possible, what

Calvin’s views on the subject of predestination and

Calvin held and taught on this great point.

election—the shroud, in the eyes of some, in which

absolute sovereignty of God was Calvin’s corner¬

The

he has wrapped up his theology; the rock, in the

stone.

view of others, on which he has planted it.

Our

universe, he held that God must proceed in His

business as historians is neither to impugn nor

government of His creatures according to a definite

to defend, but simply to narrate; to state, with all

plan; that that plan He had formed unalterably

As the Author and

Ruler of His own

and unchangeably from everlasting; 1 Cunningham, The Reformers and the Theology of the Reformation, p. 342; Edin., 1862.

that it em-

2 Cunningham, Reformers and Theol. of Reform., p. 343.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM. braced not merely the grander issues of Provi¬

and instead of relaxing it tended to brace the soul,

dence,

to give it a more vigorous temper ;

but the whole array of means by which

and certainly

these issues are reached; that this plan God fully

the qualities of perseverance and indomitable energy

carries

and that, though formed

which were so conspicuously shown in Calvin’s own

according to the good pleasure of His will, it is

life, and which have generally characterised those

out

in time;

based on reasons infinitely wise and righteous,

communities who have embraced his scheme of

although these have not been made known to us.

doctrine, go far to bear out the Reformer in this

Such was Calvin’s first and fundamental position.

particular, and to show that the belief in predesti¬

This larger and wider form of the question, to which is given the name of predestination, embraces

nation inspires with courage, prompts to activity and effort, and mightily sustains hope.

and disposes of the minor one, namely, election.

The Reformer was of opinion that he saw in the

If God from everlasting pre-ordained the whole

history of the world a proof that the belief in pre¬

history and ultimate fate of all His creatures, it

destination—that

follows that He pre-ordained the destiny of each

links the means with the end, and arranges that

predestination,

namely,

which

individual.

Calvin taught, as Augustine had done

the one shall be reached only through the other

before him, that out of a race all equally guilty

—is to make the person feel that he is working

and condemned, God had elected some to ever¬

alongside a Power that cannot be baffled;

lasting life, and that this decree of the election of

he is pursuing the same ends which that Power

that

some to life, implied the reprobation of the rest to

is prosecuting, and that, therefore, he must and shall

death, but that their own sin and not God’s decree

finally be crowned with victory.

was the reason of their perishing.

thought, been exemplified equally in nations and in

The Reformer

further was careful to teach that the election of

This had, he

individuals.

some to life did not proceed on God’s fore-know¬

Calvin was by no means insensible to the tre¬

ledge of their faith and good works, but that, on

mendous difficulties that environ the whole subject.

the contrary, their election was the efficient cause

The depth as well as range of his intellectual and

of their faith and holiness.

moral vision gave him a fuller and clearer view

These doctrines the Reformer embraced because

than perhaps the majority of his opponents have

it appeared to him that they were the doctrines

had of these great difficulties.

taught in the Scriptures on the point in question;

not to one side of the question, but to both ; and

But these attach,

that they were proclaimed in the facts of history;

Calvin judged that he could not escape them, nor

and that they were logically and inevitably deducible

even diminish them by one iota, by shifting his

from the idea of the supremacy, the omnipotence,

position. The absolute fore-knowledge of God called

and intelligence of God.

up all these difficulties equally with His absolute

Any other scheme ap¬

peared to him inconsistent with these attributes of

pre-ordination;

the Deity, and, in fact, a dethroning of God as the

God’s executing all things in time quite as much

nay, they beset the question of

Sovereign of the universe which he had called into

as the question of His decreeing all things from

existence, and an abandonment of its affairs to

eternity.

blind chance.

themselves in connection with what is but another

Such was the positive or affirmative side Galvin’s views.

of

We shall now briefly consider the

Most of all do these difficulties present

form of the same question, namely, the existence of moral evil.

That is an awful reality.

Why

negative side, in order to see his whole mind on the

should God, All-powerful and All-holy, have created

question.

The Reformer abhorred and repudiated

man, foreseeing that he would sin and be lost I why

the idea that God was the Author of sin, and he

not have created him, if He created Him at all,

denied that any such inference could be legitimately

without the possibility of sinning ? or why should

drawn from his doctrine of predestination.

not God cut short in the cradle that existence which

He

denied, too, with the same emphasis, that any con¬

if allowed to develop will, He foresees, issue in

straint or force was put by the decree upon the will

wrong and injury to others, and in the ruin of the

of man, or any restraint upon his actions; but that,

person himself'?

on the contrary, all men enjoyed that spontaneity

Calvinistic or on the Arminian side, who can give

Is there any one, whether on the

of will and freedom of action which are essential

a satisfactory answer to these questions'?

to moral accountability.

freely admitted that he could not reconcile God s

He repudiated, moreover,

Calvin

the charge of fatalism which has sometimes been

absolute sovereignty with man’s free will; but he

brought against his doctrine, maintaining that inas¬

felt himself obliged to admit and believe both j both

much as the means were fore-ordained as well as

accordingly he maintained; though it was not in

the end, his teaching had just the opposite effect,

his power, nor, he believed, in the power of any

OPINIONS ON THE “ INSTITUTES. » man, to establish a harmony between them.

What

233

power—these arcana of celestial forces.

It is em¬

he aimed at was to proceed in this solemn path as

phatically the Reformation.

far as the lights of revelation and reason could

said, as it first saw the light in Basle in 1536 was

conduct him;

and when their guidance failed,

small (pp. 514) ; it consisted of but six chapters, and

when he came to the thick darkness, and stood in

was a sketch in outline of the fundamental prin¬

the presence of mysteries that refused to unveil

ciples of the Christian faith.

themselves to him, reverently to bow down and

unity and strength, grandeur and completeness, by

adore.1

the patient and persevering touches of the author,

We judged it essential to give this brief account of the theology of the Institutes.

The book was

The book, we have

The work grew into

and when completed it consisted of four books and eighty-four chapters.

But as in the acorn is wrapped

the chest that contained the vital forces of the

up all that is afterwards evolved in the full-grown

Reformation.

oak, so in the first small edition of the Institutes

It may be likened to the living

spirits that animated the wheels in the prophet’s

were contained all the great principles which we

vision.

now possess, fully developed and demonstrated, in

The leagues, battles, and majestic move¬

ments of that age all proceeded from this centre of

the last and completed edition of 1559.

CHAPTER XXV. calvin’s appeal to francis i. Enthusiasm evoked by the appearance of the Institutes—Marshals the Reformed into One Host

Beauty of the Style

of the Institutes—Opinions expressed on it by Scaliger, Sir William Hamilton, Principal Cunningham, M. Msarcl —The Institutes an Apology for the Reformed—In scathing Indignation comparable to Tacitus—Home-thrusts— He Addresses the King of France—Pleads for his Brethren—They Suffer for the Gospel—Cannot Abandon it —Offer themselves to Heath-A Warning—Grandeur of the Appeal—Hid Francis ever Read this Appeal ? Thus did a strong arm uplift before the eyes of all

“ Spreading,” says Felice, “ ividely in the schools,

Europe, and throw loose upon the winds, a banner

in the castles of the gentry, the homes of the citi¬

round which the children of the Reformation might

zens, and the workshops of the common people, the

rally.

Its appearance at that hour greatly inspirited

Institutes became the most powerful of preachers.” a

them.

It showed them that they had a righteous

The style of the work was not less fitted to arrest

cause, an energetic and courageous leader, and that

attention than the contents.

they were no longer a mere multitude, but a mar¬

duced for the occasion.

It seemed as if pro¬

shalled host, whose appointed march was over a

and power, it was akin to the beauty of the truths

terrible battle-field, but to whom there was also

that were entrusted to it, and of which it was made

appointed a triumph worthy of their cause and of

the vehicle.

the kingly spirit who had arisen to lead them.

The great doctrines he was enunciating engrossed

In flexibility, transparency,

Yet Calvin had not thought of style.

him entirely; and the free and majestic march of his 1 This difficulty has been equally felt and acknowledged by writers on the doctrine of Philosophical Necessity. For instance, we find Locke (vol. iii., p.487; fol. ed., 1751) saying, “T cannot have a clearer perception of anything than that I am free, yet I cannot make freedom in man consistent with omniscience and omnipotence in God, though I am as fully persuaded of both as of any truth I most firmly assent to/’ Locke in philosophy was a necessitarian. Sir William Hamilton, a libertarian, ex¬ presses similar views on this question: “How, there¬ fore, I repeat, moral liberty is possible in man or God, we are utterly unable speculatively to understand. But, practically, the fact that we are free is given to us in the consciousness of an uncompromising law of duty, in the consciousness of our moral accountability.” ^o-

trine of probabilism.

It is important to ask, what

makes an opinion probable ?

To make an opinion

probable a Jesuit finds easy indeed.

If a single

doctor has pronounced in its favour,

bably wrong, but let us imagine some good to be got by it, and it is probably right.

The Jesuit

writers, for the sake of those who are dull of under¬

though a

standing and slow to apprehend the freedom they

.score of doctors may have condemned it, or if the

bring them, have gone into particulars and com¬

man can imagine in his own mind something like a

piled lists of actions, esteemed sinful, unnatural,

tolerable reason for doing the act, the opinion that

and abominable by the moral sense of all nations

it is lawful becomes probable.

It will be hard to

hitherto, but which, in virtue of this new morality,

name an act for which a Jesuit authority may not

are no longer so, and they have explained how these

be produced, and harder still to find a man whose

actions may be safely done, with a minuteness of

invention is so poor as not to furnish him with

detail and a luxuriance of illustration, in which it

what he deems a good reason for doing what he is

were tedious in some cases, immodest in others, to

inclined to, and therefore it may be pronounced

follow them.

impossible to instance a deed, however manifestly

One would think that this was licence enough.

opposed to the light of nature and the law of God,

What more can the Jesuit need, or what more can

which may not be committed under the shield of

he possibly have, seeing by a little effort of invention

the monstrous dogma of probabilism.1

he can overleap every human and Divine barrier,

We are neither indulging in satire nor incurring the charge of false-witness-bearing in this picture of Jesuit theology.

“ A person may do what he con¬

and commit the

most

horrible crimes,

on

the

mightiest possible scale, and neither feel remorse of conscience nor fear of punishment?

But this un¬

siders allowable,” says Emmanuel Sa, of the Society

bounded liberty of wickedness did not content the

of Jesus, “ according to a probable opinion, although

sons of Loyola.

the contrary may be the more probable one.

sible,

The

yet

They panted for a liberty, if pos¬

more boundless;

they wished to be

opinion of a single grave doctor is all that is

released from the easy condition of imagining some

requisite.”

of

good end for the wickedness they wished to perpe¬

“ It is allowable,”

trate, and to be free to sin without the trouble of

A yet greater doctor,

Home, confirms him in this.

Eiliutius,

says he, “ to follow the less probable opinion, even

assigning even to themselves any end at all.

though it be the less safe one.

they have accomplished by the method of directing

judgment of modern authors.”

That is the common “ Of two contrary

This

the intention.

opinions,” says Paul Laymann, “ touching the le¬

This is a new ethical science, unknown to those

gality or illegality of any human action, every one

ages which were not privileged to bask in the

may follow in practice or in action that which he

illuminating rays of the Society of Jesus, and it is

should prefer, although it may appear to the agent

as simple as convenient.

himself less probable in theory.”

He adds: “A

that does the act, so far as it is moral or immoral.

learned person may give contrary advice to different

As regards the body’s share in it, neither virtue nor

persons according to contrary probable opinions,

vice can be predicated of it. the

1 Probabilism will be denied, but it has not been re¬ nounced. In a late publication a member of the society has actually attempted to vindicate it. See Be VExistence et de VInstitute des Jesuites. Par le R; P. de Ravignan, de la Compagnie de Jesus. Paris, 1845. Page 83.

It is the soul, they argue,

hand

is

shedding blood,

If, therefore, while or the tongue is

calumniating character, or uttering a falsehood, the soul can so abstract itself from what the body 2 Pascal, Provincial Letters, p. 70; Edin., 1847.

396

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

is doing as to occupy itself the while with some

break with him at once—such conduct is diabolical.

holy theme, or fix its meditation upon some benefit

This holds true, without exception, of age, sex, or

or advantage likely to arise from the deed, which it

rank.

knows, or at least suspects, the body is at that

wretched disposition as this, we try to put in

moment

practice our method of directing the intention, which

engaged

in

doing,

BLAISE PASCAL.

the

soul

contracts

But when the person is not of such a

(From the Portrait in the Edition of his Works published in Paris,

neither guilt nor stain, and the man runs no risk

1819.)

simply consists in his proposing to himself, as the

of ever being called to account for the murder, or

end of his actions, some allowable object.

theft, or calumny, by God, or of incurring his dis¬

that we do not endeavour, as far as we can, to

pleasure on that ground.

dissuade men from doing things forbidden; but

We are not satirising;

Not

we are simply stating the morality of the Jesuits.

when we cannot prevent the action, we at least

“We never,” says the Father Jesuit

purify the motive, and thus correct the viciousness

in Pascal’s

Letters, “ suffer such a thing as the formal inten¬

of the means by the goodness of the end.

tion to sin with the sole design of sinning; and if

the way in which our Fathers [of the society] have

Such is

any person whatever should persist in having no

contrived to permit those acts of violence to which

other end but evil in the evil that he does, we

men usually resort in vindication of their honour.

397

DIRECTING THE INTENTION. They have no more to do than to turn off the

for evil, but with that of preserving his honour.”

intention from the desire of vengeance, which is

Lessius3 observes that

criminal, and to direct it to a desire to defend their

blow on the face, he must on no account have an

honour, which, according to us, is quite warrant¬

intention to avenge himself; but he may lawfully

able.

And in this way our doctors discharge all

their duty towards God and towards man.

By

if a man has received a

have an intention to avert infamy, and may, with that view, repel the insult immediately, even at

permitting the action they gratify the world; and

the point of the sword.

by purifying the intention

posed to injure you,” says Escobar, 44 you have no

to the Gospel.

they give satisfaction

This is a secret, sir, which was

entirely unknown to the ancients;

the world is

4 4 If your enemy is dis¬

right to wish his death by a movement of hatred, though you may to save yourself from harm.”

And

indebted for the discovery entirely to our doctors.

says Hurtado de Mendoza,4 44 We may pray God to

You understand it now, I hope.”1 2

visit with speedy death those who are bent on per¬

Let us take a few illustrative cases, but only such as Jesuit casuists themselves have furnished.

44 A

secuting us, if there is no other way of escaping from it.”

44 An incumbent,” says Gaspar de Hur¬

military man,” says Reginald,2 44 may demand satis¬

tado,5 44 may without any mortal sin desire the

faction on the spot from the person who has injured

decease of a life-renter on his benefice, and a son

him, not indeed with the intention of rendering evil 1 The Provincial Letters. Letter vii., p. 96; Edin., 1847. 2 In Praxi, livr. xxi., num. 62.

3 De Just., livr. ii., c. 9, d. 12, n. 79. 4 De Spe, vol. ii., d. 15, sec. 4. 5 De Sub. Pecc., diff. 9.

398

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

that of a father, and rejoice when it happens, pro¬

unjustly in a law-suit, or by chicanery, and when

vided always it is for the sake of the profit that is

there is no other way of preserving them.1

to accrue from the event, and not from personal

equally right to kill in a private way a false accuser,

aversion.”

Sanchez teaches that it is lawful to kill

It is

and his witness, and even the judge who has been

our adversary in a duel, or even privately, when

bribed to favour them.

he intends to deprive us of our honour or property

tion ! ” exclaims Pascal.

“ A most pious assassina¬

CHAPTER Y. THE JESUIT TEACHING ON REGICIDE, MURDER, LYING, THEFT, ETC.

The Maxims of the Jesuits on Begicide—M. de la Chalotais’ Beport to the Parliament of Bretagne—Effects of Jesuit Doctrine as shown in History—Doctrine of Mental Equivocation—The Art of Swearing Falsely without Sin—The Seventh Commandment—Jesuit Doctrine on Blasphemy—Murder—Lying—Theft—An Illustrative Case from Pascal—Every Precept of the Decalogue made Yoid—Jesuit Morality the Consummation of the Wickedness of the Fall. The three great rules of the code of the Jesuits,

of arguments to defend and enforce.

which

as abundant as it is painful.

we have stated in the foregoing chapter

-—namely, (1) that the end justifies the means; (2)

The proof is;

M. de la Chalotais

reports to the Parliament of Bretagne, as the result

that it is safe to do any action if it be probably

of his examination of the laws and doctrines of

right, although it may be more probably wrong;

the Jesuits, that on this point there is a complete

and (3) that if one know to direct the intention

and startling unanimity in their teaching.

aright, there is no deed, be its moral character

same logical track do the whole host of Jesuit

By the

what it may, which one may not do—may seem to

writers arrive afc the same terrible conclusion, the

give a licence of acting so immense that to add

slaughter, namely, of the sovereign on whom the

thereto were an altogether superfluous, and indeed

Pope has pronounced sentence of deposition.

an impossible task.

But if the liberty with which

shall take meekly his extrusion from power, and seek

these three maxims endow the Jesuit cannot be

neither to resist nor revenge his being hurled from

made larger, its particular applications may never¬

his throne, his life may be spared; but should “ he

theless be made more pointed, and the man who

persist in disobedience,” says M. de la Chalotais,,

holds back from using it in all its extent may be

himself a Papist, and addressing a Popish Parlia¬

emboldened, despite his remaining scruples, or the

ment, “ he may be treated as a tyrant, in which

dullness of his intellectual perceptions, to avail

case anybody may kill him.2

himself to the utmost of the advantages it offers,

of reasoning established by all

“ for the greater glory of

society, who have written ex professo on

God.”

He is to be

taught, not merely by general rules, but by specific

subjects—Bellarmine,

If he

Such is the course

Suarez,

authors of the

Molina,

these

Mariana,,

examples, how he may sin and yet not become

Santarel—all the Ultramontanes without exception,,

sinful;

since the establishment of the society.”3

how he may break the law and yet not

suffer the penalty.

But, further, these sons of

But have not the writers of this school expressed

Loyola are the kings of the world, and the sole

in no measured terms their abhorrence of murder T

heirs of all its wealth, honours, and pleasures; and

Have they not loudly exclaimed against the sacrilege

whatever law, custom, sacred and venerable office,

of touching him on whom the Church’s anointing oil

august and kingly authority, may stand between

has been poured as king 2

In short, do they not

them and their rightful lordship over mankind, they are at liberty to throw down and tread into the dust as a vile and accursed thing.

The moral maxims

of the Jesuits are to be put in force against kings as well as against peasants. The lawfulness of killing excommunicated, that is Protestant, kings, the Jesuit writers have been at great pains to maintain, and by a great variety

1 Sanchez, Mor. Theol., livr. ii., c. 39, n. 7. 2 A quocumque privato potest interfici.”—Suarez; (i., 6, ch. 4)—Chalotais, Beport Constit. Jesuits, p. 84. 3 “There are/’ adds M. de la Chalotais, in a foot-note* “nearly 20,000 Jesuits in the world [1761], all imbued with Ultramontane doctrines, and the doctrine of murder.” That is more than a century ago. Their numbers haveprodigiously increased since.

399

REGICIDE AND MURDER forbid and condemn the crime of regicide ? this is true :

Yes :

but they protest with a warmth that

But why should we dwell on these written proofs of the disloyal and murderous principles

of the

Rome can take

Jesuits, when their acted deeds bear still more em¬

back her anointing, and when she has stripped the

phatic testimony to the true nature and effects of

monarch of his office he becomes the lawful victim

their principles ?

of her consecrated dagger.

on every hand the melancholy monuments of these

is fitted to awaken suspicion.

On what grounds, the

We have only to look around, and

Jesuits demand, can the killing of one who is no

doctrines meet our afflicted sight.

longer a king be called regicide ?

of Europe shall we turn where we are not able to

Suarez tells us

To what country

that when a king is deposed he is no longer to be

track the Jesuit by his bloody foot-prints?

regarded as a king, but as a tyrant: “ he there¬

page of modern history shall we open and not read

fore loses his authority, and from that moment may

fresh proofs that the Papal doctrine of killing ex¬

be lawfully killed.”

Nor is the opinion of the

Jesuit Mariana less decided.

Speaking of a prince,

What

communicated kings was not meant to slumber in forgotten tomes, but to be acted out in the living

he says: “ If he should overthrow the religion of the

world 1

We see Henry III. falling by their dagger.

country, and introduce a public enemy within the

Henry

IV.

State, I shall never consider that man to have done

weapon.

wrong, who, favouring the public

would

The great Prince of Orange is dispatched by their

attempt to kill him. . . . . It is useful that princes

agent, shot down at the door of his own dining¬

should be made to know, that if they oppress the

room.

State and become intolerable by their vices and their

to murder Elizabeth, history attests.

pollution, they hold their lives upon this tenure,

escaped their machinations is one of the marvels of

wishes,

perishes

by

the

same

consecrated

The King of Portugal dies by their orders

How many assassins they sent to England That she

that to put them to death is not only laudable, but a

history.

glorious action.It is a glorious thing to

into which they have crept with their doctrines of

exterminate this pestilent and mischievous race

murder and assassination ; the very sanctuary of

from the community of men.”1

their own Popes they have defiled with blood.

Wherever the Jesuits have planted missions,

Nor is it only the palaces of monarchs

behold Clement XIV.

We

signing the order for the

opened seminaries, and established colleges, they

banishment of the Jesuits, and soon thereafter he

have been careful to inculcate these principles in

is overtaken by their vengeance, and dies by poison.

the minds of the youth; thus sowing the seeds of

In the Gunpowder Plot we see them deliberately

future tumults, revolutions,

planning to destroy at one blow the nobility and

regicides, and wars.

These evil fruits have appeared sometimes sooner,

gentry of England.

To them we owe those civil

sometimes later, but they have never failed to show

wars which for

many years drenched

themselves, to the grief of nations and the dismay

blood the fair provinces of France.

of kings.

train

John Chatel, who attempted the life of

so

of that crowning

horror,

with

They laid the the St. Bartho¬

Henry IV., had studied in the College of Clermont,

lomew massacre.

in which the Jesuit G-uignard was Professor of

between them the guilt of the “Invincible Armada,”'

Divinity.

In the chamber of the would-be regicide,

which,

Philip II. and the Jesuits share

instead of inflicting the measureless ruin

a manuscript of Guignard was found, in which,

and havoc which its authors intended, by a most-

besides other dangerous articles, that Father ap¬

merciful Providence became the means of exhaust¬

proved not only of the assassination of Henry III.

ing the treasures and overthrowing the prestige of

by Clement, but also maintained that the same

Spain.

thing ought to be attempted against le Bearnois, as

revolutions, torturings, poisonings, assassinations,

What a harvest of plots, tumults, seditions,

he called Henry IV., which occasioned the first

regicides, and massacres has Christendom reaped

banishment of the order out of France, as a society

from the seed sown by the Jesuits !

detestable and diabolical.

be sure that we have yet seen the last and greatest,

liament, passed in

1591,

The sentence of the Par¬ ordained

“that all the

Nor can we

of their crimes.

priests and scholars of the College of Clermont, and

We can bestow only the most cursory glance at

others calling themselves the Society of Jesus, as

the teaching of the Jesuits under the other heads of

being corrupters of youth, disturbers of the public

moral duty.

peace, and enemies of the king and State, should

reservation.

Let us take their doctrine of mental

depart in three days from their house and college,

heinous and, at the same time, more dangerous.

and in fifteen days out of the whole kingdom.”

“ The doctrine of equivocation,”

Nothing

can

be

imagined

more

says Blackwell,

“ is for the consolation of afflicted Roman Catholics 1 Mariana, Be Rege et Regis Institutione, lib. i., cap. 6, p. 61, and lib. i., cap. 7, p. 64; ed. 1640.

and the instruction of all the godly.” It has been of special use to them when residing among infidels

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

400 and lieretics.

In heathen countries, as China and

We shall offer no comment on the teaching of

Malabar, they have professed conformity to the rites

the Jesuits

under'the head of the seventh com¬

and the worship of paganism, while remaining Roman

mandment.

The doctrines of the society which

Catholics at heart, and they have taught their con¬

relate to chastity are screened from exposure by

verts to venerate their former deities in appearance,

the very enormity of their turpitude.

on the strength of directing aright the intention, and

them as we would the open grave, whose putrid

the pious fraud of concealing a crucifix under their

breath kills all who inhale it.

clothes.

the sweetness of a pure imagination, and the joy of

Equivocation they have carried into civil life as well as into religion.

We pass

Let all who value

a conscience undefiled, shun the confessional as

“ A man may swear,” says

they would the chamber in which the plague is

Sanchez, “ that he hath not done a thing though

shut up, or the path in which lurks the deadly

he really have, by understanding within himself that

scorpion.

he did it not on such and such a day, or before he was

deadly—is here a poison that consumes flesh, and

born ; or by reflecting on some other circumstance

bones, and soul.

of the like nature; and yet the words he shall make

The teaching of the Jesuits—everywhere

Which precept of the Decalogue is it that the

use of shall not have a sense implying any such

theology of the Jesuits does not set aside ?

thing; and this is a thing of great convenience on

commanded “ to fear the great and dreadful name

many occasions, and is always justifiable when it is

of the Lord our God.”

necessary or advantageous in anything that con¬

us to blaspheme it.

cerns a man’s health, honour, or estate.”1

We are

The Jesuit Bauny teaches

“ If one has been hurried by

Filiu-

passion into cursing and doing despite to his Maher,

tius, in his Moral Questions, asks, “ Is it wrong

it may be determined that he has only sinned

to use equivocation in swearing 'I

venially.”4

I answer, first,

This is much, but Casnedi goes a little

that it is not in itself a sin to use equivocation in

farther.

swearing.This is the common doctrine after

good, and commanded,” says this Jesuit; “if through

Huarez.”

invincible error you believe lying or blasphemy

“ Is it perjury or sin to equivocate in a

just cause V’ he further asks. he answers.

“It is not perjury,”

to

be

“ Do what your conscience tells you to be

commanded

by God,

blaspheme.”5

The

“ As, for example, in the case of a

licence given by the Jesuits to regicide we have

man who has outwardly made a promise without

already seen; not less ample is the provision their

the intention of promising; if he is asked whether

theology makes for the perpetration of ordinary

he has promised, he may deny it, meaning that he

homicide^ and murders.

has not promised with a binding promise ; and thus

to kill a false witness, seeing otherwise one should

he may swear.”

be killed by him.6

Filiutius asks yet again, “With what precaution is equivocation to be used %

When we begin, for

children from justly

Reginald says it is lawful

Parents who seek to turn their

the faith,

says Fagundez,

be killed by them”7

“ may

The Jesuit Amicus

instance, to say, I swear, we must insert in a sub¬

teaches that it is lawful for an ecclesiastic, or one

dued tone the mental restriction, that to-day, and

in a religious order, to hill a calumniator when

then continue aloud, I have not eaten such a thing;

other means of defence are wanting.8

or, 1 swear—then insert, I say—then conclude in the

extends the same privilege to laymen.

same loud voice, that I have not done this or that

brings an impeachment before a prince or judge

thing;

And Airult If one

for thus the whole speech is most true.”2

against another, and if that other cannot by any

What an admirable lesson in the art 'of speaking

means avert the injury to his character, he may hill

the truth to one’s self, and lying and swearing

him secretly.

falsely to everybody else !3

rity of Bannez, who gives the same latitude to the

1 Sanch. Op. Mor., pars. 2, lib. iii., cap. 6. 2 Mor. Quwst. de Christianis Officiis et Casibus Conscientice, tom. ii., tr. 25, cap. 11, n. 321—328; Lugduni, 1633. 3 It is easy to see how these precepts may be put in practice an swearing the oath of allegiance, or promising to obey the law, or engaging not to attack the institu¬ tions of the State, or to obey the rules and further the ends of any society, lay or clerical, into which the Jesuit may enter. The swearer has only to repeat aloud the pre¬ scribed words, and insert silently such other words, at the fitting places, as shall make void the oath, clause by clause—nay, bind the swearer to the very opposite of that which the administrator of the oath intends to pledge him to.

the calumniator should first be warned that he

He fortifies his opinion by the autho¬

right of defence, with this slight qualification, that desist from his slander, and if he will not, he should be hilled, not openly, on account of the scandal, but secretly.9

4 Stephen Bauny, Som. des Peches; Eiotfen, 1653. 5 Crisis Theol.y tom. i., disp. 6, sect. 2, § 1, n. 59. 6 Praxis Fori Pcenit., tom. ii., lib. xxi, cap. 5, n. 57. 7 In Prcecep. Decal., tom. i., lib. iv., cap. 2, n. 7, 8. 8 Cursus Theol., tom. v., disp. 36, sec. 5, n. 118. 9 Cens., pp. 319, 320—Collation faite & la requete de V TJni* versite de Paris, 1613; Paris, 1720.

JESUIT MORALITY. Of a like ample kind is the liberty which the Jesuits permit to be taken with the property of one’s , neighbour. •sanction.

with

his

401 services.

So

has Valerius

Reginald

decided.3

Dishonesty in all its forms they

It is fair, however, that the pupil be cautioned

They encourage cheats, frauds, purloin¬

that this lesson cannot safely be put in practice

ings, robberies, by furnishing men with a ready

against his teacher.

justification of these misdeeds, and especially by

related by Pascal, shows that the Fathers do not

The story of John d’Alba,

persuading their votaries that if they will only take

relish these doctrines in praxi nearly so well as

the trouble of doing them in the way of directing the

in thesi, when they themselves are the sufferers by

intention according to their instructions, they need

them.

not fear being called to a reckoning for them here¬

College of Clermont, in the Rue St. Jacques, and

after.

thinking that his wages were not equal to his

The Jesuit Emmanuel Sa teaches “that it

D’Alba was a servant to the Fathers in the

is not a mortal sin to take secretly from him who

merits, he stole

would give if he were askedthat “ it is not theft

make up the discrepancy, never dreaming that they

to take a small thing from a husband or a father; ”

would make a criminal of him for following their

that if one has taken what he doubts to have been

approved rules.

his own, that doubt makes it probable that it is safe

prison on a charge of larceny.

He was brought to

to keep it; that if one, from an urgent necessity, or

trial on the 16th April, 1647.

He confessed before

somewhat from his masters to

However, they threw him into

without causing much loss, takes wood from another

the court to having taken some pewter plates, but

man’s pile, he is not obliged* to restore it.

One who

maintained that the act was not to be regarded as

has stolen small things at different times, is not

a theft, on the strength of this same doctrine of

obliged to make restitution till such time as they

Father Bauny, which

amount together to a considerable sum.

But should

judges, with attestation from another of the Fathers,

the purloiner feel restitution burdensome, it may

under whom he had studied these cases of con¬

comfort him to know that some Fathers deny it with

science.

probability}

gave

The case of merchants, whose gains may not be increasing so fast

as

they could wish, has been

kindly considered by the Fathers.

he

produced

before

the

Whereupon the judge, M. de Montrouge,

sentence as follows :—“ That the prisoner

should not be acquitted upon the writings of these Fathers, containing a doctrine so unlawful, per¬

Francis Tolet

nicious, and' contrary to all laws, natural, Divine,

says that if a man cannot sell his wine at a fair

and human, such as might confound all families,

price—that is, at a fail* profit—he may mix a little

and authorise all domestic frauds and infidelities ; ”

water with his wine, or diminish his measure, and

but that the over-faithful disciple “ should be whipt

sell it for pure wine of full measure.

before the College gate of Clermont by the common

Of course, if

it be lawful to mix wine, it is lawful to adulterate

executioner, who at the same time should burn alt

all other articles of merchandise, or to diminish the

the writings of those Fathers treating of theft; and

weight, and go on vending as if the balance were

that they should be prohibited to teach any suet

just and the article genuine.

doctrine again under pain of death”4

Only the trafficker in

spurious goods, with false balances, must be careful

But we should swell beyond all reasonable limits

not to tell a lie; or if he should be compelled to

our enumeration, were we to quote even a tithe of

equivocate, he must do it in accordance with the

the “moral maxims” of the Jesuits.

rules laid down by the Fathers for enabling one

one in the long catalogue of sins and crimes which

to

their casuistry does not sanction.

say what

is

not

true

without

committing

falsehood.1 2

Pride, ambition,

avarice, luxury, bribery, and a host of vices which

Domestic servants also have been taken by the Fathers under the shield of their casuistry.

There is not

Should

we cannot specify, and some of which are too hor¬ rible to be mentioned, find in these Fathers their

a servant deem his wages not enough, or the food,

patrons

clothing, and other necessaries provided for him

Middle Ages boasted that their art enabled them

and

defenders.

The alchemists of

the

not equal to that which is provided for servants of

to operate on the essence of things, and to change

similar rank in other houses, he may recompense

what was vile into what was noble.

himself by abstracting from his master’s property

darker art of the Jesuits acts in the reverse order;

as much as shall make his wages commensurate

it changes all that is noble into all that is vile. Theirs

1 Aphorisrm Confessariorum—verbo furtum, n. 3—8; Co¬ lonise, 1590. 2 Instructio Sacerdotum—Be Septem Peccat. Mort., cap. 49, n. 5; Eomse, 1601.

33

is

an accursed alchemy

But the still

by which

they

3 Praxis Fori Pcenitentialis, lib. xxv., cap. 44, n. 555; Lugduni, 1620. 4 Pascal, Letter vi., pp. 90, 91; Edin., 1847.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

402

and virtue into vice.

effaced and forgotten in the greater splendour and

There is no destructive agency with which the

transmute good into evil,

the more solid strength of the restored structures,

world is liable to be visited, that penetrates so

Revolution may overturn thrones, abolish laws, and

deep, or inflicts so remediless a ruin, as the morality

break in pieces the framework of society; but when

of the Jesuits.

The tornado sweeps along over the

the fury of faction has spent its rage, order emerges

surface of the globe, leaving the earth naked and

from the chaos, law resumes its supremacy, and the

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER.

bare as before tree or shrub beautified it; but the

institutions which had been destroyed in the hour

summers of after years re-clothe it with verdure

of madness, are restored in the hour of calm wisdom

and beautify it with flowers, and make it smile

that succeeds.

But the havoc the Jesuit inflicts is

as sweetly as before.

irremediable.

It has nothing in it counteractive

The earthquake overturns

the dwelling of man, and swallows up the proudest

or restorative; it is only evil.

of his cities; but his

and power survive

works of man or the institutions of man merely

the shock, and when the destroyer has passed,

that it puts forth its fearfully destructive power ;

the architect sets up again the fallen palace, and

it is upon man himself.

rebuilds the mined city, and the catastrophe is

that it strikes, like the pestilence; it is the soul.

skill

It is not upon the

It is not the body of man

THE GOAL OF JESUITISM.

403

It is not a part, but the whole of man that it

man.

consigns to corruption and ruin.

Conscience it

nothing spiritual, nothing moral, nothing intellectual,

The full triumph of Jesuitism would leave

destroys, knowledge it extinguishes, the very power

nothing strictly and properly human existing upon

of discerning between right and wrong it takes

the earth.

away, and shuts up the man in a prison whence

impelled by nothing but appetites and passions, and

no created agency or influence can set him free.

these more fierce and cruel than those of the tiger.

Man it would change into the animal,

A GROUP OP JESUITS.

The Fall defaced the image of God in which man

Society would become simply a herd of wolves,

was made; we say,

lawless, ravenous, greedy of each other’s blood, and

defaced;

obliterate or extinguish it.

it did not totally

Jesuitism, more ter¬

rible than the Fall, totally effaces from the soul of

perpetually in quest of prey.

Even

Jesuitism

itself would perish, devoured by its own progeny.

“ knowledge,

Our earth at last would be simply a vast sepulchre,

righteousness, and true holiness” in which man was

moving round the sun in its annual circuit, its

made it leaves not a trace.

bosom as joyless, dreary, and waste as are those

man the

image of

God.

Of

the

It plucks up by its

very roots the moral constitution which God gave

silent spaces through which it rolls.

404

CHAPTER VI. THE “ SECRET INSTRUCTIONS ” OF THE JESUITS.

The Jesuit Soldier in Armour complete—Secret Instructions—How to Plant their First Establishments—Taught t»i Court the Parochial Clergy—to Visit the Hospitals—to Find out the Wealth of their several Districts—to make Purchases in another Name—to Draw the Youth round them—to Supplant the Older Orders—How to get the Friendship of Great Men—How to Manage Princes—How to Direct their Policy—Condact their Embassies— Appoint their Servants, &c.—Taught to Affect a Great Show of Lowliness. So far we have traced the enrolment and training

quench all the fiery darts of” human remorse and

of that mighty army which Loyola had called into

Divine threatenings.

existence for the conquest of Protestantism.

Their

hope of” Paradise, which has been most surely

He takes “for an helmet the

leader, who was quite as much the shrewd calcu¬

promised him as the reward of his services; and

lator as the fiery fanatic, took care before sending

in his hand he grasps the two-edged sword of a

his soldiers into the field to provide them with

fiery fanaticism, wherewith he is able to cut his

armour, every way fitted for the combatants they

way, with prodigious bravery, through truth and

were to meet, and the campaign they were to wage.

righteousness.1 Verily, the man who has to sustain

The war in which they were to be occupied was

the onset of soldiers like these, and parry the

one against right and truth, against knowledge and

thrusts of their weapons, had need to be mindful

liberty, and where could weapons be found for the

of the ancient admonition, “Take unto you the

successful prosecution of a conflict like this, save

whole armour of God,

in the old-established arsenal of sophisms ?

withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to

The schoolmen,

those Vulcans of the Middle

Ages, had forged these weapons with the hammers

that ye may be able to

stand.” Shrewd,

practical, and precise are the instruc¬

of their speculation on the anvil of their subtlety,

tions of the Jesuits.

and having made them sharp of edge, and given

select the best points in that great field, all of

them an incomparable flexibility, they stored them

which they are in due time to subjugate and pos¬

First of all they are told to

up, and kept them in reserve against the great

sess.

coming day of battle.

by establishing convents, or colleges, in the chief

To this armoury Loyola,

That field is Christendom.

They are to begin

and the chiefs that succeeded him in command, had

cities.

recourse.

secured, the smaller places will be easily occupied.

But not content with these weapons as

The great centres of population and wealth

the schoolmen had left them, the Jesuit doctors

Should any one ask on what errand the good

put them back again into the fire; they kept them

Fathers have come, they are instructed to make

in a furnace heated seven times, till every particle

answer that their “sole object is the salvation of

of the dross of right and truth that cleaved to them

souls.”

had been purged out, and they had acquired a

strive to be the first to welcome to their houses,

What a pious errand!

Who would not

flexibility absolutely and altogether perfect, and

and to seat at their tables, men whose aims are so

a keenness of edge unattained before,

unselfish and heavenly ?

and were

They are to be careful to

now deemed every way fit for the hands that were

maintain a humble and submissive deportment;

to wield them, and every way worthy of the cause

they are to pay frequent visits to the hospitals, the

in which they were to be drawn.

So attempered,

sick-chamber, and the prisons.

They are to make

they could cut through shield and helmet, through

great show of charity, and as they have nothing of

body and soul of the foe.

their own to give to the poor, they are “ to go far

Let, us survey the soldier of Loyola, as he stands

and near” to receive even the “smallest atoms.”

in, the complete and perfect panoply his General

These good deeds will not lose their reward if only

has provided him with.

they take care not to do them in secret.

How admirably harnessed

for the battle he is to fight!

Men will

He has his “ loins

begin to speak of them and say, What a humble,

girt- about with” mental and verbal equivocation ;

pious, charitable order of men these Fathers of the

he has “on the breast-plate of” probabilism; his

Society of Jesus are !

“feet are shod with the preparation of the” Secret

and Dominicans, who were wont to care for the sick

Instructions,

How unlike the Franciscans

“Above all, taking the shield of”

intention, and rightly handling it, he is “ able to

1 See Ephesians vi. 14—17.

THE “ SECRET INSTRUCTIONS.

405

and the poor, but have now forgotten the virtues

only instructors of youth, instead of taking a higher

of a former time, and are grown proud, indolent,

place in the commonwealth of letters, fell back

luxurious, and rich!

into mental decrepitude, and lost their rank in the

Thus the “new-comers,” the

Instructions hint, will supplant the other and older

community of

orders, and will receive “ the respect and reverence

cated to their pupils little besides a knowledge of

of the best and most eminent in the neighbour¬

Latin.

hood.”1

sealed books.

Further, they are enjoined to conduct themselves

nations.

History,

The Jesuits

philosophy, and

communi¬

science

were

They initiated their disciples into

the mysteries of probabilism, and the art of direct¬

very deferentially towards the parochial clergy, and

ing the intention, and the youth trained in these

not to perform any sa,cred function till first they have

paths, when old did not depart from them.

piously and submissively asked the bishop’s leave.

dwarfed the intellect and narrowed the understand¬

This will secure their good graces, and dispose the

ing, but they gained their end. They stamped anew

secular clergy to protect them; but by-and-by, when

the Roman impress upon many of the countries

they have ingratiated themselves with the people,

of Europe.

they may abate somewhat of this subserviency to

They

The second chapter of the Instructions is en¬ titled “What must be done to get the ear and

the clergy. The individual Jesuit takes a vow of poverty,

intimacy of great men?”

To stand well with

but the society takes no such vow, and is quali¬

monarchs and princes is, of course, a matter of such

fied to hold property to any amount.

importance that no stone is to be left unturned

Therefore,

while seeking the salvation of souls, the members

to attain it.

are carefully to note the rich men in the commu¬

expect them to be,

nity.

They must find out who own the estates

members of the Society of Jesus are first of all

in the neighbourhood, and what are their yearly

to imbue princes and great men with the belief

values.

that they cannot dispense with their aid if they

They are to secure these estates by gift,

if possible; if not, by purchase. pens that they

“get

When it hap¬

anything that is

consider¬

The Instructions here, as we should are full and

precise.

The

would maintain the pomp of their State, and the government

of

their

realms.

Should

princes

able, let the purchase be made under a strange

be filled with a conceit of their own wisdom, the

name, by some of our friends, that our poverty

Fathers must find some way of dispelling this

may

still

provincial colleges,

seem

the

greater.”2

And

let

our

“ assign such revenues to some other

more

remote,

that

neither .prince nor

egregious delusion.

They are to surround them

with confessors chosen from their society;

but

by no means are they to bear hard on the con¬

people may discover anything of our profits ”3 4—a

sciences of their royal penitents.

device that combines many advantages.

them “ sweetly and pleasantly,” oftener administer¬

Every day

They must treat

their acres will increase, nevertheless their apparent

ing opiates than irritants.

poverty will be as great as ever, and the flow of

humours, and if, in the matter of marriage, they

They are to study their

benefactions and legacies to supply it will remain

should be inclined—as often happens with princes

undiminished, although the sea into which all these

—to

rivers run will never be full.

they are to smooth their way, by hinting at a dis¬

contract

alliance with their own

kindred,

Among the multifarious duties laid upon the

pensation from the Pope, or finding some palliative

Jesuits, special prominence was given to the in¬

for the sin from the pharmacopoeia of their theo¬

struction of youth.

logy.

It was by this arm that they

They may tell them that such marriages,

“ Whisper

though forbidden to the commonalty, are some¬

it sweetly in their [the people’s] ears, that they are

times allowed to princes, “ for the greater glory of

achieved their most brilliant success. come to catechise the children gratis.”4

Wherever

God.”5

If a monarch is bent on some enterprise—

the Jesuits came they opened schools, and gathered

a war, for example—the issue of which is doubtful,

the youth around them; but despite their zeal in

they are to be at pains so to shape their counsel in

the work of education, knowledge somehow did not

the matter, that if the affair succeeds they shall

increase.

have all the praise,

The intellect refused to expand and the

and if it fails,

the blame

Kingdoms

shall rest with the king alone. And, lastly, when a

like Poland, where they became the privileged and

vacancy occurs near the throne, they are to take

1 Secreta Monita, cap. 1, sec. 1. 2 I hid., cap. 1, sec. 5. 3 Ibid., cap. 1, sec. 6. 4 Ibid. (tr. from a French copy, Lond., 1679), cap. 1, sec.11.

the tried friends of the society, of whom they are

genius to open under their tutelage.

care that the empty post shall be filled by one of enjoined to have, at all times, a list in their posses5 Secreta Monita, cap. 2, sec. 2.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

40 G

sion. It may be well, in order still more to advance

Poland, and France; ” and, the bishops conciliated,

their interests at courts, to undertake embassies at

they may expect to obtain a gift of “ new-erected

times.

This will enable them to draw the affairs

churches, altars, monasteries, foundations, and in

of Europe into their own hands, and to make

some cases the benefices of the secular priests and

princes feel that they are indispensable to them, by

canons, with the preferable right of preaching in all

showing them what an influence they wield at

the great towns.”

the courts of other sovereigns, and especially how

them, they are to be taught that there is no less

great their power is at that of Rome.

And when bishops so befriend

Small ser¬

profit than merit in the deed; inasmuch as, done to

vices and trifling presents they are by no means

the Order of Jesus, they are sure to be repaid with

to overlook. Such things go a great way in opening

most substantial services; whereas, done to the

the hearts of princes.

Be sure, say the Instruc¬

tions, to paint the men whom the prince dislikes in the same colours in which his jealousy and hatred teach him to view them.

Moreover, if the prince

other orders, they will have nothing in return for -their pains “ but a song.” 4 To love their neighbour, and speak well of him, while they held themselves in lowly estimation, was

is unmarried, it will be a rare stroke of policy to

not one of the failings of the Jesuits.

choose a wife for him from among the beautiful and

virtues they were to proclaim as loudly as they did

noble ladies known to their society. “ This is seen,”

the faults of their brother monks.

say the Instructions, “ by experience in the House

tions

of Austria, and in the Kingdoms of Poland and

spirits of those princes who love us, that our order

France, and in many other principalities.” 1

is more perfect than all other orders.”

“We with

must

endeavour,”

remarkable

plainness,

say the Instructions, but

in

the

belief,

commanded

them

to

Their own

Their Instruc¬

“ imprint upon

the

They are

to supplant their rivals, by telling monarchs that no wisdom is competent to counsel in the affairs of

doubtless, that the words would meet the faithful

State but “ours,” and that if they wish to make

eyes of the

their realms

members

of the

Society

of Jesus

only—“ We must endeavour to breed dissension

must

resplendent with

knowledge,

surrender the schools to Jesuit

they

teachers.

among great men, and raise seditions, or anything a

They are especially to exhort princes that they owe

prince would have us to do to please him.

If one

it as a duty to God to consult them in the distribu¬

who is chief Minister of State to a monarch who is

tion of honours and emoluments, and in all appoint¬

our friend oppose us, and that prince cast his whole

ments to places of importance.

favours upon him, so as to add titles to his honour,

ever to have a list in their possession of the names

we must present ourselves before him, and court

of all persons in authority and power throughout

Further, they are

him in the highest degree, as well by visits as all

Christendom, in order that they may change or

humble respect.”2

continue them in their several posts, as may be

Having specified the arts by which princes may

expedient.

But so covertly must this delicate

be managed, the Instructions next prescribe cer¬

business be gone about, that their hand must not

tain methods for turning to account others “ of

be seen in it, nor must it once be suspected that

great authority in the commonwealth, that by their

the change comes from them.5

credit we obtain profit and preferment.” the Instructions,3

“If,” say

“ these lords be seculars,

While slowly and steadily climbing up to the

we

control of kings, and the government of kingdoms,

ought to have recourse to their aid and friendship

they are to study great modesty of demeanour and

against our adversaries, and to their favour in our

simplicity of life.

own suits, and those of our friends, and to their

heart, not on the brow; and the foot must be set

authority and power in the purchase of houses,

down softly that is to be planted at last on the

manors, and gardens, and of stones to build with,

neck of monarchs.

especially in those places that will not endure to

service of princes,” say the Instructions, “ keep but

hear of our settling in them, because the authority

a very little money, and a few movables, contenting

of these lords serveth very much for the appeasing

themselves with a little chamber, modestly keeping

of the populace, and making our ill-willers quiet. ” Nor are they less sedulously to make court to the bishops.

Their authority—great everywhere—is

especially so in some kingdoms, “ as in Germany, 1 Secreta Monita, cap. 2, sec. 5. ^ Ibid., cap. 2, sec. 9, 10. 3 Ibid., cap. sec. 1.

The pride must be worn in the

“Let ours that are. in the

company with persons in humble station; and so being in good esteem, they ought prudently to per¬ suade princes to do nothing without their counsel, whether it be in spiritual or temporal affairs.”6 4 “Prseter cantum.” (Secreta Monita, cap. S, sec. 3.) 5 Secreta Monita, cap. 4, sec. 1—6. 6 Ibid., cap. 4, sec. 5.

407

CHAPTER VIL JESUIT MANAGEMENT OF RICH WIDOWS AND THE HEIRS OF GREAT FAMILIES.

How Rich Widows are to be Drawn to the Chapels and Confessionals of the Jesuits—Kept from Thoughts of a Second Marriage—Induced to Enter an Order, and Bequeath their Estates to the Society—Sons and Daughters of Widows—How to Discover the Revenues and Heirs of Hoble Houses—Illustration from Spain—Borrowing on Bond—The Instructions to be kept Secret—If Discovered, to be Denied—How the Instructions came to Light. The sixth chapter of the Instructions treats “Of the

the wicked idea of marrying again does not enter

Means to acquire the Friendship of Rich Widows.”

her mind, and for this end he is to picture to her

On opening this new chapter, the reflection that

the delightful and fascinating freedom she enjoys in

forces itself on one is—how wide the range of

her widowhood, and over against it he is to place

objects to which the Society of Jesus is able to

the cares, vexations, and tyrannies which a second

devote its attention !

matrimony would probably draw upon her.

beyond

its strength,

beneath its notice !

The greatest matters are not and the smallest are

not

From counselling monarchs,

To

second these representations, the confessor is em¬ powered to promise exemption

from purgatory,

and guiding ministers of State, it turns with equal

should the holy estate of widowhood be persevered

adaptability and dexterity to caring for widows.

in.

The Instructions on this head are minute and elabo¬

part of the object of these solicitudes, the Instruc¬

To maintain this pious frame of mind on the

rate to a degree, which shows the importance the

tions direct that it may be. advisable to have an

society attaches to the due discharge of what it

oratory erected in her house, with an altar, and

owes to this class of its clients.

frequent mass and confession celebrated thereat.

True, some have professed to doubt whether the

The adorning of the altar, and the accompanying

action of the society in this matter be wholly and

rites, will occupy the time of the widow, and pre¬

purely disinterested, from the restriction it puts

vent the thoughts of a husband entering her mind.

upon the class of persons taken under its protec¬

The matter having been conducted to this stage, it

tion.

will be prudent now to change the persons of trust

The Instructions do not say “ widows,” but

“ rich widows.”

But all the more on that account

about

her,

and

to

replace them with

persons

do widows need defence against the arts of chicanery

devoted to the society.

and the wiles of avarice, and how can the Fathers

services must

better accord them such than by taking measures

fession, “so that,” say the Instructions, “knowing

The number of religious

also be increased,

especially con¬

to convey their bodies and their goods alike within

their former

the safe walls of a convent %

tions, the whole may serve as a guide to make

There the cormorants

arid vultures of a wicked world cannot make them their prey. ceed.

But let us mark how they are to pro¬

First, a Father of suitable gifts is to be

selected to begin operations.

He must not, in

accusations,

manners,

and

inclina¬

them obey our wills.”1 These steps will have brought the widow very near the door of a convent.

A continuance a little

longer in the same cautious and skilful tactics is

point of years, exceed middle age; he must have a

all that will be necessary to land her safely within

fresh complexion, and a gracious discourse.

its walls.

He is

to visit the widow, to touch feelingly on her posi¬

The confessor must now enlarge on the

quietude and eminent sanctity of the cloister—how

tion, and the snares and injuries to which it exposes

surely it conducts to Paradise ; but should she be

her, and to hint at the fraternal

care that the

unwilling to assume the veil in regular form, she

society of which he is a member delights to exercise

may be induced to enter some religious order, such

over all in her condition who choose to place them¬

as that of Paulina, “ so that being caught in the

selves under its guardianship.

vow of chastity, all danger of her marrying again

After a few visits

of this sort, the widow will probably appear at one

may be over.”2

of the chapels of the society.

Should it so happen,

queen of the graces, “ without which, it is to be

the next step is to appoint a confessor of their

represented to her, she cannot inherit the king-

body for the widow. be well got over, hopeful.

The great duty of Alms, that

Should these delicate steps

the matter will begin to be

It will be the confessor’s duty to see that

1 Seer eta Monita, cap. 6, sec. 6. 2 Ibid., cap. 6, sec. 8.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

408

dom of heaven,’5 is now to be pressed upon her;

to be persuaded to select a patron, or tutelary saint?

“which alms, notwithstanding, she ought not to

say St. Francis or St. Xavier.

dispose to every one, if it be not by the advice and

made that all they do may be known, by placing

with the consent of her spiritual father.”1

about

Under

Provision is to be

them only persons recommended

by the

this Direction it is easy to see in what exchequer

society.

the lands, manors, and revenues of widows will

the words of the Fathers the fourteenth section of

ultimately be garnered.

this chapter.

Rut the Fathers deemed it inexpedient to leave

VIEW IN ROME :

We must be excused for not giving in That section gives their •protegees

great licence, indeed all licence, “ provided they he

THE VILLA PAMPHILI-DORIA.

such an issue the least uncertain, and accordingly

liberal and well-affected to our society, and that all

the seventh chapter enters largely into the “ Means

things be carried cunningly and without scandal.”

of keeping in our hands

But the one great point to be aimed at is to get

Estates of Widows.”

the Disposition of the

To shut out worldly thoughts,

them to make an entire surrender of their estates

and especially matrimonial ones, the time of such

to the society.

widows must be occupied with their devotions ;

it may be to attain in future the yet higher reward

This is to reach perfection now, and

they are to be exhorted to curtail their expendi¬

of canonisation.

ture and abound yet more in alms “ to the Church

love of kindred, or other motives, that they have

of Jesus Christ.”

not endowed the “poor companions of Jesus” with

appointed them.

A dexterous confessor is to be They are to be frequently visited,

and entertained with pleasant discourse.

They are

But should it so happen, from

all their worldly goods, when they come to die, the preferable claims of “the Church of Jesus Christ” to those of kindred are to be urged upon them,

1 Secreta Monitas cap. vi., sec. 10.

and they are to be exhorted “ to contribute to the

c-

- JTWSi*

VIEW IN HEIDELBERG CASTLE.

tion, representing to them, in the first place, that

tion and seduction unfolded in this chapter differs

the benefits they thus do us are consecrated to

only in its minor points from that which we have

eternity;

already had disclosed to us.

that they shall become thereby perfect

We pass it therefore,

models of piety; that we will have thereof a very

and go on to the ninth chapter, where we find the

particular memory, and that in the next world they

scheme still widening, and wholesale rapacity and

shall have their reward.

extortion, sanctified of course by the end in view,

But if it be objected that

Jesus Christ was born in a stable, and had not

still more openly avowed and enjoined.

where to lay his head, and that we, who are his

ter is enfttled “ Of the Means to Augment the

The chap¬

companions, ought not to enjoy perishing goods, we

Revenues of our Colleges,” and these means, in short,

ought to imprint strongly on their spirits that in

are the astute and persistent deception, circumven¬

truth, at first, the Church was also in the same

tion, and robbery of every class.

1 Secreta Monita, cap. 7, sec. 23.

The net is thrown,

2 Secreta Monita3 cap. 75 sec. 24.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

410

almost without disguise, over the whole community,

rally when any confessor lights upon a wealthy

in order that the goods, heritages, and possessions

person, from whom he hath good hopes of profit,

o£ all ranks—prince, peasant, widow, and orphan—

he is obliged forthwith to give notice of it, and

may be dragged into the convents of the Jesuits.

discover it at his return.”

The world is but a large preserve for the mighty hunters of the Society of Jesus.

4‘Above and before

“They should

also inform themselves exactly

whether there be any hope of obtaining bargains,

all other things,” says this Instruction, “ we ought

goods,

to endeavour our own greatness, by the direction of

exchange for the admission of their sons into our

our superiors, who are the only judges in this case,

society.”3

possessions,4 pious gifts, and the like, in

and who should labour that the Church of God

“ If a wealthy family have daughters only, they

may be in the highest degree of splendour, for the

are to be drawn by caresses to become nuns, in

greater glory of God.”1

which case a small portion of their estate may

In prosecution of this worthy end, the Secret Instructions enjoin the Fathers to visit frequently

be assigned for their use, and the rest will be ours.”

at rich and noble houses, and to “inform them¬

“ The last heir of a family is by all means to be

selves, prudently and dexterously, whether they will

induced to enter the society.

not leave something to our Churches, in order to

relieve his mind from all fear of his parents, he is

the obtaining remission of their sins, and of the

to be taught that it is more pleasing to God that

sins of their kindred.”2

he take this step without their knowledge or con¬

Confessors—and only able

And the better to

and eloquent men are to be appointed as confessors

sent.6

to princes and statesmen—are

to be sent to a distance to pass his novitiate.”

to ascertain

the

“ Such a one,” the Instructions add, “ ought

name and surname of their penitents, the names of

These directions were but too faithfully carried

their kindred and friends, whether they have hopes

out in Spain, and to this among other causes is

of succeeding to anything, and how they mean to

owing

dispose of what they already have,

country.

or may yet

the

depopulation

of

that

once-powerful

A writer who resided many years in the

have; whether they have brothers, sisters, or heirs,

Peninsula, and had the best opportunities of observ¬

and of what age, inclination, and education they

ing its condition, says : “ If a gentleman has two

are.

or three sons and as many daughters, the confessor

And they “ should persuade them that all

these questions do tend much to the clearing of the * state of their conscience.”3

son at home,

There is a refreshing plainness about the follow¬ ing Instructions.

of the family adviseth the father to keep the eldest and send the rest, both sons ana

daughters, into a convent or monastery; praising

They are given with the air of

the monastic life, and saying that to be retired

men who had so often repeated their plea “ for the

from the world is the safest way to heaven.

greater glory of God,” that they themselves had

The fathers of these families, glad of lessening the

come at last to believe it:—

expenses of the house, and of seeing their children

“Our provincial ought to send expert men into

provided for, do send them into the desert place of

all those places where there is any considerable

a convent, which is really the middle of the world.

number of rich and wealthy persons, to the end

Now observe that it is twenty to one that their

they may give their superiors a true and faithful

heir dieth before he marrieth and have children,

account.”

so

“Let the stewards of our college get an exact

the estate and everything else

falls to the

second, who is a professed friar, or nun, and as they

knowledge of the houses, gardens, quarries of stone,

cannot use the expression of meum or tuum, all

vineyards, manors, and other riches of every one

goes that way to the society.

who lives near the place where they reside, and if

reason why many families are extinguished, and

it be possible, what degree of affection they have for us.”

their names quite out of memory, the convent so

“In the next place we should discover every man’s office, and the revenue of it, their possessions,

And this is the

crowded, the kingdom so thin of people, and the Mai's, nuns, and monasteries so rich.”7 Further, the Fathers are counselled to raise large

and the articles of their contracts, which they may surely do by confessions, by meetings, and by enter¬ tainments, or by our trusty Mends,

1 Secreta Monita, cap. 9, sec. 1. 2 Ibid., sec. 4. 3 Ibid., sec. 5.

And gene¬

4 “ Contractus et possessiones ^—leases and possessions. (Lat. et Ital. ed., Roma. Con approv.) 5 Secreta Monita, cap. 9, secs. 7—10. 6 “Ostendendo etiam Deo sacrificium gratissimum fore si parentibus insciis et invitis aufugerit.” (Lat. ed., cap. 9, sec. 8. L'Estrange’s tr., sec. 14.) 7 A Master-Key to Popery, p. 70.

DISCOVERY OF THE sums of money on bond.

“

The advantage of this

411

SECRET INSTRUCTIONS.-

be communicated ; the others, who were ignorant

method is, that when the bond-holder comes to die,

of them in their written form, were brought for¬

it will be easy to induce him to part with the bond

ward to deny on oath that such a book existed,

in exchange for the salvation of his soul.

but their protestations weighed very little against

At all

events, he is more likely to make a gift of the

the overwhelming evidence on the other side.

deed than to bequeath the same amount in gold.

perfect uniformity of the methods followed by the

Another advantage of borrowing in this fashion,

Jesuits in all countries favoured a presumption that

is that their pretence of poverty may still be kept

they acted upon a prescribed rule ; and the exact

up.

Owners of a fourth or of a half of the pro¬

correspondence

between

The

their methods and the

perty of a county, they will still be “ the poor com¬

secret advices showed that this was the rule.

panions of Jesus. ”1

a well-known member of the society, affirmed that

We make but one other quotation from the

the

Gretza,

Secreta Monita was a forgery by a Jesuit

It closes this series of pious

who had been dismissed with ignominy from the

advices and is, in one respect, the most characteristic

society in Poland, find that he published it in 1616.

Secret Instructions.

“ Let the superior keep these secret

But the falsehood of the story was proved by the

advices with great care, and let them not be com¬

discovery in the British Museum of a work printed

municated but to a very few discreet persons, and

in 1596, twenty years before the alleged forgery, in

that only by parts; and let them instruct others

which the Secreta Monita is copied.3

of them all.

with them, when they have profitably served the society.

And then let them not communicate them

Since the first discovery in Paderborn, copies of the Secreta Monita have been found in other libraries,

as rules they have received, but as the effects of

as in Prague, noted above.

their own prudence.

But if they should happen to

have since been published, and in so many languages,

fall into the hands of strangers, who should give

that the idea of collusion is out of the question.

them an ill sense or construction, let them be as¬

These editions all agree with the exception of a few

sured the society owns them not in that sense,

unimportant variations in the reading.4

which shall be confirmed by instancing those of our

private directions,” says M. l’Estrange, “ are quite

order who assuredly know them not.”2 It was some time before the contingency of ex¬

Numerous editions

“ These

contrary to the rules, constitutions, and instructions which this society professeth publicly in those books

posure here provided against actually happened.

it hath printed on this subject.

But in the beginning of the seventeenth century

difficulty we may believe that the greatest part of

So that without

the accidents of war dragged these Secret Instruc¬

their governors (if a very few be excepted especially)

tions from the darkness in which their authors had

have a double rule as well as a double habit—one

hoped to conceal them from the knowledge of the

for their private and particular use, and another to

world.

flaunt with before the world.”5

The Duke of Brunswick, having plundered

the Jesuits’ college at Paderborn in Westphalia, made a present of their library to the Capuchins of the same town.

Among the books which had thus

come into their possession was found a copy of the Secret Instructions.

Another copy is said to

have been discovered in the Jesuits’ college at Prague.

Soon thereafter reprints and translations

appeared in Germany, Holland, France, and Eng¬ land.

The authenticity of the work was denied,

as was to be expected; for any society that was astute enough to compile such a book would be astute enough to deny it.

To only the fourth or

highest order of Jesuits were these Instructions to 1 Secreta Monita, cap. 9, sec. 18, 19. 2 Ibid., cap. 16 (L’Estranged tr.); printed as the Pre¬ face in the Latin edition.

3 Secreta Monita; Lond., 1850. Pref. by H. M. W., p. ix. 4 Among the various editions of the Secreta Monita we mention the following: - Bishop Compton’s translation; Lond., 1669. Sir Roger L’Estrange’s translation; Lond., 1679; it was made from a French copy, printed at Cologne, 1678. Another edition, containing the Latin text with an English translation, dedicated to Sir Robert Walpole, Premier of England: Lond., 1723. This edition says, in the Preface, that Mr. John Schipper, bookseller at Amster¬ dam, bought a copy of the Secreta Monita, among other books, at Antwerp, and reprinted it. The Jesuits bought up the whole edition, a few copies excepted. From one of these it was afterwards reprinted. Of late years there have been several English reprints. One of the copies which we have used in this compend of the book was printed at Rome, in the printing-press of the Propa¬ ganda, and contains the Latin text page for page with a translation in Italian. 5 The Cabinet of the Jesuits’ Secrets Opened; Lond., 1679.

CHAPTER VIII. DIFFUSION OF THE JESUITS THROUGHOUT CHRISTENDOM.

The Conflict Great—the Arms Sufficient—The Victory Sure—Set Free from Episcopal Jurisdiction—Acceptance in Italy—Venice—Spain—Portugal — Francis Xayier—France—Germany—Tlieir First Planting in Austria—In Cologne and Ingolstadt—Thence Spread over all Germany—Their Schools —VIearing of Crosses—Revival of the Popish Faith. The soldiers of Loyola are about to go forth. Before beginning the campaign we see their chief assem¬ bling them and pointing out ijie field on which their prowess is to be displayed. The nations of Christendom are in revolt: it will be theirs to subjugate them, and lay them once more, bound in chains, at the feet of the Papal See. They must not faint; the arms he has provided them with are amply sufficient for the arduous warfare on which he sends them. Clad in that armour, and wielding it in the way he has shown them, they will expel knowledge as night chases away the day. Liberty will die wherever their foot shall tread. And in the ancient darkness they will be able to rear again the fallen throne of the great Hierarch of Rome. But if the service is hard, the wages will be ample. As the saviours of that throne they will be greater than it. And though meanwhile their work is to be done in great show of humility and poverty, the silver and the gold of Christendom will in the end be theirs; they will be the lords of its lands and palaces, the masters of the bodies and the souls of its inhabitants, and nothing of all that the heart can desire will be withholden from them if only they will obey him. The Jesuits rapidly multiplied, and we are now to follow them in their peregrinations over Europe. Going forth in little bands, animated with an entire devotion to their General, schooled in all the arts which could help to further their mission, they planted themselves in a few years in all the countries of Christendom, and made their presence felt in the turning of the tide of Protestantism, which till then had been on the flow. There was no disguise they could not assume, and therefore there was no place into which they could not penetrate. They could enter unheard the closet of the monarch, or the cabinet of the statesman. They could sit unseen in Convocation or General Assembly, and mingle unsuspected in the delibera¬ tions and debates. There was no tongue they could not speak, and no creed they could not profess, and thus there was no people among whom they might not sojourn, and no Church whose membership they

might not enter, and whose functions they might not discharge. They could execrate the Pope with the Lutheran, and swear the Solemn League with the Covenanter. They had their men of learning and eloquence for the halls of nobles and the courts of kings; their men of science and letters for the education of youth; their unpolished but ready orators to harangue the crowd; and their plain, unlettered monks, to visit the cottages of the peasantry and the workshops of the artisan. “ 1 know these men,” said Joseph II. of Austria, writing to Choiseul, the Prime Minister of Louis XV.—“ I know these men as well as any one can do : all the schemes they have carried on, and the pains they have taken to spread darkness over the earth, as well as their efforts to rule and embroil Europe from Cape Finisterre to Spitzbergen ! In China they were mandarins; in France, academicians, courtiers, and confessors; in Spain and Portugal, grandees ; and in Paraguay, kings., Had not my grand-uncle, Joseph I., become emperor, we had in all probability seen in Ger¬ many, too, a Malagrida or an Alvieros.” In order that they might be at liberty to visit what city and diocese they pleased, they were ex¬ empted from episcopal jurisdiction. They could come and go at their pleasure, and perform all their functions without having to render account to any one save to their superior. This arrange¬ ment was resisted at first by certain prelates ; but it was universally conceded at last, and it greatly facilitated the wide and rapid diffusion of the Jesuit corps. Extraordinary success attended their first efforts throughout all Italy. Designed for the common people, the order found equal acceptance from princes and nobles. In Parma the highest families submitted themselves to the “ Spiritual Exercises.” In Venice, Lainez expounded the Gospel of St. John to a congregation of nobles; and in 1542 a Jesuits’ college was founded in that city. The citizens of Montepulciano accompanied Francisco Strada through the streets begging. Their chief knocked at the doors, and his followers received

413

THE JESUITS IN EUROPE. the alms.

In Faenza, they succeeded in arresting

soon they crept back into the kingdom in the gui^e

the Protestant movement, which had been com¬

of traders and operatives.

menced by the eloquent Bernardino 0 chino, and

admitted by the monarch—a service which they

They were at last openly

by the machinery of schools and societies for the

repaid by slaughtering him in the streets of his

relief of the poor, they brought back the population

capital.

to the Papacy.

and agonise, to plunge from woe into crime, and

These are but a few instances out

from crime into woe, till the crowning wickedness

of many of their popularity and success.1 In the countries of Spain and

Under their rule France continued to bleed

Portugal their

of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes laid the

A son

country prostrate; and it lay quiet for more than

of the soil, its founder had breathed a spirit into

half a century, till, recovering somewhat from its

success was

even greater than in Italy.

the order which spread among the Spaniards like an

exhaustion, it lifted itself up, only to encounter the

infection.

terrible blow of its great Revolution.

Some of the highest grandees enrolled

themselves

in

its

ranks.

In

the

province

of

We turn to Germany.

Here it was that the

Valencia, the multitudes that flocked to hear the

Church of Rome had suffered her first great losses,

Jesuit preacher, Araoz, were such that no cathe¬

and here, under the arms of the Jesuits, was she

dral could contain them, and a pulpit was erected

destined to make a beginning

for him in the open air.

which recovered not a little of the ground she

Prom the city of Sala¬

of those victories

manca, where in 1548 they had opened their esta¬

had lost.

blishment in a small, wretched house, the Jesuits

rise of Protestantism.

spread themselves over all Spain.

sons of the men who had gathered round Luther

Two members

A generation had passed away since the It is the year 1550 : the

©f the society were sent to the King of Portugal,

occupy the stage when the van of this great in¬

at his own request:

vading host makes its appearance.

They come in

dispatched to the East

silence; they are plain in their attire, humble and

This was that Francis Xavier who there

submissive in their deportment; but behind them

confessor, Indies.

the one he retained as his

the other he

gained for himself, says Ranke, “the name of an

are the stakes and scaffolds of the persecutor, and

apostle, and the glory of a saint.”

the armies of France and Spain.

At the courts

Their quiet words

of Madrid and Lisbon they soon acquired immense

find their terrible reverberations in those awful

influence.

tempests of war which for thirty years desolated

They were the confessors of the nobles

Germany.

and the counsellors of the monarch. The Jesuits found it more difficult to force their way into France.

Much they wished to found a

Ferdinand I. of Austria, reflecting on the decay into which Roman Catholic feeling had fallen in

college in that city where their first vow had been

Germany, sent to Ignatius Loyola for a few zealous

recorded, but every attempt was met by the deter¬

teachers to instruct the youth of his dominions.

mined opposition of the Parliament and the clergy,

In 1551, thirteen Jesuits, including Le Jay, arrived

The

at Vienna. They were provided with pensions, placed

wars between the Guises and the Huguenots at

in the university chairs, and crept upwards till they

who were jealous of their enormous privileges. length opened a door for them.

Lainez, who by

seized the entire direction of that seminary.

From

this time had become their General, saw his oppor¬

that hour date the crimes and misfortunes of the

tunity, and in 1561 succeeded in effecting his object,

House of Austria.3

although on condition of renouncing the peculiar

A little colony of the disciples of Loyola had,

privileges of the order, and submitting to episcopal

before this, planted itself at Cologne.

jurisdiction.

“The promise was made, but with a

some years that they took root in that city; but the

mental reservation, which removed the necessity of

initial difficulties surmounted, they began to effect

keeping it.”2

a change in public sentiment, which went on till

They immediately founded a college

It was not till

in Paris, opened schools—which were taught by

Cologne became,

clever teachers—and planted Jesuit seminaries at

“'Rome of the North.”

Avignon, Rhodes, Lyons, and other places.

Jesuits became flourishing in Ingolstadt.

Their

as it is sometimes called,

the

About the same time, the They had

intrigues kept the nation divided, and much in¬

been driven away on their first entrance into that

flamed the fury of the civil wars.

university seat, the professors dreading them as

Henry III. was next

rivals; but in 1556 they were recalled, and soon

This crime led

rose to influence, as was to be expected in a city

to their first banishment from France, in 1594; but

where the memory of Ur. Eck was still fresh.

massacred

by

an

agent

of

theirs:

attempted the life of Henry IV*

they

1 Ranke, Hist, of the Popes, bk. ii., sec. 7. 2 Duller, Hist, of the Jesuits, p. 83; Lond., 1845.

3 Ranke, bk. v., sec. 3.

414

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

Their battles, less noisy than liis, were fated to

resort of the most learned men of the German

accomplish much more for the Papacy.

nation.

From these three centres—Vienna, Cologne, and

Wherever the Jesuits came, there was quickly

Xngolstadt—the Jesuits extended themselves over

seen a manifest revival of the Popish faith.

all Germany.

the short space of ten years, their establishments

They established colleges in the chief

cities for the sons of princes and nobles, and they

had become

opened schools in town and village for the instruc-

which they were planted.

In

flourishing in all the countries in Their system of edu-

JESUIT SUCCESSES. days, although it was being freely used by the other

V\f alpurgis. ” 1

members of the family.

They began, too, to distin¬

thus implanted in the schools were, by means of

guish themselves by the use of Popish symbols.. The

preaching and confession, propagated through the whole population.

wearing of crosses and

rosaries is recorded by

itanke as one of the first signs of the setting of the tide toward Pome.

The modes of thought and feeling

While the Jesuits were busy in the seminaries, the

Forgotten rites began to be

Pope operated powerfully in the political sphere.

revived; relics which had been thrown aside and

He had recourse to various arts to gain over the

.

? ';

M vyii XSi

Si:'

1

(See

princes.

p. 417.)

Duke

Albert Y. of Ba vana had a grant made him of one

This

riveted

decision

on

his the

All

416

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

hope to restore the ancient discipline and rule of

were forbidden to appear at court.

their Church without the help of the temporal

drew into retirement, but others purchased their

sovereigns.

Besides Duke Albert, who so powerfully

contributed to re-establish the sway of Rome over

Many with¬

way back by a renunciation of their faith.

By

these and similar arts Protestantism was conquered

all Bavaria, the ecclesiastical princes, who governed

on what may be regarded as its native soil.

so large a part of Germany,

wholly rooted up it maintained henceforward but

threw themselves

heartily into the work of restoration.

The Jesuit

Canisius, a man of blameless life, of consummate

a languishing existence; fruit died in the

If not

its leaf faded and

mephitic air around it,

its

while

address, and whose great zeal was regulated by an

Romanism shot up in fresh strength and robust¬

equal prudence,

ness.

them.

was sent to counsel and guide

Under his management they accepted pro¬

visionally the edicts of the Council of Trent.

They

A whole century of calamity followed the

entrance of the Jesuits into Germany.

The troubles

they excited culminated at last in the Thirty Years’

required of all professors in colleges subscription

War.

to a confession of the Popish faith.

They exacted

of battle continued to roll over the Fatherland.

the same pledge from ordinary schoolmasters and

But the God of their fathers had not forsaken the

medical practitioners.

For the space of a generation the thunder

In many parts of Germany

Germans; it pleased him to summon from the

no one could follow a profession till first he had

distant Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, and by his

given public proof

of

his orthodoxy.

Bishops

arm to save the remnants of Protestant liberty in

were required to exercise a more vigilant superin¬

that country.

tendence of their clergy than they had done these

sign of subjugating the whole of Germany, and had

twenty years past.

Thus the Jesuits failed in their de¬

The Protestant preachers were

to content themselves with dominating over those

banished; and in some parts the entire Protestant

portions, unhappily large, of which the ecclesiastical

population was driven out.

princes had given them possession at the first.

The Protestant nobles

CHAPTER IX. COMMERCIAL

ENTERPRISES

AND

BANISHMENTS.

England—Poland—Cardinal Hosius—Sigismund III.—Ruin of Poland—Jesuit Missions in the East Indies—Numbers of their Converts—Their Missions in Abyssinia—Their Kingdom of Paraguay—Their Trading Establishments in the West Indies—Episode of Father la Yalette—Bankruptcy—Trial—Their Constitutions brought to Light— Banished from all Popish Kingdoms—Suppressed by Clement XIV.—The Pope Dies Suddenly—The Order Restored by Pius VII.—The Jesuits the Masters of the Pope. Of the entrance of the Jesuits into England, the

which was then unknown to most of the nations of

arts they employed, the disguises they wore, the

Europe.

seditions they sowed,

from the persecution to which they were exposed

the

snares they

laid for

Foreign Protestants fled to it as a refuge

the life of the sovereign, and the plots they con¬

in their native land,

cocted for the overthrow of the Protestant Church,

country their skill, their wealth, and their energy.

bringing to their adopted

we shall have an opportunity of speaking when we

Its trade increased, and its towns grew in popula¬

come to narrate the history of Protestantism in

tion and riches.

Great Britain.

Scottish Protestant congregations existed at Cracow,

Meanwhile, we consider their career

in Poland.

Yilna, and Posnania.1

Cardinal Hosius opened the gates of this country to the Jesuits.

Italian, German, French, and

Till then Poland was a flourishing

country, united at home and powerful abroad.

Its

literature and science during the half-century pre¬

Such was Poland before the

foot of Jesuit had touched its soil. But from the hour that the disciples of Loyola entered the country Poland began to decline.

The

Jesuits became supreme at court; the monarch,

ceding had risen to an eminence that placed Poland on a par with the most enlightened countries of Christendom.

It enjoyed a measure of toleration

1 Krasinski, Rise, Progress, and Decline of the Reformation in Poland, vol. ii,, p. 196; Loud., 1840.

THE JESUITS ABROAD.

Ill

Sigismund III., gave himself entirely up to their

Oviedo, who had entered Ethiopia, wrote thus t&

guidance ; no one could hope to rise in the State who

the Pope :—“ He must be permitted to inform his

did not pay court to them; the education of youth

Holiness that, with the assistance of 500 or 600

was wholly in their hands, and the effects became

Portuguese soldiers, he could at any time reduce

speedily visible in the decay of literature,1 and the

the Empire of Abyssinia to the obedience of the

growing decrepitude of the national mind.

At

Pontificate; and when he considered that it was a

home the popular liberties were attacked in the

country surrounded with territories abounding with

persons of the Protestants, and abroad the nation

the finest gold, and promising a rich harvest of

was humiliated by a foreign policy inspired by the

souls to the Church, he trusted his Holiness would

Jesuits, which drew upon the country the contempt

give the matter further consideration.”4

and hostility of neighbouring powers.

peror of Ethiopia

These evil

was gained

The Em¬

by flatteries and

courses of intrigue and faction within the country,

miracles; a terrible persecution was raised against

and impotent and arrogant policy outside of it, were

the native Christians; thousands were massacred;

persisted in till the natural issue was reached in

but at last, the king having detected the authors of

the partition of Poland.

It is at the door of the

these barbarities plotting against his own life and

Jesuits that the fall of that once-enlightened, pros¬

throne, they were ignominiously expelled the country.

perous, and powerful nation is to be laid.

Having secured the territory of Paraguay,

It concerns us less to follow the Jesuits into

a

Portuguese possession in South America, the Jesuits

those countries which lie beyond the boundaries of

founded a kingdom there, and became its sove¬

Christendom, unless in so far as their doings in

reigns.

these regions may help to throw light on their

kindness, and taught them several useful ‘ arts, but

principles and tactics.

They treated the natives

at first with

In following their steps

by-and-by they changed their policy, and, reducing

among heathen nations and savage races,# it is alike

them to slavery, compelled them to labour for their

impossible to withhold our admiration of their

benefit.

burning zeal and intrepid courage, or our wonder

from the produce of his own toil as much as would

at their prodigiously rapid success.

Dealing out to the Paraguayan peasant

Ho sooner had

suffice to feed and clothe him, the Fathers laid up

the Jesuit missionary set foot on a new shore, or

the rest in large storehouses, which they had erected

preached, by an interpreter it might be, his first

for the purpose.

sermon in a heathen city, than his converts were to

from the knowledge of Europe this seemingly ex¬

be counted in tens of thousands.

haustless source of wealth, that no one else might

Speaking of their

They kept carefully concealed

missions in India, Sacchinus, their historian, says

share its sweets.

that “ ten thousand men were baptised in the space

draw from it those vast sums wherewith they

They continued all the while to

When the Jesuit mission to the carried on their machinations in the Old World.

of one year.”2 3

East Indies was set on foot in 1559, Torrez pro¬

With the gold wrung from the Paraguayan peasants'

cured royal

toil they hired spies, bribed courtiers, opened new

letters

to

the

Portuguese viceroys their

missions, and maintained that pomp and splendour

assistance to the missionaries for the conversion of

of their establishments by which the populace were

the Indians.

dazzled.5

and

governors,

empowering them to lend

This shortened the process wonder¬

All that had to be done was to ascertain

Their establishments in Brazil formed the basis

the place where the natives were assembled for some

of a great and enriching trade, of which Santa Fe

religious festival, and surround them with a troop

and Buenos Ayres were the chief depots.

of soldiers, who,

most noted episode of this kind in their history is

fully.

with levelled muskets,

them the alternative of baptism.

offered

The rite followed

that of Father Lavalette (1756).

But the

He was Visitor-

immediately upon the acceptance of the alternative;

General and Apostolic Prefect of their Missions in

and next day the baptised were taught the sign of

the West Indies.

the cross.

Domingo, Granada,

In this excellent and summary way was

the evangelisation of the island of Goa effected!2 By similar methods did they attempt to plant

“ He organised St. Lucia,

offices in St.

St. Vincent,

and

other islands, and drew" bills of exchange on Paris, London, Bordeaux, Nantes, Lyons, Cadiz, Leghorn,

the Popish faith and establish their own dominion

and Amsterdam.”

in Abyssinia, and also at Mozambique (1560) on

comprising, besides colonial produce, negro slaves,

the opposite coast of Africa.

“ crossed the sea continually.”0

One of the pioneers,

1 Krasinsld, vol. ii., pp. 197,198, 2 Sacchinus, fib. vi., p. 172. 3 Steinmetz, Hist, of the Jesuits, vol. ii., pp. 46—48. Sacchinus, lib. iii., pt 129.

His vessels, loaded with riches, Trading on credit,

4 Steinmetz, lib. ii., p. 59. 5 Duller, Hist, of the Jesuits, pp. 135—138, 6 A Glimpse of the Great Secret Society, p. Ixzixj ecL Lond,, 1872.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

418

they professed to give the property of the society

object, which was to plant their own supremacy on

as security.

the ruin of society.

normal.

Their methods of business were ab¬

Treaties obeyed by other merchants they

disregarded.

Neutrality

laws were

nothing to

them. They hired ships which were used as traders

The Constitutions were one

of the principal grounds of the decree for the ex¬ tinction of the order in France, in 1762.1 That political kingdoms and civil communities

or privateers, as suited them,

and sailed under

should feel the Order a burden too heavy to be

whatever flag was convenient.

At last, however,

borne, is not to be wondered at when we reflect

came trouble to these Fathers, who were making,

that even the Popes, of whose throne it was the

as the phrase is, “the best of both worlds.”

pillar,

The

Brothers Lioncy and Gouffre, of Marseilles, had ac¬

have

repeatedly

decreed

its

extinction.

Strange as it may seem, the first bolt in later times

cepted their bills for a million and a half of livres,

that fell on the Jesuits was launched by the hand

to cover which two vessels had been dispatched for

of Rome.

Martinique with merchandise to the value of two

prohibited them from engaging in trade and making

millions.

Unfortunately for the Fathers, the ships

Benedict IV., by a bull issued in 1741,

slaves of the Indians’.

In 1759, Portugal, finding

itself on the brink of ruin by their intrigues,

were captured at sea by the English. The house of Lioncy and Gouffre asked the superior

shook them off.

This example was soon followed

of the Jesuits in Marseilles for four thousand livres,

in France, as we have already narrated.

as part payment of their debt, to save them from

in Spain, with all its devotion to the Papal See,

Even

bankruptcy.

The Father replied that the society

all the Jesuit establishments were surrounded, one

was not answerable, but he offered the Brothers

night in 1767, with troops, and the whole fraternity,

Lioncy and Gouffre the aid of their prayers, for¬

amounting to 7,000, were caught and shipped off to

tified by the masses which they were about to say

Italy.

for them.

befell them in South America.

The masses would not fill the coffers

Immediately thereafter a similar expulsion Naples, Malta, and

which the Jesuits had emptied, and accordingly

Parma were the next to drive them from their soil.

the merchants appealed to Parliament craving a

The severest blow was yet to come.

decree for payment of the debt.

hitherto their firm friend, yielding at last to the

The appeal was

Clement XIII.,

allowed, and the Jesuits were condemned to honour

unanimous demands of all the Roman Catholic

the bills drawn by their agent.

At this critical

courts, summoned a secret conclave for the suppres¬

moment the General of the society died : delay was

sion of the Order : “ a step necessary,” said the brief

inevitable : the new General sent all the funds he

of his successor, “ in order to prevent Christians

could raise; but before these supplies could reach

rising one against another, and massacring one an¬

Marseilles, Lioncy and Gouffre had become bank¬

other in the very bosom of our common mother the

rupt, involving in their misfortune their connections

Holy Church.”

in all parts of France.

evening before the day appointed for the conclave.

Now that the ruin had come and publicity was

Lorenzo

Clement died suddenly the very

Ganganelli

was elevated to the vacant

inevitable, the Jesuits refused to pay the debt?

chair under the title of Clement XIV.

pleading that they were protected from the claims

nelli was studious, learned, of pure morals, and of

of their creditors by

genuine piety.

their

Constitutions.

cause now came to a public hearing.

The

After several

Ganga¬

From the schoolmen he turned to

the Fathers, forsaking the Fathers he gave himself

pleas had been advanced and abandoned, the Jesuits

to the study of the

took their final

learned on what Rock to fix the anchor of his

stand

in an evil hour for

on the argument which, themselves,

they had put

faith.

Clement XIV.

Holy Scriptures, where he strove

for several years,

forth at first in their defence.

Their rules, they

with honest but mistaken zeal, to reform the Order.

said,

and the fault of

His efforts were fruitless.

forbade them to

trade;

individual members could not be punished upon

On the 21st of July,

1773, he issued the famous bull, “ Dominus ac

the Order : they were shielded by their Constitu¬

Redemptor noster,” by which he “dissolved and

tions.

for ever annihilated the Order as a corporate body,”

The Parliament ordered these documents to

be produced.

They had been kept secret till now.

They were laid before Parliament on the lGth of April, 1761. Jesuits.

The result was disastrous for the

They lost their cause, and became much

more odious than before.

at a moment when it counted 22,000 members.2 The bull justifies itself by a long and formidable list of charges against the Jesuits.

Had this accu¬

sation proceeded from a Protestant pen it might

The disclosure revealed

Jesuitism to men as an organisation based on the most iniquitous maxims, and armed with the most terrible weapons for the accomplishment of their

1 A Glimpse of the Great Secret Society, pp. lxxviii.—Ixxxb Chalotais, Report to Pari, of Bretagne. 2 Duller, Hist, of the Jesuits, p. 151.

SUPPRESSION

AND

RESTORATION OF THE JESUITS.

419

Pave been regarded as not free from exaggeration,

would die soon.

but coming from the Papal chair it must be accepted

began to decline without any apparent cause : his

as the sober truth.

illness increased :

The bull of Clement charged

them with raising various insurrections and rebel¬

In April of the following year he no medicine was of any avail:

and after lingering in torture for months, he died,

lions, with plotting against bishops, undermining

September 22nd, 1774.

the regular monastic orders, and invading pious

death,” says Caraccioli, “ his bones were exfoliated

“Several days before his

foundations and corporations of every sort, not only

and withered like a tree which, attacked at its

in Europe, but in Asia and America, to the danger

roots, withers away and throws off its bark.

of souls and the astonishment of all nations.

It

scientific men who were called in to embalm his

The

and that,

body found the features livid, the lips black, the

instead of seeking to convert the heathen, they had

abdomen inflated, the limbs emaciated, and covered

shown themselves intent only on gathering gold

with violet spots.

and silver and precious jewels.

diminished, and all the muscles were shrunk up,

charged them with engaging in trade,

They had inter¬

The size of the heart was

polated pagan rites and manners with Christian

and the spine was decomposed.

beliefs and worship : they had set aside the ordi¬

body with perfumed and aromatic substances, but

nances of the

nothing could dispel the mephitic effluvia.”2

Church, and substituted opinions

They filled the

which the apostolic chair had pronounced funda¬

The suppression with which Clement XIV. smote

mentally erroneous and evidently subversive of good,

the Society of Jesus was eternal; but the “for ever”

morals.

Tumults,

disturbances,

followed them in all

countries.

violences,

had

In fine, they

of the bull lasted only in actual deed during the brief interval that elapsed between 1773 and 1814.

That

had broken the peace of the Church, and so in¬

short period was filled up with the awful tempest

curably that the Pontificates of liis predecessors,

of the French Revolution—to the fallen thrones

Urban VIII., Clements IX., X., XI., and XII.,

and desecrated altars of which the Jesuits pointed

Alexanders VII. and VIII., Innocents X., XI.,

as the monuments of the Divine anger at the

XII., and XIII., and Benedict XIV., had been

suppression of their Order.

passed

Clement, the Jesuits had neither ceased to exisi

in abortive

attempts to re-establish the

Despite the bull oi

harmony and concord which they had destroyed.

nor ceased to act.

It was now seen that the peace of the Church

world they were energetically active.

Amid the storms that shook the

would never be restored while the Order existed,

lutionary conventions and clubs, in war-councils

In revo¬

and hence the necessity of the bull which dis¬

and committees, on battle-fields they were present,

possessed the Jesuits of “ every office, service, and

guiding with unseen but powerful touch the course

administration;” took

away from them “their

of affairs.

Their maxim is, if despotisms will not

houses, schools, hospitals, estates;” withdrew “all

serve them, to demoralise society and render govern¬

their statutes, usuages, decrees, customs, and ordi¬

ment impossible, and from chaos to remodel the

nances ; ” and pronounced “ all the power of the

world anew.

General, Provincial, Visitors, and every other head

gone

of the same Order, whether spiritual or secular, to

men believed, started up in full force the moment

be for ever annulled and suppressed.” “The present

after, prepared to enter on the work of moulding

ordinance,”

and ruling the nations which had been chastised

said the bull,

in conclusion,

“ shall

Thus the Society of Jesus, which had

out of existence before the Revolution, as

remain in full force and operation from henceforth

but not enlightened.

and for ever.”

turned to the

Nothing but the most tremendous necessity could have made Clement XIV. issue this bull.

He knew

Scarcely had Pius VII. re¬

Vatican, when,

by a bull dated

August 7th, 1814, he restored the Order of Jesus. Thaddeus Borzodzowsky was placed at their head.

well how unforgiving was the pride and how deadly

Once more the brotherhood stalked abroad in their

the vengeance of the Society, and he did not conceal

black birettas.

from himself the penalty he should have to pay for

seminaries, and novitiates began to flourish in all

decreeing its suppression.

the countries of Europe, Ireland and England not

On laying down his pen,

In no long time their colleges,

after having put his name to the bull, he said to

excepted.

those around him that he had subscribed his death-

of “ St. Vincent de Paul,” “ Brothers of the Chris¬

warrant.1

tian Doctrine,” and other societies affiliated with

The Pope was at that time in robust

Their numbers, swelled by the sodalities

health, and his vigorous constitution and temperate habits promised a long life.

But now dark rumours

began to be whispered in Italy that the Pontiff 1 “ Sotto-scriviamo la nostra morte.”

2 All the world believed that Clement had been made to drink the Aqua Tofana, a spring in Perugia more famous than healthful. Some one has said that if Popes are not liable to err, they are nevertheless liable to sudden death.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM

POPE PITJS YU.

(From the Portrait by David.)

the order, became greater, perhaps, than they ever

Chair ” ended—temporarily, at any rate—in the

were at any former period.

And their impor-

enslavement of the Popedom, of which they in™

tance was vastly enhanced by the fact that the

spired the policy, indited the decrees, and wielded

contest between

the power.

the

“ Order ”

and the

“ Papal

421

into the Pra; while a third was forcing itself over

burn in the light of morning when the attention

the rocks by a path intermediate between the two.

of the people,

Instantly the enemy was met on all the points of

worship, was attracted by unusual sounds which

approach.

were heard to issue from the gorge that led into-

A handful of Waldensians sufficed to

who had just ended their united

thrust back along the narrow gorge the line of

the valley.

glittering cuirassed men, who were defiling through

rushed to the gateway that opens from the gorge.

it.

The long file of La Trinita’s soldiers was seen

At the other two points, where bastions of rock

On the instant six brave mountaineers,

and earth had been erected, the fighting was severe,

advancing two abreast, their helmets and cuirasses

and the dead lay thick, but the day at both places

glittering in the light.

went against the invaders.

arrangements, and calmly waited till the enemy

captains were among the slain.

Some of the ablest The number of the

was near.

The six Yaudois made their

The first two Yaudois, holding loaded

soldiers killed was so great that Count La Trinita

muskets, knelt down.

is said to have sat down and wept when he beheld

ready to fire over the heads of the first two.

the heaps of the dead.1

third two undertook the loading of the weapons as

It was matter of astonish¬

The second two stood erect,

The invaders came on.

The

ment at the time that the Waldenses did not pursue

they were discharged.

the invaders, for had they done so, being so much

the first two of the enemy turned the rock they

As

better acquainted with the mountain-paths, not one

were shot down by the two foremost Yaudois.

of all that host would have been left alive to cany

next two of the attacking force fell in like manner

tidings of its discomfiture to the inhabitants of

by the shot of the Yaudois in the rear.

Piedmont.

rank of the enemy presented themselves only to-

Their pastors restrained the victorious

The

The third

Yaudois, having laid it down as a maxim at the

be laid by the side of their comrades.

beginning of the campaign, that they would use

minutes a little heap of dead bodies blocked the

In a few

with moderation and clemency whatever victories

pass, rendering impossible the advance of the accu¬

the “ God of battles” might be pleased to give

mulating file of the enemy in the chasm.

them, and that they would spill no blood unless

Meantime, other Yaudois climbed the mountains

when absolutely necessary to prevent their own

that overhang the gorge in which the Piedmontese

being shed.

The Piedmontese dead was again out

army was imprisoned.

Tearing up the great stones

of all proportion to those who had fallen on the

with which the hill-side was strewn, the Yaudois

other side; so much so, that it was currently said

sent them rolling down upon the host.

in the cities of Piedmont that “ God was fighting

advance from the wall of dead in front, and unable

for the barbets. ” 2

to flee from the ever-accumulating masses behind,

More deeply humiliated and disgraced than ever,

the soldiers were crushed in dozens by the falling

La Trinita led back the remains of his army to its

rocks.

old quarters.

how dreadful!

Well had it been for him if he had

never set foot within the Waldensian territory, and not less so for many of those who followed him,

Unable to

Panic set in : and panic in such a position Wedged together on the narrow

ledge, with a murderous rain of rocks falling on them, their struggle to escape was frightful.

They

jostled one another, and trod each other under foot,

1 Muston, p. 83.

2 Ibid,

Monastier, p, 194.

while vast numbers fell over the precipice, and were

467

PEACE IN THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS. dashed on the rocks or drowned in the torrent,1

waxing cold.

When those at the entrance of the valley, who

lates and monks of Piedmont, to whom the heretics

It stank in the nostrils of the pre¬

were watching the result, saw the crystal of the

had been a free booty.

Angrogna begin about midday to be changed into

manuel Philibert faithfully maintained its stipula¬

blood, “ Ah ! ” said they, “ the Pra del Tor has

tions, the duchess being by his side to counteract

been taken;

La Trinita

has

triumphed;

there

Nevertheless, Duke Em¬

any pressure in the contrary direction.

This peace,

And, indeed, the

together with the summer that was now opening,

count on beginning his march that morning is said

began to slowly efface the deep scars the persecution

to have boasted that by noon the torrent of the

had left on the Valleys; and what further helped

Angrogna would be seen to change colour;

and

to console and reanimate this brave but afflicted

Instead of a pellucid stream,

people, was the sympathy and aid universally ten¬

rolling along on a white gravelly bed, which is its

dered them by Protestants abroad, in particular by

Hows the blood of the Vaudois.”

so in truth it did.

usual appearance at the mouth of the valley, it was

Calvin and the Elector Palatine, the latter address¬

now

ing a spirited letter to the duke on behalf of his

deeply dyed

from

recent slaughter.

But

when the few who had escaped the catastrophe

persecuted subjects.3

returned to tell what had that day passed within

Nothing was more admirable than the spirit of

the defiles of the Angrogna, it was seen that it was

devotion which the Vaudois exhibited all through

not the blood of the Vaudois, but the blood of

these terrible conflicts.

their ruthless invaders, which dyed the waters a£

not less with the voice of prayer and praise, than

the Angrogna.

with the din of arms.

The count withdrew on that same

night with his army, to return no more to the

Their Valleys resounded Their opponents came from

carousing, from blaspheming, from murdering, to engage in battle ; the Waldenses rose from their

Valleys. Negotiations were again resumed, not this time

knees to unsheathe the sword, and wield it in a

through the Count La Trinita, but through Philip

cause which they firmly believed to be that of Him

of Savoy,

Count of Baconis,

and were speedily

to whom they had bent in supplication.

brought to a satisfactory issue.

The Duke of Savoy

their little army went a-field their barbes always

When

had but small merit in making peace with the men

accompanied it, to inspirit the soldiers by suitable

The capitu¬

exhortations before joining battle, and to moderate

lation was signed on the 5th of June, 1561, and its

in the hour of victory a vengeance which, however

whom he found he could not conquer.

first clause granted an indemnity for all offences.

excusable, would yet have lowered the glory of the

It is open to remark that this indemnity was given

triumph.

to those who had suffered, not to those who had

bastion or to the defile, the pastors betook them to

committed the offences it condoned.

The articles

When the fighting men hastened to the

the mountain’s slope, or to its summit, and there

that followed permitted the Vaudois to erect churches

with

in their Valleys, with the exception of two or three

“ Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in

uplifted

hands supplicated

help from the

of their towns, to hold public worship—in short, to

battle.”

celebrate all the offices of their religion.

All the

enemy were in flight, and the victors had returned

“ ancient franchises, immunities, and privileges, whe¬

from chasing their invaders from their Valleys, the

When the battle had ceased, and the

ther conceded by his Highness, or by his Highness’s

grey-haired pastor, the lion-hearted man of battle,

predecessors,” were renewed, provided they were

the matron, the maiden, the stripling, and the little

vouched by public documents.2

Such was the ar¬

child, would assemble in the Pra del Tor, and while

rangement that closed this war of fifteen months.

the setting sun was kindling into glory the moun¬

The Vaudois ascribed it in great part to the in¬

tain-tops of their once more ransomed land, they

The Pope

would raise their voices together, and sing the old

designated it a “ pernicious example,” which he

war-song of Judah, in strains so heroic that the

fluence of the good Duchess Margaret.

great rocks around them would send back the

feared would not want imitators in those times

O

when the love of many to the Roman See w^,s

thunder of their praise in louder echoes than those of the battle whose triumphant issue they were

1 2

Leger, part ii., p. 37. Muston, p. 85. The Articles of Capitulation are given in full in Leger, part ii., pp. 38—40.

celebrating.

3 Leger, part ii., p. 41.

468

CHAPTER VIII. WALDENSPAN COLONIES IN CALABRIA AND APULIA.

An Inn at Turin-Two Waldensian Youths—A Stranger—Invitation to Calabria—The Waldenses Search the Land— They Settle there—Their Colony Flourishes—Build Towns—Cultivate Science—They Hear of the ReformationPetition for a Fixed Pastor—Jean Louis Paschale sent to them—Apprehended—Brought in Chains to Naples —Conducted to Rome. One day, about the year 1340, two Waldensian

the rising ground, walnuts and every fruit-tree.

youths were seated in an inn in Turin, engaged in

Everywhere were seen rich arable land and few

earnest conversation respecting

labourers.”

spects.

their home pro¬

Shut up in their valleys, and cultivating

A considerable body of emigrants set

out for this new country.

The young men were

with toil their somewhat sterile mountains, they

accompanied to their future homes with partners.

sighed for wider limits and a more fertile land.

They carried with them the Bible in the Romance

“ Come with me,” said a stranger, who had been

version, “ that holy ark of the New Covenant, and

listening unperceived to their discourse,

of everlasting peace.”

“ Come

with me, and I will give you fertile fields for your barren rocks.”

The person who now courteously

The conditions of

their emigration offered a

reasonable security for the free

and undisturbed

addressed the youths, and whose steps Providence

exercise of their worship.

“ By a convention with

had directed to the same hotel with themselves, was

the local seigneurs, ratified later by the King of

a gentleman from Calabria, at the southern ex¬

Naples, Ferdinand of Arragon, they were permitted

tremity of the Italian Peninsula.

to govern their own affairs, civil and spiritual, by

On their return to the Valleys the youths re¬

their own magistrates, and their own pastors.”1

ported the words of the stranger, and the flattering

Their first settlement was near the town of Mont-

hopes he had held out should they be willing to

alto.

migrate to this southern land, where skies more

Sexto, which afterwards became the capital of the

Half a century later rose the city of San

genial, and an earth more mollient, would reward

colony. Other towns and villages sprang up, and the

their labour with more bounteous harvests.

The

region, which before had been thinly inhabited, and

elders of the Vaudois people listened not without

but poorly cultivated, was soon transformed into a

interest.

The population of their Valleys had

smiling garden.

The swelling hills were clothed

recently received a great accession in the Albigen-

with fruit-trees, and the plains waved with luxuriant

sian refugees, who had escaped from the massacres

crops.

of Innocent III. in the south of France; and the

So struck was the Marquis of Spinello with

Waldenses, feeling themselves overcrowded, were

the prosperity and wealth of the settlements, that

prepared to welcome any fair scheme that promised

he offered to cede lands on his own vast and fertile

an enlargement of their boundaries.

But before

estates where these colonists might build cities

acceding to the proposition of the stranger they

and plant vineyards.

thought it advisable to send competent persons to

authorised them to surround with a wall; hence

examine this new and to them unknown land.

its name, La Guardia.

The Vaudois explorers returned with a flattering

height near the sea, soon became populous and

account of the conditions and capabilities of the

opulent.2

country they had been invited to occupy.

One of

their

towns he

This town, situated on a

Com¬

Towards the close of the same century, another

pared with their own more northern mountains,

body of Vaudois emigrants from Provence arrived

whose summits Winter covers all the year through

In the south of Italy.

with his snows, whose gorges are apt to be swept

Apulia, not far from their Calabrian brethren, vil¬

The new-comers settled in

by furious gusts, and their sides stripped of their

lages and towns arose, and the region speedily put

com and vines by devastating torrents, Calabria

on a new face under the improved arts and hus¬

was a land of promise.

“ There are beautiful

bandry of the colonists.

Their smiling homes,

describing this

which looked forth from amid groves of orange and

settlement, “ clothed with all kinds of fruit-trees

myrtle, their hills covered with the olive and the

hills,” says the historian spontaneously

springing

Gilles, up

according

to

their

situation—in the plains, vines and chestnuts; on

1 Muston, p. 37.

2 Leger, part ii., p. 333.

THE CALABRIAN SETTLEMENTS.

469

■vine, their corn-fields and pasture-lands, were the

how different the aspect of the one from that of

marvel and the envy of their neighbours.

the other!

In 1500 there arrived in Calabria yet another

The soil, touched by the plough of

Vaudois, seemed to feel a charm that made it open

emigration from the Valleys of Pragelas and Frais-

its bosom and yield a tenfold: increase.

sini&res.

tended by Vaudois hands bore richer clusters, and

This third body of colonists established

The vine

themselves on the Volturata, a river which flows

strove in generous rivalry with the fig and the

from

olive to outdo them in enriching with its produce

the Apennines into the

Bay of Tarento.

With the increase of their numbers came an increase

the Vaudois board.

of prosperity to the colonists.

and order of their towns ; and the air of happiness

Their neighbours,

And how delightful the quiet

who knew not the secret of this prosperity, were

on the faces of the people ! And how sweet to listen

lost in wonder and admiration of it.

to the bleating of the flocks on the hills, the lowing

The physical

attributes of the region occupied by the emigrants

of the herds in the meadows, the song of the reaper

differed in no respect from those of their own

and grape-gatherer, and the merry voices of children

lands, both were placed under the same sky, but

at play around the hamlets and villages t

For

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

470 about

200

years

these

colonies

continued

to

neighbours.

Still the priests could not help ob¬

serving that the manners of these northern settlers

Nourish. “ It is a curious circumstance/’ says the historian

were, in many things, peculiar and strange.

McCrie,

eschewed revels and fetes; they had their children

“ that the first gleam of light,

at the

They

revival of letters, shone on that remote spot of

taught by foreign schoolmasters ; in their churches

Italy where the Yaudois had found an asylum.

was neither image nor lighted taper; they never

Petrarch first acquired a knowledge of the Greek

went on pilgrimage; they buried their dead with¬

tongue from Barlaam, a monk of Calabria; and

out the aid of the priests ; and never were they

Boccaccio was taught it from Leontius Pilatus, who

known to bring a candle to the Yirgin’s shrine, or

was a hearer of Barlaam, if not also a native of

purchase a mass for the help of their dead relatives,,

the same place.”1

Muston says that “the sciences

flourished among them.” 2

These peculiarities were certainly startling, but one

The day of the Renais-

thing went far to atone for them—they paid with

The flight of scholars,

the utmost punctuality and fidelity their stipulated

which was to bear with it the seeds of ancient

tithes; and as the value of their lands was yearly

learning to the West, had not yet taken place ; but

increasing, there was a corresponding yearly in¬

sance had not yet broken.

the Yaudois of Calabria would seem to have antici¬

crease in both the tithe due to the priest and the

pated that great literary revival.

rent payable to the

They had brought

landlord,

and neither was

with them the Scriptures in the Romance version.

anxious to disturb a state of things so beneficial

They possessed doubtless the taste and genius for

to himself,

which the Romance nations were then famous;

more advantageous.3

and which was every day becoming

and, moreover, in their southern settlement they

But in the middle of the sixteenth century the

may have had access to some knowledge of those

breath of Protestantism from the North began to

sciences which the Saracens then so assiduously

move over these colonies.

cultivated; and what so likely, with their leisure

them told them of the synod which had been held

and wealth,

in Angrogna in 1532, and which had been as the

as that these Yaudois should turn

The pastors who visited

their attention to letters as well as to husbandry,

“ beginning of months ” to the ancient Church of

and make their adopted country vocal with the

the Yalleys.

strains of that minstrelsy with which Provence and

communicate to the Christians of Calabria.

Dauphine had resounded so melodiously, till its

Germany, in France, in Switzerland, and in Den¬

music was quenched at once and for ever by the

mark the old Gospel had blazed forth in a splen¬

murderous arms of Simon de Montfort %

dour unknown to it for ages.

But here

More glorious tidings still did they In

The Lamp of the

we can only doubtfully guess, for the records of

Alps was no longer the one solitary light in the

this interesting people are scanty and dubious.

world: around it was a circle of mighty torches,

These colonists kept up their connection with

whose rays, blending with those of the older lumi¬

the mother country of the Yalleys, though situated

nary, were combining to dispel the night from

at the opposite extremity of Italy. their

faith,

which

was

the

To keep alive

connecting

link,

Christendom.

At the hearing of these stupendous

things their spirit revived : their past conformity

pastors were sent in relays of two to minister in

appeared to them like cowardice;

the Churches of Calabria and Apulia; and when

take part in the great work of the emancipation of

they had fulfilled their term of two years they

the nations, by making open confession of the truth ;

were replaced by other two.

and no longer content with the mere visit of a

The barbes, on their

they, too, would

way back to the Yalleys, visited their brethren in

pastor, they petitioned the mother Church to send

the Italian towns; for at that time there were few

them one who might statedly discharge amongst

cities in the peninsula in which the Yaudois were

them the office of the holy ministry.4

The grandfather of the Yaudois

There was at that time a young minister at

historian, Gilles, in one of these pastoral visits to

Geneva, a native of Italy, and him the Church of

Yenice, was assured by the Waldenses whom he

the Yalleys designated to the perilous but honour-

not to be found.

there conversed with, that there were not fewer than 6,000 of their nation in that city.

Fear had

not yet awakened the suspicions and kindled the hatred of the Romanists, for the Reformation was not yet come.

Nor did the Waldenses care to

thrust their opinions upon the

1M? Crie, Italy, pp. 7,8.

notice of

their

2 Muston, Israel of the Alps, p. 38.

3 Perrin, Histoire des Vaudois, p. 197. Monastier, pp. 203, 204. 4 Muston, p. 38. Monastier and Mr Crie say that the application for a pastor was made to Geneva, and that Paschale set out for Calabria, accompanied by another minister and two schoolmasters. It is probable that the application was made to Geneva through the intermediation of the home Church.

LOUIS PASCHALE. able post.

His name was Jolin Louis Paschale;

earth,

471

which was

exchanged on his

arrival at

lie was a native of Coni in the Plain of Piedmont.

Naples for a deep, damp dungeon,3 the stench of

By birth a Pomanist, his first profession was that

which almost suffocated him.

of arms; but from a knight of the sword he had

On the 16th of May, 1560, Paschale was taken

become, like Loyola, but in a truer sense, a knight

in chains to Pome, and imprisoned in the Torre

of the Cross.

He had just completed his theo¬

logical studies at Lausanne.

He was betrothed to

di Nona, where he was thrust into a cell not less noisome than that which he had occupied at Naples.

a young Piedmontese Protestant, Camilla Guerina.1

His brother, Bartolomeo, having obtained letters

“ Alas ! ” she sorrowfully exclaimed, when he inti¬

of recommendation, came from Coni to procure, if

mated to her his departure for Calabria, “ so near

possible, some mitigation of his fate.

to Pome and so far from me.”

They parted, never¬

view between the two brothers, as told by Bar¬

The young minister carried with him to Calabria

to see him,” says he, “ with his bare head, and his

more to meet on earth.

tolomeo, was most affecting.

the energetic spirit of Geneva.

His preaching was

The inter¬

“ It was quite hideous

hands and arms lacerated by the small cords with

with power; the zeal and courage of the Calabrian

which he was bound, like one about to be led to

flock revived, and the light formerly hid under a

the gibbet.

bushel was now openly displayed.

to the ground.

Its splendour

On advancing to embrace him I sank ‘ My brother,’ said he, ‘ if you are

attracted the ignorance and awoke the fanaticism'

a Christian, why do you distress yourself thus! Do

of the region.

you know that a leaf cannot fall to the ground

The priests, who had tolerated a

heresy that had conducted itself so modestly, and

without the will of God?

paid its dues so punctually, could be blind no

Christ

longer.

worthy to be compared with the glory to come.’ ”

The Marquis of Spinello, who had been

Jesus, for

the

Comfort yourself in

present troubles are

not

the protector of these colonists hitherto, finding

His brother,

his kindness more than repaid in the flourishing

fortune if only he would

condition

life.

Even this token of affection could not move

him.

“ Oh, my brother ! ” said he, “ the danger

of his states, was compelled to move

against them.

“That dreadful thing, Lutheran¬

a Pomanist,

offered

him half his

recant, and save his

ism,” he was told, “ had broken in, and would soon

in which you are involved gives me more distress

destroy all things.”

than all that I suffer.”4

The marquis summoned the pastor and his flock before him.

After a few moments’ address from

He wrote to his affianced bride with a

pen

which, if it softened the picture of his own great

Paschale, the marquis dismissed the members of

sufferings, freely expressed the affection he bore

the congregation with a sharp reprimand, but the

for her, which “ grows,” said he, “ with that

pastor he threw into the dungeons of Foscalda.

feel for God.”

The bishop of the diocese next took the matter

in Calabria.

Into his own hands, and removed Paschale to the

letter which he addressed to them, “ I feel my joy

t

Nor was he unmindful of his flock “ My state is this,” says he, in a

prison of Cosenza, where he remained shut up

increase every day, as I approach nearer the hour

during eight months.

in which I shall be offered a sweet-smelling sacri¬

The Pope heard of the case, and delegated Car¬

fice to the Lord Jesus Christ, my faithful Saviour;

dinal Alexandrini, Inquisitor-General, to extinguish

yea, so inexpressible is my joy that I seem to

the heresy in the Kingdom of Naples.2 drini ordered Paschale

Alexan¬

to be removed from the

Castle of Cosenza, and conducted to Naples.

On

myself to be free from captivity, and am prepared to die for Christ,

and not only once,

but ten

thousand times, if it were possible; nevertheless,

the journey he was subjected to terrible sufferings.

I persevere in imploring the Divine assistance by

Chained to a gang of prisoners—the handcuffs so

prayer, for I am convinced that man is a miserable

tight that they entered the flesh—he spent nine

creature when left to himself, and not upheld and

•days on the road, sleeping at night on the bare

directed by God.”5

1 MrCrie. p. 324.

2 Monastier, p. 205.

3 M? Crie, p. 325. 4 Ibid., pp. 325—327.

5 Ibid., pp. 326,327,

472

CHAPTER IX. EXTINCTION OF WALDENSES IN CALABRIA.

Arrival of Inquisitors in Calabria—Flight of the Inhabitants of San Sexto—Pursued and Destroyed—La Guardia —Its Citizens Seized—Their Tortures—Horrible Butchery—The Calabrian Colony Exterminated—Louis Paschale—His Condemnation—The Castle of St. Angelo—The Pope, Cardinals, and Citizens—The Martyr—His Last Words—His Execution—His Tomb. Leaving the martyr for a little while in his dun¬

them to their hiding-places, in the thickets and the

geon at Rome, we shall return to his flock in

caves of the mountains, they slaughtered many of

Calabria, on whom the storm which we saw gather¬

them;

ing had burst in terrific violence.

bloodhounds, as

When it was known that Protestant ministers

others, who escaped,

they pursued with

if they had been

wild beasts.

Some of these fugitives scaled the craggy summits

had been sent from Geneva to the Waldensian

of the Apennines, and hurling down the stones on

Churches in Calabria, the Inquisitor-General, as

the soldiers who attempted to follow them, com¬

already mentioned,

and two Dominican monks,

pelled them to desist from the pursuit.

Yalerio

and Alfonso

Malvieino

TJrbino,

were

Alexandrini dispatched a messenger to Naples

dispatched by the Sacred College to reduce these

for more troops to quell what he called the rebellion

Churches to the obedience of the Papal See, or

of the Yaudois.

trample them out.

by coming in person with an army.

They arrived at San Sexto, and

The viceroy obeyed the summons He attempted

assembling the inhabitants, they assured them no

to storm the fugitives now strongly entrenched in

harm was intended them, would they only dismiss

the great mountains, whose summits of splintered

their Lutheran teachers and come to mass.

The

rock, towering high above the pine forests that

bell was rung for the celebration of the Sacrament,

clothe theit sides, presented to the fugitives an

but the citizens, instead of attending the service,

almost inaccessible retreat.

left the town in a body, and retired to a neighbour¬

to

ing wood.

nothing but their return within the pale of the

Concealing their chagrin, the inquisitors

emigrate;

but

The Waldenses offered

the viceroy would

listen to

took their departure from San Sexto, and set out

Church of Rome.

for La Guardia, the gates of which they locked

lives rather than accept peace on such conditions.

They were prepared to yield them

behind them when they had entered, to prevent a

The viceroy now ordered his men to advance ; but

second flight.

the shower of rocks that met his soldiers in the

Assembling the inhabitants, they

told them that their co-religionists of San Sexto

ascent hurled them to the bottom, a discomfited

had renounced their errors, and dutifully attended

mass in which the bruised, the maimed, and the

mass, and they exhorted them to follow their good

dying were confusedly mingled with the corpses of

example, and return to the fold of the Roman

the killed.

shepherd; warning them, at the same time, that

The viceroy, seeing the difficulty of the enter¬

should they refuse they would expose themselves as

prise, issued an edict promising a free pardon to all

heretics to the loss of goods and life.

The poor

bandits, outlaws, and other criminals, who might

people taken unawares, and believing what was

be willing to undertake the task of scaling the

told them, consented to hear mass; but no sooner

mountains and attacking the strongholds of the

was the ceremony ended, and the gates of the town

Waldenses.

opened, than they learned the deceit which had been

assembled a mob of desperadoes, who were but too

practised upon them.

In obedience to this summons, there

Indignant, and at the same

familiar with the secret paths of the Apennines.

time ashamed of their own weakness, they resolved

Threading their way through the woods, and clam¬

to leave the place in a body, and join their brethren

bering over the great rocks, these assassins rushed

in the woods, but were withheld from their purpose

from every side on the barricades on the summit,

by the persuasion and promises of their feudal

and butchered the poor Yaudois.

superior, Spinello.

inhabitants of San Sexto exterminated, some dying

The Inquisitor-General, Alexandrini, now made request for two companies of men-at-arms, to enable him to execute his mission.

The aid requested

Thus were the

by the sword, some by fire, while others were torn by bloodhounds, or perished by famine.1 While the outlaws of the Neapolitan viceroy

was instantly given, and the soldiers were sent in pursuit of the inhabitants of San Sexto.

Tracking

1 Leger, part ii., p. 333. M?Crie, p. 303. Muston, p. 41.

THE TBAGEDY OF MONTALTO.

473

were busy in tlie mountains, the Inquisitor-General

to martyrdom and death are incredible.

and his monks were pursuing their work of blood

them at their death professed themselves of the

at La Guardia.

same faith with us, but the greater part died in

The military force at their com¬

Some of

mand not enabling them to take summary measures

their cursed obstinacy.

with the inhabitants, they had recourse to a strata¬

death with cheerfulness, but the young exhibited

gem.

Enticing the citizens outside the gates, and

placing

soldiers

in ambush,

they succeeded in

symptoms of fear.

All the old met their

I still shudder while I think of

the executioner with the bloody knife in his teeth,

getting into their power upwards of 1,600 persons.1

the dripping napkin in his hand, and his arms be¬

Of these, seventy were sent in chains to Montalto,

smeared with gore, going to the house, and taking

and tortured, in the hope of compelling them to

out one victim after another, just as a butcher does

accuse themselves of practising shameful crimes in

the

their religious assemblies.

bodies were quartered,

Ho such confession,

sheep

which

he

means

to

kill.”3

and stuck

Their

up on pikes

however, could the most prolonged tortures wring

along the high road leading from Montalto to

from

Chateau-Yilar, a distance of thirty-six miles.

them.

“ Stefano

Carlino,”

says

MSCrie,

“was tortured till his bowels gushed out;” another

prisoner,

named Yerminel,

and

“was kept

during eight hours on a horrid instrument called

Numbers of men and women were burned alive, many were

drafted off to the

Spanish galleys,

some made their submission to Borne, and a few,

the hell, but persisted in denying the atrocious

escaping from the scene of these horrors, reached,

calumny.”2

after infinite toil, their native Yalleys, to tell that

Some were thrown from the tops of

towers, or precipitated over cliffs; others were torn

the once-flourishing Waldensian colony and Church

with iron whips, and finally beaten to death with

in Calabria no longer existed, and that they only

fiery brands; and others, smeared with pitch, were

had been left to carry tidings to their brethren of

burned alive.

its utter extermination.

But these horrors pale before the bloody tragedy

Meanwhile, preparations had been made at Borne

of Montalto, enacted by the Marquis di Buccianici,

for the trial of Jean Louis Paschale.

whose zeal was quickened, it is said, by the promise

of September, 1560,

On the 8th

he was brought out of his

of a cardinal’s hat to his brother, if he would clear

prison, conducted to the Convent della Minerva,

Calabria of heresy.

One’s blood runs cold at the

and cited before the Papal tribunal.

perusal of the deed.

It was witnessed by a servant

fessed his Saviour, and, with a serenity to which

He con¬

to Ascanio Caraccioli, himself a Boman Catholic,

the countenances of his judges were strangers, he

and described by him in a letter, which was pub¬

listened to the sentence of death, which was carried

lished in Italy, along with other accounts of the

into execution on the following day.

horrible Mc.Crie.

by

Standing upon the summit of the Janiculum

“Most illustrious sir, I have now to

Mount, vast crowds could witness the spectacle.

transaction,

and

has been

quoted

inform you of the dreadful justice which began to

In front the Campagna spreads out its once glorious

be executed on these Lutherans early this morning,

but now desolated bosom; and winding through it

And, to tell you the

like a thread of gold is seen the Tiber, while the

truth, I can compare it to nothing but the slaughter

Apennines sweeping round it in craggy grandeur

being the 11th of June. of so many sheep.

They were all shut up in one

enclose it like a vast wall.

Immediately beneath,

The executioner went,

uprearing her domes and monuments and palaces,

and bringing out one of them, covered his face with

with an air that seems to say, “I sit a queen,” is the

house as in a sheep-fold.

a napkin, or bendct, as we call it, led him out to a

city of Borne.

field near the house, and causing him to kneel

macy amid the other fabrics of the Eternal City,

down, cut his throat with a knife.

is the scarred and riven yet Titanic form of the

Then, taking

Yonder, asserting an easy supre¬

off the bloody napkin, he went and brought out

Coliseum, with its stains of early Christian blood

another, whom he put to death after the same

not yet washed out.

manner.

guilt and doom, lies the Palatine, once the palace

In this way the whole number, amount¬

By its side, the partner of its

I leave

of the world’s master, now a low mound of ruins,

you to figure to yourself the lamentable spectacle,

with its row of melancholy cypresses, the only

for I can scarcely refrain from tears while I write;

mourners on that site of vanished glory and fallen

ing to eighty-eight men, were butchered.

nor was there any person,

after witnessing the

execution of one, could stand to look on a second.

empire.

Hearer, burning in the midday sun, is the

proud cupola of St. Peter’s, flanked on the one side

The meekness and patience with which they went

1 Monastier, p. 206.

35

*

2 M?Crie, p. 304.

3 Pantaleon, Rerum in Rccles. Gest. Hist., f. 337, 338. Be Porta, tom. ii., pp. 309, 312—ex M? Crie, pp. 305, 306.

HISTOBY OF PBOTESTAISTTISM.

474

by the buildings of the Inquisition, and on the

Papal body.

other by the huge Mole of Hadrian, beneath whose

row on row, the nobility and beauty of Rome.

Behind the ecclesiastics are seated*

gloomy ramparts old Tiber rolls sluggishly and

Plumes wave, stars gleam, and seem to mock the

sullenly along.

frocks and cowls gathered near them, whose wearers*

hear?

But what shout is this which we

Why does Rome keep holiday?

Why do

however, would not exchange these mystic gar¬ ments

for

piazza eager crowds rush forth, and uniting in one

them.

The vast sweep of the Court of St. Angela

overwhelming and surging stream, they are seen

is densely occupied.

rolling across the Bridge of St. Angelo, and press¬

from end to end with a closely-wedged mass of

ing in at the gates of the old fortress, which are

citizens, who have come to see the spectacle.

all her bells ring?

Lo! from every street and

all

the bravery that

blazes around

Its ample floor is covered In.

VIEW OF THE INTERIOR OF ST. JOHN LATERAN, ROME.

thrown wide open to admit this mass of human

the centre of the throng, rising a little way over

beings.

the sea of human heads, is seen a scaffold, with an

Entering the court-yard of the old castle, an im¬ posing sight meets the eye.

What a confluence of

ranks, dignities, and grandeurs!

In the centre is

iron stake, and beside it a bundle of faggots. A slight movement begins to be perceptible in the crowd beside the gate.

Some one is entering.

placed a chair, the emblazonry of which tells us that

The next moment a storm of hissing and execra¬

it claims to rise in authority and dignity over the

tion salutes the ear.

throne of kings.

who has just made his entrance is the object of

The Pontiff, Pius IV., has already

It is plain that the person

taken his seat upon it, for he has determined to be

universal dislike.

present at the tragedy of to-day.

floor of the court, as he comes forward, tells how

Behind his chair,

The clank of irons on the stone-

in scarlet robes, are his cardinals and counsellors,

heavily his limbs are loaded with fetters.

with many dignitaries besides in mitres and cowls,

is still young; but his face is pale and haggard

He-

ranged in circles, according to their place in the’

with suffering.

He lifts his eyes, and with eoun-

MARTYRDOM OF FASCHALE.

475

tenance undismayed surveys the vast assembly, and

executioners came round him, and having strangled

the dismal apparatus that stands in the midst of it,

him, they kindled the faggots, and the flames blazing

waiting its victim.

up speedily reduced his body to ashes.

For once

his brow; the serene light of deep, untroubled peace

the Pope had performed his function.

With his

beams in his eye.

key of fire, which he may truly claim to carry, he

There sits a calm courage on He mounts the scaffold, and

stands beside the stake.

Every eye is now turned,

had opened the celestial doors, and had sent his

not on the wearer of the tiara, but on the man

poor prisoner

who is clad in the sanbenito.

Inquisition, to dwell in the palace of the sky.

“ Good

people,”

dungeons of the

So died, or rather passed into the life eternal, Jean

says the martyr—and the whole assembly keep silence—“ I am come here to die for confessing the

from the dark

Louis

Paschale, the Waldensian missionary and

GROUP OF ROMAN PEASANT’S.

doctrine of my Divine Master and Saviour, Jesus

pastor of the flock in Calabria.

Christ.”

collected and thrown into the Tiber, and by the

Then turning to Pius IV. he arraigned

His ashes were

him as the enemy of Christ, the persecutor of his

Tiber they were borne to the Mediterranean.

people, and the Antichrist of Scripture, and con¬

this was the grave of the preacher-martyr, whose

cluded by summoning him and all his cardinals to

noble bearing and undaunted courage before the

answer for their cruelties and murders before the

very Pope himself, gave added value to his splendid

throne of the Lamb.

testimony for the Protestant cause.

u At his words,” says the

historian Crespin, “ the people were deeply moved,

consume the marble,

and

down the monumental pile;

the Pope and the

cardinals gnashed their

teeth.”1 The inquisitors hastily gave the signal. 1 Crespin, Hist, des Martyrs, fol. 506—516. part i., p. 204, and part ii., p. 335.

The

violence

And

Time may

or war may drag

“The pyramids that cleave heaven’s jewelled portal; Elean Jove’s star-spangled dome; the tomb Where rich Mausolus sleeps—are not immortal.” 2

Leger,

2

Sextus Propertius (Cranstoun’s translation), p. 119.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

476

But the tomb of the far-sounding sea to which the ashes final

of

display

Faschale were of

impotent

committed, with a rage,

was

indeed

a

nobler mausoleum than ever Rome raised to any of her Pontiffs, and it will remain through all the ages, until time shall be no more.

CHAPTER X. THE YEAR OF THE

PLAGUE.

Peace—Re-occupation of their Homes—Partial Famine—Contributions of Foreign Churches—Castrocaro, Governor of the Valleys—His Treacheries and Oppressions—Letter of Elector Palatine to the Duke—A Voice raised for Toleration—Fate of Castrocaro—The Plague—Awful Ravages—lO^OOO Deaths—Only Two Pastors Survive— Ministers come from Switzerland, &c.—Worship conducted henceforward in French. A whole century nearly wore away between the

hausted, and starvation stared them in the face.

trampling out of the Protestant Church in Calabria,

Before the treaty of peace had been signed, the

and the next great persecution which befel that

time of sowing was past, and when the autumn

venerable people whose tragic history we are record¬

came there was scarcely anything to reap.

ing.

We can touch on a few only, and these the

destitution was further aggravated by the fugitives

more prominent, of the events which fill up the

from Calabria, who began about this time to arrive

interval.

in the Yalleys.

The war that La Trinita, so ingloriously for him¬

Escaping with nothing but their

lives, they presented themselves in hunger and

self, had waged against the Waidenses, ended, as

nakedness.

we have seen, in a treaty of peace,

receive them,

which was

Their

Their brethren opened their arms to and though their own necessities

signed at Cavour on the 5th of June, 1561, be¬

were great, they nevertheless shared with them

tween Philip of Savoy and the deputies of the

the little they had.

Yalleys.

But though the cloud had rolled past, it

The tale of the suffering now prevailing in the

had left numerous and affecting memorials of the

Yalleys was known in other countries, and evoked

desolation it

the sympathy of their Protestant brethren.

had inflicted.

The inhaoitants de¬

Calvin,

scended from the mountains to exchange the weapons

with characteristic promptness and ardour, led in

of war for the spade and the pruning-knife.

the movement for their relief.

With

steps slow and feeble the aged and the infirm were

By his advice they

sent deputies to represent their case to the Churches

led down into the vales, to sit once more at noon

of Protestantism abroad, and collections were made

or at eve beneath the shadow of their vines and

for them in Geneva, France, Switzerland, and Ger¬

ancestral chestnut-trees.

many.

But, alas ! how often did

The subscriptions were

headed by

the

the tear of sorrow moisten the eye as it marked

Elector Palatine, after whom came the Duke of

the desolation and ruin that deformed those scenes

Wurtemberg, the Canton of Bern, the Church at

lately so fair and smiling !

Strasburg, and others.

The fruit-bearing trees

cut down ; vineyard and corn-field marred ; ham¬

By-and-by, seed-time and harvest were restored

in some cases, a heap of

in the Yalleys; smiling chalets began again to dot

ruins, all testified to the .rage of the enemy who had

the sides of their mountains, and to rise by the

lets burned;

villages,

invaded their land. deep scars

Years must pass before these

could be effaced, and the beauty of

their Yalleys restored.

And there were yet ten¬

oanks of their torrents; and the miseries which La Trinita’s

campaign had entailed upon them

were passing into oblivion, when their vexations

How many

were renewed by the appointment of a deputy-

were there who had lived under the same roof-tree

governor of their Yalleys, Castrocaro, a Tuscan by

with them, and joined night and morning in the

birth.

derer griefs weighing

upon them.

same psalm, who would return no more ! Distress, bordering on famine, began to invade the Yalleys.

This man had served against the Yaudois as a colonel of militia under La Trinita \ he had been

Seven months of incessant fighting

taken prisoner in an encounter with them, but

had left them no time to cultivate the fields ; and

honourably treated, and at length generously re¬

now the stock of

leased.

last year’s provisions was ex¬

He returned the Waidenses evil for good.

A PLEA FOR TOLERATION.

477

His appointment as governor of the Valleys he owed

pretends to defend.

mainly to his acquaintance with the Duchess Mar¬

the seed of the Christian Church.

The ashes of the martyrs are

garet, the protectress of the Vaudois, into whose

resembles the palm-tree, whose stem only shoots up

favour he had ingratiated himself by professing a

the taller, the greater the weights that are hung

warm affection for the men of the Valleys; and his

upon it.

friendship with the Archbishop of Turin, to whom

tian religion was established by persuasion, and not

For the Church

Let your highness consider that the Chris¬

he had pledged himself to do his utmost to convert

by violence; and as it is certain that religion is

the Vaudois to Romanism.

nothing else than a firm and enlightened persuasion

When at length Cas-

trocaro arrived in the Valleys in the character of

of God, and of his will, as revealed in his Word,

governor, he forgot his professions to the duchess,

and engraven in the hearts of believers by his

but faithfully set about fulfilling the promise he had

Holy Spirit, it cannot, when once rooted, be torn

made to the archbishop.

away by tortures.”2

The new governor began by restricting the liber¬

So did the Elector Palatine

warn the duke.

ties guaranteed to their Churches in the treaty of

These are remarkable words when we think that

peace; he next ordered the dismissal of certain of

they were written in the middle of the sixteenth

the pastors, and when their congregations refused

century.

to comply, he began to fine and imprison the re¬

express itself more justly on the subject of the

We question whether our own age could

He sent false and calumnious reports to

rights of conscience, the spirituality of religion, and

the court of the duke, and introduced a troop of

the impolicy, as well as criminality, of persecu¬

soldiers into the country, on the pretext that the

tion.

Waldenses were breaking out into rebellion.

of Spain and France, on the ground of the intole¬

cusants.

He

We sometimes apologise for the cruel deeds

built the fortress of Mirabouc, at the foot of the

rance and blindness of the age.

Col de la Croix, in the narrow gorge that leads

before the St. Bartholomew Massacre was enacted,

But six years

from Bobbio to France, to close this gate of exit

this great voice had been raised in Christendom for

from their territory, and overawe the Valley of

toleration.

Lucerna.

At last, he threatened to renew the

What effect this letter had upon the duke we

war unless the Waldenses should comply with his

do not certainly know, but from about this time Castrocaro moderated his violence, though he still

wishes. What was to be done ?

They carried their com¬

continued at intervals to terrify the poor people he

plaints and remonstrances to Turin ; but, alas ! the

so basely oppressed by fulminating against them

ear of the duke and duchess had been poisoned by

the most atrocious threats.

the malice and craft of the governor.

manuel Philibert,

Soon again

the old alternative would be presented to them, the mass or death.1

in

1580,

governor came to light.

On the death of Em¬ the

villany of

the

The young Duke Charles

Emmanuel ordered his arrest; but the execution of

In their extremity they sought the help of the Protestant princes of Germany.

The cry from the

it was a matter of difficulty, for Castrocaro had entrenched himself in the Castle of La Torre, and

Alps found a responsive echo from the German

surrounded himself with a band of desperadoes, to

plains.

which he had added, for his yet greater defence, a

The great Protestant chiefs of the Father-

land, especially Frederick,

Elector Palatine, saw

pack of ferocious blood-hounds of unusual size and

in these poor oppressed herdsmen and vine-dressers

strength.3

his brethren, and with zeal and warmth espoused

and thus as he had maintained himself by treachery,

their cause.

so by treachery did his doom at last overtake him.

He indited a letter to the duke, dis¬

A captain of his guard betrayed him,

tinguished for its elevation of sentiment, as well as

He was carried to Turin, where he perished in

the catholicity of its views.

prison.4

of

the

rights

of

It is a noble defence

conscience,

pleading in behalf of toleration.

eloquent

Famine, persecution, war—all three, sometimes

“ Let your high¬

in succession and sometimes together—had afflicted

and

an

ness,” says the elector, “ know that there is a God

this much-enduring people, but now they were visited

in heaven, who not only contemplates the actions,

from the hand of God.

but also tries the hearts and reins of men, and from

enjoyed an unusual peace; and this quiet was the

whom nothing is hid.

Let your highness take care

not voluntarily to make war upon God, and not to

more

For some years they had

remarkable inasmuch as all around

mountains

Europe

was

in

combustion.

their Their

persecute Christ in his members.Per¬ secution, moreover, will never advance the cause it

1 Muston, chap. 16. Monastier, chap. 21.

2 See the letter in full in Leger* part i., pp. 41—45. 3 Muston, p. 98. 4 Monastier, p. 222. •

478

HISTOBY OF PROTESTANTISM.

brethren of the -Reformed Church in France, in

tino, and Perosa.

Spain, and in Italy were falling on the field, perishing

heights of Angrogna, to consult with the deputies

by massacre, or dying at the stake, while they were

of the various parishes regarding the means of

guarded from harm.

providing for the celebration of worship.

But now a new calamity

carried gloom and mourning into their Valleys.

The three survivors met on the

They

On

wrote to Geneva and Dauphine requesting that

the morning of the 23rd of August, 1629, a cloud of

pastors might be sent to supply the place of those

unusual blackness gathered on the summit of the

whom the plague had struck down, that so the

Col Julien.

venerable Church of the Valleys, which had sur¬

It burst in a water-spout or deluge.

The torrents rolled down the mountain on both

vived so many calamities, might not become ex¬

sides, and the villages of Bobbio and Prali, situated

tinct.

the

Constantinople.3

one in the southern and the other in the

northern valley, were overflown by the sudden inun¬ dation.

Many of the houses were swept away, and

They also recalled Antoine

Leger from

The plague subsided during the winter, but in spring (1631) it rose up again in renewed force.

Of

the inhabitants had barely time to save their lives

the three surviving pastors, one other died; leaving

by flight.

thus only two, Pierre Gilles of Lucerna, and Vale¬

In September of the same year, there

came an icy wind, accompanied by a dry cloud, which

rius Gross of Martino.

scathed their Valleys and destroyed the crop of the

summer the pestilence waxed in strength.

chestnut-tree.

going and coming in the Valleys, suffered equally

There followed a second deluge of

rain, which completely ruined the vintage.

These

calamities were the more grievous inasmuch as they succeeded a year of partial famine. pastors

assembled

in solemn

The Vaudois

synod, to humble

themselves and to lift up their voices in prayer to God.

Little did they imagine that at that

with the inhabitants.

With the heats of the Armies,

Horsemen would be seen to

drop from the saddle on the highway, seized with sudden illness. by-paths, lay

Soldiers and sutlers, struck in there infecting the air with

their

corpses.

In La Torre alone fifty families became

extinct.

The most moderate estimate of the num¬

moment a still heavier calamity hung over them,

bers cut off by the plague is

and that this was the last time they were ever to

half to two-thirds of the entire population of the

meet one another on earth.1

Valleys.

In 1630, a French army, under Marshal Schomberg,

suddenly

occupied

the

Valleys.

In that

10,000, or from a

The corn in many places remained uncut,

the grapes rotted on the bough, dropped from the tree.

and

the fruit

Strangers who had come to

army were many volunteers, who had made their

find health in the pure mountain air, obtained from

escape from a virulent contagious disease then raging

the soil nothing but a grave.

in France.

which had rung so recently with the sounds of

The weather was hot, and the seeds of

the pestilence which the army had brought with it

industry, were now silent.

speedily developed themselves.

children,

The plague showed

and

children

Towns and villages, Parents were without

were

without

parents.

itself in the first week of May in the Valley of

Patriarchs, who had been wont with pride and

Perosa; it next broke out in the more northern

joy to gather round them their numerous grand¬

Valley of Martino ; and soon it spread throughout

children, had seen them sicken and die, and were

all the Valleys.

now alone.

plicate

The pastors met together to sup¬

the Almighty,

and to concert practical

measures for checking the ravages of this myste¬ rious and terrible scourge.

They purchased medi¬

cine and collected provisions for the poor.2

They

visited the sick, consoled the dying, and preached

The venerable pastor Gilles lost his

four elder sons.

Though continually present in

the homes of the stricken, and at the bed-sides of the dying, he himself was spared to compile the monuments of his ancient Church, among

other woes that which

and narrate

had just passed

in the open air to crowds, solemnised and eager to

over his native land, and “ part of which he had

listen.

been.”

In July and August the heat was excessive, and the malady raged yet more furiously.

Of the Vaudois pastors only two now remained;

In the

and ministers hastened from Geneva and other

month of July four of the pastors were carried

places to the Valleys, lest the old lamp should go

off by the plague;

in August seven others died;

and in the following month another, the twelfth, was mortally stricken. three

pastors,

and

The services of the Waldensian Churches had

There remained now only

it was remarked that they

belonged to three several valleys—Lucerna, Mar-

1 Muston, p. 111.

out.

hitherto been performed in the Italian tongue, but

2 Monastier, p. 241.

3 Muston, pp. 112, 113. Antoine Leger was uncle of Leger the historian. He had been tutor for many years in the family of the Ambassador of Holland at Constanti¬ nople.

470

THE PLAGUE OF MONKS. the new pastors could speak only French. was

henceforward

but

the Yaudois

conducted soon

in that

came to

Worship language,

understand it,

duced at this time was the assimilation of their ritual to that of Geneva.

their own ancient tongue being a dialect between

and

the French and Italian.

Ministre,l

Another change intro¬

CHAPTER THE

GREAT

And farther, the primi¬

tive and affectionate name of Barba was dropped, the

modem

title substituted,

Monsieur k

XL

MASSACRE.

Preliminary Atacks—The Propaganda de Fide—Marchioness di Pianeza—Gastaldo’s Order—Its Barbarous Execution —Greater Sorrows—Perfidy of Pianeza—The Massacring Army—Its Attack and Repulse—Treachery—The Mas¬ sacre Begins—Its Horrors—Modes of Torture—Individual Martyrs—Leger Collects Evidence on the Spot— He Appeals to the Protestant States —Interposition of Cromwell—Mission of Sir Samuel Morland—A Martyr’s Monument. The first labour of the Waldenses, on the departure

Francis II., Duke of

of the plague, was the re-organisation of society.

temper and gloomy superstition of her ancestors,

There was not a house in all their Yalleys where

the

death had not been.

up

All ties rent, the family re¬

lationship was all but extinct; but the destroyer being gone, the scattered inhabitants began to draw

Medici—a with

the

name

so

The

ferocious

conspicuously

world-execrated

Bartholomew—had Christina.

Tuscany.

descended

mixed

massacre to

the

of

St.

Duchess

In no other reign did the tears and

'together, and to join hand and heart in restoring

blood of the Waldenses flow so profusely, a fact for

the ruined eliurches, raising up the fallen habita¬

which we cannot satisfactorily account, unless on

tions, and creating anew family and home.

the supposition that the sufferings which now over

Other

events

of

an

auspicious

kind, which

whelmed them came not from the mild prince who

occurred at this time, contributed to revive the

occupied the throne, but from the cold, cruel, and

spirits of the Waldenses, and to brighten with a

bloodthirsty regent who governed the kingdom.

gleam of hope the scene of the recent great cata¬

In short, there is reason to believe that it was not

strophe.

the facile spirit of the House of Savoy, but the

The army took its departure, peace having

been signed between the French monarch and the

astute

duke, and the Yalleys returned once more under

Yatican, that enacted those scenes of carnage that

the dominion of the House of Savoy.

we are now to record.

A decade

spirit

of

the’ Medici,

prompted by

the

and a half of comparative tranquillity allowed the

The blow did not descend all at once; a series of

population to root itself anew, and their Yalleys

lesser attacks heralded the great and consummating

and mountain-sides to be brought

stroke.

tillage.

again

under

Fifteen years—how short a breathing-

meant to be complete and final.

space amid storms so awful! These fifteen years draw to a close; it is now 1650, and the Yaudois are entering within the shadow of their greatest woe.

Machinations, chicaneries, and legal rob¬

beries paved the way for an extermination that was

The throne of Savoy

First of all came the monks.

We have seen the

plague with which the Yalleys were visited in 1630; there came a second plague—not this time

was at this time filled by Charles Emmanuel II., a

the pestilence, but a swarm of Capuchins.

youth of fifteen.

had been sent to convert the heretics, and they

He was a prince of mild and

humane disposition;

but he was counselled and

They

began by eagerly challenging the pastors to a con¬

ruled by his mother, the Duchess Christina, who

troversy, in which they felt sure of triumphing.

had been appointed regent of the kingdom during

few attempts, however, convinced them that victory

his minority.

was not to be so easily won as they had fondly

That mother was sprung of a race

The heretics made “ a

A

which have ever been noted for their dissimulation,

thought.

their cruelty, and their bigoted devotion to Rome.

Bible,” they complained, and as this was a boox

Pope of their

She was the daughter of Henry IY. of France and his second wife, Mary de Medici, daughter of

1 Monastier, chap. 18.

Muston, pp. 242, 243.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

480

which the Fathers had not studied, they did not

order forbidding them to cross the frontier even for

know where to find the passages which they felt

a few hours, unless on fair-days.

sure would confute the

They

testant communes of Bobbio, Villaro, Angrogna,

could silence them only by banishing them, and

and Rora were ordered to maintain each a mission

among others whom they drove into exile was

of Capuchins; and foreign Protestants were inter¬

file

of

dieted from settling in the Yalleys under pain of

Thus were the people deprived

death, and a fine of 1,000 gold crowns upon the

Yaudois pastors.

accomplished Antoine

the historian. of their

natural

leaders.1

Leger,

the

uncle

The Yaudois

were

forbidden on pain of confiscation and death to

The wholly Pro¬

communes that should receive them.

purchase or farm lands outside their own narrow

were mostly French or Swiss.

territories.

in a few years the Yaudois would

Certain of their churches were closed.

Their territory was converted into a prison by an

This law was

levelled against their pastors, who, since the plague,

ministers.

It was hoped that be without

Monls-de-Piete were established to in¬

duce the Yaudois, whom confiscations, bad harvests, 4 Muston, p. 126.

and the billeting of soldiers had reduced to great

THE PROPAGANDISTS.

481

straits, to pawn their goods, and when all had been

pressed forward to enrol themselves in it—the

put in pledge they were offered restitution in full

inducement being a plenary indulgence to all who

on condition of renouncing their faith.

Dowries

were promised to young maidens on the terms.1

same

These various arts had a success

prisingly small.

sur-

Some dozen of Waldensian per-

verts were added to the Roman Church.

It was

should take part in the good work so unmistakably indicated in the one brief and pithy clause, “ et Extirpandis Hsereticis.” The societies in the smaller towns

reported to the metropolitan cities;

the

metropolitan cities to the capital; and the capitals

plain that the good work of proselytising was

to Rome, where, in the words of Leger, “ sat the

proceeding too slowly.

great spider that held the threads of this mighty

More efficient measures

must be had recourse to.

web.”

The Society for the “ Propagation of the Faith,” established by Pope

Gregory XY. in 1622, had

In 1650 the “ Council of the Propagation of the Faith ” was established at Turin.

CROMWELL AND MILTON.

already been spread over Italy and France. object

of

the

society was

originally set

The forth

The chief coun-

(See p, 486.)

cillors of state, the great lords of the country, and the dignitaries of the Church enrolled themselves

in words sufficiently simple and innocent—“ De

as a presiding board.

Propaganda Fidei” (for the Propagation of the

formed, at the head of which was the Marchioness

Faith).

di Pianeza.

Since the first institution of this society,

however, its object had undergone enlargement, or, if not its object, at all events its title.

Societies of women were

She was the first lady at court; and

as she had not worn “ the white rose of a blameless

Its first

life,” she was all the more zealous in this cause,

modest designation was supplemented by the em¬

in the hope of making expiation for the errors of

phatic words,

“ et

Extirpandis

the Extirpation of Heretics).

Hsereticis ” (and

The membership of

the society soon became numerous:

it included

the past.

She was at infinite pains to further

the object of the society; and her own eager spirit she infused into all under her.

“ The lady propa¬

both laymen and priests; all ranks, from the noble

gandists,” says Leger,2 “distributed the towns into

and the prelate to the peasant and the pauper,

districts, and each visited the district assigned to

1 Muston, p. 129.

2

Leger, part ii., chap. 6, pp. 72, 73.

HISTOBY OF PBOTESTANTISM.

482

iier twice a week, suborning simple girls, servant

of converting the Yaudois.

maids, and young children by their flattering al¬

storm burst.

lurements and fair promises, and doing evil turns to such as would not listen to them.

They had

their spies everywhere, who, among other infor¬ mation,

ascertained in what Protestant families

It was now that the

On the 25th of January, 1655, came the famous order of Gastaldo.

This decree commanded all the

Yaudois families domiciled in the communes of Lucerna, Fenile, Bubiana,

Bricherasio, San Gio¬

disagreements existed, and hither would the pro¬

vanni, and La Torre—in short, the whole of that

pagandists repair, stirring up the flame of dissension

rich district that separates their capital from the

in order to separate the husband from the wife,

plain of Piedmont—to quit their dwellings within

the wife from the husband, the children from the

three days, and retire into the Yalleys of Bobbio,

parents; promising them, and indeed giving them,

Angrogna, and Bora.

great advantages, if they would consent to attend

pain of death.

mass.

their lands

Did they hear of a tradesman whose busi¬

to

This they were to do on

They were farther required to sell Eomanists within

twenty days.

ness was falling off, or of a gentleman who from

Those who were willing to abjure the Protestant

gambling or otherwise was in want of money, these

faith were exempted from the decree.

ladies were at hand with their Bobo tibi (I will give thee), on condition of apostacy;

and the prisoner

Anything more inhuman and barbarous in the circumstances than this edict it would not be easy

was in like manner relieved from his dungeon, who

to imagine.

would give himself up to them.

Alpine winter has terrors unknown to the winters

To meet the very

It was the depth of winter, and an

heavy expenses of this proselytising, to keep the

of even more northern regions.

machinery at work, to purchase the souls that sold

population like that on which the decree fell, in¬

However could a

themselves for bread, regular collections were made

cluding young children and old men, the sick and

in the chapels, and in private families, in the shops,

bed-ridden, the blind and the lame, undertake a

in the inns, in the gambling-houses, in the streets—■

journey

everywhere was alms-begging in operation.

buried in snow, and over mountains covered with

The

across

swollen

rivers,

through

valleys

Marchioness of Pianeza herself, great lady as she

ice ?

was, used every second or third day to make a

that cast them out was but another form of con¬

They must inevitably perish, and the edict

circuit in search of subscriptions, even going into

demning them to die of cold and hunger.

the taverns for that purpose.If any

ye,” said Christ, when warning his disciples to flee

“ Pray

person of condition, who was believed able to con¬

when they should see the Boman armies gathering

tribute a coin, chanced to arrive at any hotel in

round Jerusalem, (t Pray ye that your flight be not

town, these ladies did not fail to wait upon him,

in the winter.”

purse in hand, and solicit a

chose this season for the enforced flight of the

donation.

When

The Bomish Propaganda at Turin

persons of substance known to belong to the reli¬

Yaudois.

gion [Eeformed] arrived in Turin, they did not

down on this miserable troop, who were now fording

Cold were the icy peaks that looked

scruple to ask money of them for the propagation

the torrents and now struggling up the mountain

of the faith, and the influence of the marchioness,

tracks, but the heart of the persecutor was colder

or fear of losing their errand and ruining their

still.

affairs, would often induce such to comply.”

might go to mass.

While busied in the prosecution of these schemes the

Marchioness di Pianeza was

death.

Feeling remorse,

stricken with

and wishing to make

it ?

True, an alternative was offered them : they Did they avail themselves of

The historian Leger informs us that he had

a congregation of well-nigh

2,000 persons, and

that not a man of them all accepted the alterna¬

atonement, she summoned her lord, from whom she

tive.

had been parted many years, to her bedside, and

observes, “ seeing I was their pastor for eleven

“I can well bear them this testimony,” he

charged him, as he valued the repose of her soul

years, and I knew every one of them by name;

and the safety of his own, to continue the good

judge, reader, whether I had not cause to weep for

work, on which her heart had been so much set,

joy, as well as for sorrow, when I saw that all the

of converting the Yaudois.

To stimulate his zeal,

fury of these wolves was not able to influence one

she bequeathed him a sum of money, which, how¬

of these lambs, and that no earthly advantage could

ever, he could not touch till he had fulfilled the

shake their constancy.

condition on which it was granted.

traces of their blood on the snow and ice over

The marquis

And when I marked the

A

which they had dragged their lacerated limbs, had I

bigot and a soldier, he could think of only one way

not cause to bless God that I had seen accomplished

undertook the task with the utmost goodwill.1

in their poor bodies what remained of the measure

2 Muston, p. 130.

of the sufferings of Christy and especially when I

483

VAUDOIS VALOUR beheld this heavy cross borne by them with a forti¬

well, some companies of Bavarians, six regiments of

tude so noble 1 ” 1

French, whose thirst for blood the Huguenot wars

The Vaudois of the other valleys welcomed these

had not been able to slake, and several companies

poor exiles, and- joyfully shared with them their

of Irish Romanists, who, banished by Cromwell,

own humble and scanty fare.

arrived in Piedmont dripping from the massacre of

They spread the

table for all, and loaded it with polenta and roasted

their

chestnuts, with the milk and butter of their moun¬

land.5

tains, to which they did not forget to add a cup of that red wine which their valleys produce.2

Their

enemies were amazed when they saw the whole

in

their native

The Waldenses had hastily constructed a bar¬ ricade at the entrance of La Torre.

The marquis

ordered his soldiers to storm it; but the besieged resisted so stoutly that, after three hours’ fighting,

community rise up as one man and depart. Greater woes trod fast upon the heels of this initial calamity.

Protestant fellow-subjects

A part only of the Vaudois

the enemy found he had made no advance.

At one

o’clock on the Sunday morning, Count Amadeus of

nation had suffered from the cruel decree of Gas-

Lucerna, who knew the locality, made a flank

taldo, but the fixed object of the Propaganda was

movement along the banks * of the Pelice, stole

the extirpation of the entire race, and the matter

silently through the meadows and orchards, and,

was gone about with consummate perfidy and deli¬

advancing from the opposite quarter, attacked the

berate cruelty.

From the upper valleys, to which

Vaudois in the rear.

They faced round, pierced

they had retired, the Waldenses sent respectful

the ranks of their assailants, and made good their

representations to the court of Turin.

retreat to the hills, leaving La Torre in the hands

They de¬

scribed their piteous condition in terms so moving

of the enemy.

—and it would have been hard to have exaggerated

men in all that fighting.

it—and besought the fulfilment of treaties in which

and three o’clock on Sunday morning, and though

the honour and truth of the House of Savoy were

the hour was early, the Romanists repaired in a

pledged, in language so temperate and just, that

body to the church and chanted a Te Deum.6

one would have thought that

day was Palm-Sunday, and in this fashion did the

must needs prevail.

Alas, no !

their supplication The ear of their

prince had been poisoned by falsehood. access to him was denied them.

Even

As regarded

The Vaudois had lost only three It was now between two

The

Roman Church, by her soldiers, celebrate that great festival of love and goodwill in the Waldensian Valleys.

the Propaganda, their remonstrances, though ac¬

The Vaudois were once more on their mountains.

companied with tears and groans, were wholly

Their families had been previously transported to

unheeded.

their natural fastnesses.

adders.

The Vaudois were but charming deaf

They were put off with equivocal answers

Their sentinels kept watch

night and day along the frontier heights.

They

and delusive promises till the fatal 17th of April

could see the movements of Pianeza’s army on the

had arrived, when it was no longer necessary to

plains beneath.

dissemble and equivocate.3

by the axes, and their dwellings being consumed

On the day above named, April 17th, 1655, the

They beheld their orchards falling

by the torches of the soldiers.

On Monday the

Marquis di Pianeza departed secretly at midnight

19th, and Tuesday the 20th, a series of skirmishes

from Turin, and appeared before the Valleys at the

took place along the line of their mountain passes

head of an army of 15,000 men.4

The Waldensian

and forts.

The Vaudois, though poorly armed and

deputies were by appointment knocking at the door

vastly outnumbered—for they were but as one to

of the marquis in Turin, while he himself was on

a hundred—were victorious on all points.

the road to

He appeared under the

Popish soldiers fell back in ignominious rout, carry¬

La Torre.

The

eight o’clock on Satur¬

ing wondrous tales of the Vaudois’ valour and

day evening, the same 17th of April, attended by

heroism to their comrades on the plain, and infusing

about 300 men; the main body of his army he had

incipient panic into the camp.7

walls of that town

at

left encamped on the plain.

That army, secretly

Guilt is ever cowardly.

Pianeza now began to

prepared, was composed of Piedmontese, compre¬

have misgivings touching the issue.

hending a good many banditti, who were promised

tion that mighty armies had aforetime perished on

pardon and plunder should they behave themselves

The recollec¬

these mountains haunted and disquieted him.

He

betook him to a weapon which the Waldenses have 1 2 3 4

Leger, part ii., chap. 8, p. 94. Monastier, p. 265. Leger, part ii., pp. 95, 96. Ibid., part iv., p. 108.

5 Monastier, p. 267. 6 Muston, p. 135. 7 Leger, part ii., pp. 108,109.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

484

ever been less able to cope with than the sword.

the Yalleys of Lucerna and Angrogna.

On Wednesday, the 21st, before daybreak, he an¬

Pandemonium had sent forth its fiends to riot

nounced, by

in crime and revel in blood, they could not have

sound

of

trumpet at the various

Though

Yaudois entrenchments, his willingness to receive

outdone the soldiers of the Propaganda.

their deputies and treat for peace.

the victims climbing the hills with what speed they

Delegates set

out for his camp, and on their arrival at

head¬

are able, the murderer on their track.

We see

We see the

quarters were received with the utmost urbanity,

torrents as they roll down from the heights begin¬

and sumptuously entertained.

ning to be tinged with blood.

Pianeza expressed

Gleams of lurid

the utmost regret for the excesses his soldiers had

light burst out through the dark smoke that is roll¬

committed,

ing through

and which had been done, he said,

contrary to orders.

He protested that he had come

the vales, for

a priest and monk

accompany each party of soldiers, to set fire to the

into their valleys only to track a few fugitives who

houses as soon as the inmates have been dispatched.

had disobeyed Gastaldo’s order, that the higher

Alas ! what sounds are these that fall upon our ears ?

communes had nothing to fear, and that if they

The cries and groans of the dying are echoed and

would admit a single regiment each for a few days,

re-echoed from the rocks around, and it seems as if

in token of their loyalty, all would be amicably

the mountains had taken up a wailing for the

ended.

slaughter of their children.

The craft of the man conquered the depu¬

ties, and despite the warnings of the more sagacious, the

pastor Leger

in

particular,

the Waldenses

opened the passes of their valleys and the doors of

“ Our Yalley of Lu-

cerha,” exclaims Leger, “ which was like a Goshen, was now

converted into a Mount Etna, darting

forth cinders and fire and flames. The earth resem¬ bled a furnace, and the air was filled with a dark¬

their dwellings to the soldiers of Pianeza. these poor people were undone.

ness like that of Egypt, which might be felt, from

They had received under their roof the murderers

the smoke of towns, villages, temples, mansions,

of themselves and their families.

granges, and buildings, all burning in the flames of

Alas !

alas!

The first two

comparative peace, the soldiers eating at the same

the Yatican.”4 The soldiers were not content

table, sleeping under the same roof, and conversing

dispatch

freely with their destined victims.

This interval

hitherto unheard-of modes of torture and death. No

was needed to allow every preparation to be made

man at this day dare write in plain words all the

days, the 22nd and 23rd of April, were passed in

with the quick

of the sword, they invented new and

The enemy now occupied

disgusting and horrible deeds of these men; their

the towns, the villages, the cottages, and the roads

wickedness can never be all known, because it

throughout the valleys. They hung upon the heights.

never can be all told.

for what was to follow.

Two great passes led into France : the one over the

, From the awful narration of Leger, we select only

snows of the lofty Col Julien, and the other by the

a few instances;

Yalley of Queyras into Dauphin^.

mildly stated, grow, without our intending it, into

But,

escape was not possible by either outlet.

alas!

No one

but

a group of horrors.

even these

few, however

Little children were torn from

could traverse the Col Julien at this season and

the arms of their mothers, clasped by their tiny

live,

feet, and their heads dashed against the rocks; or

and the fortress of Mirabouc,

that guarded

the narrow gorge which led into the Yalley of

were held between two soldiers and their quivering

Queyras, the enemy had been careful to secure.1 The

limbs torn

Yaudois were enclosed as in a net—shut in as in a

bodies were then thrown on the highways or fields,

prison.

to be devoured by beasts.

At last the blow fell with the sudden crash of the thunderbolt.

At four o’clock on the morn¬

up by main force.

Their

mangled

The sick and the aged

were burned alive in their dwellings.

Some had

their hands and arms and legs lopped off, and fire

ing of Saturday, the 24th of April, 1655, the signal

applied to the severed parts to staunch the bleeding

was given from the castle-hill of La Torre.2

But

and prolong their

who shall rehearse the tragedy that followed h

“It

alive, some were roasted alive, some disembowelled ;

suffering.

Some

were

flayed

is Cain a second time,” says Monastier, “ shedding

or tied to trees in their own orchards, and their

the blood of his brother Abel.”3

hearts cut out.

On the instant a

thousand assassins began the work of death.

Dis¬

may, horror, agony, woe in a moment overspread

Some were horribly mutilated, and

of others the brains were boiled and eaten by these cannibals.

Some were fastened down into the fur¬

rows of their own fields, and ploughed into the soil 1 Leger, part ii., p. 110. >2 So says Leger, who was an eye-witness of these horrors. 3 Monastier, p, 270.

as

men plough

manure into

it.

4 Leger, part ii., p. 113.

Others

were

THE PIEDMONTESE MASSACRES.

485

buried alive.' Fathers were marched to death with

and murders before or since, and Leger may still

the heads of their sons suspended round their necks.

advance his challenge to “ all travellers, and all

Parents were compelled to look on while their

who have studied the history of ancient and modern

children were first outraged, then massacred, before

pagans, whether among the Chinese, Tartars and

being themselves permitted to die. must stop.

But here we

We cannot proceed farther in Leger’s

Turks, they ever witnessed or heard tell of such execrable perfidies and barbarities.”

vile, abominable

The authors of these deeds, thinking it may be

and monstrous deeds, utterly and overwhelmingly

that their very atrocity would make the world slow

disgusting, horrible and fiendish, which we dare not

to believe them, made bold to deny that they had

transcribe.

ever been done, even before the blood was well dry

awful narration.

to swim.

There come

The heart sickens, and the brain begins

“ My hand trembles,” says Leger, “ so that

I scarce can hold the pen, and my tears mingle in

in the Valleys.

Pastor Leger took instant and

effectual means to demonstrate the falsehood of that

torrents with my ink, while I write the deeds of

denial, and to provide that clear, irrefragable, and

these children of darkness—blacker even than the

indubitable proof of these awful crimes should go

Prince of Darkness himself.”1

down to posterity.

He travelled from commune to

No general account, however awful, can convey

commune, immediately after the massacre, attended

so correct an idea of the horrors of this persecution

by notaries, who took down the depositions and

as would the history of individual cases ; but this

attestations of the survivors and eye-witnesses of

we are precluded from giving.

these deeds, in presence of the council and consistory

Could we take these

martyrs one by one—could we describe the tragical

of the place.2

fate of Peter Simeon of Angrogna—the barbarous

he compiled and gave to the world a book, which

From the evidence of these witnesses

death of Magdalene, wife of Peter Pilon of Villaro

Dr. Gilly truly characterised as one of the most

—the sad story—but no, that story could not be

“dreadful” in existence.3

told—of Anne, daughter of John Charbonier of La

depositions Leger gave to

The originals of these

Torre—the cruel martyrdom of Paul Gamier of

who deposited them, together with other valuable

Rora, whose eyes were first plucked out, who next

documents pertaining to the Waldenses, in the

endured other horrible indignities, and, last of all,

Library of the University of Cambridge.

Sir Samuel Morland,

was flayed alive, and his skin, divided into four

Uncontrollable grief seized the hearts of the sur¬

parts, extended on the window gratings of the four

vivors at the sight of their brethren slain, their

principal houses in Lucerna—could we describe

country devastated, and their Church overthrown.

these

“ Oh that my head were waters,” exclaims Leger,

cases,

with

hundreds

of

others

equally

horrible and appalling, our narrative would grow

“ and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might

so harrowing that our readers, unable to proceed,

weep day and 'night for the slain of the daughter of

would turn from the page.

my people !

Literally did the Wal-

Behold and see if there be any sorrow

denses suffer all the things of which the apostle

like unto my sorrow.”

speaks, as endured by the martyrs of old, with other

“that the fugitives, who had been snatched as brands

“It was then,” he adds,

torments not then invented, or which the rage of

from the burning, could address God in the words

even a Nero shrank from inflicting :—“They were

of the 7 9th Psalm, which literally as emphatically

stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted,

describes their condition :—

were slain with the sword ; in

sheep-skins

they wandered about

and goat-skins;

being destitute,

afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy);

they wandered in deserts, and in moun¬

tains, and in dens, and caves of the earth.” These cruelties form a scene that is unparalleled and unique in the history of at least civilised coun¬ tries.

“ ‘0 God, the heathen are come into thine inheritances, Thy holy temple have they defiled; They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given To be meat unto the fowls of heaven, The flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth, Their blood have they shed like water; . . . . And there was none to bury them! ’ ”4

There have been tragedies in which more

When the storm had abated, Leger assembled the

blood was spilt, and more life sacrificed, but none in which the actors were so completely dehumanised, and the forms of suffering so monstrously disgust¬ ing,

so

unutterably cruel and revolting.

The

“ Piedmontese Massacres ” in this respect stand alone.

They are more fiendish than all the atrocities 1

Leger, part ii., p. 111.

Leger, part ii., p. 112. The book is that from which we have so largely quoted, entitled Histoire Generale des Eglises Evangeliques des Vallees de Piemont ou Vaudoises. Par Jean Leger, Pasteur et Moderateur des Eglises des Vallees, et depuis la violence de la Persecution, appele a l’Eglise Wallonne de Leyde. A. Leyde, 1669. 4 Leger, part ii., p. 113. 2 3

486

HISTOEY OF PEOTESTANTISM.

scattered survivors, in order to take counsel with

visited the Valleys on his way to Turin, and saw

them as to the steps to he now taken.

with his own eyes the frightful spectacle which

It does not

surprise us to find that some had begun to enter¬

the region still presented.

tain the idea of abandoning the Yalleys altogether.

the duke, the horrors he had just seen giving point

“If,” said he, addressing

Leger strongly dissuaded them against the thought

to his eloquence, and kindling his republican plain¬

of forsaking their ancient inheritance.

They must,

ness into Puritan fervour, “If the tyrants of all times

he said, rebuild their Zion in the faith that the God

and ages were alive again, they would doubtless be

of their fathers would not permit the Church of the

ashamed to find that nothing barbarous nor inhuman,

Valleys-to be finally overthrown.

in comparison

To encourage

of these deeds, had ever been in¬

them, he undertook to lay a representation of their

vented by them.

sufferings and broken condition before their brethren

“ the angels are stricken with horror; men are dizzy

In the meantime,” he continued,

of other countries, who, he was sure, would hasten

with amazement; heaven itself appears astonished

to their help at this great crisis.

with the cries of the dying, and the very earth to

prevailed.

These counsels

“ Our tears are no longer of water,” so

blush with the gore of so many innocent persons.

wrote the remnant of the slaughtered Vaudois to

Avenge not thyself, O God, for this mighty wicked¬

the Protestants

ness, this parricidal slaughter !

of

Europe, “ they are of blood ;

they do not merely obscure our sight, they choke our very hearts.

Our hands tremble and our heads

ache by the many blows we have received.

We

Let thy blood, O

Christ, wash out this blood 3”2 We have repeatedly mentioned the Castelluzze in our narrative of this people and their many

cannot frame an epistle answerable to the intent of

martyrdoms.

our minds, and the strangeness of our desolations.

Massacre of 1655, and as such kindled the muse of

It is closely

connected

with

the

We pray you to excuse us, and to collect amid our

Milton.

groans the meaning of what we fain would utter.”

its feet swathed in feathery woods; above which is

It stands at the entrance of the Valleys,

After this touching introduction, they proceed with

a mass of debris and fallen rocks, which countless

a representation of their state, expressing them¬

tempests have

selves in terms the moderation of which contrasts

middle.

strongly with the extent of their wrongs.

Pro¬

gathered like a girdle

round its

From amidst these the supreme column

shoots up, pillar-like, and touches that white cloud

testant Europe was horror-struck when the tale

which is floating past in mid-heaven.

of the massacre was laid before it.

a dark spot on the face of the cliff just below the

Nowhere

did these

awful

tidings

awaken

a

crowning rocks of the summit.

One can see

It would be taken

deeper sympathy or kindle a stronger indignation

for the shadow of a passing cloud upon the moun¬

than in England.

tain, were it not that it is immovable.

Cromwell, who was then at the

head of the State, proclaimed a fast, ordered a col¬

That is

the mouth of a cave so roomy, it is said, as to be

lection for the sufferers,1 and wrote to all the Pro¬

able to contain some hundreds.

testant princes, and to the King of France, with

chamber the Waldenses were wont to flee when the

the intent of enlisting their sympathy and aid in

valley beneath was a perfect Pandemonium, glitter¬

behalf of the Vaudois.

One of the noblest as well

To this friendly

ing with steel, red with crime, and ringing with

as most sacred of the tasks ever undertaken by the

execrations and blasphemies.

great poet, who then acted as the Protector’s Latin

of the Vaudois fled on occasion of the great mas¬

secretary, was the writing of these letters.

Mil¬

sacre.

To this cave many

But, alas ! thither the persecutor tracked

ton’s pen was not less gloriously occupied when

them, and dragging them forth rolled them down

writing

the awful precipice.

in

behalf

of

these venerable

sufferers

for conscience sake, than when writing “ Paradise Lost.”

In token of the deep interest he took in

The law that indissolubly links great crimes with the spot where they were perpetrated, has written

this affair, Cromwell sent Sir Samuel Morland with

the Massacre of 1655 on this mountain, and given

a letter to the Duke of Savoy, expressive of the

it in eternal keeping to its rock.

astonishment and sorrow he felt at the barbarities

another

There is not

such martyrs’ monument in the whole

which had been committed on those who were his brethren in the

faith.

Cromwell’s

ambassador

1 The sum collected in England was,, in round numbers, .£38,000. Of this, .£16,000 was invested on the security of me State, to pension pastors, schoolmasters, and students in the Valleys. This latter sum was appropriated by Charles II., on the pretext that he was not bound to implement the engagements of a usurper.

2 The History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont: containing a most exact Geographical De¬ scription of the place, and a faithful Account of the Doctrine, Life, and Persecutions of the ancient Inhabit-' ants, together with a most naked and punctual Relation of the late bloody Massacre, 1655. By Samuel Morland* Esq., His Highness’ Commissioner Extraordinary for the Affairs of the said Valleys. London, 1658.

A VAT.'1)018 FAMILY ENTERTAINING SOME OF PIANEZA’s SOLDIERS.

(Seep. 484.)

488

HISTOEY OF PROTESTANTISM.

world. While the Castelluzzo stands the memory of this great crime cannot die; through all the ages it will continue to cry, and that cry our sublimest poet has interpreted in his sublime sonnet :—

Forget not: in thy book record their groans Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll’d Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans The vales redoubled to the hills, and they To heaven. Their martyr’d blood and ashes sow O’er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway The triple tyrant; that from these may grow A hundredfold, who, having learned thy way, Early may fly the Babylonian woe.”

“ Avenge, 0 Lord, thy slaughter’d saints, whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old. When all our fathers worshipt stocks and stones,

CHAPTER

XII.

EXPLOITS OF GIANAYELLO—MASSACRE AND PILLAGE OF RORA.

Ascent of La Combe—Beauty and Grandeur of Valley of Eora—Gianavello—His Character—Marquis di Pianeza— His First Assault—Brave Eepulse—Treachery of the Marquis—No Faith with Heretics—Gianavello’s Band— Eepulse of Second and Third Attacks—Death of a Persecutor—An Army Eaised to Invade Eora—Massacre and Pillage—Letter of Pianeza—Gianavello’s Heroic Eeply—Gianavello Eenews the War—500 against 15,000—Success of the Waldenses—Horror at the Massacre—Interposition of England—Letter of Cromwell—Treaty of Peace. The next tragic episode in the history of the Waldenses takes us to the Yalley of Eora. The in¬ vasion and outrages of which this valley became the scene were contemporaneous with the horrors of the Great Massacre. In what we are now to relate, feats of heroism are blended with deeds of suffering, and we are called to admire The valour of the patriot, as well as the patience of the martyr. The Yalley of Eora lies on the left as one enters La Torre; it is separated from Lucerna by a barrier of mountains. Eora has two entrances: one by a side ravine, which branches off about two miles before reaching La Torre, and the other by crossing the Yalley of Lucerna and climbing the mountains. This last is worthy of being briefly described. We start, we shall suppose, from the town of La Torre; we skirt the Castelluzzo on the right, which high in air hangs its precipices, with their many tragic memories, above us. From this point we turn to the left, descend into the valley, traverse its bright meadows, here shaded by the vine which stretches its arms in classic freedom from tree to tree. We cross the torrent of the Pelice by a small bridge, and hold on our way till we reach the foot of the mountains of La Combe, that wall in the Yalley of Eora. We begin to climb by a winding path. Pasturage and vineyard give place to chestnut forest; the chestnut in its turn yields to the pine; and, as we mount still higher, we find ourselves amid the naked ledges of the mountain, with their gushing rills, margined by moss or other Alpine herbage.

An ascent of two hours brings us to the summit of the pass. We have here a pedestal, some 4,000 feet in height, in the midst of a stupendous amphi¬ theatre of Alps, from which to view their glories. How profoundly deep the valley from which we have just climbed up ! A thread of silver is now the Pelice; a patch of green a few inches square is now the meadow; the chestnut-tree is a mere dot, hardly visible; and yonder are La Torre and the white Yillaro, so tiny that they look as if they could be packed into a child's toy-box. But while all else has diminished, the mountains seem to have enlarged their bulk and increased their stature. High above us towers the summit of the Castelluzzo; still higher rise the rolling masses of the Yandalin, the lower slopes of which form a vast and magnificent hanging garden, utterly dwarfing those of which we read as one of the wonders of Babylon. And in the far distance the eye rests on a tumultuous sea of mountains, here rising in needles, there running off in long serrated ridges, and there standing up in massy peaks of naked granite, wearing the shining gar¬ ments which winter weaves for the giants of the Alps. We now descend into the Yalley of Eora. It lies at our feet, a cup of verdure, some sixty miles in circumference, its sides and bottom variously clothed with corn-field and meadow, with vineyard and orchard, with the walnut, the cherry, and all fruit-bearing trees, from amid which numerous brown chalets peep out. The great mountains

CAPTAIN JOSHUA GIANAYELLQ.

489

sweep round the valley like a wall, and among

tiplied tenfold the number of their assailants. They

them, pre-eminent in glory as in stature, stands the

began to retreat. But Gianavello and his men, bound¬

monarch of the Cottian Alps—Monte Yiso.

ing from cover to cover like so many chamois,

As among the Jews of old, so among the Wal-

hung upon their rear, and did deadly execution

denses, God raised up, from time to time, mighty

with their bullets.

men of valour to deliver his people.

One of the

their number dead behind them ; and thus did these

most remarkable of these men was Gianavello, com¬

seven peasants chase from their Yalley of Pora the

The invaders left fifty-four of

monly known as Captain Joshua Gianavello, a native

500 assassins who had come to murder its peaceful

of this same Yalley of Pora.

inhabitants.1

He appears, from

the accounts that have come down to us, to have

That same afternoon the people of Pora, who

possessed all the qualities of a great military leader.

were ignorant of the fearful murders which were at

He was a man of daring courage, of resolute pur¬

that very moment proceeding in the valleys of* their

pose, and of venturous enterprise.

brethren, repaired to the Marquis di Pianeza to

He had the

faculty, so essential in a commander, of skilful com¬

complain of the attack.

bination.

ignorance of the whole affair.

He was fertile in resource, and self-

The marquis affected “ Those who invaded

possessed in emergencies; he was quick to resolve,

your valley,” said he, “were a set of banditti.

and prompt to execute.

did right to repel them.

His devotion and energy

You

Go back to your families

were the means, under God, of mitigating some¬

and fear nothing; I pledge my word and honour

what the horrors of the Massacre of 1655, and his

that no evil shall happen to you.”

heroism ultimately rolled back the tide of that

These

great calamity, and made it recoil upon its authors.

Gianavello.

It was the morning of the 24th of April, 1655, the

the maxim enacted by the Council of Constance,

deceitful words

did

not impose

upon

He had a wholesome recollection of

day which saw the butchery commenced that we

and so often put in practice in the Yalleys, “ No

have described above.

faith is to be kept with heretics.”

On that same day 500

soldiers were dispatched by the Marquis di Pianeza

Pianeza, he knew,

was the agent of the “ Council of Extirpation.”

to the Yalley of Pora, to massacre its unoffending

Hardly had the next morning broke when the hero-

and unsuspecting inhabitants.

peasant was abroad, scanning with eagle-eye the

Ascending from the

Yalley of the Pelice, they had gained the summit

mountain paths that led into his valley.

of the pass, and were already descending on the

not long till his suspicions were more than justified.

town of Pora, stealthily and swiftly, as a herd

Six

of wolves might descend upon a sheep-fold,

reference to this

as,

says

Leger,

“a

brood

of

vultures

descend upon a flock of harmless doves. ” Gianavello, who

had

known

or

might

Happily

for weeks

before

hundred

men-at-arms, difficult

chosen

with

enterprise,

It was special

were seen

ascending the mountain Cassuleto, to do what their comrades of the previous day had failed to * accom¬ plish.

Gianavello had now mustered a little host

that a storm was gathering, though he knew not

of eighteen,

when or where it would burst, was on the outlook.

muskets and swords, and six with only the sling.

He

saw the

troop,

and

guessed

their

of whom twelve were armed with

errand.

These he divided into three parties, each consisting

There was not a moment to be lost; a little longer,

of four musketeers and two slingers, and he posted

and not a man would be left alive in Pora to carry

them in a defile, through which he saw the invaders

tidings of its fate to the next commune.

must pass.

But

was Gianavello single-handed to attack an army of 500 menl

He stole up-hill, under cover of the

No* sooner had the van of the enemy

entered the gorge than a shower of bullets and stones from invisible hands saluted them.

Every

rocks and trees, and on his way he prevailed on six

bullet and stone did its work.

The first dis¬

peasants, brave men like himself, to join him in

charge brought down an officer and twelve men.

The heroic little band

That volley was succeeded by others equally fatal.

marched on till they were near the troop, then

The cry was raised, “All is lost, save yourselves!”

hiding amid the bushes, they lay in ambush by the

The flight was precipitate, for every bush and rock

repelling the invaders.

side of the path.

The soldiers came on, little sus¬

seemed to vomit forth deadly missiles.

Thus a

pecting the trap into which they were marching.

second ignominious retreat rid the Yalley of Pora

Gianavello and his men fired, and with so unerring

of these murderers.

an aim that seven of the troop fell dead.

Then, re¬

The inhabitants carried their complaints a second

loading their pieces, and dexterously changing their

time

ground, they fired again with a like effect.

“the ferocity of the tiger under the skin of the

The

to Pianeza.

“ Concealing,” as Leger says,

attack was unexpected ; the foe was invisible; the frightened imaginations of Pianezas soldiers mul¬

2

Leger, part ii., chap. 11, p. 186.

490

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

fox,” lie assured the deputies that the attack had

hours in advance, with three companies of regular

been the result of a misunderstanding; that certain

troops, few of whom ever returned.

accusations had

leader, borne along by the rush of his panic-stricken

been

lodged against them, the

Their ferocious

falsity of which had since been discovered, and now

soldiers, was precipitated over the edge of the rock

they might return to their homes, for they had

into the stream, and badly bruised.

nothing to fear.

out and carried to Lucerna, where he died two days

No sooner were they gone than

Pianeza began vigorously to prepare for a third

afterwards,

attack.1

greater torment of mind.

He organised a battalion of from 800 men.

to

900

Next morning, this host made a rapid march

on Rora, seized all the avenues leading into the

He was drawn

in great torment of body,

and yet

Of the three companies

which he led in this fatal expedition, one was composed of Irish,

who

had been banished by

Cromwell, and who met in this distant land the

valley, and chasing the inhabitants to the caves in

death they had inflicted on others in their own,

Monte Friolante, set fire to their dwellings, having

leaving their corpses to fatten those valleys which

first plundered them.

Captain Joshua G-i ana veil o, at

the head of his little troop, saw the enemy enter, but their numbers were so overwhelming that he

were to have been theirs, had they succeeded in purging them of heresy and heretics.3 This series of strange events was now drawing

waited a more favourable moment for attacking

to an end.

them.

This war of his, though waged only with herds¬

The soldiers were retiring, laden with their

booty, and driving before them the cattle of the

men,

peasants.

and

Gianavello knelt down before his hero-

band, and giving thanks to God, who had twice by

had

The fury of Pianeza knew no bounds. brought

the loss of

him

his

nothing

bravest

but

disgrace,

soldiers.

Yictor

Amadeus once observed that “ the skin of every

his hand saved his people, he prayed that the hearts

Yaudois cost him fifteen of his best Piedmontese

and arms of his followers might be strengthened, to

soldiers.”

work yet another deliverance.

best soldiers, and yet not one of the little troop of

the foe.

He then attacked

The spoilers turned and fled up-hill, in

Pianeza had lost some hundreds of his

Gianavello, dead or alive, had he been able to get

the hope of escaping into the Yalley of the Pelice,

into his hands.

throwing away their booty in their flight.

tinue the struggle, but with a much greater army.

When

Nevertheless, he resolved to con¬

they had gained the pass, and begun their descent,

He assembled 10,000, and attacked Rora on three

their flight became

sides at once.

yet more disastrous;

great

stones, tom up and rolled after them, were mingled

While Gianavello was bravely com¬

bating with the first troop of 3,000, on the summit

with the bullets, and did deadly execution upon

of the pass that gives entrance from the Yalley of

them, while the precipices over which they fell in

the Pelice, a second of 6,000 had entered by the

their haste consummated their destruction.

ravine at the foot of the valley; and a third of

The

£ew who survived fled to Villaro.2

1,000 had crossed the mountains that divide Bag-

The Marquis di Pianeza, instead of seeing in these events the finger of God, was only the more

nolo from Rora.

But, alas !

who shall describe

the horrors that followed the entrance of these

inflamed with rage, and the more resolutely bent on

assassins ?

the extirpation of every heretic from the Yalley of

instant overwhelmed the little community.

Rora.

He assembled all the royal troops then

Blood,

burning,

and

distinction was made of age or sex.

rapine in

an No

None had pity

under his command, or which could be spared from

for their tender years;

the massacre in which they were occupied in the

their grey hairs.

•other valleys, in order to surround the little terri¬

once, and thus escaped horrible indignities and tor¬

tory.

This was

now

the fourth

attack

on the

tures.

none had reverence for

Happy they who were slain at

The few spared from the sword were carried

commune of Rora, but the invaders were destined

away as captives, and among these were the wife

once more to recoil before the shock of its heroic

and the three daughters of Gianavello.4

■defenders.

Some 8,000 men had been got under

There was now nothing more in the Yalley of

arms, and were ready to march against Rora, but

Rora for which the patriot-hero could do battle.

the impatience of a certain Captain Mario, who

The light of his hearth was quenched, his village

had signalised himself in the massacre at Bobbio,

was a heap of smoking ruins,

and wished to appropriate the entire glory of the

brethren

enterprise, would not permit him to await the

superior to these accumulated calamities, he marched

movement of the main body.

his little troop over the mountains, to await on the

He marched two

1 Leger, part ii., pp. 186,187. 3 Ibid., part ii., p. 187. Muston, pp. 146, 147.

his fathers and

had fallen by the sword;

but

rising

3 Leger, part ii., p. 188. Muston, pp. 148, 149. 4 Ibid., part ii., p. 189. Monastier, p. 277.

491

SPLENDID SUCCESSES OF THE VAUDOIS. frontier of his country whatever opportunities Pro¬

been assembling to avenge' the massacre of their

vidence might yet open to him of wielding his

brethren.

sword in defence of the ancient liberties and the

In Giaheri, Captain Gianavello had found a comj>anion worthy of himself, and worthy of the cause

glorious faith of his people. It was at this time that Pianeza, intending to

for which he was now in arms.

Of this heroic

deal the finishing blow that should crush the hero

man Leger has recorded that, “ though he possessed

of Bora, wrote tc Gianavello as follows:—I exhort

the courage of a lion, he was as humble as a lamb,

you for the last time to renounce

your heresy.

always giving to God the glory of his victories ;

This is the only hope of your obtaining the pardon

well versed in Scripture, and understanding contro¬

of your prince, and of saving the life of your wife

versy, and of great natural talent.”

and daughters, now my prisoners, and whom, if

had reduced the Vaudois race to all but utter ex¬

you continue obstinate, I will burn alive.

As for

The massacre

termination, and 500 men were all that the two

yourself, my soldiers shall no longer pursue you,

leaders could collect around their standard.

but I will set such a price upon your head, as that

army opposed to them, and at this time in their

were you Beelzebub himself, you shall infallibly be

Valleys, was from

taken; and be assured that, if you fall alive into

sisting of trained and picked soldiers.

my hands, there are no torments with which I will

but an impulse from the God of battles could have

not punish your rebellion.”

moved these two men, with such a handful, to

To these ferocious

15,000 to

20,000

The

strong, con¬ Nothing

threats Gianavello magnanimously and promptly

take the field against such odds.

replied :

are no torments so terrible, no

common hero all would have seemed lost; but the

death so barbarous, that I would not choose rather

courage of these two Christian warriors was based

“ There

than deny my Saviour.

Your threats cannot cause

me to renounce ihy faith; they but fortify me in it.

on faith.

To the eye of a

They believed that God would not per¬

mit his cause to perish, or the lamp of the Valleys

Should the Marquis di Pianeza cause my wife and

to be extinguished; and, few though they were,

daughters to pass through the fire, it can but con¬

they

sume their mortal bodies; their souls I commend

instrumentality to save their country and Church.

knew that God was able by their humble

to God, trusting that he will have mercy on them,

In this faith they unsheathed the sword; and so

and on mine, should it please him that I fall into

valiantly did they wield it, that soon that sword

the marquis’s hands.” 1

became the terror of the Piedmontese armies.

We do not know whether

The

Pianeza was capable of seeing that this was the

ancient promise was fulfilled, “ The people that do

most mortifying defeat he had yet sustained at the

know their God shall be strong and do exploits.”

hands of the peasant-hero of Bora;

and that he

We cannot go into details.

Prodigies of valour

might as well war against the Alps themselves as

were performed by this little host.

against a cause that could infuse a spirit like this

considered the Vaudois to be men,” said Descombies,

“ I had always

into its champions.

Gianavello’s reply, observes

who had joined them, “but I found them lions.”

Leger, “ certified him as a chosen instrument in the

Nothing could withstand the fury of their attack.

hands of God for the recovery of his country seem¬

Post after post and village after village were wrested

ingly lost.”

from the Piedmontese troops.

Gianavello had saved from the wreck of his family his infant son, and his first care was to seek a place of safety for him.

Laying him on his

Soon the enemy

was driven from the upper valleys.

The war now

passed down into the plain of Piedmont, and there it was waged with the same heroism and the same

shoulders, he passed the frozen Alps which separate

success.

the Yalley of Lucerna from France, and entrusted

they fought not

the child to the care of a relative resident at

nearly all of

Queyras, in the Valleys of the French Protestants.

opposed by more than ten times their number.

With the child he carried thither the tidings of the

Their success could hardly be credited had it not

awful massacre of his people.

been recorded by historians whose veracity is above

roused.

Indignation was

Not a few were willing to join his stan¬

They besieged and took several towns, a

few

pitched battles; and in

them they were victorious, though

suspicion, and the accuracy of whose statements

dard, brave spirits like himself; and, with his little

was attested by eye-witnesses.

band greatly recruited, he repassed the Alps in a

did it happen at the close of a day’^ fighting, that

Not unfrequently

few w§eks, to begin his second and more success¬

1,400 Piedmontese dead covered the field of battle,

ful campaign.

while not more than six or seven of the Waldenses

On his arrival in the Valleys he

was joined by Giaheri, under whom a troop had

had fallen.

Such success might well be termed

miraculous; and not only did it appear so to the V Leger, part ii., p. 189.

Vaudois themselves, but even to their foes, who

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

492

could not refrain from expressing their conviction

people ; and foremost among those who did them-

“ that surely God was on the side of the Barbets.”

selves lasting honour by interposing in behalf of a

While the Yaudois were thus heroically main-

people “drawn unto death and ready to perish,”

taining their cause by arms, and rolling back the

was, as we have already said, England, then under

chastisement

the Protectorate of Cromwell.

of

war

on

those from whom its

miseries had come, tidings of their wrongs were

We mentioned in

the previous chapter the Latin letter, the composi-

THE PROTESTANT CHURCH OF ST. JEAN, WALDENSIAN VALLEYS.

travelling to all the Protestant States of Europe,

tion of Milton, which the Protector addressed to

Wherever these tidings came a feeling of horror

the Duke of Savoy.

was evoked, and the cruelty of the Government of

to Louis XIY. of France, soliciting his mediation

Savoy was universally and loudly execrated.

with the duke in behalf of the Yaudois.

All

In addition, Cromwell wrote The

confessed that such a tale of woe they had never

letter is interesting as containing the truly catholic

before heard.

and noble sentiments of England, to which the pen

But the Protestant States did not

content themselves with simply condemning these

of her great poet gave fitting expression :—

deeds; they judged it to be their clear duty to

“ Most Serene and Potent King,

move in behalf of this poor and greatly oppressed

.

.

.

.

.

.

“ After a most barbarous

CROMWELL'S LETTER TO LOUIS XIV.

493

slaughter of persons of both sexes, and of all ages,

New payments have been exacted, and a new fort

a treaty of peace was concluded, or rather secret

has been built to keep them in check, from whence

acts of hostility were committed the more securely

a disorderly soldiery make frequent sallies, and

under the name of a pacification.

plunder or murder all they meet.

The conditions

In addition to

of the treaty were determined in your town of

these things, fresh levies of troops are clandestinely

Pinerolo:

preparing to march against them; and those among

hard conditions enough, but such as

THE PASS OF PRA DEL TOR.

these poor people would gladly have agreed to,

them who profess the Roman Catholic religion have

after the horrible outrages to which they had been

been advised to retire in time; so that everything

■exposed, provided that they had been faithfully

threatens the speedy destruction of such as escaped

observed.

the former massacre.

But they were not observed; the mean¬

ing of the treaty is evaded and violated, by putting

I do therefore beseech and

conjure your Majesty not to suffer such enormities,

a false interpretation upon some of the articles, and

and not to permit (I will not say any prince, for

by straining others.

Many of the complainants

surely such barbarity never could enter into the

have been deprived of their patrimonies, and many

heart of a prince, much less of one of the duke’s

have been forbidden the exercise.of Their religion.

tender age, or into the mind, of his mother), those

494

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM. savage

requested by the Protestant princes, but hurried it

ferocity, who, while they profess to be the servants

accursed

murderers

to

indulge in

such

to a conclusion before the ambassadors from the

and followers of Christ, who came into the world

Protestant States had arrived.

to save sinners, do blaspheme his name, and trans¬

the Protestant cantons of Switzerland were pre¬

The delegates from

gress his mild precepts, by the slaughter of innocent

sent, but they were permitted to act the part of on¬

men.

Oh, that your Majesty, who has the power,

lookers simply. The Grand Monarch took the whole

and who ought to be inclined to use it, may deliver

affair upon himself, and on the 18th of August,

so many supplicants from the hands of murderers,

1655, a treaty of peace was concluded of a very

who are already drunk with blood, and thirst for it

disadvantageous kind. The Waldenses were stripped

again,

and who take pleasure in throwing the

odium of their cruelty upon princes! your Majesty not to

I implore

of their ancient possessions on the right bank of the Pelice, lying toward the plain of Piedmont.

suffer the borders of your

Within the new boundary they were guaranteed

kingdom to be polluted by such monstrous wicked¬

liberty of worship; an amnesty was granted for all

ness.

Remember that this very race of people

threw themselves upon grandfather,

King

the protection of

Henry IY., who

was

your most

offences committed during the war; captives were to be restored when claimed; and they were to be exempt from all imposts for five years,

on the

friendly disposed towards the Protestants, when the

ground that they were so impoverished as not to be

Duke of Lesdiguieres passed victoriously through

able fo pay anything.

their country, as affording the most commodious

When the treaty was published it was found

passage into Italy at the time he pursued the Duke

to contain two clauses that astonished the Pro¬

of Savoy in his retreat across the Alps.

testant world.

The act

or instrument of that submission is still extant

In the preamble the Yaudois were

styled rebels, whom it had pleased their prince gra¬

among the public records of your kingdom, in

ciously to receive back into favour; and in the body

which it is provided that the Yaudois shall not be

of the deed was an article, which no one recollected

transferred to any other government, but upon the

to have heard mentioned during the negotiations,

same condition that they were received under the

empowering the French to construct a fort above

protection of your invincible grandfather.

As sup¬

plicants of his grandson, they now implore the fulfilment of this compact.

*

*

*

*

La Torre.

This looked like a preparation for re¬

newing the war. By this treaty the Protestant States were out¬

*

*

*

witted ;

“ Given at our Court at Westminster, this 26 th

their ambassadors

were duped; and the

poor Yaudois were left as much as ever in the power of the Duke of Savoy and of the Council for the

of May, 1658.” The French King undertook the mediation, as

Propagation of the Faith, and the Extirpation of Heretics.

CHAPTER XIII. THE EXILE.

New Troubles—Louis XIY. and his Confessor—Edict against the Vaudois—Their Defenceless Condition—Their Fight and Victory—They Surrender—The Whole Nation Thrown into Prison—Utter Desolation of the Land—Horrors of the Imprisonment—Their Release—Journey across the Alps—Its Hardships—Arrival of the Exiles at Geneva— Their Hospitable Reception. After the great Massacre of 1655, the Church of

them. Ceaseless intrigues were continually breeding

the Yalleys had rest from persecution for thirty

new alarms, and the Yaudois had often to till their

years.

fields and prune their vines with their musket slung

This period, however, can be styled one of

rest only when contrasted with the frightful storms

across their shoulders. Many of their chief men were

which had convulsed the era that immediately pre¬

sent into exile.

ceded it.

The enemies of the Yaudois still found

Leger, whose services to their people were too great

innumerable ways in which to annoy and harass

ever to be forgiven, had sentence of death passed on

Captain Gianavello and Pastor

NEW AND ATROCIOUS EDICT. them.

Leger was “ to be strangled; then his body

495

to his victory ? Victor Amadeus deigned no reply to

was to be hung by one foot on a gibbet for four-

the French ambassador.

and-twenty hours; and, lastly, his head was to be

it received an evasive answer; it was urged a third

cut off and publicly exposed at San Giovanni.

The request was repeated ;

His

time, accompanied by a hint from the potent Louis

name was to be inserted in the list of noted out¬

that if it was not convenient for the duke to purge

Gianavello

his dominions, the King of France would do it for

retired to Geneva, where he continued to watch

laws; his houses were to be burned.”1

him with an army of 14,000 men, and would keep

with unabated interest the fortunes of his people.

the Yalleys for his pains.

Leger became pastor of a congregation at Leyden,

treaty was immediately concluded between the duke

where he crowned a life full of labour and suffering

and the French King, in which the latter promised

This was enough.

A

for the Gospel, by a work which has laid all Chris¬

an armed force to enable the former to reduce the

tendom under obligations to him; we refer to his

Yaudois to the Roman obedience, or to exterminate

History of the Churches of the Vaudois—a noble

them.2

monument of his Church’s martyr-heroism and his

edict was promulgated in the Yalleys:—

own Christian patriotism.

“ I. The Yaudois shall henceforth and for ever

Hardly had Leger unrolled to the world’s gaze the record of the last awful tempest which had smitten the Valleys, when the clouds returned, and were seen rolling up in dark, thunderous masses against this devoted land.

Former storms had

assailed them from the south, having collected in the Vatican; the tempest now apj3roaching had its first rise on the north of the Alps.

It was the year

1685; Louis XIY. was nearing the grave, and with the great audit in view he inquired of his confessor by what good deed as a king he might atone for his many sins as a man.

The answer was ready.

He

was told that he must extirpate Protestantism in France. obsequiously before the shaven crown of priest, while Europe was

trembling before his armies.

Louis XIY. did as he was commanded; he revoked the Edict of Nantes.

This gigantic crime, which

inflicted so much misery on the Protestants in the first place, and brought so many woes on the throne and nation of France in the second, will be recorded It is the nation of the Yaudois, and

the persecution which the counsel of Father la Chaise brought upon them, with which we have here to do.

Wishing for companionship in the

sanguinary work of testantism,

cease and discontinue all the exercises of their religion. “ II. They are forbidden to have religious meet¬ ings, under pain of death, and penalty of confiscation of all their goods. “ III. All their ancient privileges are abolished. “ IY. All the churches, prayer-houses, and other edifices consecrated to their worship shall be razed to the ground. “V. All the pastors and schoolmasters of the Yalleys are required either to embrace Romanism or to quit the country within fifteen days, under pain of death and confiscation of goods. “ YI. All the children born, or to be born, of Pro¬

The Grand Monarch, as the age styled him, bowed

in its place.

On the 31st of January, 1686, the following

purging France from Pro¬

Louis XIY.

sent an ambassador to

the Duke of Savoy, with a request that he would deal with the Waldenses as he was now dealing with the Huguenots.

The young and naturally

humane Victor Amadeus was at the moment on more than usually friendly terms with his subjects of the Yalleys.

They had served bravely under his

standard in his late war with the Genoese, and he

testant parents, shall be compulsorily trained up as Roman Catholics.

Every such child yet unborn

shall, within a week after its birth, be brought to the cure of its parish, and admitted of the Roman Catholic Church, under pain, on the part of the mother, of being publicly whipped with rods, and on the part of the father of labouring five years in the galleys. “ VII. The Yaudois pastors shall abjure the doc¬ trine they have hitherto publicly preached; shall receive a salary, greater by one-third than that which they previously enjoyed; and one-half thereof shall go in reversion to their widows. “ VIII. All Protestant foreigners settled in Pied* mont are ordered either to become Roman Catholics* or to quit the country within fifteen days. “ IX. By a special act of his great and paternal clemency, the sovereign will permit persons to sell* in this interval, the property they may have acquired in Piedmont, provided the sale be made to Roman Catholic purchasers.”

had but recently written them a letter of thanks. How could he unsheathe his sword against the men whose devotion and valour had so largely contributed 1 Leger, part ii., p. 275.

This monstrous edict seemed to sound the knell of the Yaudois as a Protestant people. 2 Monastier, p. 311.

Their oldest.

496

HISTOEY OF PROTESTANTISM.

traditions did not contain a decree so cruel and unrighteous,

nor

one that

menaced them with

The proposal to abandon their ancient inheritance, coming from such a quarter, startled the Waldenses.

so complete and summary a destruction as that

It produced, at first, a division of opinion in the

which now seemed to impend over them.

Yalleys ; but ultimately they united in rejecting it.

was to he done1? delegates

to

What

Their first step was to send

Turin,

respectfully

to

remind the

They remembered the exploits their fathers had done, and the wonders God had wrought in the

duke that the Vaudois had inhabited the Yalleys

mountain passes of Bora, in the defiles of Angrogna,

from the earliest times; that they had led forth theii

and in the field of the Pra del Tor, and their faith

herds upon their mountains before the House of

reviving, they resolved, in a reliance on the same

Savoy had ascended the throne of Piedmont; that

Almighty Arm which had been stretched out in their

treaties and oaths, renewed from reign to reign, had

behalf in former days, to defend their hearths and

solemnly secured them in the freedom of their

altars.

worship and other liberties; and that the honour

ready for resistance.

of princes and the stability of States lay in the

Good Friday, they renewed their covenant, and on

faithful observance of such covenants; and they

Easter Sunday their pastors dispensed to them the

They repaired the old defences, and made On the 17th of April, being

prayed him to consider what reproach the throne

Communion.

and kingdom of Piedmont would incur if he should

the Yalleys partook of the Lord’s Supper before

become the executioner of those of whom he was

their great dispersion.

the natural protector.

The Protestant cantons of

This was the last time the sons of

Yictor Amadeus II. had pitched his camp on the

Switzerland joined their mediation to the inter¬

plain of San Gegonzo before the Yaudois Alps.

cessions of the Waldenses.

army consisted of five regiments of horse and foot.

And when the almost

His

incredible edict came to be known in Germany and

He was here joined by the French auxiliaries who

Holland, these countries threw their shield over the

had crossed the Alps, consisting of some dozen bat¬

Yalleys, by interceding with the duke that he would

talions,

not inflict so great a wrong as to cast out from a

15,000 and 20,000 men.

land which was theirs by irrevocable charters, a

given on Easter Monday, at break of day, by three

the united force amounting to between The signal was to be

people whose only crime was that they worshipped

cannon-shots, fired from the hill of Bricherasio.

as their fathers had worshipped, before they passed

the appointed morning, the Yalleys of Lucerna and

under the sceptre of the duke. parties pleaded in vain.

All these powerful

San Martino, forming the two

On

extreme opposite

Ancient charters, solemn

points of the territory, were attacked, the first by

treaties, and oaths, made in the face of Europe,

the Piedmontese host, and the last by the French,

the long-tried loyalty and the many services of the

under the command of General Catinat, a distin¬

Yaudois to the House of Savoy, could not stay the

guished soldier.

uplifted arm of the duke, or prevent the execution

ten hours, and ended in the complete repulse of the

of the monstrously criminal decree.

In San Martino the fighting lasted

In a little

French, who retired at night with a loss of more

while the armies of France and Savoy arrived before

than 500 killed and wounded, while the Yaudois

the Yalleys.

had lost only two.1

At no previous period of their history, perhaps,

On the following day the

French, burning with rage at their defeat, poured a

had the Waldenses been so entirely devoid of human

more

aid as now.

swept along the valley, burning, plundering, and

Gianavello, whose stout heart and

numerous army into San Martino,

which

brave arm had stood them in such stead formerly,

massacring,

was in exile.

descended into Pramol, continuing the same indis¬

Cromwell, whose potent voice had

and

having

crossed

the mountains

stayed the fury of the great massacre, was in his

criminate and exterminating vengeance.

grave.

rage of the sword were added other barbarities and

An avowed Papist filled the throne of

Great Britain.

It was going ill at this hour with

Protestantism everywhere.

outrages too shocking to be narrated.2

of

The issue by arms being deemed uncertain, despite

Scotland were hiding on the moors, or dying in the

the vast disparity of strength, treachery, on a great

Grass-market of Edinburgh.

The Covenanters

To the

France,

Piedmont,

and Italy were closing in around the Yalleys ; every

scale,

was

now

had

recourse

to.

Wherever,

throughout the Yalleys, the Yaudois were found

path guarded, all their succours cut off, an over¬

strongly posted, and ready for battle, they wei^e

whelming force waited the signal to massacre them.

told that their brethren in the neighbouring com¬

So desperate did their situation appear to the Swiss

munes had submitted, and that it was vain for

envoys, that they counselled them to “ transport elsewhere the torch of the Gospel, and not keep it here to be extinguished in blood.”

1 Monastier, p. 317. 2 Muston, p. 200,

Must on, p. 199.

IMPRISONMENT AND EXILE.

497

them, isolated and alone as they now were, to con¬

been wont to dart his

tinue their resistance.

and let fall at

When they sent deputies to

head-quarters to inquire—and passes were freely supplied to-them for that purpose—they were assured

friendly mantle of his

purple shadows. We know not if ever before an entire nation

that the submission had been universal, and that

were in prison at once.

none save themselves were now in arms.

of the Waldensian

They

kindling glories at dawn,

eve the

Yet now it was so.

All

race that remained from the

were assured, moreover, that should they follow the

sword of their executioners were immured in the

example of the rest of their nation, all their ancient

dungeons of Piedmont!

liberties would be held intact.1

the father and his family, the patriarch and the

This base artifice

The pastor and his flock,

was successfully practised at each of the Yaudois

stripling had passed in, in one great procession, and

posts in succession, till at length the Yalleys had

exchanged their grand rock-walled Yalleys, their

We cannot blame the Waldenses,

tree-embowered homes, and their sunlit peaks, for

who were the victims of an act so dishonourable and

the filth, the choking air, and the Tartarean walls

all capitulated.

vile as hardly to be credible; alas!

was a fatal one,

but the mistake,

and had to be

expiated

of an Italian gaol. prison %

afterwards by the endurance of woes a hundred

“ middle passage. ”

times more dreadful than any they would have en¬

food nor clothing.

countered in the rudest campaign.

was fetid.

The instant

And how were they treated in

As the African slave was treated on the They had a sufficiency of neither The bread dealt out to them

They had putrid water to drink.

They

consequence of the submission was a massacre which

were exposed to the sun by day and to the cold at

extended to all their Yalleys, and which was similar

night.

in its horrors to the great butchery of 1655.

pavement, or on straw so full of vermin that the

that massacre upwards of 3,000 perished.

In The

remainder of the nation, amounting, according to

They were compelled to sleep on the bare

stone-floor was preferable.

Disease broke out in

these horrible abodes, and the mortality was fearful.

Arnaud, to between 12,000 and 15,000 souls, were

“ When they entered these dungeons,” says Henri

consigned to the various gaols and fortresses of

Arnaud,

Piedmont.2

taineers, but when, at the intercession of the S wiss

We now behold these famous Yalleys, for the first time in their history, empty. burns no longer.

The ancient lamp

The school of the prophets in the

Pra del Tor is razed.

No smoke is seen rising from

cottage, and no psalm is heard ascending from dwell¬ ing or sanctuary.

No herdsman leads forth his

“they counted

14,000

healthy

moun¬

deputies, their prisons were opened, 3,000 skeletons only crawled out.”

These few words portray a

tragedy so awful that the imagination recoils from the contemplation of it. Well, at length the persecutor looses their chains, and opening their prison doors he sends forth these

kine on the mountains, and no troop of worshippers,

captives—the

obedient to the summons of the Sabbath-bell, climbs

people.

the mountain

people again their ancient Yalleys ?

To rekindle

the fire on their ancestral hearths'?

To rebuild

paths.

The vine

flings wide her

arms, but no skilful hand is nigh boughs and prune her luxuriance.

to train her The chestnut-

woe-worn

remnant

of

a

gallant

But to what are they sent forth ?

“ the holy and beautiful

To

house ” in which their

tree rains its fruits, but there is no group of merry

fathers had praised God h

children to gather them, and they lie rotting on the

thrust out of prison only to be sent into exile—to

ground.

Yaudois a living death.

The terraces of the hills, that were wont

to overflow with flowers and fruitage, and which

Ah, no !

The barbarity of 1655 was repeated.

They are

It was in

presented to the eye a series of hanging gardens,

December (1686) that the decree of liberation was

now torn and breached, shoot in a mass of ruinous

issued in favour of these

rubbish down the slope.

escaped the sword, and now survived the not less

Nothing is seen but dis¬

3,000 men who had

mantled forts, and the blackened ruins of churches

deadly epidemic of the prison.

and hamlets.

every one knows, the snow and ice are piled to a

A dreary silence overspreads the land,

At that season, as

and the beasts of the field strangely multiply. A few

fearful depth on the Alps;

herdsmen, hidden here and there in forests and

threaten with death the too adventurous traveller

and daily tempests

holes of the rocks, are now the only inhabitants.

who would cross their summits.

Monte Yiso, from out the silent vault, looks down

season that these poor captives, emaciated with

with astonishment at the absence of that ancient

sickness, weakened by hunger, and shivering from

race over whom, from immemorial time, he had

insufficient clothing, were commanded to rise up and cross the snowy hills.

It was at this

They began their journey

on the afternoon of that very day on which the 1 Muston, p. 202.

26

2 Monastier, p. 320.

order arrived; for their enemies would permit no

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

498 delay.

One hundred and fifty of them died on

their first march.

At night they halted at the foot

of the Mont Cenis.

Next morning, when they

at Geneva on Christmas Day, 1686, having spent about three weeks on the journey.

They were fol¬

lowed by small parties, who crossed the Alps one

surveyed the Alps they saw evident signs of a

after the other, being let out of prison at different

gathering tempest, and they besought the officer in

times.

charge to permit them, for the sake of their sick

that the last band of these emigrants reached the

and aged, to remain where they were till the storm

hospitable gates of Geneva.

had spent its rage.

way-worn, sick, emaciated, and faint through hun¬

With heart harder than the

rocks they were to traverse,

the officer ordered

them to resume their journey.

That troop of

ger.

It was not till the end of February, 1687, But in what a plight 1

Of some the tongue was swollen in their

mouth, and they were unable to speak; of others

emaciated beings began the ascent, and were soon

the arms were bitten with the frost, so that they

struggling with the blinding drifts

could not stretch them out to

whirlwinds of the mountain.

and fearful

accept the charity

Eighty-six of their

offered to them; and some there were who dropped

number, succumbing to the tempest, dropped by the

down and expired on the very threshold of the city,

way.

Where they lay down, there they died.

No

“ finding,” as one has said, “ the end of their life at

relative or friend was permitted to remain behind

the beginning of their liberty.”

to watch their last moments or tender them needed

was the reception given them by the city of Calvin.

Most hospitable

succour.

That ever-thinning procession moved on

A deputation of the principal citizens of Geneva,

and on over the white hills, leaving it to the falling

headed by the patriarch Gianavelio, who still lived,

snow to give burial to their stricken companions.

went out to meet them on the frontier, and taking

When spring opened the passes of the Alps, alas !

them to their homes, they vied with each other

what ghastly memorials met the eye of the horror-

which should show

stricken traveller.

Generous city !

Strewed along the track were the

now unshrouded corpses of these poor exiles, the dead

them the

greatest kindness.

If he who shall give a cup of cold

water to a disciple shall in nowise lose his reward,

child lying fast locked in the arms of the dead mother.

how much more shalt thou be requited for this thy

But why should we prolong this harrowing tale h

kindness to the suffering and sorrowing exiles of the

The first company of these miserable exiles arrived

Saviour!

CHAPTER

XIV,

RETURN TO THE VALLEYS.

Longings after their Valleys—Thoughts of Returning—Their Reassembling—Cross the Leman—Begin their March —The “Eight Hundred’'—Cross Mont Cenis—Great Victory in the Valley of the Dora—First View of their Mountains—Worship on the Mountain-top—Enter their Valleys—Pass their First Sunday at Prali—Worship. We now open the history.

bright page of

the Vaudois

more so, seeing their destitution was greater.

Nor

We have seen nearly 3,000 Waldensian

were the Vaudois ungrateful. “Next to God, whose

exiles enter the gates of Geneva, the feeble remnant

tender mercies have preserved us from being entirely

of a population of from 14,000 to 16,000.

One

city could not contain them all, and arrangements were made for distributing the expatriated Vaudois among the Reformed cantons. the Edict of Nantes had thousands

The revocation of

a little before thrown

of French Protestants upon

the hos¬

consumed,” said they to their kind benefactors, “ we are indebted to you alone for life and liberty.” Several of the German princes opened their States to these exiles ;

but the influence of their great

enemy, Louis XIV., was then too powerful in these parts to permit of their residence being altogether

pitality of the Swiss; and now the arrival of the

an agreeable one.

Waldensian refugees brought with it yet heavier

emissaries, and their patrons tampered with, they

Constantly watched by his

demands on the public and private charity of the

were moved about from place to place.

cantons; but

tion of their permanent settlement in the future

the

response of

Protestant

Hel¬

The ques¬

vetia was equally cordial in the case of the last

was beginning to be anxiously discussed.

comers as in that of the first, and perhaps even

project

of

carrying

them

across

the

sea

The in

THE YAUDOIS CROSSING LAKE LEMAN J3Y NIGHT.

(See

p. 500.)

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

500

the ships of Holland, and planting them at the

of the Vallais, in concert with the Savoyards, at

Cape,

the first alarm seized the Bridge of St. Maurice,

was even talked of.

The idea of being

separated for ever from their native land, dearer in

the key of the Rhone Valley, and

exile than when they dwelt in it, gave them in¬

expedition.

tolerable anguish.

pelled to abandon their project.

Was it not possible to reassem¬

To extinguish all hopes of their return to the

ble their scattered colonies, and marching back to their Valleys, rekindle them?

their ancient lamp in

This was the question which, after three

years of exile, the Vaudois began to put to them¬

stopped the

Thus were they, for the time, com¬

Valleys, they were anew distributed over GermanyBut

scarcely

had

this

second dispersion

been

effected, when war broke out; the French troops

selves.

As they wandered by the banks of the

overran the Palatinate, and the Vaudois settled

Rhine,

or

there, dreading, not without reason, the soldiers of

traversed

the

German

plains,

they

feasted their imaginations on their far-off homes.

Louis XIV., retired before them, and retook the

The chestnuts shading their former abodes, the

road

vine

pitying these poor exiles, tossed from country to

bending gracefully over their portal, and

to

Switzerland.

The Protestant cantons,

the meadow in front, which the crystal torrent kept

country by

perpetually

more in their former allotments.

bright, and

whose murmur sweetly

blended with the evening psalm, all rose before their eyes.

They never knelt to pray but it was with

political storms,

Vaudois, and with eyes uplifted they waited the issue.

They saw

where slept their martyred

Attempts

Orange,

mount the

Savoy

saw

had

been

made

by

the

Duke

of

to

Meanwhile, the

scenes were shifting rapidly around the expatriated

their faces turned toward their grand mountains, fathers.

settled them once

their

their

protector, William

throne of

j>owerful

enemy,

England. Louis

of

They

XIV.,

at¬

people their territory by settling in it a mongrel

tacked at once by the emperor and humiliated

race, partly Irish and partly Piedmontese ; but the

by

land knew not the strangers, and refused to yield

Victor

Amadeus

its strength to them.

Savoy,

seeing

The Vaudois had sent spies

the

Dutch.

They

saw

withdraw

that

their his

he needed

own

soldiers

Prince from

them to defend

to examine its condition ;l its fields lay untilled, its

Piedmont.

vines unpruned, nor had its ruins been raised up;

Hand was opening their path back to their own

it was almost as desolate as on the day when its

land.

sons had been driven out of it.

to arrange a second time for their departure.

It seemed to them

At length the yearning of their heart could no repressed.

Encouraged by these tokens,

they began

The place of appointed rendezvous was a wood

that the land was waiting their return. longer be

It seemed to them that an invisible

The march back to their

on the northern shore of the Leman, near the town of Noyon.

For days before they continued to con¬

Valleys is one of the most wonderful exploits ever

verge, in scattered bands, and by stealthy marches,

performed by any people.

on the selected point.

It is famous in history

On the decisive evening, the

The

16th of August, 1689, a general muster took place

parallel event which will recur to the mind of the

under cover of the friendly wood of Prangins.

by the name

of

“La Rentree Glorieuse..”

scholar is, of course, the retreat of “the ten thousand

Having by solemn prayer commended their enter¬

Greeks.”

prise

be

The patriotism and bravery of both will

admitted, but a

candid comparison will, we

to

God, they embarked

crossed by star-light.

on the lake, and

Their means of transport

think, incline one to assign the palm of heroism to

would have been deficient but for a circumstance

the return of “the eight hundred.”

which threatened at first to obstruct their expedi¬

The day fixed on for beginning their expedition

tion, but which, in the issue, greatly facilitated it.

Quitting their various

Curiosity had drawn numbers to this part of the

cantonments in Switzerland, and travelling by by¬

lake, and the boats that brought hither the sight¬

was the 10th of June, 1688.

roads, they traversed the country by night, and

seers furnished more amply the means of escape to

assembled at Bex, a small town in the southern

the Vaudois.

extremity of the territory of Bern.

Their secret

At this crisis, as on so many previous ones, a

march was soon known to the senates of Zurich,

distinguished man arose to lead them.

Bern, and Geneva; and, foreseeing that the depar¬

Arnaud, whom we see at the head of the 800 fight¬

ture of the exiles would compromise them with the

ing jpnen who are setting

Popish powers, their Excellencies took measures to

possessions, had at first discharged the office of

prevent it.

pastor, but the troubles of his nation compelling him

A bark laden with arms for their use

was seized on the Lake of Geneva.

The inhabitants

for

their native

to leave the Valleys, he had served in the armies of the Prince of Orange.

1 Monastier, p. 336.

out

Henri

Of decided piety, ardent

patriotism, and of great decision and courage, he

501

THE “GLORIOUS RETURN/ presented a beautiful instance of the union of the

August, that they encountered for the first time a

pastoral and the military character.

considerable body of regular troops.

It is hard to

say whether his soldiers listened more reverentially

As they traversed the valley they were met by

to the exhortations he at times delivered to them

a peasant, of whom they inquired whether they

from the pulpit, or to the orders he gave them on

could have provisions by paying for them.

the field of battle.

on this way,” said the man, in a tone that had a

Arriving on the southern shore of the lake,

“ Come

slight touch of triumph in it, “you will find all

these 800 Yaudois bent their knees in prayer,

that you want;

and then began their march through a country

supper for you.”2

covered with foes.

Salabertrand, where the Col dAlbin closes in upon

Before them rose the great

they are preparing an excellent They were led into the defile of

snow-clad mountains over which they were to fight

the stream of the Dora,

their way.

aware they found themselves in presence of the

Arnaud arranged his little host into

and before they were

three companies—an advanced-guard, a centre, and

French army,

a rear-guard.

fallen—illumined far and wide the opposite slope.

Seizing some of the chief men as

whose camp-fires—for night had

hostages, they traversed the Yalley of the Arve to

Retreat was impossible.

Sallenches, and emerged from its dangerous passes

strong,

just as the men of the latter place had completed

supported by a miscellaneous

their preparations for resisting them.

followers.

Occasional

flanked by the

The French were 2,500 garrison of Exiles, crowd

of

and

armed

skirmishes awaited them, but mostly their march

Under favour of the darkness, they advanced to

was unopposed, for the terror of God had fallen

the bridge which crossed the Dora, on the opposite

upon the inhabitants of Savoy.

bank of which the French were encamped.

Holding on their

way they climbed the Haut Luce Alp,1 and next

To the

challenge, “Who goes there ?” the Yaudois answered,

that of Bon Homme, the neighbouring Alp to Mont

“Friends.” The instant reply shouted out was “Kill,

Blanc; sinking sometimes to their middle in snow.

kill!” followed by a tremendous fire, which was

Steep precipices and treacherous glaciers subjected

kept up for a quarter of an hour.

them to both toil and danger.

They were wet

however, for Arnaud had bidden his soldiers lie flat

at times fell in

on their faces, and permit the deadly shower to pass

through with the rain, torrents.

which

Their provisions were growing scanty,

over them.

It did no harm,

But now a division of the French

but their supply was recruited by the shepherds of

appeared in their rear, thus placing them between

the mountains, who brought them bread and cheese,

two fires.

while their huts served them at night.

that all must be risked, shouted out, “Courage ! the

They

Some one in the Yaudois army, seeing

renewed their hostages at every stage; sometimes

bridge is won! ”

they “caged”—to use their own phrase—a Capuchin

started to their feet, rushed across the bridge sword

monk, and at other times an influential landlord,

in hand, and clearing it, they threw themselves

but all were treated with uniform kindness.

with the impetuosity of a whirlwind upon the

Having crossed the Bon Homme, which divides

At these wmrds the Y audois

enemy’s entrenchments.

Confounded by the sud¬

the basin of the Arve from that of the Isere, they

denness of the attack, the French could only use the

descended, on Wednesday, the fifth day of their

butt-ends of their muskets to parry the blows.

march, into the valley of the latter stream.

fighting lasted two hours, and ended in the total

They

The

had looked forward to this stage of their journey

rout of the French.

with great misgivings, for the numerous population

Larrey, after a fruitless attempt to rally his soldiers,

of the Yal Isere was known to be well armed, and

fled wounded to Briangon, exclaiming, “Is it pos¬

decidedly hostile, and might be expected to oppose

sible that I have lost the battle and my honour f’

their march, but the enemy was “still as a stone” till the people had passed over.

They next traversed

Mont Iseran, and the yet more formidable Mont

Their leader, the Marquis de

Soon thereafter the moon rose and showed the field of battle to the victors.

On it, stretched out

in death, lay 600 French soldiers, besides officers

Cenis, and finally descended into the Yalley of the

and strewn promiscuously with the fallen, all over

Dora.

the field, were arms, military stores, and provisions.

It was here,

on Saturday,

the

24th of

Thus had been suddenly opened an armoury and magazines to men who stood much in need both of 1 So named by the author of the Rentree, from the village at its foot, but which without doubt, says Monastier (p. 349), “ is either the Col Joli (7,240 feet high) or the Col de la Fenetre, or Portetta, as it was named to Mr. Brockedon, who has visited these countries, and followed the same road as the Yaudois/5

weapons and of food. themselves,

Having amply replenished

they collected what they could not

carry away into a heap, and set fire to it. 2 Monastier, p. 352.

The

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

502 loud

and

multifarious

noises

formed

by

the

posted to guard the pass, but who took flight at

explosions of the gunpowder, the sounding of the

the approach of the Vaudois, thus opening to them

trumpets, and the shouting of the captains, who,

the gate of one of the grandest of their Valleys,

throwing their caps in the air, exclaimed, “ Thanks

San Martino.

be to the Lord of hosts who hath given us the

out from the shores of the Leman they crossed the

On the twelfth day after setting

victory/’ echoed like the thunder of heaven, and

frontier, and stood once more within the limits of

reverberating from

most

their inheritance. When they mustered at Balsiglia,

extraordinary and exciting scene, and one that is

the first Vaudois village which they entered, in the

seldom witnessed amid these usually quiet moun¬

western extremity of San Martino, they found that

tains.

hill to hill, formed a

This great victory cost the Waldenses only

fatigue, desertion,

and battle had reduced their

numbers from 800 to 700.

fifteen killed and twelve wounded. Their fatigue was great, but they feared to halt

Their first Sunday after their return was passed

on the battle-field, and so, rousing those Avho had

at the village of Prali.

already sunk into sleep, they commenced climbing

the church of Prali alone remained standing; of

the lofty Mont Sci.

the others only the ruins were to be seen.

The day was breaking as

they gained the summit.

It was Sunday,

and

resolved to

Of all their sanctuaries

recommence

this

They

day their

ancient

Henri Arnaud, halting till all should assemble,

and scriptural worship.

pointed out to them, just as they were becoming

its Popish ornaments, one half of the little army,

visible in the morning light, the mountain-tops of

laying

their own land.

the edifice, while

Welcome sight to their longing

Bathed in the radiance of the rising sun, it

the

seemed to them, as one snowy peak began to bum

all.

eyes !

down

church

their

Purging the church of

arms

at

the

door,

entered

the other half stood without,

being

too

small

to

contain

them

Henri Arnaud, the soldier-pastor, mounting

after another, that the mountains were kindling

a table which was placed in the porch, preached

into joy at the return of their long-absent sons.

to them.

This army of soldiers resolved itself into a congre¬

ing the

gation of worshippers, and the summit of Mont Sci

cast us off for ever 1

became their church.

Kneeling on the mountain-

top, the battle-field below them, and the solemn

smoke

They began

their worship by chant¬

74th Psalm—“O

God, why hast thou

Why doth thine anger

against the sheep of thy pasture'?”

The preacher then took as his text the

&c

129th

and sacred peaks of the Col du Pis, the Col la

Psalm—“ Many a time have they afflicted me from

Ve'chera, and the glorious pyramid of Monte Yiso

my youth, may Israel now say.”

looking down upon them in reverent silence, they

history of his people behind him, so to speak, and

humbled themselves before the Eternal, confessing

the reconquest of their land before him, we can

their sins,

many

imagine how thrilling every word of his discourse

Seldom has worship more sincere or

must have been, and how it must have called up

and

deliverances.

giving thanks for

their

The wonderful

more rapt been offered than that which this day

the glorious achievements of their fathers, provoking

ascended from this congregation of warrior-worship¬

the generous emulation of their sons.

pers gathered under the dome-like vault that rose

was closed by these 700 warriors chanting in magni¬

over them.

ficent chorus the psalm from which their leader had

Refreshed by the devotions of the Sunday, and exhilarated by the victory of the day before, the

The worship

preached. So passed their first Sunday in their land. To many it seemed significant that here the

heroic band now rushed down to take possession of

returned exiles should spend their first

their inheritance, from which the single Valley of

and resume their sanctuary services.

Clusone only parted them.

Sunday, They re¬

It was three years and

membered how this same village of Prali had been

a half since they had crossed the Alps, a crowd of

the scene of a horrible outrage at the time of

exiles, worn to skeletons by sickness and confine¬

their exodus.

ment, and now they were returning a marshalled

a singularly pious man, had been discovered by

host, victorious over the army of France, and ready

the soldiers

to encounter that of Piedmont.

and being dragged forth,

They traversed

The as

Pastor of Prali, M.

he was

praying under

Leidet, a rock,

he was first tortured

the Clusone, a plain of about two miles in width,

and mutilated, and then hanged; his last words

watered by the broad, clear, blue-tinted Germag-

being, “ Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

nasca, and bounded by hills, which offer to the eye

surely appropriate, after the silence of three years

a succession of terraces, clothed with the richest

and a half, during which the rage of the persecutor

It was

vines, mingled with, the chestnut and the apple-

had forbidden the preaching of the glorious Gospel,

tree.

that its reopening should take place in the pulpit

They entered the narrow defile of Pis, where

a detachment of Piedmontese soldiers had been

of the martyr Leidet.

503

CHAPTER XV. FINAL RE-ESTABLISHMENT IN THEIR VALLEYS.

Cross the Col Julien—Seize Bobbio—Oath of Strength—Beauty and Grandeur of San Enemy—Depart for the Winter—Return Enemy Driven Back—Final Assault with

Sibaud—March to Villaro—Guerilla War—Retreat to La Balsiglia—Its Martino—Encampment on the Balsiglia—Surrounded—Repulse of the of French and Piedmontese Army in Spring—The Balsiglia Stormed— Cannon—Wonderful Deliverance of the Vaudois—Overtures of Peace.

The Vaudois had entered the land, but they had

given to them by the God of heaven, as Palestine

not yet got possession of it.

had been to the Jews.

They were a mere

handful; they would have to face the large and well-appointed army of Piedmont, French.

aided by the

But their great leader to his courage

added faith.

The

“ cloud ”

which

had

guided

Their

next

march

inhabitants.

and abysses,

suddenly checked.

them forth to battle, victory.

to Villaro,

La Torre at. the entrance of the valley. they stormed and took,

them over the great mountains, with their snows would cover their camp, and lead

was

which is

situated half-way between Bobbio at the head and This town

driving away the new

But here their career of conquest was The next day a strong reinforce¬

and bring them in with

ment of regular troops coming up, the Vaudois

It was not surely that they might die in

were under the necessity of abandoning Villaro,

the land, that they had been able to make so mar¬

and falling back on Bobbio.1

vellous a march back to it.

now became parted into two bands, and for many

Full of these courageous

This patriot army

hopes, the “ seven hundred ” now addressed them¬

weeks had to wage a sort of guerilla war on the

selves to their great task.

mountains.

They began to climb the Col Julien, which sepa¬

France on the one side, and Piedmont

on the other, poured in soldiers, in the hope of

rates Prali from the fertile and central valley of

exterminating this handful of warriors.

the Waldenses, that cf Lucerna.

vAs they toiled

tions and hardships which they endured were as

up and were now near the summit of the pass, the

great as the victories which they won in their daily

The priva¬

Piedmontese soldiers, who had been stationed there,

skirmishes were marvellous.

shouted out, “Come on, ye Barbets; we guard the

conquering,

pass, and there are 3,000 of us !”

What though a hundred of the enemy were slain

on.

They did come

To force the entrenchments and put to flight

the garrison was the work of a moment.

In the

their

But though always

ranks were

rapidly thinning.

for one Waldensian who fell? could recruit their numbers,

The Piedmontese the Vaudois could

evacuated camp the Vaudois found a store of am¬

not add to theirs.

munition and provisions, which to them was a

tion nor provisions, save what they took from their

most seasonable

enemies • and, to add to their perplexities, winter

booty.

Descending rapidly the

They had now neither ammuni¬

slopes and precipices of the great mountain, they

was

surprised and took the town of Bobbio, which

beneath its snows, and leave them without food or

nestles at its foot.

shelter.

Driving out the Popish inhabi¬

near,

which

would

bury

their

mountains

A council of war was held, and it was

tants to whom it had been made over, they took

ultimately resolved to

possession of their ancient dwellings, and paused a

Martino, and entrench themselves on La Balsiglia.

little while to rest after the march and conflict of the previous days.

Here their second

Sunday

was passed, and public worship again celebrated,

repair to

the Valley of

This brings us to the last heroic stand of the returned exiles.

But first let us sketch the natural

strength and grandeur of the spot on which that

the congregation chanting their psalm to the clash

stand was made.

of arms.

western extremity of San Martino, which in point

On the day following, repairing to the

The Balsiglia is situated at the

“ Rock of Sibaud,” where their fathers had pledged

of grandeur yields to few things in the Waldensian

their faith to God and to one another, they renewed

Alps.

on the same sacred spot their ancient oath, swear¬

width, having as its floor the richest meadow-land ;

ing with uplifted hands to abide steadfastly in the

and for walls, mountains superbly hung with ter¬

profession of the Gospel, to stand by one another,

races, overflowing with flower and fruitage, and

and never to lay down their arms till they had re¬

ramparted a-top with splintered cliffs and dark

It is some five miles long by about two in

established themselves and their brethren in those Valleys, which they believed had as really been

1 Monastier, p. 356.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

504 peaks.

It is closed at the western extremity by

part, with their over-arching branches, the bright

the naked face of a perpendicular mountain, down

sunlight.

which the Germagnasca is seen to dash in a flood of

forests of chestnut;

silver.

rock-loving birch, with its silvery stem and graceful

The meadows and woods that clothe the

bosom of the valley are seamed by a broad line of

tresses.

Higher up are fields of

maize and

and higher still is seen the

Along the splintered rocks a-top runs a f

white, formed by the torrent, the bed of which is

bristling line of firs, forming a mighty chevaux-de-

strewn with so many rocks that it looks a con¬

frise.

tinuous river of foam. Than the clothing of the mountains that form the

pendicular cliff already mentioned,

VIEW

IN

THE

VILLAGE

OF

bounding walls of this valley nothing could be finer.

Toward the head of the valley, near the vast per¬

SAN

LAURENZO,

which shuts.

ANGROGNA.

it in on the west, is seen a glorious assemblage of

On the right, as one advances up it, rises a succession

mountains.

of terraced vineyards, finely diversified with corn¬

and behind another mighty cone, till the last and

One mighty cone uplifts itself above

fields and massy knolls of rock, which rise crowned

highest buries its top in the rolling masses of cloud,

with cottages or hamlets, looking out from amid

which are seen usually hanging like a canopy above

their rich embowerings of chestnut and apple-tree.

this

Above

the grassy

four in number, rise feathery with firs, and remind

uplands, the resort of herdsmen, which in their turn

one of the fretted pinnacles of some colossal cathe¬

give place to the rocky ridges that rise in wavy

dral.

and serrated lines, and run off to the higher sum¬

of this mountain that Henri Arnaud, with his:

mits, which recede into the clouds.

patriot-warriors, pitched his camp, amid the dark

this

fruit-bearing

zone

are

On the left the mountain-wall is more steep, but equally rich in its clothing. carpeting of delicious sward.

Swathing its foot is a Trees, vast of girth,

part of the valley.

These noble

This is La Balsiglia.

aiguilles,

It was on the terraces;

tempests of winter, and the yet darker tempests of a furious and armed bigotry.

The Balsiglia shoots

its gigantic pyramids heavenward, as if proudly

505

THE CAMP OH THE BALSIGLIA. conscious of having once been the resting-place of the Vaudois ark.

It is no castle of man’s erecting;

Steep and smooth as escarped fortress, it is unscalable on every side save that on which a stream rushes

it had for its builder the Almighty Architect him¬

past from the mountains.

self.

enabled him to add to the natural strength of the

It only remains, in order to complete this pic¬

The skill of Arnaud

Vaudois position, the defences of art.

They en¬

ture of a spot so famous in the wars of conscience

closed themselves within earthen walls and ditches;

and liberty, to say that behind the Balsiglia on the

they erected covered ways; they dug out some

west rises the lofty Col du Pis.

It is rare that this

mountain permits to the spectator a view of his full

four-score cellars in the rock, to hold provisions, and they built huts as temporary barracks.

Three

THE CHURCH OF CHABAS, THE OLDEST IX THE VALLEYS.

stature, for his dark sides run up and bury them¬

springs that gushed out of the rock supplied them

selves in the clouds.

with water.

Face to face with the Col du

They constructed similar entrench¬

Pis, stands on the other side of the valley, the yet

ments on each of the three peaks that rose above

loftier Mont Guinevert, with, most commonly, a

them, so that if the first were taken they could

veil of cloud around him, as if he too were unwill¬

ascend to the second, and so on to the fourth.

ing to permit to the eye of visitor a sight of his

the loftiest summit of the Balsiglia, which com¬

stately proportions.

Thus do these two Alps, like

It was on the lower terrace of this pyramidal the Balsiglia,

that

manded the entire valley, they placed a sentinel, to watch the movements of the enemy.

twin giants, guard this famous valley. mountain,

On

Henri Arnaud—

Only three days elapsed till four battalions of the French army arrived, and enclosed the Balsiglia

his army now, alas! reduced to 400—sat down.

on every side.

Viewed from the level of the valley,

the peak

was made on the Vaudois position, which was re¬

seems to terminate in a point, but on ascend¬

pulsed with great slaughter of the enemy, and the

ing, the top expands into a level grassy plateau.

loss of not one man to the defenders.

36*

On the 29th of October, an assault

The snows

506

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

of early winter had begun to fall, and the French

made for it, it was discovered, drawn out of the

general thought it best to postpone the task of

stream, and the mill set a-working.

capturing the Balsiglia till spring.

another and more distant mill at the entrance of

the

Destroying all

There was;

corn which the Yaudois had collected and

the valley, to which the garrison had recourse when

stored in the villages, he began his retreat from

the immediate precincts of the Balsiglia were occu¬

San Martino, and, taking laconic farewell of the

pied by the enemy, and the nearer mill was nofi

Waldenses, he bade them have patience till Easter,

available.

when he would again pay them a visit.1

of brown slate may be seen by the visitor, peering

Both mills exist to this day, their roofs-

All through the winter of 1689—90, the Yau¬

up through the luxuriant foliage of the valley, the

dois remained in their mountain fortress, resting

wheel motionless, it may be, and the torrent which

after the marches, battles, and sieges of the previous

turned it shooting idly past in a volley of spray.

months, and preparing for the promised return of the French.

Where Henri Arnaud had pitched

his camp, there had he also raised his altar, and if

With the return of spring, the army of France and Piedmont reappeared.

The Balsiglia was now

completely invested, the combined force amounting

from that mountain-top was pealed forth the shout

to 22,000 in all—10,000 French and 12,000 Pied¬

of battle, from it ascended also, morning and night,

montese.

the prayer and the psalm.

celebrated De Catinat,

Besides the daily devo¬

The troops

were commanded by the lieutenant-general of the

tions, Henri Arnaud preached two sermons weekly,

armies of France.

one on Sunday and another on Thursday. At stated

looked down from their “ camp of rock” on the

times he administered the Lord’s Supper.

Nor

valley beneath them, and saw it glittering with

Foraging parties

steel by day, and shining with camp-fires by night..

was the commissariat overlooked.

The “ four hundred ” Waldenses*

brought in wine, chestnuts, apples, and other fruits,

Catinat never doubted that a single day’s fighting

which the autumn, now far advanced, had fully

would enable him to capture the place.

ripened.

victory, which he looked

A strong detachment made an incursion

into the French valleys of Pragelas and Queyras,

upon as

That the

already won,

might be duly celebrated, he ordered four hundred

and returned with salt, butter, some hundred head of

ropes to be sent along with the army, in order to

sheep, and a few oxen.

hang at once the four hundred Waldenses; and

The enemy, before depart¬

ing, had destroyed their stock of grain, and as the

he had commanded the inhabitants of Pinerolo to

fields were long since reaped, they despaired of being

prepare feux-de-joie to grace his return from the

able to repair their loss.

And yet bread to last

campaign.

The head-quarters of the French were

them all the winter through had been provided, in

at Great Passet—so called in

a way so marvellous as to convince them that He

to Little Passet,

who feeds the fowls of the air was caring for them.

valley.

Ample magazines of grain lay all around their

and is placed on an immense ledge of rock that

encampment, although unknown as yet to them.

juts out from the foot of Mont Guinevert, some

contradistinction

situated a mile lower in the

Great Passet counts some thirty roofs,,

The snow that year began to fall earlier than usual,

800 feet above the stream, and right opposite the

and it covered up the ripened corn, which the

Balsiglia.

Popish inhabitants had not time to cut when the

still to be seen the ruts worn by the cannon and

On the flanks of this rocky ledge are

approach of the Yaudois compelled them to flee.

baggage-waggons of the French army.

From this unexpected store-house the garrison drew

be no doubt that these marks are the memorials of

as they had need.

the siege, for no other wheeled vehicles ever were

Little did the Popish peasantry,

when they sowed the seed in spring, dream that Yaudois hands would reap the harvest.

There can

in these mountains.2 Having reconnoitred, Catinat ordered the assault

Corn had been provided for them, and, to Yau¬ dois eyes, provided almost as miraculously as was

(1st May, 1690).

Only on that side of Balsiglia,

where a stream trickles down from the mountains,

the manna for the Israelites, but where were they to find the means of grinding it into meal ?

At

almost the foot of the Balsiglia, on the stream of the Germagnasca, is a little mill.

The owner, M.

Tron-Poulat, three years before, when going forth into exile with his brethren, threw the mill-stone into the river; needed.”

“ for,” said he, “it may yet be

It was needed now, and search being 1 Monastier, pp. 364, 365.

2 The Author was conducted over the ground, and had all the memorials of the siege pointed out to him by two most trustworthy and intelligent guides—M. Turin, then Pastor of Macel, whose ancestors had figured in the “ Glorious Keturn; ” and the late M. Tron, Syndic of the Commune. The ancestors of M. Tron had returned with Henri Arnaud, and recovered their lands in the Yalley of San Martino, and here had the family of M. Tron lived ever since, and the precise spots where the more memo¬ rable events of the war had taken place had been handed down from father to son.

DELIVERANCE OF THE VAUDOIS.

507

and which offers a gradual slope, instead of a wall of

cannonading had ceased for the moment, but as¬

rock as everywhere else, could the attack be made

suredly the dawn would see the attack renewed.

with any chance of success.

But this point Henri

Never before had destruction-appeared to impend

Arnaud had taken care to fortify with strong pali¬

so inevitably over the Vaudois.

sades.

they were was certain death, yet whither could they

Five hundred picked men, supported by

To remain where

seven thousand musketeers, advanced to storm the

flee'?

fortress.1

of the Col du Pis, and beneath them lay the valley

They rushed forward with ardour : they

threw themselves upon the palisades;

but they

Behind them rose the unscalable precipices

swarming with foes.

If they should wait till the

found it impossible to tear them down, formed as

morning broke it would be impossible to pass the

they were of great trunks, fastened by mighty

enemy without being seen; and even now, although

boulders.

it was night, the numerous camp-fires that blazed

Massed behind the defence were the

Vaudois, the younger men loading the muskets,

beneath them made it almost as bright as day.

and the veterans taking steady aim, while the be¬

the hour of their extremity was the time of God’s

siegers were falling in dozens at every volley.

opportunity.

The

But

Often before it had been seen to be

assailants beginning to waver, the Waldensians

so, but perhaps never so strikingly as now.

made a fierce sally, sword in hand, and cut in pieces

they looked this way and that way, but could dis¬

While

Of the five

cover no escape from the net that enclosed them,

hundred picked soldiers only some score lived to

the mist began to gather on the summits of the

those whom the musket had spared.

rejoin the main body, which had been spectators

mountains around them.

from the valley of their total rout.

mantle that was wont to be cast around their

Incredible

They knew the old

as it may appear, we are nevertheless assured of it

fathers in the hour of peril.

as a fact, that not a Vaudois was killed or wounded :

yet lower on the great mountains.

not a bullet had touched one of them.

the supreme peak of the Balsiglia.

The fire¬

works which Catinat had been so provident as to

Will it mock their hopes 1

It crept lower and Now it touched

Will it only touch,

bid the men of Pinerolo get ready to celebrate his

but not cover their mountain camp 'l

victory, were not needed that night.

in motion ; downward roll its white fleecy billows,

Despairing of reducing the fortress by other

Again it is

and now it hangs in sheltering folds around the

means, the French now brought up cannon, and

war-battered fortress and its handful

it was not till the 14th of May that all was ready,

defenders.

and that the last and grand assault was made.

for still the

Across the ravine in which the conflict we have

valley.

just described took place, an immense knoll juts

The mist kept its downward course, and now all

out, at an equal level with the lower entrench¬

was dark.

ments of the Waldenses.

San Martino.

To this rock the cannons

of heroic

They dared not as yet attempt escape, watch-fires burned brightly in the

But it was only for a few minutes longer. A Tartarean gloom filled the gorge of

Never

At this moment, as the garrison stood mute, pon¬

before had the sound of artillery shaken the rocks

dering whereunto these things would grow, Captain

were hoisted up to play upon the fortress.2 of San Martino.

It was the morning of Whit-

Poulat, a native of these parts, broke silence.

He

Sunday, and the Waldenses were preparing to cele¬

bade them be of good courage, for he knew the

brate the Lord’s Supper, when the first boom from

paths, and would conduct them past the French

the enemy’s battery broke upon their ear.3

All day

and Piedmontese lines, by a track known only to

the cannonading continued, and its dreadful noises,

himself.

re-echoed from rock to rock, and rolled upwards to

and passing close to the French sentinels, yet hid¬

the summits of the

Col du Pis and the Mont

Crawling on their

hands

and knees,

den from them by the mist, they descended frightful

Guinevert, were still further heightened by the

precipices, and made their escape.

thousands of musketeers who were stationed all

not seen such paths,” says Arnaud in his Rentree

“ He who has

When night closed in the

Glorieuse, u cannot conceive the danger of them,

ramparts of the Waldenses were in ruins, and it

and will be inclined to consider my account of the

was seen that it would not be possible longer to

march a mere fiction.

maintain the defence.

The

I must add, the place is so frightful that even some

1 Monastier, pp. 369, 370. 2 Cannon-balls are occasionally picked np in the neigh¬ bourhood of the Balsiglia. In 1857 the Author was shown one in the Presbytere of Pomaretto, which had been dug up a little before. 3 Monastier, p. 371.

they saw by daylight the nature of the spot they

round the Balsiglia.

What was to be done ?

But it is strictly true; and

of the Vaudois themselves were terror-struck when had passed in the dark.”

When the day broke,

every eye in the plain below was turned to the Balsiglia.

That day the four hundred ropes which

Catinat had brought with him were to be put in

508

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

requisition,

and

the feux-de-joie

so

pared were to be lighted at Pinerolo.

long

pre¬

What was

Amadeus to

say to which side he would join

himself—the Leaguers or Louis XIV.

He re¬

their amazement to find the Balsiglia abandoned !

solved to break with Louis and take part with

The Vaudois had escaped and were gone, and might

the coalition.

be seen upon the distant mountains, climbing the

well commit the keys of the Alps as to his trusty

snows, far out of the reach of their would-be captors.

Vaudois'?

Well might they sing—

the Pra del Tor.

“ Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare, of the fowlers. The snare is broken, and we are escaped.”

In this case, to whom could he so

Hence the overture that met them in Ever ready to rally round the

throne of their prince the moment the hand of persecution was withdrawn, the Vaudois closed with the peace offered them.

There followed several days, during which they

Their towns and lands

were restored: their churches were reopened for

wandered from hill to hill, or lay hid in woods,

Protestant worship : their brethren still in prison

suffering great privations, and encountering nume¬

at Turin were liberated, and the colonists of their

rous perils.

At last they succeeded in reaching the

countrymen in Germany had passports to return

To their amazement and joy, on

to their homes; and thus, after a dreary interval

Pra del Tor.

arriving at this celebrated and hallowed spot, they

of three and a half years, the Valleys were again

found deputies from their prince, the Duke of

peopled with their

Savoy, waiting them with an overture of peace.

with their ancient songs.

The Vaudois were as men that dreamed.

An over¬

period of their history, which, in respect of the

A coalition, in¬

wonders, we might say the miracles that attended

ture of peace !

How was this %

cluding Germany,

Great

Britain,

Holland,

and

race, and resounded So closed that famous

it, we can compare only to the march of the chosen

Spain, had been formed to check the ambition of

people

France, and three days had

Promise.

been given Victor

ancient

through the wilderness to the

Land of

CHAPTER XVI. CONDITION OF THE WALDENSES FROM 1690.

Annoyances—-Burdens—Foreign Contributions—French Revolution—Spiritual Revivals—Felix Neff—Dr. Gilly—* General Beckwith—Oppressed Condition previous to 1840—Edict of Carlo Alberto—Freedom of Conscience— The Vaudois Church, the Door by which Religious Liberty Entered Italy—Their Lamp Kindled at Rome. With this second planting of the Vaudois in their

enemy of the Pope.1

Valleys, the period of their great persecutions may

was tolerable compared with the frightful tempests

be said to have come to an end.

which had darkened their sky in previous eras.

Their security

was not complete, nor their measure of liberty entire.

They were still subject to petty oppres¬

sions;

enemies were never wanting to whisper

Nevertheless, their condition

The Waldenses had everything to begin anew. Their numbers were thinned;

they were bowed

down by poverty; but they had vast recuperative

things to their prejudice ; little parties of Jesuits

power;

would from time to time appear in their Valleys,

many hastened to aid them in reorganising their

and their brethren in England and Ger¬

the forerunners, as they commonly found them, of

Church, and bringing once more into play that

some new and hostile edict; they lived in continual

whole civil and ecclesiastical economy which the

apprehension of having the few privileges which had

“ exile ” had so rudely broken in pieces.

been conceded to them swept away; and on one oc¬

III. of England incorporated a Vaudois regiment

casion they were actually threatened with a second

at his own expense, which he placed at the service

expatriation.

of the duke, and to this regiment it was mainly

They knew, moreover, that Rome,

William

the real author of all their calamities and woes, still meditated their extermination, and that she had entered a formal protest against their re-habilitation, and given the duke distinctly to understand that to be the friend of the Vaudois was to be the

1 Monastier, p. 389. The Pope, Innocent XII., declared (19th August, 1694) the edict of the duke re-establishing the Vaudois null and void, and enjoined his inquisitors to pay no attention to it in their pursuit of the heretics.

GILLY AND BECKWITH. owing that the duke was not utterly overwhelmed

event.

in his wars with his former ally, Louis XIY.

languished.

At

one point of the campaign, when hard pressed,

509

The spiritual condition of the Vaudois The

astounding changes.

year

1789

brought

with

it

The French Revolution rung

Victor Amadeus had to sue for the protection of

out the knell of the old times,

the Vaudois, on almost the very spot where the

amidst

deputies of Gianavello had sued to him for peace,

nations, and laid thrones and altars prostrate, a

but had sued in vain.

new political age.

In

1692

there were twelve

churches in the

those

and introduced,

earthquake-shocks

that

convulsed

The Vaudois once again passed

under the dominion of France.

There followed an

Valleys; but the people were unable to maintain a

enlargement of their civil rights, and an ameliora¬

pastor to each.

They were ground down by mili¬

tion of their social condition ; but, unhappily, with

tary imposts.

Moreover, a peremptory demand

the friendship of France came the poison of its

was made upon them for payment of the arrears of

literature, and Voltairianism threatened to inflict

taxes which had accrued in respect of their lands

more deadly injury on the Church of the Alps than

during the three

years

they had

been absent,

all the persecutions of the previous centuries.

At

and when to them there was neither seed-time

the Restoration the Waldenses were given back to

nor harvest.

their former sovereign, and with their return to the

Anything more extortionate could Mary of

House of Savoy they returned to their ancient

consort of William III., granted

restrictions, though the hand of bloody persecution

not be imagined. England, the

In their extremity,

them a “ Boyal Subsidy,” to provide pastors and schoolmasters, and this grant was increased with the increased number of parishes, till it reached the annual sum

of £550.

made in Great

A

collection

Britain at a

which was

subsequent

period

(1770) permitted an augmentation of the salaries of the pastors.

This latter fund bore the name of

could no more be stretched out. The time was now drawing

near when this

venerable people was to obtain a final emancipation. That great deliverance rose on them, as day rises on the earth, by slow stages.

The visit paid them

by the apostolic Felix Neff, in 1808, was the first dawning of their new day.

With him a breath

the “ National Subsidy,” to distinguish it from the

from heaven, it was felt, had passed over the dry

former, the “ Royal Subsidy.”

bones.

The States-General

of Holland followed in the wake of the English

The next stage in their resurrection was

the visit of Dr. William Stephen Gilly, in 1828.

collections for salaries to

He cherished, he tells us, the conviction that “ this

schoolmasters, gratuities to superannuated pastors,

is the spot from which it is likely that the great

sovereign,

and

made

Nor must

Sower will again cast his seed, when it shall please

we omit to state that the Protestant cantons of

him to permit the pure Church of Christ to resume

and for the founding of a Latin school.

Switzerland appropriated bursaries to students from

her seat in those Italian States from which Ponti¬

the Valleys at their academies—one at Basle, five

fical intrigues have dislodged her.”2

at Lausanne, and two at Geneva.1

of Dr. Gilly’s visit was the erection of a college

The result

The policy of the Court of Turin towards the

at La Torre, for the instruction of youth and the

Waldenses changed with the shiftings in the great

training of ministers, and an hospital for the sick;

current of European politics.

At one unfavour¬

able moment, when the influence of the Vatican

besides awakening great interest on their behalf in England.3

was in the ascendant, Henri Arnaud, who had so

After Dr. Gilly there stood up another to be¬

gloriously led back the Israel of the Alps to their

friend the Waldenses, and prepare them for their

ancient inheritance, was banished from the Valleys,

coming day of deliverance.

along with others, his companions in

patriotism

Beckwith is invested with a romance not unlike

England, through

that which belongs to the life of Ignatius Loyola.

and virtue, as now in exile.

The career of General

William, sought to draw the hero to her own shore,

Beckwith was a young soldier, and as brave, and

but Arnaud retired to Schoenberg, where he spent

chivalrous,

his last years in the humble, and most affectionate

He had passed unhurt through battle and siege.

discharge of the duties of a pastor among his

He fought at Waterloo till the enemy was in full

and

ambitious

of

glory as

Loyola.

expatriated countrymen, whose steps he guided to the heavenly abodes, as he had done those of their brethren to their earthly land.

He died in 1721,

at the age of four-score years. The century passed without any very noticeable 1 Mas ton, pp. 220, 221.

Monastier, pp. 388, 380.

2 Waldensian Researches, by William Stephen Gilly, M.A., Prebendary of Durham; p. 158; Lond., 1831. 3 So deep was the previous ignorance respecting this people, that Sharon Turner, speaking of the Waldenses in his History of England, placed them on the shores of the Lake Leman, confounding the Valleys of thO Vaudois with the Canton de Vaud.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

510

retreat, and the sun was going down.

But a flying

specially inculcated upon them that the field was

soldier discharged his musket at a venture, and the

wider than their Yalleys; and that they would

leg of the young officer was hopelessly shattered by

one day be called to arise and to walk through

the bullet.

Italy, in the length of it and in the breadth of

Beckwith, like Loyola, passed months

upon a bed of pain, during which he drew forth

it.

from his portmanteau his neglected

and when he had obtained for them the posses¬

began to read and study it.

Bible, and

He had lain down,

He was their advocate at the Court of Turin;

sion of a burying-ground outside their Yalleys, he

like Loyola, a knight of the sword, and like him he

exclaimed,

rose up a knight of the Cross, but in a truer sense.

Piedmont, as the patriarchs did of Canaan, and

One day in

1827 he paid a visit to Apsley

“ Now

they have

got infeftment of

soon all the land will be theirs.”1

THE TOMB OF GENERAL BECKWITH.

House, and while he waited for the duke, he took up a volume which was lying on the table.

But despite the efforts of Gilly and Beckwith,

It

and the growing spirit of toleration, the Waldenses

was Dr. Gilly’s narrative of his visit to the Wal-

continued to groan under a load of political and

denses.

Beckwith felt himself drawn irresistibly

to a people with whose wonderful history this book made him acquainted for the first time.

He

lived among them as a father—as a king.

He

devoted his fortune to them.

He built schools,

and churches, and parsonages.

He provided im¬

proved school-books, and suggested better modes of teaching.

He strove above all things to quicken He taught them how to re¬

spond to the exigencies of modern times.

They were still a proscribed

From

that hour his life was consecrated to them.

their spiritual life.

social disabilities. race.

He

1 The Author may be permitted to bear his personal testimony to the labours of General Beckwith for the Waldenses, and through them for the evangelisation of Italy. On occasion of his first visit to the Yalleys in 1851, he passed a week mostly in the society of the general, and had the detail from his own lips of the methods he was pursuing for the elevation of the Church of the Yaudois. All through the Yalleys he was revered as a father. His common appellation among them was The Benefactor of the Yaudois.’"

VINDICATION AND VICTORY. The once goodly limits of their Valleys had, in

511

fearful persecutions now began to be seen.

The

later times, been greatly contracted, and like the

Waldensian Church became the door by which

iron cell in the story, their territory was almost

freedom of conscience entered Italy.

yearly tightening its circle round them.

They

hour came for framing a new constitution for Pied¬

■could not own, or even farm, a foot-breadth of

mont, it was found desirable to give standing-room

When the

land, or practise any industry, beyond their own

in that constitution to the Waldenses, and this

boundary.

They could not bury their dead save

necessitated the introduction into the edict of the

in their Valleys ; and when it chanced that any of

great principle of freedom of worship as a right.

their

people died

at Turin or elsewhere, their

The Waldenses had contended for that principle

corpses had to be carried all the way to their own

for ages—they had maintained and vindicated it

graveyards.

They were not permitted to erect a

by their sufferings and martyrdoms; and therefore

tombstone above their dead, or even to enclose

they were necessitated to demand, and the Pied¬

their burial-grounds with a wall.

montese Government to grant, this great principle.

They were shut

out from all the learned and liberal professions—

It was the only one of the many new constitu¬

they could not be bankers, physicians, or lawyers.

tions

No avocation was left them but that of tending

which freedom of conscience was enacted.

their herds and pruning their vines.

When any

would it have found a place in the Piedmontese

of them emigrated to Turin, or other Piedmontese

constitution, but for the circumstance that here

framed for

Italy at that

same

time

in Nor

town, they were not permitted to be anything but

were the Waldenses, and that their great distinc¬

domestic servants.

tive principle demanded legal recognition, otherwise

There was no printing-press in

their Valleys—they were forbidden to have one;

they would remain outside the constitution.

and the few books they possessed, mostly Bibles,

Vaudois alone had fought the battle, but all their

The

catechisms, and hymn-books, were printed abroad,

countrymen shared with them the fruits of the

chiefly in Great Britain; and when they arrived at

great victory.

La Torre, the Moderator had to sign before the

Carlo Alberto reached La Torre there were greet¬

Reviser-in-Chief an engagement that not one of

ings on the streets, psalms in the churches, and

these books should

blazing bonfires at night on the crest of the snowy

be sold, or even lent, to a

Roman Catholic.1

Alps.

They were forbidden to evangelise or make con¬ verts.

When the news of the Statuto of

But though fettered on the one side they

41

At the door of her Valleys, with lamp in hand, its oil unspent and its light unextinguished,

is

were not equally jDrotected on the other, for the

seen,

priests had full liberty to enter their Valleys and

Alps, prepared to obey the summons of her hea¬

proselytise ; and if a boy of twelve or a girl of ten

venly King,

professed their willingness to enter the Roman

and whirlwind, casting down the thrones that of

Church, they were to be taken from their parents,

old oppressed her, and opening the doors of her

that they might with the more freedom carry out

ancient prison.

their intention.

They could not marry save among

“ The Light of all Italy,”2 as Dr. Gilly, twenty

their own people. They could not erect a sanctuary

years before, had foretold she would at no distant

save on • the soil of their own territory.

They

at the era of

day become.

1848,

the

Church

of

the

who has passed by in earthquake

She is now to go forth and be

Happily not all Italy as yet, but

could take no degree at any of the colleges of

only Piedmont, was opened to her.

Piedmont.

herself with zeal to the work of erecting churches

In short, the duties, rights, and privi¬

leges that constitute life they were denied.

They

and forming

congregations

She addressed

in Turin and other

were reduced as nearly as was practicable to simple

towns of Piedmont.

existence, with this one great exception—which

gelistic work, the Vaudois Church had time and

Long a stranger to evan¬

was granted them not as a right, but as a favour—

opportunity thus given her to acquire the mental

namely, the liberty of Protestant worship within

courage and practical habits needed in the novel

their territorial limits. The

Revolution of

circumstances in which she was now placed. 1848,

with trumpet-peal,

She

prepared evangelists, collected funds, organised col¬

sounded the overthrow of all these restrictions.

leges and congregations, and in various other ways

They fell in one day.

perfected her machinery in anticipation of the wider

The final end of Providence

in preserving that people during long centuries of

field that Providence was about to open to her. It is now the year 1859, and the drama which

1 General Beckwith: his Life and Labours, &c. By J. P. Meille, Pastor of the Waldensian Church at Turin. Page 26. Lond., 1873.

had stood still since 1849 begins once more to 2 ff Totius Italise lumen/*

512

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

advance. In that year France declared war against the Austrian occupation of the Italian peninsula. The tempest of battle passes from the banks of the Po to those of the Adige, along the plain of Lom¬ bardy, rapid, terrible, and decisive as the thunder¬ cloud of the Alps, and the Tedesclii retreat before the victorious, arms of the French. The blood of the three great battles of the campaign was scarcely dry before Austrian Lombardy, Modena, Parma, Tuscany, and part of the Pontifical States had annexed themselves to Piedmont, and their inhabi¬ tants had become fellow-citizens of the Waldenses. With scarcely a pause there followed the brilliant campaign of Garibaldi in Sicily and Naples, and these rich and ample territories were also added to the kingdom of the patriotic Victor Em¬ manuel. We now behold the whole of Italy— with the Eternal City of the Seven Hills once again its capital — comprehended in the King¬ dom of Piedmont, and brought under the operation of that constitution which contained in its bosom the beneficent principle of freedom of conscience. The whole of Italy, from the Alps to Etna, now

became the field of the Waldensian Church. Nor was this the end of the drama. Another ten years pass away : France again sends forth her armies to battle, believing that she can command victory as aforetime. The result of the brief but terrible campaign of 1870, in which the French Empire disappeared and the German uprose, was the opening of the gates of Rome. And let us mark—for in the little incident we hear the voice of ten centuries —in the first rank of the soldiers whose cannon had burst open the old gates, there enters a Vaudois colporteur with a bundle of Bibles. The Waldenses now kindle their lamp at Rome, and the purpose of the ages stands revealed ! Who can fail to see in this drama, advancing so regularly and majestically, that it is the Divine Mind that arranges, and the Divine Hand that executes !l Before this Power it becomes us to bow down, giving thanks that he does his will, nor once turns aside for the errors of those that would aid or the strivings of those that would oppose his plan; and, by steps unfathomably Avise and sublimely grand, carries onward to their full accomplishment his infinitely beneficent purposes.

38oofe JrimitefntJ). PROTESTANTISM IN FRANCE FROM DEATH OF FRANCIS I. (1547) TO EDICT OF NANTES (1598).

CHAPTER I. HENRY II. AND PARTIES IN FRANCE.

Francis I-—His Last Illness Waldensian Settlement in Provence—Fertility and Beauty—Massacre—Remorse of the King—His Death—Lying in State—Henry II.—Parties at Court—The Constable de Montmorency—The Guises—Diana of Poictiers—Marshal de St. Andre—Catherine de Medici. We have rapidly traced the line of Waldensian

story from those early ages when the assembled barbes are seen keeping watch around their lamp in the Pra del Tor, with the silent silvery peaks looking down upon them, to those recent days when the Vaudois carried that lamp to Rome and set it in the city of Pius IX. Our desire to pursue their conflicts and martyrdoms till their grand issues to Italy and the world had been reached has carried us into modern times. We shall return, and place ourselves once more in the age of Francis I. ,

We resume our history at the death-bed of that monarch. Francis died March 31st, 1547, at the age of fifty-two, “ of that shameful distemper,” says the Abbe Millot, “ which is brought on by debauchery, and which had been imported, with the gold of America.”1 The character of this sovereign was adorned by some fine qualities, but his reign was disgraced by many great errors. It is impossible to withhold from him the praise of

1 Millot, Elements of History, vol. iv., p; 317; liond.j 1779.

LAST ILLNESS OF FRANCIS L

513

a generous disposition, a cultivated taste, and a

cleared the land of rocks, they sowed it with wheat,

chivalrous bearing; but it is equally impossible to

they planted it with the vine, and soon there was

vindicate him from the charge of rashness in his

seen a smiling garden, where before a desert of

enterprises, negligence in his affairs, fickleness in

swamps, and great stones, and wild herbage had

his

He

spread out its neglected bosom to be baked by the

lavished his patronage upon the scholars of the

summer’s sun, and frozen by the. winter’s winds.

conduct,

and excess

in his

pleasures.

Renaissance, but he had nothing but stakes where¬

“ An estate which before their establishment hardly

with to reward

paid four crowns as rental, now produced from

the

disciples of Protestantism.

He built Fontainebleau, and began the Louvre.

three to four hundred.”2

And now, after all his great projects for adorning

tions of these settlers flourished here during a

The successive genera¬

his court with learned men, embellishing his capital

period of three hundred years, protected by their

with gorgeous fabrics, and strengthening his throne

landlords, whose revenues they had prodigiously

by political. alliances, there remains to him only

enriched, loved by their neighbours, and loyal to

“ darkness and the worm.”

their king.

Let us enter the royal closet, and mark the

When the Reformation arose, this people sent

setting of that sun which had shed such a brilliance

delegates—as we have

during his course.

book—to visit the Churches of Switzerland and

Around the bed upon which

related in the

previous

Francis I. lies dying is gathered a clamorous crowd

Germany, and ascertain how far they agreed with,

of priests, courtiers, and courtesans,1 who watch

and now far they differed from, themselves.

his last moments with decent but impatient respect,

report brought back by the delegates satisfied them

The

ready, the instant he has breathed his last, to turn

that the Yaudois faith and the Protestant doctrine

round and bow the knee to the rising sun.

Let us

were the same ; that both had been drawn from

press through the throng and observe the monarch.

the one infallible fountain of truth; and that, in

His face is haggard.

short, the

were suffering in soul.

He groans deeply, as if he His starts are sudden and

Protestants

were Yaudois,

Yaudois were Protestants.

and

This was enough.

the The

There flits at times across his face a dark

priests, who so anxiously guarded their territory

shadow, as if some horrible sight, afflicting him

against the entrance of Lutheranism, saw with

violent.

with unutterable woe, were disclosed to him; and

astonishment and indignation a powerful body of

a quick tremor at these moments runs through all

Protestants already in possession.

his frame.

that

He calls his attendants about him and,

the heresy

should

be

They resolved

swept from off the

mustering all the strength left him, he protests that

soil of France as speedily as it had arisen.

it is not he who is to blame, inasmuch as his orders

the 18th of November, 1540, the Parliament oi

were exceeded.

Aix passed an arret to the "following effect:—

What orderswe ask; and what

On

deed is it, the memory of which so burdens and

(< Seventeen inhabitants of Merindol shall be Jjurnt

terrifies the dying monarch J

to death” (they were all the heads of families in

We must leave the couch of Francis while we

that place); “ their wives, children, relatives, and

narrate one of the greatest of the crimes that

families shall be brought totrial, and if they can¬

blackened his reign.

not be laid hold on, they, shall be banished the

The scene of the tragedy

which projected such dismal shadows around the

kingdom for life.

death-bed of the king was laid in Provence.

In

burned and razed to the ground, the woods cut

ancient times Provence was comparatively a desert.

down, the fruit-trees torn up, and the place ren¬

Its somewhat infertile soil was but thinly peopled,

dered uninhabitable, so that none may be built

and but indifferently tilled and planted.

strewn all over with great boulders, as if here the

there.”3 The president

giants had warred, or some volcanic explosion had

humane man, had influence with the king to stay

rained a shower of stones upon it.

the execution of this horrible sentence.

It lay

The Yaudois

The houses in Merindol shall be

of

the

Parliament of

Aix,

a

Rut in

who inhabited the high-lying valleys of the Pied¬

1545 he was succeeded by Baron d’Oppede, a cruel,

montese Alps,

this more

intolerant, bloodthirsty man, and entirely at the

happily situated region, and began to desire it as

devotion of Cardinal Tournon—a man, says Abbe

a

cham¬

Millot, “ of greater zeal than humanity, who prin¬

paign country, waiting for occupants; let us go over

cipally enforced the execution of this barbarous

and possess it.

arret.”4

residence.

cast their eyes Here, said

upon

they, is a fine

They crossed the mountains, they

1 Felice, History of the Protestants of France, vol. i., p. 61; Lond., 1853.

Francis I. offered them pardon if within

2 Felice, vol. i., p. 45. 3 Ibid., vol. i, p. 44. 4 Millot, vol. iv., pp. 317, 318.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

514 three months they

should

enter the pale of the

his ministers and

courtiers no word of comfort

They disdained to buy their lives

wherewith to assuage his terrors, and fortify him

by apostacy ; and now the sword, which had hung

in the prospect of that awful Bar to which he is

for five years above their heads, fell with crushing

hastening with the passing hours'?

force.

him to sanction the crime, but they leave him to

Roman Church.

A Romanist pen shall tell the sequel :—

“ Twenty-two towns

or

villages

were

burned

or sacked, with an inhumanity of which the history

bear the burden of it alone.

They urged

He summons his son,

who is so soon to mount his throne, to his bedside,

of the most barbarous people hardly presents ex¬

and charges him with his last breath to execute

amples.

vengeance

The

unfortunate

inhabitants, surprised*

on those who

had shed this blood.2

during the night, and pursued from rock to rock by

With this slight reparation the unhappy king goes

the light of the fires which consumed their dwell¬

his dark

ings, frequently escaped one snare only to fall into

Provence behind him, the

another; the pitiful cries of the old men, the women,

before him.

road, the smoking and blood-sprinkled great

Judgment-seat

and the children, far from softening the hearts

,

of the soldiers, mad with rage like their leaders,

preparatory to his being laid in the royal vaults at

only

set them

on

following the fugitives,

and

Having breathed his last, the king lay in state,

St. Denis.

Two of his sons who had pre-deceased

pointed out the places whither to direct their fury.

him—Francis and Charles—were kept unburied

Yoluntary surrender did not exempt the men from

till now, and their corpses

execution, nor the women from excesses of bru¬

their father to the grave.

tality which made Nature blush.

in-state, the following very curious account is given

It was forbidden,

under pain of death, to afford them any refuge.

accompanied that of Of the king’s lving-

us by Sleidan :—

At Cabrieres, one of the principal towns of that

“For some days his effigies, in most rich apparel,

canton, they murdered more than seven hundred

with his crown, sceptre, and other regal ornaments,

men in cold blood; and the women, who had re¬

lay upon a bed of state, and at certain hours dinner

mained in their houses, were shut up in a barn

and supper were served up before it, with the very

filled with straw, to which they set fire ;

those

same solemnity as was commonly performed when

who attempted to escape by the window

were

he was alive.

driven back by swords and pikes.

Finally, accord¬

When the regal ornaments were

taken off, they clothed the effigies in mourning; and

ing to the tenor of the sentence, the houses were

eight-and-forty

razed, the woods cut down, the fruit-trees pulled up,;

present, who

and in a short time this country, so fertile and so

for the soul departed. About the corpse were placed

populous, became uncultivated and uninhabited.”4

fourteen great wax tapers, and over against it two

Thus did the red sword and the blazing torch purge Provence.

We cast our eyes over the puri¬

Mendicant

friars

were

always

continually sung masses and dirges

altars, on which

from daylight to noon

masses

were said, besides what were said in an adjoining

fied land, but, alas ! we are unable to recognise it.

chapel, also full of tapers and other lights.

Is this the land which but a few days ago was

and-twenty monks, with wax tapers in their hands,

Four-

golden with the yellow grain, and purple with

were ranked about the hearse wherein the corpse

the blushing grape ; at whose cottage doors played

was carried, and before it marched fifty poor men

happy children;

in mourning, every one with a taper in his hand.

mountain-sides,

and from whose meadows and borne

on

the

breeze, came the

bleating of flocks and the lowing of herds 1 alas!

its

bosom

is

scarred

and

Now,

blackened

by

Amongst other nobles, there were eleven cardinals present.” Henry II. now mounted the throne of France.

smouldering ruins, its mountain torrents are tinged

At

with blood, and its sky is thick with the black

promise a continuance of that prosperity and splen¬

smoke of its burning woods and cities.

dour which had signalised the reign of his father.

We return to the closet of the dying monarch.

The

the

moment of his accession all seemed

to

kingdom enjoyed peace, the finances were

Francis is still protesting that the deed is not his,

flourishing, the army was brave and well-affected to

and that too zealous executioners exceeded

the throne ; and all men accepted these as auguries

orders.

his

Nevertheless he cannot banish, we say not

of a prosperous reign.

This, however, was but a

from his memory, but from his very sight, the

brief gleam before the black night.

awful tragedy enacted on the plains of Provence.

missed the true path.

France had

Shrieks of horror, wailings of woe, and cries for help seem to resound through his chamber.

Have

1 Abbe Anquetil, Histoire de France, Tom. iii., pp. 246-* 249; Paris, 1835.

2 Sleidan, bk. xix., p. 429. Beza, Hist. Eccles. des Eglises Reformees du Royaume de France, livr. i., p. 30; Lille, 1841. Laval, Hist, of the Reformation in France, vol. i., bk. i., p. 55; Lond., 1737.

515

MONTMORENCY AND THE GUISES. Henry Lad worn the

crown for only a short

Constable was beyond measure devout, as became the

while when the clouds began to gather, and that

first Christian in France.

night to descend which is only now beginning to

forbidden days;

pass away from France.

evening fall but his beads were duly told.

initiated

His father had

early

him into the secrets of governing, but

Never did he eat flesh on

and never did morning dawn or It is true

he sometimes stopped suddenly in the middle of his

The young king sighed

chaplet to issue orders to his servants to hang up

to get away from the council-chamber to the gay

this or the other Huguenot, or to set fire to the

Henry loved not business.

mailed and plumed warriors

corn-field or plantation of some neighbour of his

pursued, amid applauding spectators, the mimic game

who was his enemy; but that was the work of a

of war.

minute only, and

tournament,

where

What good would this princedom do him

the Constable was back again

if it brought him not pleasure ]

At his court there

with freshened zeal to his Pater-nosters and his Ave-

lacked

and

Marias.

not persons, ambitious

supple, who

It

became

a proverb, says

Brantome,

studied to flatter his vanity and gratify his humours.

“ God keep us from the Constable’s beads.”3

To lead the king was to govern France,

to

singularities by no means lessened his reputation

govern France was to grasp boundless riches and

for piety, for the age hardly placed acts of religion

vast power.

and acts of mercy in the same category.

and

It was under this feeble king that

These

Austere,

those factions arose, whose strivings so powerfully

sagacious, and resolute, he constrained the awe if

influenced the fate of Protestantism in that great

not the love of the king, and as a consequence his

kingdom, and opened the door for so many calami¬

heavy hand was felt in every part of the kingdom.

ties to the nation.

Four parties were now formed

The second party was that of the Guises.

The

at court, and we must pause here to describe them,

dominancy of that family in France marks one of

otherwise much that is to follow would be scarcely

the darkest eras of the nation.

intelligible.

raine, from which the Lords of Guise are descended,

In the passions and ambitions of these

The House of Lor¬

parties, we unveil the springs of those civil wars

derived its original from Godfrey Bullen, King of

which for more than a century deluged France with

Jerusalem, and on the mother’s side from a daughter

blood.

of Charlemagne.

At the head of the first party was Anne de Montmorency, High Constable of France.

Claiming

Anthony, flourishing in wealth

and powerful in possessions, was Duke of Lorraine ; Claude, a younger brother, crossed the frontier in

descent from a family which had been one of the

1513, staff in hand, attended by but one servant,

first to be

to seek his fortunes in France.

baptised into the Christian faith, he

He ultimately

assumed the glorious title of the First Christian

became Duke of Guise.

and Premier Baron1 of France.

all of whom wealth seemed to come at their wish.

He possessed great

This man had six sons, to

strength of will, and whatever end he proposed to

Francis L, perceiving the ambition of these men,

himself he pursued, without much caring whom he

warned his son to keep them at a distance.4

trod down in his way to it.

He had the misfortune

the young king, despising the warning, recalled

on one occasion to give advice to Francis I. which

Francis de Lorraine as he had done the Constable

But

did not prosper, and this, together with his head¬

Montmorency, and the power of the Guises con¬

strongness, made that monarch in his latter days

tinued to grow, till at last they became the scourge

banish him from the court.

of the country in which they

When Francis was

had firmly rooted

dying he summoned his son Henry to his bedside,

themselves, and the terror of the throne which they

and earnestly counselled him never to recall Mont¬

aspired to mount.

morency, fearing that the obstinacy and pride which

The two brothers, Francis and Charles, Stood at

even he had with difficulty repressed, the weaker

the head of the family, and figured at the court.

hands to which he was now bequeathing his crown2

Francis, now in the flower of his age, was sprightly

would be unequal to the task of curbing.

and daring; Charles was crafty, but timid; Laval

No

sooner

had

Henry assumed the

reins of

government than he recalled the Constable.

Mont¬

morency^ recall did not help to make him a meeker man.

He strode back to court with brow more

says of him that he was “the cowardliest of all men.”

The qualities common to both brothers,

and possessed by each in inordinate degree, were cruelty and ambition.

Rivals they never could

elate, and an air more befitting one who had come

become, for though their ambitions were the same,

to possess a throne than to serve before it.

their spheres lay apart, Francis having chosen the

The

profession of arms, and Charles the Church. 1 Davila, Historia delle Guerre Civili di Francia, livr. i., p. 9; Lyons, 1641. Maimbourg, Hist. du Calvinisme, livr. ii., p. 118 j Paris, 1682. 2 Davila, p. 14.

3 Laval, vol. i., pp. 70, 71. 4 Thaunus, Hist., lib. iii. Laval, vol. i., p< 71.

This

DIANA OF POICTIEBS. division of pursuits doubled their strength,

for

her, save by ascribing it to the philtres which she

what the craft of the one plotted, the sword of the

made him drink.

other executed.

They were

517

A more likely cause was her

the

acknowledged

brilliant wit. and sprightly manners, added to her

heads of the Homan Catholic party.

“ But for the

beauty, once dazzling, and not yet wholly faded.

Guises,” says Mezeray, “the new religion would

But her greed was enormous.

perhaps have become dominant in France.”

her as the cause of the taxes that were grinding

The people cursed

HENRY II. OF FRANCE. {From the Portrait in P. G.J. NieVs

“ Portraits des Personnages Franqais les plus illustres du XVP Siecle”)

The third party at the court of France was that of

Diana of

Poictiers.

This woman

was

them into poverty ; the nobility hated her for her

the

insulting airs; but access there was none to the

daughter of John of Poictiers, Lord of St. Yalier,

king, save through the good graces of Diana of

and had been the wife of the Seneschal of Nor¬

Poictiers, whom the king created Duchess of Yalen-

mandy.

tinois.

She was twenty years older than the

king, but this disparity of age did not hinder her from becoming mistress of his heart.

The popu¬

lace could not account for the king’s affection for

The title by embellishing made only the

more conspicuous the infamy of her relation to the man who had bestowed it.

The Constable on

the one side, and the Guises on the other, sought

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

518

to buttress tbeir own power by paying court to Diana.1

not even to herself; but when her husband died,

To such a woman the holy doctrines of

and the mistress no longer divided with the wife

Protestantism could not be other than offensive;

the ascendency over the royal mind, then the hour

in truth, she very thoroughly hated all of the

of revelation came, and it was seen what consum¬

religion,

mate guile, what lust of power, what love of blood

and much of the righteous blood shed

in the reign of Henry II.

is to be laid at the

and revenge had slumbered in her dark Italian

door of the lewd,

and cruel

soul.

greedy,

Diana of

Poictiers.

As one after another of her imbecile sons—-

each more imbecile than he who had preceded him

The fourth and least powerful faction was that of the Marshal de St. Andre.

He was as brave and

—mounted the throne, the mother stood up in a lofty and yet loftier measure of truculence and am¬

valiant as he was witty and polite; but he was

bition.

drowned in debt.

Though a soldier he raised him¬

party of her own, but to maintain the poise among

self not by his valour, but by court intrigues;

the other factions, that by weakening all of them

“ under a specious pretence for the king’s service

she might strengthen herself.

he

hid a boundless

ambition,

and

an

unruly

As yet, however, her cue was not to form a

Such were the parties that divided the court of

avarice,” said his Romanist friends, “and was more

Henry II.

eager after the forfeited estates than after the over¬

one man of real honour and sterling patriotism in

throw of the rebels and Huguenots.”2

whom to confide.

Neither

Thrice miserable monarch!

without

And not less miserable courtiers!

court nor country was likely to be quiet in which

They make a brave show, no doubt, living in gilded

such a man figured.

saloons, wearing sumptuous raiment, and feasting

To these four parties we may add a fifth, that of Catherine de Medici, the wife of Henry. passions but

Of deeper

greater self-control than many of

at luxuriant tables, but their hearts all the while are torn with envy, or tortured with fear, lest this gay life of theirs should come to a sudden end by

those around her, Catherine meanwhile was “ biding

the stiletto or the poison-cup.

her time.”

says an old historian, “crept ipto France under this

There were powers in this woman

which had not yet disclosed themselves, perhaps

“ Two great sins,”

prince’s reign—atheism and magic.”

CHAPTER II. HENRY II.

AND HIS PERSECUTIONS.

Bigotry of Henry II.—Persecution—The Tailor and Diana of Poictiers—The Tailor Burned—The King Witnesses his Execution—Horror of the King—Martyrdoms—Progress of the Truth—Bishop of Magon—The Gag—First Pro¬ testant Congregation—Attempt to Introduce the Inquisition—National Disasters—Princes and Nobles become Protestants—A Mercuriale—Arrest of Du Bourg—A Tournament—The King Killed—Strange Kumours. Henry

II. walked in the

ways

of his

father,

Francis, who first made France to sin by beginning a policy of persecution.

To the force of paternal

example was added, in the case of Henry,

the

influence of the maxims continually poured into his

to uphold the old religion.

To cut off its enemies

was the most acceptable atonement a prince could make to Heaven. wonder

that

the

With such schooling, is it any deplorable

work

of burning

heretics, begun by Francis, went on under Henry;

ear by Montmorency, Guise, and Diana of Poictiers.

and that the more the king multiplied his pro¬

These councillors inspired him with a terror of Pro¬

fligacies, the greater his zeal in kindling the fires

testantism as pre-eminently the enemy of monarchs

by which he thought he was making atonement for

and the source of all disorders in States ; and they

them

assured him that should the Huguenots prevail they

The historians of the time record a sad story,

would trample his throne into the dust, and lay

which unhappily is not a solitary instance of the

France at the feet of atheists and revolutionists.

bigotry of the age, and the vengeance that was

The first and most sacred of duties, they said, w^as

beginning

1 Davila, lib. i., pp. 13,14.

2 Laval, vol. i., p. 73.

to

animate France

against

3 Laval, vol. i., p. 73.

all

who

519

THE KING AND THE TAILOR It affectingly displays

parties had now taken their places, the tailor burning

the heartless frivolity and wanton cruelty—two

at the stake, the king reposing luxuriously at the

favoured Protestantism.

qualities never far apart—which characterised the

window, and Diana of Poictiers seated in haughty

French

triumph by his side.

court.

The

coronation

of

the queen,

The martyr looked up to the

Catherine de Medici, was approaching, and Henry,

window where the king was seated, and fixed his

who did his part so ill as a husband

eye on Henry.

in other

From the midst of the flames that

respects, resolved to acquit himself with credit in

eye looked forth with calm steady gaze upon the

this.

king.

He wished to make the coronation fetes of

more than ordinary splendour;

and in order to

The eye of the monarch quailed before that

of the burning man.

this he resolved to introduce what would form a new feature in these rejoicings, and give variety

stake.

and piquancy to them, namely, the burning piles of

martyr; his limbs were dropping off, his face was

four Huguenots.

Four victims were selected, and

growing fearfully livid, but his eye, unchanged,,

one of these was a poor tailor, who, besides having

was still looking at the king ; and the king felt as

eaten flesh on a day On which its use was forbidden,

if, with Medusa-power, it was changing him into

had given other proofs of being not strictly orthodox.

stone. The execution was at an end : not so the terror

He was to form, of course, one of the coronation torches; but to burn him was

not enough.

It

but again

his

He turned away to avoid

it,

glance wandered back to the

The flames were still blazing around the

of the king.

The tragedy of the day was reacted

occurred to the Cardinal of Lorraine that a little

in the dreams of the night.

amusement might be extracted from the man.

The

rose before Henry in his sleep.

cardinal pictured to himself the contusion

that

blazing pile, there was the martyr burning in the

would overwhelm the poor tailor, were he to be

fire, and there was the eye looking forth upon him

interrogated before the king, and how mightily the

from the midst of the flames.

court would be diverted by the incoherence of his

sive nights was the king scared by this terrible

replies.

vision.

He was summoned before Henry, but the

The terrible apparition There again was the

For several succes¬

He resolved, nay, he even took an oath,

matter turned out not altogether as the Church¬

that never again would he be witness to the burn¬

man had reckoned it would.

ing of a heretic.

The promise was ful¬

It had been still better had he

filled to the confessor, “ When ye shall be brought

given orders that never again should these horrible

before

executions be renewed.

kings

and rulers for my sake and the

Gospel’s, it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak.”

So far from being abashed, the tailor

So far, however, was the persecution from being relaxed, that its rigour was greatly increased.

Piles

maintained perfect composure in the royal presence,

were erected at Orleans, at Poictiers, at Bordeaux^

and replied so pertinently to all interrogatories and

at Nantes—in short, in all the chief cities of the

objections put by the Bishop of Magon, that it was

kingdom.

the king and the courtiers who were disconcerted.

far from arresting the progress of the Reformed

These cruel proceedings, however, so

Diana of Poictiers—whose wit was still fresh, if her

opinions, only served to increase the number of

beauty had faded—stepped boldly forward, in the

their professors.

hope of rescuing the courtiers from their embarrass¬

dignity in the Church, now began, despite the dis¬

ment ; but, as old Crespin says, “ the tailor cut her

favour in which all of the 66 religion ” were held at

doth otherwise than she expected; for he, not being

court, to enrol themselves in the Protestant army.

able to endure such unmeasured arrogance in her

But the Gospel in France was destined to owe

whom he knew to be the cause of these cruel per¬

more to men of humble faith than to the possessors

secutions, said to her, ‘ Be satisfied, Madam, with

of rank,

having

Chatelain, Bishop of Magon, who disputed with the

infected France, without mingling your

Men of rank in the State, and of

however lofty.

We

have mentioned

venom and filth in a matter altogether holy and

poor tailor before Henry II.

sacred, as is the religion and truth of our Lord

one thing only did he lack, even grace, to make

Jesus Christ.’”1

him one of the most brilliant characters and most

The king took the words as an

A s Beza remarks,,

affront, and ordered the man to be reserved for the

illustrious professors of

stake.

Lowly born, Chatelain had raised himself by nis

When the day of execution came (14th

the Gospel

in

July, 1549), the king bade a window overlooking

great talents and beautiful

the pile be prepared, that thence he might see the

daily at the table of Francis I., among the scholars

man, who

and wise men whom the king loved to hear dis¬

favourite,

had

had the audacity to insult his

slowly consuming in the fires. 1 Beza, tom. i., livr. ii., p. 50.

Both

course.

character.

France. He sat

To the accomplishments of foreign travel

2 Beza, tom. i., livr. ii., p. 51.

.Laval, vol. i., p. 76.

£20

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

lie added tlie charms of an elegant latinity. favoured the new opinions,

and

He

displeasure by forbidding his subjects to send money

undertook the

to Rome, and by protesting against the Council of

defence of Robert Stephens, the king’s printer,

Trent, the Fathers having returned for the second

when the Sorbonne attacked him for his version of

time to that town.

the Bible.1

the king and the Pope only tended to quicken the

These acquirements and gifts procured

his being made Bishop of Magon.

But the mitre

flames of persecution.

But this contention between Henry wished to make it

would seem to have cooled his zeal for the Reforma¬

clear to his subjects that it was against the Pope

tion, and in the reign of Henry II. we find him

in his temporal and not in his spiritual character

persecuting the faith he had once defended.

Soon

that he had girded on the sword; that if he was

after his encounter with the tailor he was promoted

warring against the Prince of the Roman States,

to the See of Orleans, and he set out to take posses¬

his zeal had not cooled for the Holy See; and that

sion of his new bishopric.

if Julius the monarch was wicked, and might be

Arriving at a monastery

in the neighbourhood of Orleans, he halted there,

resisted, Julius the Pope was none the less entitled

intending to make his entry into the city on the

to the obedience of all Christians.4

The Fathers persuaded him to preach;

To teach the Protestants, as Maimbourg observes,

and, as Beza remarks, to see a bishop in a pulpit

morrow.

that they must not take advantage of these quarrels

was so great a wonder in those days, that the sight

to vent their heresies, there was published at this

attracted an immense crowd.

As the bishop was

time (27th June) the famous Edict of Chateau¬

thundering against heretics, he was struck with a

briand, so called from the place where it was given.

sudden and violent illness, and had to be carried

By this law, all former severities were re-enacted;

out of the pulpit.

He died the following night.2

the cognisance of the crime of heresy was given to

At the very gates of his episcopal city, on the very

the secular power; informers were rewarded with

steps of his episcopal throne, he encountered sudden-

the fourth part of the forfeited goods; the pos¬

arrest, and gave up the ghost.

sessions and estates of all those who had fled to

Five days thereafter (9th July, 1550), Paris was lighted up with numerous piles.

Geneva were confiscated to the king; and no one

Of these martyrs,

was to hold any office under the crown, or teach

who laid gloriously with their blood the foundations

any science, who could not produce a certificate of

of the French Protestant Church, we must not omit

being a good Romanist.5

the names of Leonard Galimar, of Yenddme, and

times been pursued by the monarchs of France

Florent Yenot, of Sedan.

The latter endured in¬

This policy has at all

when they quarrelled with the Pope.

It behoved

credible torments, for no less a period than four

them, they felt, all the more that they had incurred

years, in the successive prisons into which he was

suspicion, to vindicate the purity of their orthodoxy,

thrown.

and their claim to the proud title of “ the Eldest

His sufferings culminated when he was

brought to Paris.

He was there kept for six weeks

Son of the Church.”

in a hole where he could neither lie, nor stand

Maurice, Elector of Saxony, was at this time pro¬

upright, nor move about, and the odour of which

secuting his victorious campaign against Charles Y.

was beyond measure foul and poisonous, being filled

The relations which the King of France had con¬

with all manner of abominable filth.

tracted with the Protestant princes,

His keepers

and which

said that they had never known any one inhabit

enabled him to make an expedition into Lorraine,

that dreadful place for more than fifteen days,

and to annex Metz and other cities to his crown,

without losing either life or reason.

moderated for a short while the rigours of perse¬

But Yenot

surmounted all these sufferings with a most ad¬

cution.

mirable courage.

ratified the liberties of the Protestants of Germany,

Being burned alive in the Place

But the Peace of Passau (1552), which

Maubert, he ceased not at the stake to sing and

rekindled the fires in France.

magnify the Saviour, till his tongue was cut out,

more measures to observe with the

and even then he continued to testify his joy by

princes,” says Laval, “ nothing was to be seen in

signs.3

“ Henry having no Protestant

his kingdom but fires kindled throughout all the

In the following year (1551) a quarrel broke out between Henry and Pope Jidius III., the cause

provinces against the poor Reformed.”6

Yast num¬

bers were executed in this and the following year.

being those fruitful sources of strife, the Duchies

It was now that the gag was brought into use for

of Parma and

the first time.

Placentia.

The king showed his

1 Laval, vcl. i., p. 78. 2 Beza, tom. i., pp. 51, 52. 3 Ibid., tom. i., p. 52.

It had been invented on purpose to

4 Maimbourg, Hist. Calv., livr. ii., p. 94; Paris, 1682. 5 Ibid., livr. ii., pp. 94, 95. Laval, vol. i., p. 80. 6 Laval, vol. i., p. 81.

FORMATION OF PROTESTANT CONGREGATIONS.

521

prevent the martyrs addressing the people at the

power to administer the Sacraments.

stake, or singing psalms to solace themselves when

last prevailed upon, and, after prayer and fasting,

on their way to the pile.

their choice fell on Jean Ma9on de la Riviere.

44 The first who suffered

it,” says Laval, 44 was Nicholas Noil, a book-hawker,

They were at He

was the son of the king’s attorney at Angers, a rich

who was executed at Paris in the most barbarous

man, but a bitter enemy of Protestantism.

He

manner.”1

was so offended at his son

the

The scene of martyrdom was in those days at times the scene of conversion. ing incident is a proof.

Of this, the follow¬

Simon Laloe, of Soisson,

was offering up his life at Dijon.

As he stood at

for embracing

Reformed faith, that he would have given him up to the judges, had he not fled to Paris.

The sacri¬

fice which M. de la Riviere had made to preserve the purity of his conscience, fixed the eyes of the

the stake, and while the faggots were being kindled,

little flock upon him.

he delivered an earnest prayer for the conversion

pastor of the Reformed Church of France,4 elected

of his persecutors.

The executioner, Jacques Syl¬

forty years after Lefevre had first opened the door

vester, was so affected that his tears never ceased

for the entrance of the Protestant doctrines. 44 They

to flow all the time he was doing his office.

In him we behold the first

He had

chose likewise,” says Laval, speaking of this little

heard no one before speak of God, or of the Gospel,

flock, 44 some amongst them to be elders and dea¬

but he could not rest till he was instructed in the

cons,

Scriptures.

government of their Church as the times would

Having received the truth, he retired

and made such other regulations for the

to Geneva, where he died a member of the Reformed

allow.

Church.2

Church of Paris in the month of September, 1555,

The same stake that gave death to the

Such were the first beginnings of the

which increased daily during the war of Henry II.

one, gave life to the other. The insatiable avarice of Diana of Poictiers, to

with Charles V.”5

whom the king had gifted the forfeited estates of

If France blazed with funeral piles, it was day

the Reformed, not less than zeal for Romanism,

by day more widely illuminated with the splendour

occasioned every day new executions. continued

notwithstanding

to

The truth

spread.

44 When

of trurh.

This gave infinite vexation and torment

to the friends of Rome, who wearied themselves to

the plague,” says Maimbourg,44 attacks a great city,

devise new methods for arresting the progress of

it matters little what effort is made to arrest it.

the Gospel.

enters every door;

It

Loud accusations and reproaches passed

it traverses every street; it

between the courts of jurisdiction for not showing

invades every quarter, and pursues its course till

greater zeal in executing the edicts against heresy.

the whole community have been enveloped in its

The cognisance of that crime was committed some¬

ravages : so did this dangerous sect spread through

times to the royal and sometimes to the ecclesiastical

France.

judges, and sometimes parted between them.

Every day it made new progress, despite

The

the edicts with which it was assailed, and the

mutual recriminations still continued.

dreadful executions to which so many of its mem¬

above all crimes, it was said, was leniently treated

bers were consigned.”3 persecution that

the

Reformed Church in

It was in the midst of this first congregations France were

of the

settled

with

A crime

by those whose duty it was to pursue it without mercy.

At last, in the hope of attaining the re¬

quisite vigour, the Cardinal of Lorraine stripped the

pastors, and began to be governed by a regular

Parliament and the civil judges of the right of

discipline.

hearing such causes,

The first Church to be thus constituted was in

and

transferred it to the

bishops, leaving nothing to the others but the mere

Paris; 44 where,” says Laval, 44 the fires never went

execution of the sentence against the condemned.

out.”

At that time the disciples of the Gospel

This arrangement the cardinal thought to perfect

were wont to meet in the house of M. de la Ferriere,

by establishing the Inquisition in France on the

a wealthy gentleman of Maine, who had come to

Spanish model.

reside in the capital.

succeed, the Parliament having refused its consent

M. de la Ferriere had a child

whom he wished to have baptised, and as he could not present him to the priests for that purpose, nor

In this,

however,

he

did not

thereto.6 The calamities that befel the kingdom were a

undertake a journey to Geneva, he urged the Chris¬

cover to the evangelisation.

tians, who were wont to assemble in his house, to

on a truce with the Emperor Charles for five years.

elect one of themselves to the office of pastor, with

It did not, however, suit the Pope that the truce

1 Laval, vol. i., p. 82. Beza, tom. i., p. 59. 2 Beza, tom. i., p. 59. s Maimbourg, livr. ii.3 p. 95.

Henry II. had agreed

4 Beza, tom. i., pp. 62—64. 5 Lavat vol. i., pp. 83, 84.

c Beza, tom. i.„ p. 72.

Laval, vol. i., pp. 85, SfV

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

522 should be kept.

Paul IY. sent his legate to France

throw his throne, root out his house, and bring his

to dispense Henry from his oath, and induce him

kingdom to ruin.

to violate the peace.

Heaven, evoked by that impious sect, be read in the

The flames of war were re¬

kindled, but the French arms were disgraced.

The

battle of St. Quentin was a fatal blow to France,

many dark calamities that were gathering round France h

and the Duke of Guise was recalled from Italy to retrieve it.

He recovered in the Low Countries

the reputation which he had lost in Sicily

but

Might not the displeasure of

It was resolved that a “ Mercuriale,” as it is called in France, should be held, and that the king, with¬ out giving previous notice of his coming, should

even this tended in the issue to the weakening of

present himself in the assembly.

France.

see and hear for himself, and judge if there were

The duke’s influence at court was now

He would thus

predominant, and the intrigues which his great

not, even among his senators, men who favoured

rival, Montmorency, set on foot to supplant him,

this pestilent heresy.

led to the Treaty of Cateau Cambresis (1559), by

the times of Charles VIII. (1493), when corruption

which France lost 198 strongholds,1 2 besides the

crept into the administration, and the State was in

It had been a custom from

deepening of the jealousies and rivalships between

danger of receiving damage, that representatives of

the House of Lorraine and that of the Constable,

all the principal courts of the realm should meet,

which so nearly proved the ruin of France.

in order to inquire into the evil, and admonish

main inducement with

One

Henry to conclude this

treaty with Philip of Spain, was that it left him

one another to greater vigilance.

Francis I. had

ordered that these “ Censures ” should take place

free to prosecute the design formed by the Cardinal

once every three months, and from the day on

of Lorraine and the Bishop of Arras for the utter

which they were held—namely, Wednesday (Dies

extirpation of the Reformed.

Mercurii)—they were named “ Mercuriales. ”4

In fact, the treaty

^contained a secret clause binding both monarchs to

On the 10th of June, 1559, the court met in the

combine their power for the utter extirpation of

house of the Austin Friars, the Parliament Hall

heresy in their dominions.

not being available, owing to the preparations for

But despite the growing rigour of the persecu¬

the wedding of the king’s daughter and sister.

tion, the shameful slanders which were propagated

The

against the Reformed, and the hideous deaths in¬

attended by the princes

king

suddenly

appeared

in

the

assembly,

of the blood, the Con¬

flicted on persons of all ages and both sexes, the

stable, and the Guises.

numbers of the Protestants and their courage daily

on the throne, he delivered a discourse on reli¬

increased.

gion ;

It was now seen that scarcely was

Having taken his seat

he enlarged on his own labours for the

there a class of French society which did not fur¬

peace of Christendom,

nish converts to the Gospel.

seal by giving in marriage his daughter Elizabeth

Mezeray says that

which

he was about to

.there was no town, no province, no trade in the

to

kingdom wherein the new opinions had not taken

garet to Philibert Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy ; and

root.

The lawyers, the learned, nay, the eccle¬

siastics, against their own interest, embraced them.3

he

Philip

of

concluded

Spain, by

and

his

only sister

announcing his resolution to

devote himself henceforward to the healing of the

Some of the greatest nobles of France now rallied

wounds of the Christian world.

round the Protestant standard.

the senators to go on with their votes.

Among these was

Mar¬

He then ordered

Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendome, and first

Though all felt that the king was present to

prince of the blood, and Louis de Bourbon, Prince

overawe them in the expression of their sentiments,

of Conde, his brother.

With these were joined

many of the senators declared themselves with that

two nephews of the Constable Montmorency, the

ancient liberty which became their rank and office.

Admiral

They pointed to the fact that a Council was at that

Gaspard de

Coligny,

and his brother,

Frangois de Chatillon, better known as the Sire

moment convened at Trent to pronounce on the

d’Andelot.

faith, and that it was unjust to burn men for heresy

A little longer and all France would

be Lutheran.

the

before the Council had decreed what was heresy.

alarm of all about him was not less so, and all

The king’s alarm was great :

Arnold du Ferrier freely admitted that the troubles

united in urging upon him the adoption of yet

of France sprang out of its religious differences,

more summary measures against an execrable belief,

but then they ought to inquire who was the real

which, if not rooted out, would most surely over¬

author of these differences, lest, while pursuing the sectaries, they should

1 Davila, Hist, delle Guerre Civili cli Francia, lib. i., p. 13. 3 Laval, vol. i., p. 107. 3 Mezeray. Abr. Ohr., tom.iv.,p. 720. Laval, vol. i., p. 107.

expose themselves

to

the

rebuke, “ Thou art the man that troubles Israel.’' 4 Laval, vol. i., pp. 109,110.

HISTOBY OF PBOTESTANTISM.

524

Annas du Bourg, who next rose, came yet closer

1559,

to the point.

There were, he said, many great

gathered in the Faubourg St. Antoine, to see the

and

the

rank and beauty of

Paris are

crimes and wicked actions, such as oaths, adul¬

king tilting with selected champions in the lists.

teries, and perjuries, condemned by the laws, and

The king bore himself “ like a sturdy and skilful

deserving of the severest punishment, which went

cavalier ” in the mimic war.

without correction, while new punishments were

arms was over, the plaudits of the brilliant throng

every

had saluted the royal victor, and every one thought

day

invented

for

men

who

been found guilty of no crime.

as yet had

Should those be

held guilty of high treason who mentioned the

The last passage-ah

that the spectacle was at an end.

But no; it was

to close with a catastrophe of which no one present

name of the prince only to pray for him ? and

so much as dreamed.

should the rack and the stake be reserved, not for

the king yet farther to display his prowess before

A sudden resolve seizing

those who raised tumults in the cities, and seditions

the admiring multitude, he bade the Count Mont¬

in the provinces,

gomery, the captain of his guard, make ready and

but for those who were the

brightest patterns of obedience to the laws, and

run a tilt with him.

the firmest defenders of order?

self, but the king insisted.

It was a very

Montgomery excused him¬ Mounting his horse

grave matter, he added, to condemn to the flames

and placing his lance in rest, Montgomery stood

men who died calling on the name of the Lord

facing the king.

Jesus.

warriors, urging their steeds to a gallop, rushed

Other speakers followed in the same strain.

Hot so the majority, however.

They recalled the

at

each other:

The trumpet sounded. Montgomery’s

lance

The two

struck the

examples of old days, when the Albigensian heretics

king with such force that the staff was shivered.

had been slaughtered in thousands by Innocent

The blow made Henry’s visor fly open, and a

III. ; and when the Waldenses, in later times, had

splinter from the broken beam entered his left eye

been choked with smoke in their own dwellings,

and drove into his brain.

and the dens of the mountains ; and they urged

horse to the ground.

the instant adoption of these time-honoured usages.

through the spectators.

When the opinions

been

but he was mortally wounded, and the death-blow

marked, the king took possession of the register in

had been dealt by the same hand—that of the

of

the senators

had

The king fell from his A thrill of horror ran

Was the king slain ?

Ho ;

which the votes were recorded, then rising up, he

captain of his guard—which he had employed to

sharply chid those members who had avowed a

arrest the martyr Du Bourg.

oreference for a moderate policy; and, to show that

the Hotel de Tournelles, where he died on the 10 th

under a despot no one could honestly differ from

of July, in the forty-first year of his age.2 Many strange things were talked of at the time,

the royal opinion and be held guiltless, he ordered the Constable to arrest Du Bourg.

The captain

He was carried to

and have been related by contemporary historians,

of the king’s guard instantly seized the obnoxious

in connection with the death of Henry II.

senator, and carried him to the Bastile.

Other

queen, Catherine de Medici, had a dream the night

members of Parliament were arrested next day at

before, in which she saw him tilting in the tourna¬

their own houses.1

ment, and so hard

The king’s resolution was fully taken to execute all the senators who

had

opposed him, and to

His

put to, that in the morning

when she awoke she earnestly begged him that day not to stir abroad;

but, says Beza, he no more

exterminate Lutheranism everywhere throughout

heeded the warning than Julius Csesar did that of

France. He would begin with Du Bourg, who, shut

his wife, who implored him on the morning of the

up in an iron cage in the Bastile, waited his doom.

day on which he was slain not to go to the Senate-

But before the day of Du Bourg’s execution arrived,

house.

Henry himself had gone to his account.

We have

same palace which had been decked out with so much

already mentioned the delight the king took in

magnificence for the two marriages was that in

jousts and tournaments.

He was giving his eldest

Nor did it escape observation that the

which the king breathed his last, and so u the hall

daughter in marriage to the mightiest prince of

of

his time—Philip II. of Spain—and so great an

mourning.” And, finally, it was thought not a little

occasion he must needs celebrate with fetes of cor¬

remarkable

responding

which Henry was to lie in state, and the royal

magnificence.

Fourteen days have

triumph was

changed

into the chamber of

that when the bed was prepared on

elapsed since his memorable visit to his Parlia¬

corpse laid upon it, the attendants, not thinking of

ment, and now Henry presents himself in a very

the matter at all, covered it with a rich piece of

different assemblage.

tapestry on which was represented the conversion

It is the last day of June,

1 Beza, tom. i., pp. 122,123.

2 Davila^ lib. i., pp. 17,18.

Laval, vol. i., p. 142.

THE COLPORTEURS IN FRANCE.

525

of St. Paul, with the words in large letters, “ Saul,

taken away, and replaced with another piece.1

Saul, why persecutest thou me 1 ” This was remarked

incident recalled the last words of Julian, who fell

upon by so many who saw it, that the officer who

like Henry, warring against Christ: “ Thou hast

had charge of the body ordered the coverlet to be

overcome. O Galilean ! ”

CHAPTER

The

III.

FIRST NATIONAL SYNOD OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANT CHURCH.

Early Assemblies of French Protestants—Colportage—Holy Lives—The Planting of Churches throughout France —Play at La Rochelle—First National Synod—Confession of Faith of the French Church—Constitution and Government—Gradation of Courts—Order and Liberty—Piety Flourishes. The young vine which had been planted in France,

secret doors, so that, entering by different ways,

and which was beginning to cover with its shadow

their assembling might attract no notice.

the plains of that fair land, was at this moment

their enemies should break in upon them, they took

And lest

sorely shaken by the tempests; but the fiercer the

the precaution of bringing cards and dice with them,

blasts that warred around it, the deeper did it

to throw upon the table in the room of their Bibles

strike its roots in the soil, and the higher did it

and psalters, as a make-believe that they had. been

lift its head into the heavens.

interrupted at play, and were a band of gamblers

There were few

districts or cities in France in which there was not to be found a little community of disciples.

instead of a congregation of Lutherans.2 In the times we speak of, France was traversed by

These flocks had neither shepherd to care for them,

an army of book-hawkers.

nor church in which to celebrate their worship.

Geneva, Lausanne, and Neuchatel supplied Bibles

The printing-presses of

The violence of the times taught them to shun ob¬

and religious books in abundance, and students of

servation ;

nevertheless, they neglected no means

theology, and sometimes even ministers, assuming

of keeping alive the Divine life in their souls,

the humble office of colporteurs carried them into

and increasing their knowledge of the Word of

France.

God.

back, they pursued their way, summer and winter,

They assembled at stated times, to read to¬

Staff in hand, and pack slung on their

gether the Scriptures, and to join in prayer, and at

by highways and cross-roads, through forests and

these gatherings the more intelligent or the more

over marshes, knocking from door to door, often

courageous of their number expounded a passage

repulsed, always hazarding their lives, and at times

from the Bible, or delivered a word of exhortation.

discovered,

These teachers, however,

means the Bible gained admission into the mansions

confined themselves to

and dragged to the pile.

By their

They did not dispense the Sacraments,

of the nobles, and the cottages of the peasantry.

for Calvin, who was consulted on the point, gave it

They employed the same methods as the ancient

doctrine.

as his opinion that, services of

till they had obtained the

a regularly ordained ministry, they

should forego celebrating the Lord’s Supper.

They

Yaudois colporteur to conceal their calling.

Their

precious wares they deposited at the bottom of their baskets, so that one meeting them in city alley, or

were little careful touching the fashion of the place

country highway,

in which they offered their united prayer and sang

vendors of silks and jewellery—a deception for

would

have

taken

them

for

It might be a garret, or a cellar, or

which Florimond de Rmmond rebukes them, with-

It might be a cave of the mountains, or a

out, however, having a word in condemnation of

glen in the far wilderness, or some glade shaded

the violence that rendered the concealment neces¬

their psalm. a barn.

by the ancient trees of the forest.

Assemble where

sary.

The success of these humble and devoted

they might, they knew that there was One ever in

evangelists was attested by the numbers whom they

the midst of them, and where he was, there was the

prepared for the stake, and who, in their turn,

Church.

One of their number gave notice to the

rest of the time and place of meeting.

If in a city,

they took care that the house should have several

1 Beza, tom. i., p. 124. 2 Flor. de Raemond, Hist, de laNaissance, S(cdc V Here sic de ce Siecle, lib. vii., p. 931.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

526

sowed in their blood the seed of new confessors and

demned out of their own mouths.

martyrs.

that they “killed the innocent.”

They confess

At times, too, though owing to the fewness of

Truly wonderful was the number of Protestant

pastors it was only at considerable intervals, these

congregations already formed in France at the time

little assemblies of believing men and women had

of the death of Henry II.

the much-prized pleasure of being visited by a

consumed,” the Reformed Church was even green

minister of the Gospel.

and flourishing,

From him they learned

“ Burning,” yet “ not

because refreshed with a secret*

how it was going with their brethren in other parts

dew, which was more efficacious to

of France.

life than all the fury of the flames to extinguish

Their hearts swelled and their eyes

preserve its

brightened as he told them that, despite the fires

it.

everywhere burning, new converts were daily press¬

the Church in Paris, in 1555.

ing forward to enrol themselves in the army of

that and the five following years by so many others

Christ,

in all parts of France, that we can do little save

and that the soldiers of the Cross were

We have already recorded the organisation of It was followed in

multiplying faster than the stake was thinning them.

recite the names of these Churches.

Then covering the table, and placing upon it the

martyrdoms through which each struggled

“bread” and “cup,” he would dispense the Lord’s

existence, before taking its place on the soil of

The perils and into

Supper, and bind them anew by that holy pledge to

France, we cannot recount.

the service of their heavenly King, even unto the

Meaux, trodden into the dust years before, now

death.

rose from its ruins.

Thus the hours would wear away, till the

The early Church of

In 1546 it had seen fourteen

morning was on the point of breaking, and they

of its members burned; in 1555 it obtained a settled

would take farewell of each other as men who

pastor.2

would meet no more till, by way of the halter or

formed, and placed under the care of a pastor from

the stake, they should reassemble in heaven.

Geneva.

At Angers

(1555) a congregation was

At Poictiers, to which so great an interest

The Singular beauty of the lives of these men

belongs as the flock which Calvin gathered together,

attracted the notice, and extorted even the praise,

and to whom he dispensed, for the first time in

of their bitterest enemies. France.

It was a new thing in

Florimond de Rsemond, ever on the watch

France, the

Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, a

congregation was regularly organised (1555).

It

for their halting, could find nothing of which to

happened that the plague came to Poictiers, and

accuse them save that “instead of dances and May-

drove from the city the bitterest enemies of the

poles they set on foot Bible-readings, and the sing¬

Reformation; whereupon its friends, taking heart,

ing of spiritual hymns, especially the psalms after

formed themselves into a Church, which soon be¬

they had been turned into rhyme.

The women, by

came so flourishing that it supplied pastors to the

their deportment and modest apparel, appeared in

congregations that by-and-by sprang up in the neigh¬

public like sorrowing Eves, or penitent Magdalenes,

bourhood.3

as Tertullian said of the Christian women of his

of Saintonge, a great number of the inhabitants

day.

received the truth, and were formed into a congrega

The men too, with their mortified air, seemed

to be overpowered by the Holy Ghost.”1

It does

At Ale vert, an island lying off the coast

tion in 1556.

At Agen, in Guienne, a congregation

not seem to have occurred to the monkish chronicler

was the same year organised, of which Pierre David,

to inquire why it was that what he considered an

a converted monk, became pastor.

evil tree yielded fruits like these, although a true

wards chaplain to the King of Navarre.

answer to that question would have saved France

He was after¬

At Bourges, at Aubigny, at Issoudun, at Blois,

If the facts were

at Tours, at Montoine, at Pau in Bearn, Churches

as Raemond stated them—if the confessors of an

were organised under regular pastors in the same

heretical and diabolical creed were men of pre¬

year, 1556.

eminent virtue—the

at Montauban and Angouleme.4

from many crimes and woes.

conclusion

was

inevitable,

either that he had entirely misjudged regarding their creed,

or that the whole moral

order of

To these are to be added the Churches

In the year following (1557), Protestant congre¬ gations were formed, and placed under pastors, at

things had somehow or other come to be reversed.

Orleans, at Sens, at Rouen in Normandy, and in

Even Catherine de Medici, in her own way, bore her

many of the towns and villages

testimony to the moral character of Protestantism.

ing Dieppe on the shores of the English Channel.

“I have a mind,” observed she one day, “to turn to

Protestantism had penetrated the mountainous re-

around, includ¬

the new religion, to pass for a prude and a pious woman.”

The persecutors of that age are con1 Flor de Raemond, lib. vii., p. 864.

2 Beza, tom. i., p. L24. 3 Laval, vol. i., p. 146. 4 Beza, tom. i., p. 135.

Beza, tom. i., p, 125.

A COMEDY AND A DIDDLE.

527

gion of the Cevennes, and left the memorials of its

It was all in vain.

triumphs amid a people proverbially primitive and

specifics gave her the least mitigation of her suffer¬

Not one of these renowned

rude, in organised Churches. In Brittany numerous

ings.

Churches arose, as also along both banks of the

last they bethought

The friars were perfectly non-plussed.

At

them of another expedient.

Garonne, in Nerac, in Bordeaux, and other towns

They put the habit of St. Francis upon her.

too

numerous to be mentioned.

thought they, as sure as St. Francis is a saint, she

the

scene

of

recent

In Provence,

slaughter,

there

existed

no fewer than sixty Churches in the year 1560.1 The

beginnings of the “ great and glorious”

is

cured.

Now,

But, alas! attired in cowl and frock,

the poor sick woman sat rocking from side to side amid the friars, still grievously tormented by the

Church of La Bochelle are obscure. So early as 1534

pain in her conscience, and bemoaning

a woman was burned in Poitou, who said she had

condition, that those people understood not how to

been instructed in the truth at La Bochelle.

From

confess her.

her sad

At that point, when priest and friar

that year we find no trace of Protestantism there

had exhausted their skill, and neither rosary nor

till 1552, when its presence there is attested by

holy habit could work a cure, one stepped upon the

the barbarous execution of two martyrs, one of

stage, and going up to the woman, whispered into

whom had his tongue cut out for having acted as

her ear that he knew a man who would confess her

the teacher of others; from which we may infer

right, and give her ease in her conscience ; but,

that there was a little company of disciples in that

added he, he goes abroad only in the night-time, for

town, though keeping themselves concealed for fear

the day-light is hurtful to him.

of the persecutor.2

earnestly begged that that man might be called to

The sick person

In 1558 the King and Queen of Navarre, on their

her. He was straightway sent for : he came in a lay-

way to Paris, visited La Bochelle, and were splen¬

dress, and drawing near the bolster, he whispered

didly entertained by the citizens.

something in the woman’s ear which the spectators

In their suite

was M. David, the ex-monk, and now Protestant

did not hear.

preacher,

change of expression, that she was well pleased with

already

referred

to.

He

proclaimed

They saw, however, by her instant

openly the pure Word of God in all the places

what had been told her.

through which the court passed, and so too did he

drew out of his pocket a small book, which he put

The mysterious man next

One day during their majesties’

into her hand, saying aloud, “ This book contains

stay at this city, the town-crier announced that a

the most infallible recipes for the curing of your

in La Bochelle.

company of comedians had just arrived, and would

disease; if you will make use of them, you will recover

act that day a new and wonderful piece.

your health perfectly in a few days.”

The

Hereupon lie

citizens crowded to the play; the king, the queen,

left the stage, and the sick woman, getting out ol

and the court being also present.

bed with cheerful air, as one perfectly cured, walked

When the curtain rose, a sick woman was seen at

three times round the stage, and then turning to

the point of death, shrieking in pain, and begging

the audience, told them that that unknown man had

The parish priest was sent for.

succeeded where friar and priest had failed, and

He arrived in breathless haste, decked out in his

that she must confess that the book he had given

canonicals.

her was full of most excellent recipes, as they them¬

to be confessed.

He began to shrive his penitent, but

to little purpose.

Tossing from side to side, ap¬

selves might see

from the happy change it had

parently in greater distress than ever, she cried out

wrought in her; and if any of them was afflicted

that she was not well confessed.

with the same disease, she would advise them to

Soon a crowd of

ecclesiastics had assembled round the sick woman,

consult that book, which she would readily lend

each more anxious than the other to give her relief.

them; and if they did not mind its being somewhat

One would have thought that in such a multitude

hot in the handling, and having about it a noisome

of physicians a cure would be found ; but no : her

smell like that of a fagot, they might rest assured it,

case baffled all their skill.

would certainly cure them.

her in hand.

The friars next took

Opening great bags which they had

brought with them, they drew forth, with solemn air, beads which they gave her to count, relics which

If the audience desired

to know her name, and the book’s name, she said, they were two riddles which they might guess at.3 The citizens of La Bochelle had no great difficulty

they applied to various parts of her person, and in¬

in reading the riddle.

dulgences which they read to her, with a perfect

of the book, despite its associations with the stake

confidence that these would work an infallible cure.

and the fagot, and they found that its efficacy was

1 Beza, tom. i., p. 108. 2 Laval, vol. i., p. 149.

Many of them made trial

3 Laval, vol. i., pp. 150—152—ex Vincent, Recherches swr les Commencemens de la Ref. d la Rochelle.

528

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

sufficiently sovereign to cure them. deliverance

They obtained

little companies

of

believing

men

and women,

from that burden on the conscience

scattered over the country, were cared for and fed

which had weighed them down in fear and anguish,

only by the Great Shepherd, who made them lie

despite all that friar or penance could do to give

down in the green pastures of his Word, and by

them ease.

the still waters of his Spirit.

From that time Protestantism flourished

But this was an in¬

in La Rochelle; a Church was formed, its members

complete and defective condition.

not daring as yet, however, to meet for worship in

are not only a “flock,” but a “kingdom,” and it is

open day, but assembling under cloud of night, as was

the peculiarity of a kingdom that it possesses “order

still the practice in almost all places in France.

and government” as well as subjects.

We are now arrived at a new and most important

HARBOUR

development of Protestantism in France.

OF

As has

Christ’s people

The former

exists for the edification and defence of the latter.

LA ROCHELLE.

In 1555 congregations began to be formed on the

been already mentioned, the crowns of France and

Genevan model.

Spain made peace between themselves, that they

and with him was associated a small body of laymen

might be at liberty to turn their arms against,

to watch over the morals of the flock.

Protestantism, and effect its extermination.

organising went on vigorously, and in 1560 from

Both

A pastor was appointed to teach,

monarchs were preparing to inflict a great blow.

one

It was at that hour that the scattered sections of

existed in France.

the

gregation come into existence.

French

Protestant

Church

drew

together,

to

two thousand

Protestant

The work of congregations

Thus did the individual con¬ But the Church of

and, rallying around a common standard, presented

God needs a wider union, and a more centralised

a united front to their enemies.

authority.

It was forty years since Lefevre had opened the door of France to the Gospel.

All these years

Scattered over the wide space that separates the Seine

from

the

Rhone

and

the

Garonne, the

there had been disciples, confessors, martyrs, but

Protestant Churches of France were isolated and

no congregations in our sense of the term.

apart.

The

In the fact that they had common interests

DIANA OP POICTIERS.

CLAUDE DE LORRAINE, DUKE OP GUISE.

CATHERINE DE MEDICI

ANNE DE MONTMORENCY.

(From the Portraits by Clouet and Th. de Leu, in the Libiiotheque Nationals, Paris.)

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

530

and common dangers, a basis was laid, they felt, for

Saintes,

confederation.

d’Angely.2

In this way would the wisdom of

Marennes,

Chatellerault,

Pastor

Francois

and

Morel,

all be available for the guidance of each, and the

Ccllonges, was chosen to preside.

strength of each be combined for the defence of all.

ties

St.

Jean

Sieur

of

Infinite difficul¬

had to be overcome, says Beza, before the

As the symbol of such a confederation it was

Churches could be advertised of the meeting, but

requisite that a creed should be drafted which all

greater risks had to be run before the deputies

might confess, and a code of discipline compiled to

could assemble : hence the fewness of their number.

which all would submit.

The gibbet was then standing in all the public places

Not to fetter the private

judgment of individual Christians, nor to restrict

of the kingdom, and had their place of meeting been

the rights of individual congregations, was this creed

discovered, without doubt, the deputies would have

framed ; on the contrary, it was intended as a shield

been led in a body to the scaffold.

of both liberty of opinion and liberty of Christian action.

But in order to effect this, it was essential

There is a simplicity

and a

moral grandeur

appertaining to this assembly that compels our

that it should be drawn from the doctrines of the

homage.

Bible and the models of apostolic times, with the

No mace or symbol of authority graces the table

No guard stands sentinel at the door.

same patient investigation, and the same accurate

round

deduction, with which men construct a science from

gathered ; no robes of office dignify their persons;

which the

deputies of the Churches are

the facts which they observe in nature, but with

on the contrary, royal edicts have proclaimed them

greater submission of mind, inasmuch as the facts

outlaws,

observed for the framing of a creed are of super¬

Nevertheless, as if they were assembled in peaceful

natural revelation, and with a more anxious vigilance

times, and under the shadow of law, they go on day

and the

persecutor is on their

track.

to avoid error where error would be so immensely

by day, with calm dignity and serene power, plant

more pernicious and destructive, and above all, with

ing the foundations of the House of God in their

a dependence on that Spirit who inspired the Word,

native land.

and who has been promised to enlighten men in the

first stones should be cemented with their blood.

true sense of it.

As God has revealed himself in his

They will do their work, although the

We can present only an outline of their great

Word, so the Church is bound to reveal the Word

work.

to the world.

hended in forty articles, and agrees in all essential

The French Protestant Church now

Their Confession of Faith was compre¬

points with the Creed of the Church of England.

discharged that duty to its nation. It was agreed between the Churches of Paris and

They received the Bible as the sole infallible rule

Poictiers, in 1558, that a National Synod should be

of faith and manners.

held for the purpose of framing a common confession

of the Trinity; of the Fall; of the entire corrup¬

They confessed the doctrine

In the following spring,

tion of man’s nature, and his condemnation ; of the

circular letters were addressed to all the Churches of

election of some to everlasting life; of the call of

and a code of discipline.

the kingdom, and they, perceiving the benefit to the

sovereign and omnipotent grace; of a free redemp¬

common cause likely to accrue from the step, readily

tion by Christ, who is our righteousness; of that

gave their consent. that the

It was unanimously agreed

Synod should

be held in

Paris.

The

righteousness as the ground of our justification; of faith, which is the gift of God, as the instrument

capital was selected, says Beza, not because any pre¬

by which we obtain an interest in that righteous¬

eminence or dignity was supposed to belong to the

ness ; of regeneration by the Spirit to a new life,

Church there, but simply because the confluence of

and to good works ; of the Divine institution of

so many ministers and elders was less likely to

the ministry; of the equality of all pastors under

attract notice in Paris than in a provincial town.1

one chief

As regards rank, the representative of the smallest

Christ; of the true Church,

Pastor

and

universal

Bishop,

Jesus

as composed of the

congregation stood on a perfect equality with the

assembly of believers, who agree to follow the rule

deputy of the metropolitan Church.

of the Word; of the two Sacraments, baptism and

The Synod met on the 25th of May, 1559.

At

the Lord’s Supper; of the policy which Christ has

that moment the Parliament was assembling for

established for the government of his Church; and of

the Mercuriale, at which the king avowed his pur¬

the obedience and homage due to rulers in monarchies

pose of pursuing the Reformed with fire and sword

and commonwealths, as God’s lieutenants whom he

till

has set to exercise a lawful and holy office.3

he

had

exterminated them.

From

eleven

Churches only came deputies to this Synod : Paris,

Their code of discipline was arranged also in

St. Lo, Diegpe, Angers, Orleans, Tours, Poictiers, 1 Beza, tom. i., p. 109.

2 Felice, vol. i., p. 70. 3 Beza, tom. i., pp. 109—118. Laval, vol. i., pp. 118—132.

THE REFORMED CHURCH OF FRANCE, forty

articles.

Dismissing details,

let us state

for its domain

531

or circle.

It was the court of

Reformed

highest judicature; it determined all great causes,

Church of France, as settled at its first National

and heard all appeals, and to its authority, in the

in

outline

Synod. been

the

constitution

of

the

Its fundamental idea was that which had taught

both at Wittemberg and Geneva,

last resort, all were subject.

It was presided over

by a pastor chosen by the members.

His pre¬

namely, that the government of the Church is dif¬

eminence was entirely official, and ended at the

fused throughout the whole body of the faithful,

moment the Synod had closed its sittings.

but that the exercise of it is to be restricted to

In the execution of their great task, these first

those to whom Christ, the fountain of that govern¬

builders of the Protestant Church in France availed

ment, has given the suitable gifts, and whom their

themselves of the counsel of Calvin.

fellow Church members have called to its discharge.

their eyes were all the while directed to a higher

On this democratic basis there rose four grades of

model than Geneva, and they took their instructions

power : — 1. The Consistory. 3. The Provincial Synod.

2. The

Colloquy.

4. The National Synod.

Nevertheless,

from a higher authority than Calvin.

They studied

the New Testament, and what they aimed at fol¬

Corresponding with these four grades of power

lowing was the pattern which they thought stood

there were four circles or' areas—the Parish, the

revealed to them there, and the use they made

District, the Province, and the Kingdom.

Each

of Calvin’s advice was simply to be able to see

grade of authority narrowed as it ascended, while

that plan more clearly, and to follow

the circle within which it was exercised widened.

closely.

it more

What had its beginning in a democracy, ended

the apostle—“ One is your Master, even Christ,

Adopting as their motto the words of

in a constitutional monarchy, and the interests of

and all

each congregation and each member of the Church

there must be government in the Church—“ One

were, in the last resort, adjudicated upon by the

is your Master”—that the source of that govern¬

wisdom and authority of all.

ment is in heaven, namely, Christ; that the revela¬

There was perfect

liberty, combined with perfect order.

ye

are

brethren ” — they inferred

that

tion of it is in the Bible, and that the depository

Let us sketch briefly the constitution of each

of it is in the Church—“All ye are brethren.”

separate court, with the sphere within which, and

Moving between the two great necessities which

the responsibilities under which, it exercised its

their motto indicated, authority and liberty, they

powers.

It bore rule

strove to adjust and reconcile these two different

over the congregation, and was composed of the

First came the Consistory.

but not antagonistic forces—Christ’s royalty and

minister, elders, and deacons.

his people’s brotherhood.

The minister might

Without the first there

be nominated by the Consistory, or by the Colloquy,

could not be order, without the second there could

or by the Provincial Synod, but he could not be

not be freedom.

ordained till he had preached three several Sundays

ceded their code of discipline; the first had been

to the congregation, and the people thus had had

accepted before the second was submitted to; thus

an opportunity of testing his gifts, and his special

all the bonds that held that spiritual society to¬

fitness to be their pastor.

gether, and all the influences that ruled it, proceeded

The elders and deacons

were elected by the congregation.

out of the throne in the midst of the Church.

The Colloquy came next, and was composed of all the congregations of the district.

Their scheme of doctrine pre¬

they,

as constituted officers,

stood

If

between the

Each congre¬

Monarch and the subjects of this spiritual empire,

gation was represented in it by one pastor and one

it was neither as legislators nor as rulers, strictly

elder or deacon.

The Colloquy met twice every

so called.

“One” only was Master, whether as

year, and settled all questions referred to it from

regarded law or government.

the congregations within its limits.

not legislative but administrative, and their rule

Next came the Provincial Synod.

It compre¬

Their power was

was not lordly but ministerial;

they were the

hended all the Colloquies of the Province, every con¬

fellow-servants

gregation sending a pastor and an elder to it.

whom, their functions were discharged.

The

of those

among whom,

and fq.

Provincial Synod met once a year, and gave judg¬

The Synod sat four days; its place of meeting was

ment in all cases of appeal from the court below,

never discovered, and its business finished, its mem

and generally in all matters deemed of too great

bers departed for their homes, which they reached

weight to be determined in the Colloquy. At the head of this gradation of ecclesiastical authority came the National Synod.

It was com¬

in safety.

Future councils have added nothing of

moment to the constitution of the French Protestant Church, as framed by this its first National Synod.2

posed of two pastors and two elders from each of the Provincial Synods, and had the whole kingdom

1 Beza, tom. i., pp. 118—121. Laval, vol. i., pp. 132—139.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

332

The times subsequent to the holding of this assembly were times of great prosperity to the Pro¬ testants of France.

The Spirit of God was largely

enemies fall under him, and submit themselves unto him. “Oh! the unparalleled success of the plain and

given them; and though the fires of persecution

earnest sermons of the first Reformers !

continued to burn,

titudes flock in like doves into the windows of

the pastors were multiplied,

Mul¬

congregations waxed numerous, and the knowledge

God’s ark.

and purity of their members kept pace with their

the womb of the morning, so hath the Lord Christ

increase.

the dew of his youth.

The following picture of the

French

As innumerable drops of dew fall from The Popish churches are

Church at this era has been drawn by Quick :—

drained, the Protestant churches are filled.

“The holy Word of God is duly, truly, and power¬

priests complain that their altars are neglected;

fully preached in churches and fields, in ships and

their masses are now indeed solitary.

houses, in vaults and cellars, in all places where the

not stand before God’s ark.

The

Dagon can¬

Children and persons

and con-

of riper years are catechised in the rudiments and

Multitudes

principles of the Christian religion, and can give a

are convinced and converted, established and edi¬

satisfactory account of their faith, a reason of the

Gospel ministers can have

admission

veniency, and with singular success. fied.

Christ rideth out upon the white horse of

hope that is in them.

By this ordinance do their

the ministry, with the sword and the bow of the

pious pastors prepare them for communion with the

Gospel preached, conquering and to conquer.

Lord at his holy table.”1

His

CHAPTER IY. A GALLERY OF PORTRAITS.

National Decadence—Francis II.—Scenes Shift at Court—The Guises and the Queen-mother—Anthony de Bourbon —His Paltry Character—Prince of Conde—His Accomplishments—Admiral Coligny—His Conversion—Embraces the Reformed Faith—His Daily Life—Great Services—Jeanne d’Albret, Queen of Navarre—Greatness of her Character—Services to French Protestantism—Her Kingdom of Navarre—Edict Establishing the Reformed Wor¬ ship in it—Her Code—Her Fame. Henry II. went to his grave amid the deepening

with bright but baleful splendour.

shadows of fast-coming calamity.

The auspicious

Montmorency had a hint given him that his health

signs which had greeted the eyes of men when he

would be benefited by the air of his country-seat.

ascended the throne had all vanished before the

The king knew not, so he said to him, how to

close of his reign, and given place to omens of evil.

reward his great merits, and recompense him for

The

the army was

the toil he had undergone in his service, save by

dispirited by repeated defeat, the court was a hot¬

relieving him of the burden of affairs, in order that

finances were

embarrassed,

The Constable

bed of intrigue, and the nation, broken into factions,

he might enjoy his age in quiet, being resolved not

was on the brink of civil war.

to wear him out as a vassal or servant, but always

So rapid had been

the decline of a kingdom which in the preceding

to honour him as a father.2

reign was the most flourishing in Christendom.

grumbling a little, strode off to his Castle of Chan¬

Henry II.

was

succeeded

on the

the eldest of his four sons, under Francis II.

The

throne

by

the title of

blood of the Yalois and the

blood of the Medici—two corrupt streams—were

The field cleared of

these parties, the contest for power henceforward lay between the Guises and the Queen-mother. Francis II. was a lad of sixteen, and when we

united on the throne of

think who had had the rearing of him, we are not

With the new monarch came a shifting of

surprised to learn that he was without principles and

now for the first time France.

tilly, ten leagues from Paris.

The proud Constable,

parties in the Louvre ; for of all slippery places in the world those near a throne are the most slippery. The star of Diana of Poictiers, as a matter of course, vanished from the firmament where it had shone

1 Synodicon in Gallia Reformata, Introduction, v., vi.; Lond., 1692. 2 Davila, Hi&t. del. Guer. Civ. Franc., p. 20.

THE RIVALS AND THEIR POLICY. without morals. a tool

Feeble in mind and body, he was

all the more fit for the hand of a bold

intriguer.

At the foot of the throne from which

533

between the leaders of the Reformed,

and the

Guises who were for striking them down without mercy.

The new relation of Catherine brings cer¬

she had just descended stood the crafty Italian

tain personages upon the stage whom we have not

woman, his mother, Catherine de Medici: might

yet met, but whom it is fitting, seeing they are to

she not hope to be the sovereign-counsellor of her

be conspicuous actors in what is to follow, we

weak-minded son 1

should now introduce.

During the lifetime of her hus¬

band, Henry II., her just influence as the wife had

The first is Anthony de Bourbon, Duke of Ven-

been baulked by the ascendency of the mistress,

dome, and first prince of the blood.

Diana of Poictiers.

parent stock sprang the two royal branches of

That rival had been swept from

From the same

her path, but another and iliore legitimate competi¬

France, the Valois and the Bourbon.

tor had come in the room of the fallen favourite.

(St. Louis) had four sons, of whom one was named

Louis IX

By the side of Francis II., on the throne of France,

Philip and another Robert.

sat Mary Stuart, the heir of the Scottish crown, and

line of the Valois, in which the succession was con¬

the niece of the Guises.

tinued for upwards of 300 years.

The king doated upon her

From Philip came the From Robert.,

beauty,1 and thus the niece was able to keep open

through his son’s marriage with the heiress of the

the door of the royal closet, and the ear of her

Duchy of Bourbon, came the house of that name,

husband, to her uncles.

This gave the Guises a

which has come to fill so large a space in history,

prodigious advantage in the game that was now

and has placed its members upon the thrones2 of

being played round the person of the king.

France, and Spain, and Naples.

when we think how truculent

they were,

And

Princes of the

and

blood, and adding to that dignity vast possessions,

how skilled they had now become in the arts by

a genius for war, and generous dispositions, the

which princes' favour is to be won, it does not

Bourbons aspired to fill the first posts in the king¬

surprise us to learn that in the end of the day they

dom.

were foremost in the race.

the reigning monarch, who found it necessary at

Catherine de Medici

Their pretensions were often troublesome to

was a match for them any day in craft and ambi¬

times to visit their haughty bearing with temporary

tion, but with the niece of her rivals by the king’s

banishment from court.

side, she found it expedient still to dissemble, and

cloud at the time when Henry II. died.

to go on a little while longer disciplining herself in

accession of Francis II. they resolved on returning

They were under this On the

those arts in which nature had fitted her to excel,

to court and resuming their old influence in the

and in which long practice would at last make

government; but to their chagrin they found those

her an expert, and then would she grasp the govern¬

places which they thought they, as princes of the

ment of Franee.

blood, should have held, already possessed by the

The question which the Queen-mother now put,

Guises.

The latter united with the Queen-mother

“ What shall be my policy ? ” was to be determined

in repelling their advances, and the Bourbons had

by the consideration of who were her rivals, and

again to retire, and to seek amid the parties of the

what the tactics to which they were committed.

country that influence which they were denied in

Her rivals, we have just said, were the Guises, the

the administration.

heads of the Roman Catholic party.

This threw

Anthony

de

Bourbon

had

married

Jeanne

She was

d’Albret, who was the most illustrious woman of

nearly as much the bigot as the Cardinal of Lorraine

her time, and one of the most illustrious women in

Catherine somewhat on the other side.

himself, but if she loved the Pope, still more did

all history.

she love power, and in order to grasp it she stooped

Valois, Queen of Navarre, whose genius she in¬

She was the daughter of Margaret of

to caress what she mortally hated, and feigned to

herited, and whom she surpassed in her gifts of

protect what she secretly wished to root out.

governing, and in her more consistent attachment

Thus

* did God divide the counsels and the arms of these

to the Reformation.

Her fine intellect, elevated

Had the

soul, and deep piety were unequally yoked with

Guises stood alone, the Reformation would have

Anthony de Bourbon, who was a man of humane

two powerful enemies of his Church.

been crushed in France; or had Catherine de Medici

dispositions, but of low tastes, indolent habits, and

stood alone, a like fate would have befallen it; but

of paltry character.

Providence brought both upon the scene together,

d’Albret brought him the title of King of Navarre ;

His marriage with Jeanne

and made their rivalry a shield over the little Pro¬

but his wife was a woman of too much sense, and

testant flock.

cherished too enlightened a regard for the welfare of

The Queen-mother now threw herself 1 Davila., p. 19.

2 Davila, pp. 7, 8.

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

534

She

battle, dragged it into their private quarrels, and

took care not to entrust him with the reins of

then when it had won for them the crown, they

government.

deserted it.”3

her subjects, to give him more than the title.

To-day, so zealous was he for the

Gospel, that he exerted himself to have the new

The next figure that comes before us is a truly

opinions preached in his wife’s dominions; and

commanding one.

to-morrow would

better known as Admiral de Coligny.

he

be

so

zealous for Rome,

It is that of Gaspard de Coligny, He towers

that he would persecute those who had embraced

above the Bourbon princes, and illustrates the fact

the opinions he had appeared, but a little before,

that greatness of soul is a much more enviable

so desirous to have propagated.

possession than mere greatness of rank.

water,” he

“ Unstable as

spent his life in travelling between

Coligny,

perhaps the greatest layman of the French Reforma¬

the two camps, the Protestant and the Popish,

tion, was descended from an ancient and honourable

unable

house, that of Chatillon.

long to adhere

despised by both.1

to

either,

and

heartily

The Romanists, knowing the

He was born in the same

year in which Luther commenced the Reforma¬

vulgar ambition that actuated him, promised him a

tion by the publication of his Theses, 1517.

territory which he might govern in his own right,

lost his father on the 24th of August, 1522, being

He

and he kept pursuing this imaginary princedom.

then only five years of age.

It was a mere lure to draw him over to their side;

was a fatal day to Coligny, for on that day, fifty

and his life endeide.

Should

Into the midst of the enemy advanced

that white plume; where raged the thickest of the

the League (March 14, 1590) on the plains of Ivry..

fight, there was it seen to wave, and thither did the

His opponents were in greatly superior numbers,

soldiers follow.

having been reinforced by Spanish auxiliaries and

hours, the day declared decisively in favour of the

Oerman reiter.

king.

Here a second great victory crowned

After a terrible combat of two

The army of the League was totally routed.

620

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

and fled from the field, leaving

its cannon and

the situation of the Protestants in these few words:

standards behind it to become the trophies of the

“ They had the halter always about their necks.”

victors.1

Stung by the temporising and heartless policy of

This victory, won over great odds, was a second

Henry, the Huguenots proposed to disown him as

lesson to Henry of the same import as the first.

their chief, and to elect another protector of their

But he was trying to profess two creeds, and “a

Churches.

double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

would have been ruined.

This fatal instability caused Henry to falter when

safety of the Reformed faith was the first thing.

he was on the point of winning all.

Had he

Had they abandoned him, his cause To the Protestants the

To Henry the possession of the throne was the

marched direct on Paris, the League, stunned by

first thing,

and the. Huguenots and their cause

the blow he had just dealt it, would have been

must wait.

The question was, How long h

easily crushed; the fall of the capital would [have

It was now four years since Henry after a sort

followed, and, with Paris as the seat of his govern¬

had been King of France; but the peaceful pos¬

ment,

session of the throne was becoming less likely than

his

cause

triumphant.

would

have

been

completely

He hesitated—he halted;

his en¬

ever.

Every day the difficulties around him, in¬

thusiasm seemed to have spent itself on the battle¬

stead of diminishing, were thickening.

field.

success which had formerly attended his arms ap¬

He had won a victory, but his indecision

permitted its fruits to, escape him.

All that year

peared to be deserting him.

Even the

Shorn of his locks,

was spent in small affairs—in the sieges of towns

like Samson, he was winning brilliant victories no

which contributed noi ung to his main object.

longer.

League had time to recruit itself.

The

The Duke of

Parma—the most illustrious general of the age— came to its help.

Henry’s affairs made no pro¬

gress; and thus the following year (1591) was as uselessly spent as its predecessor.

What was to be done ? this had now

come to be the question with the king.

Henry, to

use a familiar expression, was “ falling between two stools.”

The time had come for him to declare

himself, and say whether he was to be a Roman

Meanwhile, the

Catholic, or whether he was to be a Protestant.

unhappy country of France—divided into factions,

There were not wanting weighty reasons, as they

traversed by armies, devastated by battles—groaned

seemed, why the king should be the former.

under a combination of miseries.

Henry’s great

bulk of his subjects were Roman Catholics, and by

qualities remained with him; his bravery and dash

being of their religion he would conciliate the

were shown on many a bloody field;

victories

majority, put an end to the wars between the two

crowded in upon him; fame gathered round the

rival parties, and relieve the country from all its

white plume;

troubles.

nevertheless, his cause stood still.

By this step only could he ever hope to

An eclipse seemed to rest upon the king, and a

make himself King of all France.

Nemesis appeared to dog his triumphal car.

around him counsel.

With a professed Protestant upon the throne, one would have expected the condition of the Huguenots to be greatly alleviated; but it was not so. concessions

which

might

have

been

The

So did many

His recantation would, to a

large extent, be a matter of form, and by that form how many great ends of State would be served !

The

But on the other side there were sacred memories

expected

which Henry could not erase, and deep convictions

from even a Roman Catholic sovereign were with¬

which he could not smother.

held by one who was professedly a Protestant.

The

prayers of a mother, the ripened beliefs of a life¬

Huguenots as yet had no legal security for their

time, the obligations he owed to the Protestants,

civil and religious liberties.

The laws denouncing

The instructions and

all must have presented themselves in opposition to

confiscation and death for the profession of the

the step he now meditated.

Protestant religion, re-enacted by Henry III., re¬

to be profaned ? were all these hallowed bonds to

mained unrepealed, and were at times put in force

be rent asunder !l

by country magistrates and provincial Parliaments.

had he deliberated in council;

It sometimes happened that while in the camp of

shipped in the same sanctuary; how often fought

the king the Protestant worship was celebrated, a

on the same battle-field; their arms mainly it was

few leagues off the same worship was forbidden to

that raised him to the throne; was he now to for¬

Were all these pledges

With the Huguenots how often

a Huguenot congregation under severe penalties.

sake them %

The celebrated Mornay Duplessis well described

the mind of the king.

how often wor¬

Great must have been the conflict in But the fatal step had been

taken four years before, when, in the hope of dis¬ 1 It is scarcely necessary to remind onr readers that this battle formed the subject of Lord Macaulay’s wellknown ballad-song of the Huguenots.

arming the hostility of the Roman Catholic lords, he consented to receive instruction in the Romish faith.

To hesitate in a matter of this importance;

ABJURATIOH OF HEHRY IV. was to surrender—was to be lost; and the choice

621

of difficulties, fatigues, pains, perils, and labours

which Henry now made is just the choice which

You must be always in the saddle;

it was to be expected he would make.

always have the corselet on your back, the helmet

There

you must

is reason to fear that he had never felt the power of

on your head, and the sword in your hand.

the Gospel upon his heart.

what is more, farewell to repose, to pleasure, to

His hours of leisure

were often spent in adulterous pleasures.

Hay,

One of

love, to mistresses, to games, to dogs, to hawking,

his mistresses was among the chief advisers of the

to building; for you cannot come out through these

step he was now revolving. this Huguenotism do him?

What good would

affairs but by a multitude of combats, taking of

Would he be so great

cities, great victories, a great shedding of blood.

Listening

Instead of all this, by the other way—that is,

to such counsels as these, he laid his birth-right,

a fool as to sacrifice a kingdom for it ?

changing your religion—you escape all those pains

where so many kings before and since have laid

and difficulties in this world,” said the courtier with

theirs, at the feet of Rome.

a smile, to which] the king responded by a laugh :

It had been arranged that a conference composed

“ as for the other world, I cannot answer for that.”

of an equal number of Roman Catholic bishops and

Mornay Duplessis counselled after another fashion.

Protestant pastors should be held, and that the

The side at which Sully refused to look—the other

point of difference between the two Churches should

world—was the side which Duplessis mainly con¬

be debated in the presence of the king.

sidered.

This was

He charged the king to serve God with

simply a device to save appearances, for Henry’s

a good conscience; to keep Him before his eyes in

mind was already made up.

When the day came,

all his actions; to attempt the union of the king¬

the king forbade the attendance of the Protestants,

dom by the Reformation of the Church, and so to

assigning as a reason that he would not put it in

set an example to all Christendom and posterity.

the power of the bishops to say that they had van¬

“ With what conscience,” said he, “ can I advise

quished them in the argument.

The king’s conduct

you to go to mass if I do not first go myself ? and

throughout was marked by consummate duplicity.

what kind of religion can that be which is taken off

He invited the Reformed to fast, in prospect of

as easily as one’s coat?”

the coming conference, and pray for a blessing upon

and Christian advise.

it; and only three months before his abjuration, he

So did this great patriot

But Henry was only playing with both his

wrote to the pastors assembled at Samur, saying

counsellors.

that he would die rather than renounce his religion;

taken;

and when the conference was about to be held, we

Thursday, July 22, 1593, he met the bishops, with

His course was already irrevocably

he had set his face towards Rome.

On

find him speaking of it to Gabrielle d’Estrees, • with

whom he was to confer on the points of difference

whom he spent the soft hours of dalliance, as an

between the two religions.

ecclesiastical tilt from which he expected no little

humour

amusement, and the denouement of which was fixed

harangues with a few puzzling questions.

already.

“ This morning I begin talking with the

following Sunday morning, the 25th, he repaired

bishops. On Sunday I am to take the perilous leap. ”1

with a sumptuous following of men-at-arms to the

Henry IV. had the happiness to possess as coun¬ sellors two men of commanding talent.

The first

he

would

With a half-malicious

occasionally

Church of St. Denis.

interrupt their On the

On the king’s knocking

the cathedral door was immediately opened.

The

was the Baron Rosny, better known as the illustrious

Bishop of Bourges met him at the head of a train

Sully.

of prelates and priests, and demanded to know the

He was a statesman of rare genius.

Henry, he was a Protestant;

Like

and he bore this

errand on which the king had come.

further resemblance to his royal master, that his

answer,

Protestantism was purely political.

Rome.”

The other,

“ To be

admitted

Henry made

into the Church

of

He was straightway led to the altar, and

Mornay Duplessis, was the equal of Sully in talent,

kneeling on its steps, he swore to live and die in

but his superior in character.

the Romish faith.

upright.

He was inflexibly

These two men were much about the

The organ pealed, the cannon

thundered, the warriors that thronged nave and

king at this hour; both felt the gravity of the

aisle clashed their arms; high mass was performed,

crisis, but differed widely in the advice which they

the king, as he partook, bowing down till his brow

gave.

“I can find,” said Sully,

addressing the

king, “ but two ways out of your present embarrass¬ ments.

By the one you may pass through a million

touched the floor; and a solemn TeDeum concluded and crowned this grand jubilation.2 The abjuration of Henry was viewed by the Pro¬ testants with mingled sorrow, astonishment, and

1 u Le saut perilleux.” p. 234, foot-note.)

(Mem. de Sully, tom. ii., livr. v.,

2 Mem. de Sully, tom. ii., livr. v., p. 239.

622

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

apprehension.

The son of Jeanne d’Albret,

the

policy.

It

is

not

time

yet, we are

told, to

foremost of the Hngnenot chiefs, the Knight of the

grant us an

White Plume, to renounce his faith and go to mass !

thirty-five years of persecution, ten years of banish¬

How fallen!

But Protestantism could survive

ment by the edicts of the League, eight years of

apostasies as well as defeats on the battle-field ; and

the present king’s reign, and four of persecutions.

edict,—yet,

O

merciful God, after

the Huguenots felt that they must look higher than

We ask your majesty for an edict by which we

the throne of Henry IV., and trusting in God,

may enjoy that which is common to all your sub¬

they took measures for the protection and advance¬

jects.

ment of their great cause.

repose to the State,

From their former

The glory of God alone, liberty of conscience, security for our lives and

compatriot and co-religionist, ever since, by the

property—this is the summit of our wishes, and

help of their arms, he had come to the throne, they

the end of our requests.”

had received little save promises.

Their religion

The king still thought to temporise;

but new

was proscribed, their worship was in many in¬

successes on the part of the Spaniards admonished

stances forbidden, their children were often compul¬

him that he had done so too long, and that the policy

sorily educated in the Romish faith, their last wills

of delay was exhausted.

made void, and even their corpses dug out of the

Spanish advances, and the throne which Henry had

grave and thrown like carrion on the fields.

When

The League hailed the

secured by his abjuration he must save by Pro¬

they craved redress, they were bidden be patient

testant swords.

till Henry should be stronger on the throne.

1598, was this famous decree, the Edict of Nantes,

His

apostasy had brought matters to a head, and con¬ vinced the Huguenots that they must look to them¬ selves.

The bishops had made Henry swear, “ I

Accordingly, on the 15th April,,

styled “ perpetual and irrevocable,” issued. “This Magna Charta” says Felice, “of the French Reformation, under the ancient regime, granted the

will endeavour to the utmost of my power, and in

following concessions

good faith, to drive out of my jurisdiction, and from

conscience to all; the public exercise of the 4 reli¬

the lands under my sway, all heretics denounced by

gion ’ in all those places in which it was established

the Church.”

in 1577, and in the suburbs of cities ;

Thus the sword was again hung over

their heads; and can we blame them if now they formed themselves into a

in brief:—Full liberty of

permission

to the lords’ high justiciary to celebrate Divine

political organisation,

worship in their castles, and to the inferior gentry

with a General Council, or Parliament, which met

to admit thirty persons to their domestic worship ;

every year to concert measures of safety, promote

admission of the Reformed to office in the State,,

unity of action, and keep watch over the affairs of

their children to be received into the schools, their

the general body ?

To Henry’s honour it must be

sick into the hospitals, and their poor to share in

acknowledged that he secretly encouraged this Pro¬

the alms; and the concession of a right to print

testant League.

An apostate, he yet escaped the

infamy of the persecutor.

their books in certain cities.”

This edict further

provided for the erection of courts composed of an

The Huguenot council applied to Henry’s govern¬

equal number of Protestants and Roman Catholics

ment for the redress of their wrongs, and the

for the protection of Protestant interests, four Pro¬

restoration of Protestant

and privileges.

testant colleges or institutions, and the right of

passed away in these negotiations,

holding a National Synod, according to the rules of

Four

years

rights

which often degenerated into acrimonious disputes,

the Reformed faith, once every three years.1

and the course of which was marked (1595) by an

State was charged with the duty of providing the

The

atrocious massacre—a repetition, in short, of the

salaries of the Protestant ministers and rectors,, and

affair at Vassy.

At length Henry, sore pressed in

a sum of 165,000 livres of those times (495,000

his war with Spain, and much needing the swords

francs of the present day) was appropriated to that

of the Huguenots, granted an edict in their favour,

purpose.

styled, from the town from which it was issued, the

idea of liberty of conscience, but it was a liberal

Edict of Nantes, which was the glory of his reign.

measure for the

time.

It was a tardy concession to justice, and a late

200 towns into

the

The edict does not come fully up to our As a guarantee

hands

it

put

of the Protestants.

response to complaints long and most touchingly

It was the Edict of Nantes much more than the

urged.

“And yet, sire,” so their remonstrances

abjuration of Henry which conciliated the two

ran, “among us we have neither Jacobins nor

parties in the kingdom, and gave him the peaceful

Jesuits who aim at your life, nor Leagues who

possession of the throne during the few years he

aim at your crown.

was yet to occupy it.

We have never presented

the points of our swords We

are

paid

with

instead

of petitions.

considerations

of

State

1 M$m. de Sully, tom. iii, livr. x., pp. 204, 358.

623

ADMINISTRATIVE GENIUS OF HENKY IV. The signing of this edict inaugurated an era of tranquillity and great prosperity to France.

The

twelve years that followed are perhaps the most

boundless resources which nature has stored up in its soil and climate to develop themselves. Henry’s views in the field of foreign politics were

glorious in the annals of that country since the

equally comprehensive.

opening of the sixteenth century.

great menace to the peace of Europe, and the in¬

Spain imme¬

He clearly saw that the

diately offered terms of peace, and France, weary

dependence of its several nations, was the Austrian

of civil war, sheathed the sword with joy.

power

Now that Henry had rest from war, he gave

in

Spanish.

its

two

branches—the German

and

Philip II. was dead; Spain was waning ;

himself to the not less glorious and more fruitful

nevertheless

labours of peace.

France in all departments of

opportunity to employ the one half of Christendom

that

her organisation was in a state of frightful disorder

of which she was still mistress, in crushing the

—was, in fact, on the verge of ruin. Castles burned

other half.

to the ground, cities half in ruins, lands reverting

with Elizabeth

ambitious

Power

waited

Henry’s project, formed of England,

for

an

in concert

humbling that

into a desert, roads unused, marts and harbours

Power was a vast one, and he had made such

forsaken, were

progress in it that twenty European States had

the melancholy memorials which

presented themselves to one’s eye wherever one

promised to take part

journeyed.

Henry was to lead against Austria.

The national exchequer was empty;

in

for launching that

should have

Heniy’s contingent had been sent off*, and was

their

country with their

force

The moment

the inhabitants were becoming few, for those who enriched

great

the campaign which was

come,

and

labour, or adorned it with their intellect, were

already on German soil.

watering its soil with their blood.

soldiers in a few days and open the campaign.

Some two mil¬

He was to follow his

lions of lives had perished since the breaking out

But this deliverance for Christendom he was fated

of the civil wars.

not to achieve.

Summoning all his powers,

Henry set himself to repair this vast ruin.

In this

His queen, Marie de Medici, to

whom he was recently married, importuned him for

arduous labour he displayed talents of a higher

a public coronation, and Henry resolved to gratify

order and a more valuable kind than any he had

her.

shown in war, and proved himself not less great as

great splendour, was over, and he was now ready to

a statesman than he was as a soldier.

set out, when a melancholy seized him, which he

There was a

The ceremony, which was gone about with

debt of three hundred millions of francs pressing on

could neither account for nor shake off*.

the kingdom.

siveness was all the more

The annual expenditure exceeded

This pen¬

remarkable that his

the revenue by upwards of one hundred millions of

disposition was naturally gay and sprightly.

francs.

the words of Schiller, in his drama of “ Wallen

The taxes paid by the people amounted to

two hundred millions of francs ; but, owing to the abuses of collection, not more than thirty millions found their way into the treasury.

Calling Sully

to his aid, the king set himself to grapple with these gigantic evils, and displayed in the cabinet no less fertility of resource and comprehensiveness of genius than in the field. national debt in ten years.

He cleared off* the He found means of

making the income not only balance the expendi¬ ture, but of exceeding it by many millions.

He

accomplished all this without adding to the burdens of the people.

He understood the springs of the

In

stein ”— “ The king Felt in his heart the phantom of the knife Long ere Ravaillac armed himself therewith. His quiet mind forsook him ; the phantasma Startled him in his Louvre, chased him forth Into the open air : like funeral knells Sounded that coronation festival; And still, with boding sense, he heard the tread Of those feet that even then were seeking him Throughout the streets of Paris.” Wben the coming campaign was referred to, he told the queen and the nobles of his court that

nation’s prosperity, and taught them to flow again.

Germany he would never see—that he would die

He encouraged agriculture, promoted industry and

soon, and in a carriage.

commerce, constructed roads, bridges, and canals.

these gloomy fancies, as

The lands were tilled, herds were reared, the silkworm

“ Go to Germany instantly,” said his minister^

was introduced, the ports were opened for the free

Sully, “and go on horseback.”

export of corn and wine, commercial treaties were

1610, was fixed for the departure of the king.

They tried to laugh away they

accounted

them.

The 19th of Mayr

framed with foreign countries; and France, during

On the 16th, Henry was so distressed as to move

these ten years, showed as conclusively as it did

the compassion of his attendants.

after the war of 1870—71,

retired to his cabinet, but could not write ;

how speedily it can

After dinner he

recover from the effects of the most terrible dis¬

threw himself on his bed, but could not sleep.

asters, when the passions of its children permit the

was overheard

in

prayer.

He

asked,

he He

“What

624

HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.

o’clock is it 1 ” and was answered, “ Four of the

which was to make war on God.3

afternoon.

Would not jour Majesty be the better

Rome had launched her excommunication against

of a little fresh air?” The king ordered his carriage,

the “ two Henries,” and now both had fallen by

and, kissing the queen, he set out, accompanied by

her dagger.

two of his nobles, to go to the arsenal.1

Years before,

On the character of Henry IY. we cannot dwell.

He was talking with one of them, the Duke

It was a combination of great qualities and great

d’Epernon, his left hand resting upon the shoulder

faults.

of the other, and thus leaving his side exposed.

but we must not confound military brilliance or

He was a brave soldier and an able ruler ;

The carriage, after traversing the Rue St. Honore,

political genius with moral greatness.

turned into the narrow Rue de la Ferroniere,

tion to a noble cause—the corner-stone of greatness * . ° —he lacked. France—in other words, the glory and

where it was met by a cart, which compelled it to pass at a slow pace, close to the kerbstone.

Entire devo¬

A

dominion of himself and house—was the supreme

monk, Frangois Ravaillac, who had followed the

aim and end of all his toils, talents, and manceuvr-

royal cortege unobserved, stole up, and mounting

ings.

on the wheel, and leaning over the carriage, struck

The Roman Catholics it did not conciliate, and

The great error of his life was his abjuration.

his knife into the side of Henry, which it only

the Protestants it alienated.

grazed.

Nantes that made him strong, and gave to France

The monk struck again, and this time the

dagger took the direction of the heart.

It was the Edict of

The king

almost the only ten years of real prosperity and

fell forward in his carriage, and uttered a low cry.

glory which it has seen since the reign of Francis I.

“ What is the matter, sire % ” asked one of his lords.

Had Henry nobly resolved to ascend the throne

“It is nothing,” replied the king twice, but the

with a good conscience, or not at all—had he

second time so low as to be barely audible.

not paltered with the Jesuits—had he said, “I

Dark

blood began to ooze from the wound, and also from

will give toleration to all, but will myself abide

the mouth.

in the faith my mother taught me”—his own heart

The carriage was instantly turned in

the direction of the Louvre.

As he was being

would

have

been

stronger,

his

life

purer,

his

carried into the palace, Sieur de Cerisy raised his

course less vacillating and halting; the Huguenots,

head;

the

his eyes moved, but he spoke not.

The

king closed his eyes to open them not again any more.

He was carried up-stairs, and laid on his

bed in his closet, where he expired.2

flower

of

French

valour

and

intelligence,

would have rallied round him and borne him to the throne, and kept him on it, in spite of all his enemies.

On what different foundations would

Ravaillac made no attempt to escape : he stood

his throne in that case have rested, and what a

with his bloody knife in his hand till he was ap¬

different glory would have encircled his memory!

prehended ; and when brought before his judges

He set up a throne by abjuration in 1593, to be

and subjected to the torture he justified the deed,

cast down on the scaffold of 1793 !

saying that the king was too favourable to heretics,

We have traced the great drama of the sixteenth

and that he purposed making war on the Pope,

century to its culmination, first in Germany, and next in Geneva and France, and we now propose

1 P. de L’Estoile, apud Mem. de Sully, tom. vii., pp. 406, 407. 2 L’Estoile, Mathieu, Perefixe, &c.—apud Mem. de Sully, tom. vii., pp. 404—412. Malherbe, apud Guizot, vol. iii., PP- 623, 624,

to follow it to its new stage in other countries of Europe.

3 Mem. de Sully, tom. vii., p« 418.