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FRENCH PROTESTANTISM, i??9-i?62

Series xxxvi No. 4

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES

Historical and Political Science

Under the Direction of the

Departments of History, Political Economy, and
Political Science

FRENCH PROTESTANTISM
1^^9-1^62

CALEB GUYER KELLY

BALTIMORE

THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS

Z918

PRESS OF

THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY

LANCASTER, PA.

CONTENTS

Pagh

Preface vii

Chapter I. Social and Economic Forces 9

Chapter IL The Resources of the Huguenots ... 38
Chapter III. The Organization of the Calvinists.. 69

Chapter IV. The Reform at Its Height 88

Chapter V. Friends and Foes at Home and Abroad 118

Chapter VI. Guise or Valois ? 137

Chapter VII. The Arsenal of Protestantism 163

Bibliographical References 179

Index 183

PREFACE

The brief period between 1559 and 1562, interlacing the
reigns of Henry II and of two of his sons, Francis II and
Charles IX, was momentous in the history of French
Protestantism. Consequently studies in diplomacy and " la
haute politique " of that epoch of four years have been
vigorously pursued, but the social and economic questions
have been inadequately treated. Indeed, much of the real
nature of the reign of Henry II and of the growth of the
Reform during his incumbency is obscure. Nothing like
the " Catalogue des Actes du roi Frangois ler " as yet exists
for the reign of Henry II. Therefore it has seemed to the
writer eminently desirable to begin an investigation of the
development of Protestantism through the operation of
social and economic forces, particularly among the indus-
trial and working classes. The economic activity of the
Huguenots reveals one of the aspects of their social life,
and their commerce forms one of the great chapters in world
history. Adequately to present the subject of their eco-
nomic work, whether agricultural, industrial or commercial,
two factors must be examined. One comprises the Hugue-
nots themselves, their genius, work, and capital, and the
other includes the nature of France, — its plains, mountains,
waters, and coasts.

The unexplored domain of the Protestant resources has
proved alluring. The handful of English works and even
most of the French volumes devoted to Protestantism of the
sixteenth century treat in a most cursory manner this vital
phase of the Reform. An exception is Professor J. W.
Thompson's "The Wars of Religion in France." Biog-
raphies rather than general history seem to have occupied
the majority of the writers on the France of Louis of Conde
and Francis of Guise. Nevertheless, the Huguenot stamp

VIU PREFACE

upon the home industry and foreign trade of France is un-
mistakable and indehble. As early as 1546 the Venetian
ambassador Cavalli wrote that the commerce of Paris, "le
coeur de la chretiente," was very great. In 1560 the streets
of Paris " were cumbered with wagons, mules, and
shoppers," while there were 40,000 silk workers at Tours,
and 10,000 metiers at Rouen. In 191 0-12 the writer col-
lected convincing evidence in Africa and the Levant that the
modern colonial France may be traced to the efforts of the
hardy Huguenot mariners of Coligny. As a modest intro-
duction to an important subject the results of considerable
inquiry are here submitted.

Grateful acknowledgment for suggestive criticism is due
Professor Nathaniel Weiss of the Bibliotheque du Protest-
antisme Frangais, Paris, Professor James Westfall Thomp-
son of the University of Chicago, and Professor John
Martin Vincent, of the Johns Hopkins University.

Caleb Guyer Kelly.
Baltimore, May, 1918.

FRENCH PROTESTANTISM: 1J59-1562

CHAPTER I
Social and Economic Forces

The extravagance of Francis I and of Henry H staggers *
belief. The expenses of Francis I during 1540^ amounted
to 5,174,000 Hvres. Three-fifths of this sum went to the
royal family. One million livres was allotted for gifts and
the good pleasure of the king, while half that sum was con-
sumed in the upkeep of the royal tables. "Extraordinary
expenses not listed " and " menus plaisirs " accounted for
700,000 livres. Guards and detectives personally attached
to the sovereign received as high as one-fifth of the annual
budget. In comparison with modern times the standard of
exchange in the sixteenth century in France was the Hvre
tournois, which was not a piece of money but a value, or
representation of a quantity of precious metal. This varied
through the Middle Ages from 98 grains of silver in 1226
to II in 1600. The gold coin, ecu d'or, in 1561 was exactly ^
equivalent to two livres. Accepting AveneFs estimate that
the franc of Francis' reign would be equivalent to three such
today, it will be seen that of $10,223,640 spent by the sover-
eign in 1540, $6,133,184 was squandered by the immediate
royal household.^

Henry H wasted four hundred thousand ecus d'or within
two months after his accession. The gabelle, or tax on salt, Z
was extended to Poitou, Saintonge, and Guyenne, raising >
terrible revolts. Henry was quite "liberal," giving Guise,

1 Baschet, La diplomatic venetienne. Paris, 1862, p. 405.

2 Levasseur, Histoire des classes ouvrieres et I'industrie en France
avant 1789 (2d ed., 1903), p. 37.

10 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [418

Montmorency, and St. Andre 800,000 francs at one time.^ J
Upon Diane de Poitiers (his huntress of the 426. Psalm!)
the king lavished unprecedented gifts. The royal "equi-
page de cerf " comprised forty-seven gentlemen and four-
teen valets, or 64,755 livres expense annually.* Often the
king would lead the court to Amboise or other game pre-
serves, hunting for a fortnight at a time in order to escape
the importunities of the army officers and others to whom
he was in debt. When the king traveled, it was with a
cavalcade of eight hundred horses.^

The court was as prodigal as King Henry. The mar-
riage of Elizabeth of France to the Infant d'Espagne cost
950,000 ducats, nearly eight million francs,^ but the dowries
of Elizabeth and the duchess of Savoy remained unpaid
until eleven years after Henry's death.*^ Among other
examples of uxorial extravagance might be recounted the
93 livres spent on sweet waters for perfuming the linen used
at one of Queen Catherine's pre-nuptial banquets, where
there were served 21 swans, 9 cranes, and 33 "trubles a
large bee," a rare species of mystic bird. Lippomanni, the"^
Venetian ambassador, remarked that a man at the court was '
not esteemed wealthy unless using thirty costumes, after 1
different patterns, which he must change daily. In Henry's J
reign pride in all ranks grew with the increase in wealth and /
the discovery of the Bolivian mines in 1545. The rapid \
succession of sumptuary laws showed that luxury was gen- '
eral, for there were eight such between 1543 and 1570.^ ^
Some ordinances applied to every one, though the majority
were meant to check the extravagance of women. By the 1
time of St. Bartholomew's, 1572, the importation of all Ji

-> 3 Baschet, p. 434.

* Edouard Bourciez, Les moeurs polies et la litterature de la cour
sous Henry II. Paris, 1886, p. 26.

5 Pigeonneau, Henri, Histoire du Commerce de la France, 2 vols.,
Paris, 1885, vol. II, p. 57-

6 $4,708,200.

"^ Cable, Edmond, L'Ambassade en Espagne de Jean Ebrard, seig-
neur de St. Sulpice de 1562 a 1565. Paris, 1902, p. 223.

8 Baudrillart, H. J. L., Histoire du luxe prive et public depuis
I'antiquite jusqu'a nos jours. 4 vols., Paris, 1880; vol. iii, p. 438.

419] SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES II

cloth, linen, velvet, satin damask, taffeta, gold and silver
lace, armor, swords, daggers, and tapestries had been for-
bidden.^ At the meeting of the estates of Orleans advocate
Lange of the Third Estate complained of "the superfluity
and sumptuousness of the dress of jurors, which surpassed
all the effeminacies of the Asiatic and ancient sybarite."

The flaunting arrogance of the king's treasurers was pro-
verbial. One superintendent of finances, de Cosse, filched
200,000 ecus d'or in one year.^^ Many of the treasurers
had houses and even chateaux which rivaled the king's in
elegance, the means to purchase and furnish which they had
secured mainly by plundering the populace and cheating the
government. One official who was hanged owed the
equivalent of half the yearly budget, three million livres 1

The cloud of economic discontent hanging over Henry
IFs unpopular reign broke into a storm by 1559. "French
finances are shattered" wrote Bishop St. Croix.^^ For the
nine years previous France had been under four times the
customary financial burden. The taille, or land tax, levied
by Louis XII averaged 600,000 ecus, out of a total revenue
of two millions.^2 Francis I quintupled the taille and thus
obtained the sum of five million ecus yearly. Under Henry
II the gabelle and other taxes supposedly brought six and
one-half millions ecus, but in 1559, the year of Henry's
death, the receipts showed little more than 3,700,000 ecus
with which to meet expenses of ten millions.^^ The same
year " loans " to the sovereign amounted to fourteen millions
ecus. Finances were so low that the king tried to econo-
mize on Brissac's army in Piedmont in 1557.^* " In sparing
3000 francs (a month) we shall acquire 100,000 livres' dis-
honor," said the commander. The humiliating treaty of

® Baudrillart, vol. iii, p. 440.

10 De la Barre-Duparcq, Histoire de Henri II. Paris, 1887, p. 11.
^^ St. Croix, Prosper de, Tous les Synodes nationaux des Eglises
reformees de France (ed. Jean Aymon, Rotterdam, 1710), p. 176.

12 Great Britain, Calendar of State Papers Foreign, No. 1432, Oct.
5, 1560.

13 L'Hopital, Michel de, Oeuvres-completes (ed. Dufey, 5 vols., ^j
Paris, 1824-26), II, p. 36. J

1* Duparcq, Henri II, p. 50.

12 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [42O

Cateau-Cambresis was indirectly due to the retrenchment
policy. Francis of Guise hurried back from Italy in Janu-
ary, 1558, and instead of attacking the Spanish and Enghsh
allies in Picardy, by a sudden stroke of genius assaulted
and took Calais, and swept the English off the soil of
France. Yet this same army of Guise was supported by
public subscription, so great was the royal debt.

Money was frequently "loaned" to King Henry by the \
lords and ladies of the court. The aristocracy had just
fallen on evil times. It groaned under poverty at the very
time that gold from North America was quadrupling prices
and the Renaissance was fostering a love for luxury. The
nobles had had to follow the gloomy King Henry about for
several years in external wars of disaster. Some, like the ^
constable Montmorency, were bankrupt from paying ran- <^ ■
soms amounting to 100,000 francs, or double that sum. The ^
aristocracy clung desperately to the tatters of medieval
feudalism. It hated to see the old order disappear, and
pleaded against the new centralization. It gave voice to its v^
complaints at the meeting of the Estates of Orleans and
Pontoise, in 1 560-1 561. Aristocratic rights, it said, were
being encroached upon by the peasantry, who were trying to
rise in the economic and social scale at the expense of their
superiors. To meet this rivalry the nobility demanded per- (
mission to engage in every line of commercial activity with- 5
out losing any of its privileges. U

The economic discontent, which was hastening the intro-
duction of the Huguenot faith, waxed still more acute when
the frail boy Francis ascended the throne. To the astonish-
ment of the Parlement of Paris, one of the king's first acts ^
was to give to "the Cardinal of Lorraine and his brother A
Francis, duke of Guise, entire charge of finances and the /
military," on July 11, 1559.^^ Of their complete usurpa- ^
tion of power a later chapter will deal. The severe taxes
of the Guises which followed were rarely used to alleviate /
conditions. Even the infantry, cavalry, gendarmes, and j

i» Archives Nationales (Paris), K 1492, No. 50, Alva to Philip II.

42 1 ] SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES 1 3

officers of justice remained a long time without pay. Chan- \
cellor L'Hopital's speech before the Parlement of Paris,
July 5, 1560, reiterated that the debt of the crown at Francis
IFs accession totalled 43,700,000 livres besides interest, while
pensions and salaries of many, particularly gendarmes, were
five years in arrears. ^^ The receipts fell short of the ex- J
penses by fourteen and a half million livres. With no* \
prospect of the land tax in any section being lowered, it
would take the crown revenues ten years to meet the em-
barrassment. The debt of the king to the Genoese, Ger-
mans, Milanese, Florentines and to Lucca amounted to
644,287 ducats.^'^ When Charles IX became sovereign,
before Christmas, 1560, he began to spend money at the^
rate of one million livres a month.^^ The Estates General v
at Pontoise, in the summer of 1561, was held for the specific /
purpose of finding a way out of the king's financial diffi-
culties.^^ -J
" France is the dearest country I ever came in," wrote '
the duke of Bedford in February, 1561.^'* Prices were fear-
ful, indeed. From 1525 to 1575 they rose without any stop
and with marvelous rapidity. Gold and silver averaged J
treble their value of today so that some of the staples cost
as high as ninety per cent more than today. Nor were the '
variations simple fluctuations, for the rise and fall might be
triple or quadruple. The high price of beef in the six-
teenth century was almost a calamity. In 1500 meat had
been abundant, but sixty years later the food of the most
prosperous peasants was inferior to that of the servants at
the prior date.^^ One writer said : " In the time . of my
father we had meat every day, the dishes were abundant.
But today [1560] all has changed." At Nimes the average

i« Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 763, Dec. 3, 1560. <<C»
^7 Ibid., No. 1432, Oct. 5, 1560. —

18 Ibid., No. 430, Sept. 11, 1561. ' — -

19 La Popeliniere, La vraie et entiere histoire des troubles et choses
memorables avenues tant en France qu'en Flandres et pays circon-
voisins, depuis 'an i=,62-iS77 (2 vols., Basle, 1579), vol. i, p. 271.

20 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 1031, Feb. 26, 1561.

21 Avenel, Georges, Paysans et Ouvriers des trois derniers siecles.
Paris, 1910, p. 193.

14 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [422

consumption of meat per year was i>^ kilos in 1560 against
55 in 1900. A Languedoc proverb iterated the situation:
"Ail et viande, repas de richard, ail et pain, repas de pay-
san." Quadrupeds had the right to pasture but seldom the
wherewithal to prosper. In some provinces, notably Limou-
sin, peasants complained that they were deprived of the
"right of the second grasses." Before a notary the pro-
prietor had to declare that he did not intend to use said
fields for his own profit and would not use them except from
March 25 up to the gathering of the first crop of grass. On
one of Charles V*s journeys across France, the townsmen
of Malines had presented to the king with much pomp and
vain glory a "vrai phenomene," a bull weighing one thou-
sand kilograms !^^ Ordinarily the cows and beef were
mediocre, save in Limousin and Lyonnais.^^ In vain the
magistrates besought the butchers not to augment the price
of meat. The doleances of Normandy contained this plain- ^
tive note: "The poor people of Normandy are just now (
reduced to such extremities that no meats are obtainable ;
therefore they are trying to exist on fruits and cheese." ^
Wheat quintupled in price from 1500 to the wars of re- |
ligion, while the revenue from the land was only two and one
half times as great. The hectolitre (2% bushels) advanced .
from four to twenty francs.^* The irregularity, so common
to troubled epochs in the middle age, recommenced. In
1555 the hectolitre sold for 16 francs in Languedoc and 30
francs in Lille, in the north. In 1562 the same measure
cost all the way from i franc 35 at Caen, to 33 francs
at Tulle. At Nimes it was 15 francs and at Paris, 26.
French wheat rose from an average of 8.08 francs per \
hectolitre in 1557 to 13.93 in 1562 and 20.70 in 1563.2^
During peace, in 1564, it dropped to 7.85. Avenel quotes
the following prices in seven provinces :

22 2313 lbs.

23 Monteil, Histoire agricole de la France. Paris, 1870, p. 175.

24 Avenel, Decouvertes d'Histoire Sociale, 1200-1910. Paris, 1910,
p. 56.

25 Avenel, Histoire economique des prix. 4 vols., Paris, 1894, vol.
ii, p. 900.

423] SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES ^ I5

Ile-de- Nor- Dauph- Langue-

France mandy Berry Orleans iny Alsace doc

1525 3.80 1.68 3.86 6.94 2.51 3.83 5.19

I561 11.09 538 21.90 11.32 14.09 12.08 16.68

The prices of other grains per hectolitre exhibited the same
fluctuations :

Wheat Rye Oats Barley

1525 4 francs 3.30 1.60 2.85

1561 12 9.00 4.25 6.00

These variations in price caused the workingmen great I
misery, especially as the rise or fall was usually sextuple.
To add to the economic embarrassment, the farmer in 1560
harvested not more than 10 hectolitres from 200 days' work, _J
as compared with an average of 373^ hectolitres from 300
days in 1912.^^ The discrepancy in the relative number of
working days is accounted for by the large number of fete
days which the church saw fit to declare. Since the work-
ing man observed 89 holy days and 52 Sundays, his en-
forced idleness amounted to two days out of five.

Because the complex variations in wheat prices made
grain too costly for many peasants to buy, much ground
remained untilled. This was most annoying, as every place
in France was populated as much as was possible under
Henry II. The square shape of the country is commodious
for containing the greatest population and for supporting
intensive farming. Always considered the first kingdom in
Christendom,^^ France boasted the richest soil in Europe
and unlimited agricultural possibilities, yet was suffering
want.

Since the reign of Charlemagne it had been forbidden to
buy the fruits of the earth before their maturity ; every con-
tract made in spite of this was void. The sale of wheat in
the field (en vert) was considered by the ecclesiastical
tribunals of the sixteenth century as exactly the same as
usury. Dealings in " futures " were therefore relentlessly
banned. Minions of the government spied upon the
harvesters once the wheat was in the bins. The spectre of

26 Avenel, Decouvertes, p. 171.

27 Relazione de Giovanni Soriano, p. 357.

i6 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [424

speculation caused the authorities to enact severe measures
against those who seemed to reserve more grain than they
could use. It was forbidden to keep grain longer than two
years unless for private consumption.^^ Such a move could
only further paralyze activity and distribution. Moreover,
when the wheat arrived in the market it could not be opened
until a certain hour. Every purchaser had to prove that he
bought for his exclusive use. The whip and even prison,
besides heavy fines, awaited those who risked any commer-
cial enterprise in grain.

The greatest restraint in the grain trade consisted in
the difficulty of communication. Without a consideration
of the roads of the time it is impossible to appreciate the
barriers to internal commerce. " Le Guide de Chemins "
published by St. Estienne (1553), described the great French
routes. Though the kingdom spread some 576 miles from
Calais to the Pyrennees, and 494 from Finisterre to the
Vosges, and contains an area of over two hundred thousand
square miles, the total length of the roads was about 15,625,
as against half a million today.^® Two thousand bridges of
very bad construction spanned the numerous rivers. The
roads were mostly in the natural state. The records show
that only two leagues of the main artery, the Orleans-Paris
highway, were paved — Orleans to Cercotte.^^ An ordinance
of February 15, 1556, provided for the paving of four
more leagues on the same road, between Toury and Artenay.
Oaks were ordered planted along the routes in 1553 by
Henry II. Possibly it was just as well that the order re-
mained a dead letter, for the shade trees would have still
further encouraged the robbers and bandits who infested
the roads during the wars. The expenses of travel were
just as costly as they were in the fifteenth century, so that
the transportation of grain by land for great distances was
unthinkable. A short trip burdened it with enormous
charges. A hectolitre of wheat in transit from Amiens to

28 Avenel, Paysans, p. 145.

2»Levasseur, Commerce, vol. i, p. 185.

30 The league, or lieue, varied from three to four miles.

425] SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES 1 7

Rouen, 130 kilometres, was taxed one-third of its value in
port duties, brokerage, tolls, and customs.^^

Navigable waterways, in spite of government orders,
were nearly always obstructed by mills or encumbered with
toll stations. Of the latter there were in 1562 no less than
120 on the Loire, the longest river in France."^ As boats
plied between the mouth at Nantes and Le Moine, 518 miles
inland, the produce must be taxed every four miles. The
Loire tolls alone netted over fifteen millions francs in 1570.
Though royal edicts in the sixteenth century suppressed
many toll houses along the rivers Garonne, Seine, Loire,
and Rhone, the economic situation was not appreciably
helped. Each boatload of salt in transit from Nantes to
Moulins, on the Burgundian Loire, must pay four times its
original value. The rate on sugar from Bordeaux to Mon-
tauban on the Garonne was two hundred per cent. Skins
and spices were carried up the Rhone to Lyons at a still
higher charge. In ordinary times at present Dakota wheat
can be imported into Auvergne for one per cent of the cost.

Leonardo da Vinci, multifarious of talents, in his capacity
as engineer taught the use of canals to the French, among
whom were some of the new Lutheran sect. Following the
death of the great painter-geologist in 1519, Adam de Cra-
ponne conceived the project of uniting the Saone and the
Loire with a canal. Lyons, seated at the junction of the
Saone and the Swiss Rhone, might have been reached from
the upper Loire by a 25-mile canal. Digging began in 1558
but was terminated abruptly when King Henry was mortally
wounded by the lance of Montgomery in the early summer
of the following year. A 40-mile canal would have sufficed
to connect the Seine and Saone (Rhone) systems, near
Dijon, forming a north-to-south artery of trade. The
Garonne basin in the southwest might even have been
linked to that of the Rhine in the northeast boundary by
three canals with a combined extent of less than one hun-

*i Avenel, Decouvertes, p. 171.

*^ Levasseur, Commerce, vol. i, p. 187.

1 8 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [426

dred miles, but we must consider this period without serious
artificial waterways.

The surface of France may very properly be likened to
that of England, with the distinction that while in the latter
the mountainous tracts are in the north and west, in France
they occur in the south and east. All the great rivers, save
the Rhone, flow either from east to west or from south to
north. This hydrographic uniformity of itself promoted
the exchange of produce between any section of France.
The navigable rivers of the kingdom traversed seven thou-
sand kilometres (4330 miles), two-sevenths of the road
mileage in 1558. The value of connecting canals was
already apparent. Prominent among the agitators for such
projects were the Calvinist coteries of government officials
in those big towns which would profit from such a venture,
notably Lyons, Orleans, and Montauban. Were Da Vinci
alive today the fruition of his thought would stand revealed
in a canal system of twenty-three thousand miles — four
times the distance from Calais to the Mediterranean, but
these dreams were unfulfilled in our period.

With such serious defects in the ways of communication
and the means of transport grain could scarcely have
traveled at all. So it happened that with two good crops
in succession in a province, the price fell to nothing, while
one or two bad seasons brought excessive prices. This
double embarrassment occurred in the same region every
few years, or during the same year between two regions
only a little distance apart, for the simple reason that public
opinion in those days practised protection on a plan exactly
contrary to that of today.^^

People were so preoccupied with the interest of the con-
sumer that they were always afraid of starving, while they
seemed to care little about the lowering of prices, which
affected only the cultivator. Some of the city governments,
like Nevers, Magon, Nerac, and Caen, Pharaoh-like, stored
up wheat for their citizens in the plentiful years. This

33 Avenel, Paysans, p. 43.

427] SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES I9

hysterical protection extended to the coast provinces. Forts
to keep off the Algerine pirates from Dauphiny and Langue-
doc, and Spanish, Enghsh, and Flemish privateers from Gas-
cony, Saintonge, Poitou, Brittany, Normandy, and Picardy
might be built on one severe condition : the overlords must
promise King Henry that they would export no wheat by
sea! Yet, unless the owner wanted to pay one-third the
value in internal duties, the grain must be sent by water.

Other items difficult to catalogue swelled the expenses of
the cultivator. The insatiable greed of neighboring prov- "^
inces kept the grain from circulating freely. Though their
products were somewhat diverse the adjoining divisions of ^-i
Normandy and Brittany, of Berry and Burgundy, erected -^
effective financial barriers to mutual intercourse. The gov- -^
ernor of each province levied a private tax on the grain in
transit through his domain. The coastal provinces might _j
not send wheat abroad, the interior provinces were pre-
cluded from interstate commerce. Even intraprovincial
commerce in cereals was prescribed in many cases. Worst
of all, the merchant was often compelled to let his grain go
according to a scale of prices fixed in accordance with the
good pleasure of the authorities. This again was protection
in conflict with the public interests valued by modern stand-
ards. Many provinces remained full of wheat and empty
of money.

The high price of cereals caused the peasant to put a
great part of his wealth in bread. Avenel has estimated
bread as two-fifths of the workingman's diet.^* Least of all
the commodities had bread increased in price in the seven
centuries prior to the sixteenth, yet it cost twice as much in
Henry IPs day as under President Poincare. In a peasant
home with an annual expenditure of 800 francs of food a
rise of one-third in the price of bread meant an extra outlay
of no francs. It varied from 15 per cent in well-to-do
families of the working class to 90 per cent in very poor
families. The rich ate white wheat bread. The Parisians ate

3* Avenel, Deccuvertes, p. 168.

20 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 5^2 [428

white bread only on patron saints' days. In good years the
workman subsisted on "dogbread" of wheat and rye, rye,
barley, millet, and buckwheat: in bad years, oat bread.^**
According to his financial need his bread ran the gamut of
colors : white, grey, yellow, brown, and black. An old
Provencal proverb points out that " the horses who plow the
oats are not those who eat them." As formerly in Russia,
Roumania, and Egypt, whose inhabitants had scarcely suffi-
scient to eat, there were exported yearly millions of bushels
of grain, so this absurd yet true condition held in old France.
the average citizen groaned under both extremes of surfeit
and need.

France has always stood first in wine production. Viti-
culture was introduced into Gaul (Marseilles) by way of
Greece, and during the first century was confined to the
AUabroges on the Rhine and to the Bituriges on the Gironde.
In the middle ages wine was the usual French drink. The
vine was found all over France even in those sections where
today beer and cider are drunk. Climatic conditions alone
prevented its cultivation in the departments stretching from
Finisterre to Flanders. The traveler will recall that France
is of a gently undulating character, so important for the
proper exposure and ripening of the white, red, and black
grape. Much of the soil of France is adapted to vineyards,
being clayey, quartzose, graveled, and silicious. In contrast
to the climbing vine system the cultivators used the dwarf
plant method.

No branch of agriculture required more minute attention
or paid so rich dividends. Cato's remark that wine is the
most profitable production was amply borne out in France
prior to 1560. With salt it was one of the favorite sources
of government revenue. Fifteen millions yearly rolled into
French coffers through the wine trade. The prices ob-
tained overshadowed even the receipts from the Cyprus
wines of Nicosia and Famagusta. Bordeaux as always was
the chief distributing port, especially to those foreign and

35 Baudrillart, Luxe, vol. iii, p. 440.

429] SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES 21

home regions where the mass was cele'brated. Unlike wheat
and the general cost of living the price of wine fell until
1600, a sign of agricultural progress. But wine composed
but six per cent of the expenses of the working class. At
the outbreak of the wars the beverage rose to 17 francs per
hectolitre; in the centuries since it has decreased by 13 per
cent.^^ Beer, soaring in price along with its ingredients of /
oats and barley, rose from five to eighteen francs the hecto- I
Htre by 1560, more than twice the present cost.^^ FlemislxJ
and Frisian beer in 1560 cost nine times as much as three
years before. Cider varied from i franc 50 to 14 francs. _

The main economic hardship was that the best white wine
sold poorly if far from a town, while the cheapest brand

brought too liberal prices if the consumers were near the

place where it was raised. A worse plight was precipitated
in 1560. To the dismay of many towns, which opposed the
execution of the Edict of Amboise on the ground that wine
and the vine were the only means of livelihood, a govern-
ment octroi was laid for six years on all wines.^^ The rate
was fixed at five livres for each measure of wine, a terrify-
ing move in such troubled times.^^

Vegetables and spices accounted for seven per cent of the
total expenses of the workingman of 1560.^° Arable land
in France comprised only a little less than half the area of
the kingdom, and gardening was circumscribed by the small
variety of vegetables. It would be anachronism to speak of

36 Avenel, Decouvertes, p. 168.

37 Avenel, Paysans, p. 202. ^

38 Memoires de Claude Haton, p. 331. ^^r

39 The principal places producing wine were: (Auvergne) Thiers
and Limagne ; (Berry) Aubigne, Issoudun, Sancerre, Vierzon;
(Blesois) St. Die, Vineuil, le Grouets de Blois ; (Burgundy) Auxerre,
Beaune, Coulanges, Joigny, Irancy, Vermanton, Tonnerre; (Cham-
pagne), Ai, Avenay, Epernay; (Dauphiny) L'Hermitage; (Franche-
Comte) Arbois; (Guyenne) Bordeaux, Chalisse, Grave, Medoc;
(Ile-de-France) Suresne, Argenteuil, Rueil, St. Cloud, Soissons ;
(Languedoc) Frontignan, Gaillac, Limoux ; (Nivernais) Pouilly and
Charite; (Normandy) Cassis, la Ciotat, St. Laurent; (Touraine)
Amboise, Azay, le Feron, Blere, Bouchet, la Bourdaisiere, Claveau-
la-Folaine, Mailly, Mazieres, Mt. Richard, Mt. Louis, Nazelles,
Noissy, Landes, St. Avertin, Veret, Vernon, Vouvray. Avenel,
Paysans, p. 209.

*o Monteil, p. 159.

22 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM: I559-I562 [43O

the artichoke, asparagus, tomato, melon, and eggplant in the
reign of Francis II. Cabbage did not appear until the eigh-
teenth century, nor did potatoes until the reign of Louis
XVI. Certain vegetables have disappeared or lost their im-
portance since 1560, such as hemp, poppy leaves, bovage
leaves eaten as salads. Others, like hops, beets, and tobacco
appeared for the first time.*^ Flour, peas, beans, and lentils
were all prominent on peasant tables. At the period of the
religious wars peas cost 12 francs the hectolitre in Langue-
doc, 15 francs in Orleannais, 26 in Dauphiny, and 39 in
Flanders. Beans and peas were of those rare merchandises
which simultaneously dropped in price and diminished in
quantity. The ancient oils, appetizers for the salads of
poppy and the meagre variety of other vegetables, cost one-
third more than our olive oils and double the price of oils
used by the working class in 1914.

Dairy products were especially expensive, though much
cheaper than meat. Today butter and milk are ten per cent
cheaper than four centuries ago. In the fifteenth century
butter brought 49 to 60 centimes the kilo.*^ Under Charles
VI and Charles VII the price was i franc 50, then down to
half a franc in the time of Francis I. Under Charles IX it
was up once more to i franc 25. The cows gave only a
pound and a half of butter a week. Milk cost thrice as
much from November i to May i as during the rest of the
year, because the cattle were milked only half the year.
The animals had the right to pasture, but very seldom the
means to prosper, while to complicate conditions hay was
expensive.

The abstinence of the Roman Catholics from meat during
two hundred days in the year increased the cost of fish to
fifty per cent more than nowadays. Interior provinces like
Burgundy and Limousin were forced to consider sea fish a
luxury. When an occasional mail courier drew rein in the
inland villages, the citizens found in one saddlebag letters,
in the other, fresh fish. The bourgeois ate salted fish, while

*i Monteil, p. 159.

*2 Avenel, Paysans, p. 195.

43 1 ] SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES 23

the well-to-do bought river fish. The citizens ate only
tencle, perch, and barbeau, while the poor used barbillons
and grenouilles. In 1559 there were a great many brooks
and small streams now long since dried up. The few canals
in existence were also stocked with fish. Even with these
sources the demand always exceeded the supply. Trout,
carp, pike, salmon, and all other inland fish were much dearer
than now. Whereas fresh salmon cost 25 francs the hecto-
litre, the salt and smoked variety might be had for three
francs fifty.*^ Trout brought five francs. Huguenot
sailors from Rochelle, St. Malo, and Boulogne were just
opening up the Newfoundland and St. Pierre fishing grounds
in the new world simultaneously with the efforts of the
Dauphinese and Languedoc fisherman off the western and
northern coasts of Moslem Mauretania. Unfortunately, it
was not possible to transport sea. fish to any distance, though
the price was reasonable in the coast towns. In 1560 a
lover of piscatorial dainties at Cherbourg or Bordeaux could
buy four soles, two skates, two eels, two mackerel, a millet
and a plaice for fifty cents. Cuttle and herring also were
cheap, but fish accounted for but three per cent of the
working man's expense.** Avenel cites the case of the
millers' boys employed near the Atlantic and Mediterranean
shores, who stipulated in their contracts that they should not
be compelled to eat sea salmon more than twice a week, in-
cluding holy days. The inland provinces were also dis-
criminated against with reference to the oyster trade. Five
dozen shelled oysters might be purchased for 51 centimes:
in their shells 3 francs was charged for the same quantity.
Oysters in barrels cost three times as much in the time of
Francis II (5 francs the hundred), as in the fourteenth
century; in shells, 9 francs 50, the same as in 1912.

Birds were often found on the tables of the poor in the
sixteenth century, especially the swan, stork, rook, bittern,
and cormorant. The upper classes ate with more relish
a different variety. When Charles IX reached Amiens, in

*3 Avenel, Paysans, p. 204.
** Ibid., p. 204.

24 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [432

Picardy, on his epoch-making tour of the provinces, he was
presented with a dozen turkeys, besides grey capons, pea-
cocks, herons, pheasants, and quail.*'^ France, however,
was not sufficiently attractive as an aviary and preserve to
suit the fastidious. Flanders contributed larks; Austria,
partridges, hares and deer; Italy, quail; England, pheas-
ants; Russia, reindeer. In 1914 the arrivals of game in
France were only iioo tons native and 450 imported, while
the quantity of domestic poultry alone equalled 21,000 tons.
A similar ratio would have existed in the sixteenth century,
had the wishes of the citizens availed. Chickens were not
plentiful, but eggs cost one-half as much as modern eggs.
Before 1560 a dozen eggs were sold for less than the cost of
one egg in the United States today. Fruits, as well as
vegetables, improved in France after St. Louis and other
French crusaders returned from their quests. From
Rhodes, Cyprus and Tarsus came the cherry ; from Armenia,
the apricot ; from Persia and Palestine, the peach and prune ;
figs, apples, pears, and sugar were also common in the six-
teenth century. ^

Many revolts disturbed the various sections France as . I
a result of the imposition of gabelles and other special taxes I
upon salt. The impost varied in different provinces, from 1
simple to quadruple. The great number of partial exemp-/
tions by the government availed but little to assuage popular s
indignation at the unreasonable price of this necessary com-j
modity. Up to the sixteenth century in France, even in ^
Franche-Comte and Lorraine, almost the whole of the salt
in commerce was produced from the evaporation of sea
water, and the processes of refining remained rudimentary
for a long time. In 1560 vast resources of springs and
rock salt deposits lay undiscovered or unworked.

Firewood, in the comparative absence of important coal
deposits in France, was rapidly increasing in cost. Though
the artificial or ornamental plantations of the kingdom were
much fewer in number than those of England, its natural

*5 Baudrillart, Luxe, vol. iii, p. 440.

433] SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES 2$

forests were far more numerous. One-sixth of the surface
of the country was wooded, with forests in almost every de-
partment. Lower Normandy, the Orleannais and the moun-
tainous boundary of France on the side of Switzerland
abounded in trees. Today the French forests represent a
value of three biUions of francs, but in 1551 there was a fine
for cutting down trees except by the lord and his subjects
for their own use.^^ No fuel might thus be purchased by
the unwooded sections of France during frigid seasons such
as the winter of 1562. At Gray, in Franche-Comte, a fine
was levied on two poor men who cut down a tree which
they thought was dead. A century before the peasants
could have felled it for sale. The season of "pacage"
(cutting) lasted in most forests only from March 15 to
October 5. In some places the peasants revolted (1525-
1579) because the wood of the forest fell entirely into the
hands of ecclesiastics, who had not paid the overlord for it.
The people of Jumieges and Braquetuit in Normandy main-
tained in a process of 1579 that the forest was common to
them and to the abbey to whom it nominally seemed to be-
long: that by means of a sol per year and by family, they
had then the rights of pasture, of firewood, and of the
acorns for their swine.*^

Wearing apparel is much cheaper today than it was in
1560. Changes in the mode increased the expense. There
was more difference in the exterior dress of a contemporary
of Louis XI and one of Charles VIII than between two
citizens of the times of Napoleon and Poincare. The
workman spent a good share of his money on clothes. To
get a woolen dress or suit in the time of the early Valois
cost one hundred francs or one-eighth of his wages.*^ Very
little linen was used because it was twice as expensive as
today. Headgear now is more democratic and less expen-
sive. In Francis IFs reign a beaver hat, edged with silk or
gold, cost one hundred francs (present money) while a felt

*^ Avenel, Paysans, p. 42.
^"^ Avenel, Decouvertes, p. 68.
*8 Ibid., p. 182.

26 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [434

hat, with pearls, was worth eighty dollars of modern
coinage.*^

Stockings were too expensive for any but the rich. Cloth
goods were much the same as today. Shoes on the other
hand were very cheap. Sabots cost only 14 to 38 centimes.
Footwear of the middle and noble classes was just as in-
expensive. At Romorantin in 1558 the " escarpins " of the
soldiers were valued at only i franc 16. The workingman
need spend only one-twentieth of his dress money on shoes.
Towels were unknown, and bed clothes were little used in
poor families.

M. Paul Lacroix writing with reference to the costume
prevalent in France claims that a distinct separation between
ancient and modern dress took place as early as the six-
teenth century.^^ In fact our present fashions may be
said to have taken their origin from about that time. It
was during this century that men adopted clothes closely
fitting to the body, — overcoats with tight sleeves, felt hats
with more or less wide brim and closed boots and shoes.
The women also wore closely fitting dresses with tight
sleeves. When Henry of England had the famous meeting
with Francis I in 1540 he was apparelled in "a garment of
cloth-of-silver damask, ribbed with cloth-of-gold, as thick
as might be; the garment was of such shape and make as
was marvellous to behold."

The French king was attired in equal splendor. France
was always ready to borrow from every quarter anything
that pleased her, yet never failed to place her stamp upon
whatever she adopted, so making any fashion essentially
French. The nobles and courtiers of each country were
careful to emulate their sovereigns in their attire, and in
wearing several gorgeous costumes, all of them in the same
style of fashion, every day. A man at court was not
esteemed wealthy unless using thirty costumes after dif-
ferent patterns. In Henry's reign pride in all the estates

*^ Avenel, Paysans, p. 250.

^'^ Lacroix, Paul, Moeurs, usages et costumes au moyen age el
a I'epoque de la Renaissance. Paris, 1871, p. 11.

4351 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES 27

grew with more wealth. The villagers wanted to dress like
townsmen. The costume of the middle and the humble
classes bore a decided general resemblance to the elaborate
and costly attire of the dignified and wealthy of their con- j
temporaries. They wore the same short close jerkin, the J
short doublet, often with loose sleeves, the short cloak, the
flat round cap plainly made from simple materials, and the
tight leggings and broad shoes with puffed upper hose. The ^
high cost of living and dressing aggravated the economic
situation, and made the French Reform doubly certain. J

A terrible factor in the France of the sixteenth century
was the bubonic plague. In the previous century it had
frequently appeared in every part of Europe. Again in the ^
period of the religious wars the pest recurred with grim
persistence, but the populace was often more afraid of the
headache than of the characteristic red eyes and swollen
tongues. Sanitation and sewerage were foreign to that^
century. The environment for the development of bacteria
outside the body was pitifully favorable. Marsh lands
were never drained and decaying matter near the houses
was piled high, so that the plague was ably seconded by its
nearest ally, typhus fever. Nimes experienced the plague
thirty-three times in three hundred years, together with
leprosy in 1558.^^ The number of Protestants in Orleans'!
had been greatly diminished when Throckmorton, the Eng- /
lish ambassador, was there as Coligny's guest. In Mayj
1 561, the plague was ravaging Paris, Lyon, Dijon, MagonTA
Sens, Troyes, Chalon, and Bray.^^ At Provins the town I
counsellors elected barbers, guards, and a gravedigger. Few 1
of those smitten with this most rapidly fatal of diseases
escaped. The Prince of Conde records that practically A
every village and town was afflicted by August, 1562.^^ I
Just after the fall of Rouen in October of the same eventful J
year, the plague was raging in the royal army. The same /

51 Delaborde, Comte J., Vie de Coligny, Paris, 1882, p. 120.

52Haton, Claude, Memoires, 1563-1582. 2 vols., Paris, 1^57; vol.
i, p. 224.

53 Memoires de Conde, 1559-1610. 6 vols., London, 1743 ; vol. ii,
p. 20.

28 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [436

malignant enemy conquered the English army in Havre,
causing its surrender in July 28, 1563. In the streets the
victims reeled like drunken men, often expiring in their
tracks. During 1562 the weekly mortality averaged more
than a thousand. Even the gravediggers died from the con-
tagion. The year of St. Bartholomew's 50,000 died in the
single city of Lyon. The provinces which suffered most""
were Bas-Languedoc, Provence, Lyonnais, Burgundy, Cham-
pagne, Ile-de-France, and Normandy. The west and south-
west seemed exempt.''* The infection followed the trade-
routes, for Toulouse, Lyon, Chalons-sur-Marne, Chalons-
sur-Saone, Magon, Langre, Bourges, La Charite, Orleans,
Tours, Moulins, Sens, Melun, Dijon, Troyes, Soisson,
Beauvais, Pontoise, Paris, Rouen, Chateau-Thierry, and the
Norman ports suffered more than others.***^ The pestilence
was introduced into Languedoc through Spain, and was at'
its height in July, 1554. Those exposed to infection carried
white wands.^^

Of social conditions poverty has by far the most powerful
influence on the spread of plague. The pestilence is sub-
ject to the law of periodicity or definite outbreaks, whether
appearing on the Euphrates, the Volga, or the Seine. In
France the recurrence usually followed years of famine,
and naturally the lower classes succumbed most readily.
The victims of the upper classes were for the most part
barber-surgeons, clergy, and officials whose occupations
took them among the sick. Though there were only three
years of exorbitant prices for grain and wine in Henry II*s
reign, drought and frosts often played havoc. In 1547 oc-
curred terrible frosts, along with the plague.^^ The drought
of 1557 was added to the alarm and grief over the suc-

5*DeVic et Vaissette, Histoire Generale de Languedoc (new edi-
tion in course of publication), vol. xi, p. 447. Paris, 1733-45-

55 Haton, vol. i, p. 332.

56 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 824, Nov. 20, 1580.

57 Mandet, Histoire des Guerres civiles, politiques, et religieuses
dans les montagnes du Velay pendant le i6e siecle, 7 vols., Le Puy,
i860, vol. I, p. 63.

437] SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES 29

cession of Philip II.'^^ The earth produced very little.
Eggs were 10 deniers apiece. The spring of 1562 augured 1
well, and Haton remarked that the vines promised grapes
and raisins more abundantly than for six years. In April
and May the hunches were over a foot long, and hopes were
high that the tuns would be filled. However, cold and con- J^
tinuous rains destroyed all the crops. Though there had
been a warm spring the rains were colder than ice. On
June 24 it rained and snowed and became so cold that the
heaviest garments were of no avail outdoors. As a result
only one-third the usual wine supply materialized and the
wheat was ruined. The people, out of work and complain- j
ing, helieved that " all this showed the ire of God, to which
was added the contagious pests all over France."^^

The possessors of soil in the sixteenth century became
rich, while the proletariat became poor in an unheard-of
fashion. This was partly due to the fact that wages were
proportionate to the movement of the population or the ex-
tent of vacant land. Science had not yet broken the old
equilibrium between the earth, population, and its products.®^
Not all Frenchmen collectively would have been less rich,
but individually they would have been poorer, had France
been peopled by only one million in 1560. Levasseur and
Merimee assert that economically France could have sup-
ported twenty millions of population in the sixteenth cen-
tury. In 1560 the Venetian ambassador said there were H
sixteen millions in France.®^ A Venetian syndicate inter- I
ested in the country in 1566, more reliable than most cal-
culators, estimated the population as between fifteen and
sixteen millions. ^^ During the wars the population began
to decrease, after a rise since 1553.

The worka'ble hectare of land rose in price from 475

^^ Felibien, Histoire de la Ville de Paris. 5 vols., Paris, 1725 ; vol.
ii, p. 1059.

*^ Haton, vol. i, p. 331.

•0 Avenel, Paysans, vol. viii, p. 8.

"^ Pigeonneau, p. 173.

•2 Relations des ambassadeurs Venetiens. 15 vols., Paris, 1838;
vol. iii, p. 149.

30 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [438

francs (1501-1525) to 723 francs (i55i-i575). In 1560
the hectare ranged from 18 to 723 francs.^^ The gradation
in revenue was from 30 centimes to "^2 francs. Property
did not depreciate so much in those provinces wholly
Catholic or exclusively Protestant, where the fighting was
least, like Languedoc. The mean hectare averaged: North
( Ile-de-France, Picardy, Artois), 263 francs; Midi (Lan-
guedoc, Dauphiny, Venaissin), 268 francs; East (Lorraine,
Champagne, Bourgogne), 333. In the center of France
where the fighting was thickest (Orleans, Limousin, Berry,
Auvergne) it fell to 200 francs.^* In comparing the revenue
from the hectare of ground to the price of the hectolitre of
grain since 1500, grain had quintupled while the revenue of
land was only two and a half times as great. The relative
insecurity of exploitation affected especially the Calvinists
and Lutherans, who in many districts received much the
same treatment as the modern Armenian Christians in
Turkey. A decade after the outbreak of the wars the
maximum price of the hectare of ground was 3000 francs,
the minimum, 13. Four hectares of the first and eighth
arrondissements of Paris (near the Madeleine) were worth
160 francs in the reign of Francis I, 5600 in 1552, 606,000
in 1775 and 40,000,000 in 1900.^^

In the fifteenth century at Paris some houses were falling
into ruins, but with the sixteenth there was a change, not
only in prices, but also in the houses to which they apply.
The jump of the figures is almost brusque. The suburban
trend was evident even in the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury. In 1550 there were so many empty houses in Paris
that the king forbade the building of more in the suburbs,
while the population was one-seventh the present census of
2,888,000. Much as the common people were disgusted
over the high prices in 1560, the figures rose by leaps and
bounds by 1600. A section of 14,000 houses in Paris valued
at a fifth of a billion of francs in the preceding century, was

^3 Avenel, Histoire economique des prix, vol. ii, p. 889.
^* Avenel, Histoire economique des prix, vol. ii, p. 340.
65 Ibid., Decouvertes, p. 118.

439] SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES 3 1

appraised at 1,482,000,000 francs in 1610.^^ Building lots
which cost two francs the metre in the day of Henry II are
sixty-five times as valuable in 1914.

Formerly the authorities of France gave attention to
wages only to reduce them, the laws regularly 'being far
more favorable to the employers than to the employed. In
the history of wages is the history of four-fifths of French-
men four centuries ago, who at birth signed a pact with
manual labor, and sold their lives in order to live.. The'l
fifteenth century had been most advantageous for wages,
when the lands had been useless and fallen almost to nothing.
The sixteenth century witnessed the triumph of landed pro-
prietors and the roiit of manual workers. The lowering of
wages was not sudden, or the result of a catastrophe or
public crash. It applied to all professions and proceeded
insensibly like a retiring tide.^''

The laborer of the sixteenth century had but half to live
on as compared with his ancestor between 1400 and 1500.^^
The price of work rose 33 per cent, but the cost of living,
200 per cent ! The relative values of precious metals re- |
mained triple ours of today. In 1560 there was thirty-six
times as much silver as gold, thanks to Central and South
American sources. Back in the fourteenth century living
had been one-third of the cost of today; in the fifteenth,
one-sixth. Then gold and silver brought it, in the sixteenth,
up to one-fifth of the present cost. It has been estimated
that a day's work under Aristophanes, in 400 B. C, brought
half a franc (half a drachma), just as two thousand years
later, under Louis XI 11.^^ The day laborers in the towns}
received 3 francs 60 under Charles VIII, 2 francs 90 under
Henry IV.*^^ Deducting' the multitudinous holidays the
farm hand of 1500 averaged an earning of 306 francs per
annum. By the time the religious wars were devastating
the country his yearly income had fallen to 150 francs. Pro- J

^6 Avenel, Decouvertes, p. 118.
^■^ Avenel, Paysans, p. 156.
^^Avenel, Decouvertes, p. 150.
6» Ibid., p. 14.
70 Avenel, Paysans, p. 25.

32 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [440

portionately to the number of hectares cultivated there were
more hands in the country, because there was more need
for its culture. Then, too, many of the harvesters and hay-
makers were often town weavers, who left the spinning
wheel or shuttle for the fork or sickle, according to the
seasons. From 1200 to 1500 the wages of the servant were
based on 187 days* hard labor, maximum, and 150, mini-
mum, with food.^^ The town servant's stipend faded from
282 francs in 1500 to 120 francs a century later. The rural
servant who received 138 francs yearly under Francis I
saw this wage dwindle to 73 francs at the close of the wars
of religion. During the first half of the sixteenth century
the carpenters averaged four francs, and the painters and
masons 3 francs 60 daily. ^

Abuses in the function of the trade corporations threw \
France of the sixteenth century into the throes of industrial
transformation, which progressed pari passu with the
Reformation. The splendors of the Renaissance, the /
flourishing of art and the prosperity of industry should not
give us a false impression as to the social conditions of the
artisans of the period, nor disguise the progress of an evil
in the ruining of the corporative institutions. The social
situation of the workman in the sixteenth century was not
enviable. The literature of the day was not interested in
him. He scarcely appears in the romance of Rabelais or
the Heptameron. France was not yet an industrial or com-
mercial nation, for the great majority of the people were
peasants, small proprietors, artisans, and small merchants,
with the bourgeois and gens-de-robe forming the upper class. -
The economic revolution coincides with the Reformation, /
which in a great measure became the vehicle of its expres-
sion. Rumblings had been heard as early as the reign of I
Charles VII, but the reigns of Charles IX and Henry III |
saw the storm break. Especially were the guilds involved
in the industrial upheaval. Industrial tyranny had long
brooded over the guilds, which since the period of Charles

^^■Avenel, Paysans, p. 4.

441 ] SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES 33

VII had the tendency to fall into the hands of a few.
Serious economic and political results ensued. The political
control of the cities fell into the hands of a ring of the
upper bourgeoisie and this oligarchy had gradually squeezed
the lower classes out of all participation in the government.'^^
As early as 15 12 at Nevers and 1530 at Sens, the lower
classes had been shut out of the council. J

Capitalism, hastened by the increase of the precious 'j
metals, was precipitating a further economic revolution of
even greater moment than the political transformation. The
" gens de metier," whom we shall examine in a succeeding
chapter, became a capitalist class, monopolizing the
" hords " of the guilds and excluding others from the
political ruling class. '^^ The ancient guild was becoming a
mercantile association conducted by a few wealthy families
who regulated wages and fixed the terms of apprenticeship.
In 1559 the apprentices in Paris and the provinces were not
paid, and were bound by terms of from one to six years.'^* /
Cheap labor was obtained by increasing the number of ap-
prentices, lengthening the terms of service, and employing
raw workmen in competition with skilled labor. While the
workman's lot became more and more unhappy it became
more and more difficult to cease being a workman. The
justice and good will of the master and the respect and
obedience of the workman became the exception. It was
more difficult than ever for the workman to become a
master. Simple companions were being excluded in mem-
bership by sons and sons-in-law of masters. Besides, many
new charges were added to the old obligations. The sum-
mer day for work lasted from 5 a. m. to 7 p. m. : the
winter day, from 6 to 6P The scabbard and playing card
makers and glovers had an even longer day, from 4 a. m.
to 9 p. m. Work might not be made up at night, for the
bad lighting was conducive to poor goods. Moreover, the

72 Thomson, Wars of Religion in France. Chicago, 1909, p. 217.

73 Ibid., p. 218.

74 Hauser, Ouvriers du temps passe. Paris, 1899, p. 26.

75 Hauser, Ouvriers, p. 78.
3

34 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [442

multiplicity of holidays left only two hundred days when
" oeuvres serviles " were allowed. Later it will be shown
how the revolution of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
were profitable to the peasant, though ruinous for the
artisan.

The patriarchal regime had remained vigorous up to the
sixteenth century. In it each family spun wool, and gave it
to be woven to neighboring weavers."^^ The guilds which
were perfecting during the period from 1250 onward only
partly succeeded in monopolizing trade. There now fol-
lowed a struggle between labor and capital, between organ-
ized and free labor. '^^ The cost of living, the lowering of
wages, and unfair treatment by the guilds caused the cleav-
age to grow sharper. A new class of " chambrelons " sprang
up. This was composed of those poor and unapprenticed
workmen who undertook to work in their own quarters.
They saved shop fees by working in their own homes, and
sold the results of their manual labor as best they could.
Journeymen of this type even traversed parts of Flanders,
Germany, and Spain while disposing of their goods. From
I457j when the guild masters first complained of this unap-
prenticed set, to 1559, this free work had reached the
amazing figure of two-thirds of the production in France.
Guilds with their strict regulations and money fees could
not compete with the new system. ^

The Reform appeared as the first organized movem^ent of
discontent.'^^ Thousands of downtrodden workmen were
quick to allign themselves with the new movement, not
merely for religious reasons, but because the Reform was
precisely what they sought, — a protest. Moreover, there J
poured into France many artisans from Germany, where in
the great industrial centers the small workmen had been
even more squeezed out than in France, England, and
Flanders. These simple cobblers, shoemakers, wool-carders,
carpenters, and others wandered over France carrying " the

''■6 Avenel, Decouvertes, p. 182.

77 Thompson, p. 218.

78 Ibid., p. 219.

443] SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES 35

economic gospel of free labor and Lutheranism."'^® Before
the outbreak of the first civil war Protestant recruits were
drawn chiefly from wool-combers, joiners, dyers, cutlers,
fullers, glazers, pewter ers, shoemakers, weavers, hosiers,
tailors, coopers, bookbinders, locksmiths, and other trades, j

The guilds were becoming dangerous fires of agitation. ]
The confreries were much run down and were accused of
favoring monopolies and debaucheries.®** Each "corps de
metier " carried a banner under the patronage of the Virgin (
and of numerous saints who protected the work.®^ The
center of the confreries was the chapels of the saint under
whose protection it was. All edicts of dissolution were in-
effective. During the sixteenth century the guilds were
under governmental suspicion on account of their turbu-
lent assemblies and the " bourgeois guard." By the time of
the wars, royalty imposed more directly its authority over
the trades in sanctioning their statutes and tracing their
rules, while the weights and measures were simplified as
far as possible. A little while before it had been quite
different. The edict of 1540 placed them all under the
watch of twenty horse and forty footmen.^^ jj^ j^^^ ^j^g <^
"bourgeois guard" was replaced by a permanent body of
footmen, who were paid sixteen sous apiece by the master
of the town house and four sous parisis by the owner of
faubourg houses, in return for keeping watch. On March <
3, 1 561, this was raised to twenty sous tournois and five
sous for the suburbs. An ordinance of 1561 limited itself
to saying that many of the confrereis must be used only
for divine service, charity and instruction — proof of an
eflFort to reform.^^ I

Letters patent of February, 1562 read :®* " In certain towns

"^^ Thompson, p. 219.

8^ St. Leon, Martin, Uhistoire des corporations de metiers dequis
leurs origines jusqu'a leur suppression en 1791. Paris, 1897, p. 284.

^1 Capefigue, Histoire de la Reforme, la Ligue, et du regne de
Henri IV. 3 vols., Paris, 1834; vol. i, p. 281.

82 St. Leon, p. 284.

8^ Hauser, Ouvriers, p. 167.

8* Ibid., p.. 167.

36 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [444

of the kingdom, especially at Lyons, the guilds had been
re-established; that under this pretext the trade people
carried on Sundays and week days, by certain persons
dressed in masks and other extravagant ways, i. e., by the
kings and queens of the trade, the sacred bread decorated
with banners diversely painted : they had drums and fifes
followed by a great number of artisans, from the house of
the head of the confreries to the church. Afterwards they
returned in the same procession to the cabarets where the
feast had been prepared." So Charles IX abolished the
guilds, but in 1564 they had so little decreased that their
banquets were again prohibited. Laplanche says there were
10,000 artisans in Paris, according to one merchant, who
did not want their consciences changed to that of the car-
dinal Lorraine.®^

Chancellor L'Hopital himself drew up the famous ordi-
nance of Orleans, aimed directly at restraint of the economic
tyranny of the guilds, by establishing freer working condi-
tions, and by lightening the burden of apprenticeship.^®
Both the religious and political Huguenots endeavored to
eflfect the revision of the guild statutes as part of their
program for reform at the Orleans States-General. The
government attempted to stamp out the guilds, whether of
religious character or workmen and patrons. Their hoards
were ordered spent for hospitals or schools in the several
towns, and the municipal officers were made responsible for
the edict.^'^ Royalty was literally compelling trade associa-
tions to be more altruistic. In their extremity the guilds
gained the support of the state church by stimulating re-
ligious organization. The government in letters patent of
February 5, 1562, and December 14, 1565, directly superin-
tended the "confreries de metiers." It was not long, how-
ever, before the guilds were acting as nuclei of the famous
local and provincial Roman Catholic leagues. Hauser points

85 Laplanche, Regnier de, Histoire de I'estat de France . . . sous
Henri II. 2 vols., Paris, 1836 ; vol. ii, p. 274.

8^ Isambert, Recueil general des anciennes lois f rangaises de 420 a
1789. 29 vols., Paris, 1822-27; vol. xiv, p. 63.

87 Thompson, p. 221.

445] SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES 37

out that the labor party identified itself with the Protestants, |
but that the upper bourgeoisie, who dominated the guilds,
adhered to Catholicism. At Rouen in 1560 the merchants
" declared a lock-out against the workmen who attended
Protestant preaching." Montluc in 1562 referred to the
Huguenots as novices in organization, guided mainly by
their pastors. If we except the example in Dauphiny the
Protestants had no early societies similar to the local and
provincial Roman Catholic leagues. The latter will be de-
scribed in a succeeding chapter. j

CHAPTER II
The Resources of the Huguenots

The vast political projects of Henry IV and of Richelieu
really began with Coligny, the great Protestant. His
thought was to avert civil war and guard against its recur-
rence by opposing to the great power of the house of
Austria a united France. For the realization of this plan
he relied on the enfranchised Low Countries. This great
idea was taken up in due time by Henry IV, but meanwhile,
just as Charles IX became mature enough to lend himself
to the project, the horror of St. Bartholomew's Eve fell
upon a frenzied France.

As to the political ideals of Coligny, that great patriot
possessed decided notions concerning a French world-em-
pire. He would submerge religious differences in founding
a trans-oceanic domain. External expansion assured free-
dom of worship and a united France: internal dissensions
meant annihilation of religion and foreign intervention, pos-
sibly outside domination. To superintend a program of
Protestant economic, political, and religious expansion there
was no one better suited than Admiral Coligny himself.
Ordinances of 1549 and 1583 fixed the jurisdiction of the
admiral of France as absolute judge of matters of war and
merchandise on the sea.^ Palandri says that after the treaty
of Cateau-Cambresis in 1558 patriotism was to be subordi-
nated to fanaticism; co-religionnaire meant compatriot, de-
spite nationalities and frontiers,^ but certainly this spirit
did not permeate Coligny and the leading French Protest-
ants. They planned for a united France at home and for
colonial frontiers which should expand to four continents.

^ Levasseur, Commerce, vol. i, p. 194.

2 Palandri Eletto, Les negociations politiques et religieuses entre
la France et la Toscane, Paris, 1908, p. 84.

447] THE RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 39

Theirs was no such policy as that of Henry II, who pre-
sented the paradox of aiding the Protestants of Germany
against Charles V and crushing the Protestants at home.
The colonies of Coligny failed, but mainly because the
French government was unfavorable. The calibre of
Huguenot refugees who crossed the sea was scarcely less
notable, than that of the element which emigrated to Ger-
many, Switzerland, England, and Scandinavia. For their
numbers the Protestants possessed proportionately more
wealth and culture. Though a company under the ban and
a despised sect, Coligny's colonists included nobles, chiefs
in castles, gentlemen, captains, statesmen, and honest yeo-
manry. Simultaneously with the introduction by Henry II
of the fiendish " Chambre ardente " in the " name of re-
ligion," a Havre mariner, de Teston, was designing an atlas,
in 1550, which the Huguenot sailors were soon to use with
wonderful results.^ In 1555 the body of emigrants on a
ship sailing from Havre was Protestant.* The Portuguese
sphere of Brazil was the goal of an expedition launched the
following year, but the doom of their prospects was pro-
nounced when the renegade Huguenot Villegagnon, leader
of the company, read a letter from the Cardinal of Lor-
raine, restoring him to the bosom of the church. Attempts
undertaken in 1560 and 1563 succeeded better than the
Florida fiasco of 1565, when the French were massacred by
the Spaniards under Menendez. In 1561 Chantonnay,
Philip's ambassador, warned the Catholics "on the subject
of an armament of heretics mostly gentry, preparing at
Dieppe against the Indies, with 10 galleys and 50 guns."''
The Reform had first entered the port of Dieppe in 1557,
when a bookseller who had gone to Geneva on business, re-
turned with some copies of the scriptures. Most of the
magistrates became Protestants, and the drapers and
weavers accepted the doctrine most eagerly. After driv-

* Bourciez, p. 51.

* Blackburn, Admiral Coligny and the Rise of the Huguenots. 2
vols., Philadelphia, 1869 ; vol. ii, p. ^T.

» Archives Nationales, Paris, K 1495, No. 4, 1561.

40 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [448

ing out the feast day procession of Charles of Lorraine,
April 30, 1559, the town became openly Protestant.® John
Knox preached there for six weeks, with great results for
the new faith. Such were some of the evidences of the
growing strength of Protestantism.

Levasseur classifies French industrial history into seven
natural periods, (i) The Roman period found the artisan
a slave of his college under imperial despotism. (2) The
period of invasions saw the artisans dispersed, living like
serfs on lands of lords or like monks in cloisters. (3) The
period of feudalism and the crusades was an epoch of pros-
perity. The bourgeoisie was born, while the corps de
metiers reformed on a new plan, with an eye to privilege
and mutual protection. Industry and commerce flourished.
(4) The period of the Hundred Years' War was one of
cruel misery. The artisan tried to protect himself by multi-
plying associations and religious bonds. The King put the
working classes more directly under his hand. (5) The
period of the Renaissance and of the Ligue was one of
brilliant development of art and industries, but all the abuses
of the corporation were in full blast. The king did not
triumph over the spirit of turbulent independence until
Henry IV. (6) The period of Colbert found royalty super-
intending the work. (7) The period of the eighteenth cen-
tury was that of economists.^ Our period of 1 559-1 562
occurs during the fifth cycle, when there was brilliant de-
velopment of art and industries, but the monopolies of
corporations were in full control. The operations of the
Huguenot merchant at home and abroad must be considered
under those conditions.

The importance of the commercial class in the sixteenth
century has been underestimated. It is true that the French
were not essentially an industrial or commercial nation at
that time. The maritime power of France was negligible
along side that of Spain, England, and Venice. In the cities
the upper classes of bourgeois and gens-de-robe naturally

6 Vitet, Histoire de Dieppe. 2 vols., Paris, 1844; vol. i, p. 95.
'''Levasseur, Classes Ouvrieres, vol. i, p. v (preface).

449] THE RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 4 1

overshadowed the small merchants and artisans.^ Society
was aristocratic and governed by the clergy and nobility,
who possessed most of the wealth of the country. Above
them, at the top of the social edifice was the king, gradu-
ally centering in himself the legal, administrative, and finan-
cial organization of France. But the aristocracy in 1559
had fallen on evil days. It was losing its opulence at the
very time the Renaissance was fostering a love for luxury
and gold from America was quintupling prices. France for
thirty years had drunk too deeply from the intoxicating life
of Italy — an atmosphere of restored paganism. The nobles
clung frantically to the tatters of medieval feudalism, voic-
ing their grievances at the Orleans and Poissy-Pontoise
estates of 1 560-1 561. They protested against the encroach-
ment on their rights by the peasantry, and certainly showed
no scorn of merchants when they asked permission to en-
gage in all commercial pursuits, without cancellation of
feudal privileges. The new centralization in government
was viewed with alarm. The peasants, on the other hand,
were restless because they felt they could only climb up the
economic and social ladder at the expense of the nobility.

With the economic and religious revolution was occurring
a change in the manners of society which affected all classes.
New world discoveries and the Italian wars of France were
sponsor for a new internationalism. Returned soldiers and
workmen from Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and the Low
Countries were introducing new manners and customs.^
Probably the citizen-merchant class was the most contented
section of the community. All the changes of the previous
half-century had played into their hands : Renaissance, dis-
covery of America, expansion of trade, decline of nobility,
and rise of prices. Further, the legal and administrative
classes, under the new centralized royal power, were from
the citizen ranks.^^ The guild or "corps de metier'' was

8 Thompson, p. 18.

9 Ibid., p. 220.

^^ Fagniez, Documents relatifs a Thistoire de I'industrie en France.
2 vols., Paris, 1877, vol. ii, p. 55.

42 FRENCH protestantism: IS59-I562 [450

a civil person, a religious and charitable society, and as
such influential. The municipal franchises of the bour-
geoisie still had enough importance in 1561 to excite the
solicitude of the royal power. " You should gain four of
the principal citizens who have most power in the principal
towns of France," said Catherine to Charles IX, " and also
the principal merchants, for in that way you will control
the elections."^^

The great commercial fairs constituted one of the very
greatest spheres of Protestant mercantile activity and propa-
gandism. For a long period the fairs of Champagne in
northern France enjoyed tremendous prestige. Each year
in that province there were held successive fairs at Lagne,
Bar, Troyes, and Provins, in each case of forty-eight days
duration. Bruges finally succeeded Champagne in the
estimation of Italian and German merchants. The north
of France also boasted one of the oldest fairs, that of St.
Denis at Paris. Here were gathered from the eleventh to
the twenty-fifth of June year after year patrons from the
whole Mediterranean basin. In the city proper all mer-
chants were compelled to close their shops during the fort-
night. Dealers in horses and cattle, money changers, and
those selling according to weight were permitted to offer
their specialties daily; other articles were sold at stated
periods. Huguenot mariners were richly recompensed for
bringing from the Levant such luxuries as rugs, pearls,
porcelain, indigo, perfumes, silks, muslin, cotton goods,
ivory, dyestuffs, sugar, camphor, aloes, rhubarb, and lauda-
num. When ordinances forbade the payment of any gold
to the Moslems, French traders discovered other means to
prevent the curtailment of their business. Increasing
facility of communication witnessed the apogee of the fairs
in the sixteenth century.

In 1559 the fairs at Bordeaux, the greatest wine port of
France, had not yet been injured by the civil wars. The

^ ^^ Buet, L'Amiral de Coligny et les Guerres de Religion au i6c
siecle. Paris, 1884, p. 37.

45 1 ] THE RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 43

annual dates were March i and October 15.^^ Tobacco was
first introduced into France at Bordeaux by Jean Nicot, in
1560, and thereafter this product became one of the staples
at the semi-annual fairs.^^ These markets were greatly as-
sisted when five years later Charles IX made them free of
taxation and control in return for a payment of 60,000
livres. Bordeaux boasted many factories of pins, paper,
morocco, wool, cloth, silk, mixed goods, gold and silver
cloth, and swords. It was also a great center for salted fish.
Haddock were exported to Brittany, salt salmon to Ireland,
herring to Normandy, England, Scotland, Ireland, and
Flanders. Sardines and cod were imported from Normandy
and Brittany.

Lyons, however, possessed the greatest of all French
fairs, rivalling any in Europe. Four fairs were held each
year. In the sixteenth century the city transacted business
of more than two millions ecus d'or per annum. This town
of 120,000 souls held the truly wonderful record of 35
millions imports, and 65 millions exports yearly^* (silver
being then fifteen times in value of what it is now). Situ-
ated at the juncture of the Rhone and the Saone, it was the
natural entrepot for commerce from Italy and Switzerland
and much from Spain, Flanders, and Germany. Fair mer-
chants were compelled to reserve their places a year in ad-
vance. In 1450 Lyons had been made the monopoly center
of the silk manufacture, and by 1536 silk operators had been
relieved of all taxes and military service. While on the tour
of the provinces in 1564 Charles IX was amazed at the
wealth and commercial prosperity of Lyons.^^ Said the
traveler Nicolay in 1573: "Lyons is the place of exchange
which gives the law to all the European towns, to which
flow people from all places, who have resorted there for the
honesty and hospitality of the Lyonnais, and the gain ac-

i^Levasseur, Commerce, vol. i, p. 189.

13 Bachelier, Histoire du commerce de Bordeaux. Bordeaux, 1862,
p. III.

1* Steyert, Andre, Nouvelle Histoire de Lyon et des provinces de
Lyonnais. 3 vols., Lyon ; vol. iii, p. 100.

*5 Negociations toscanes, vol. iii, p. 515.

44 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [452

customed to be found there."^^ The poet Charles Fontaine
eulogized it thus :

" Ou est la ville ayant tel bruit
En echanges, f oires, marchandises ?
Nulle mieux que Lyons ne bruit
Soit les Anvers ou les Venise."

Before discussing the religious aspect of the Lyons fair,
it may be said of its economic importance that the total
exports and imports of the town (in 1560 one-twenty-fourth
the present size of Paris), reached the unheard of figure
of one hundred millions ecus d'or. The wines and grain of
Burgundy traveled only a short distance to Lyons. Silks
and velvets were brought from Turin, Toulouse, and Paris ;
wool fabrics from nearly every province; clocks from Lan-
guedoc, Normandy, Auvergne, Rheims, and Abbeville;
tapestries of high warp from Rouen, Auvergne, and Fel-
lertin; sword blades from Vienna; cutlery from Rouen,
Montauban, Langres, Thiers, Moulins, Falaise; mercury
from Paris, Tours, Troyes, Caen, and Rouen; sword scab-
bards from Paris, Rouen, Troyes, Lyons, and Thiers.
Gloves were imported to the fairs from Paris, Issoudun,
Vendome, Montpellier, and Rouen ; pins from Puy, Nantes,
and Rouen; saffron from Albigeois, Limoges, Roche-
foucauld, and Cahors ; verdigris from Montpellier ; enamels
from Limoges ; hampers from Dauphiny and Provence ;
while prayer chaplets of agate, pearl, lapis-lazuli, porcelain,
amber, coral, enamel, glass, and wood came from all Chris-
tian countries.^^

The foreign countries of Europe contributed an extensive
variety of goods. Germany sent gold, leather, iron, tallow,
sulphur, wax, tar, cotton ; Augsburg, 30,000 livres worth of
fustians yearly ; Hungary, Frisia, and Denmark sent horses.
St. Gall sold cloth; Mayence, hams. Italy and the Levant
exported fifteen millions yearly to Lyons, as follows: silk
stuffs, velvet, cloth of gold and silver brocade, gold cloths,

i^Levasseur, Commerce, vol. i, p. 189.
^'^ Steyert, vol. iii, pp. loi et seq.

4531 ^'^^ RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 45

camlets (of Angora goat hair), laces, arms de luxe, cloaks,
theatre costumes, silk hats, ostrich plumes, straw hats,
scarlet cloths, furs, porcelain vessels, marble, alabaster,
enamel, Venice glass. Piedmont leather, carpets, articles of
Turkish morocco leather, war horses, falcons, and ultra-
marine blues. Damascus and Corinth supplied rice, honey,
and grapes. Smugglers introduced Venetian glass and
Genoese silks (worth 200,000 Hvres), lingerie de luxe, and
gold broidered shirts. Holland contributed cambrics, linen,
and wool worth 900,000 livres besides cheeses. Flanders
traded in tapestries, serges, carpets, lace, Hnen, armor-
trappings; and Antwerp, spices (400,000 livres), and
precious stones (half a million livres). England and her
colonies sent gold and silver, tin and lead worth three million
livres as well as coal, leather, and light cavalry horses.
From Portugal there came yearly 800,000 livres in money,
perfumes, spices, sugar, honey, wax, alum, dyes, sweet-
meats, preserves, figs, dates, oranges, raisins, oils, and wines.
The Lyons fairs supplied Spain with wheat, pastel, salt meat,
linen, wool, paper, and hardware.^^ In return she shipped
oranges, dried grapes, almonds, olive oils, cotton, silver and
gold uncoined or ingots to the value of three milHons. Raw
silk smuggled into Lyons brought two million livres in one
year. The values of other Spanish imports received at the
fairs amounted to more than a million livres.

In addition to this commercial importance Lyons was the /
greatest Protestant city in France. Even Cardinal Gran-
vella conceded that the principal citizens were Huguenots,
who comprised at least one-fourth the population.^^ The city
was radically Protestant on account of its proximity to
Geneva, and the tendency was stimulated still more by the
great discontent prevailing among the lower classes engaged #
in silk and other industries. Furthermore, Lyons was the /
capital of printing, and nearly all the printers, particularly

^^ Levasseur, Commerce, vol. i, p. 208.

19 Papiers d'Etat du cardinal de Granvelle. 12 vo's., Bruxelles,
1877; vol. vii, p. 467.

46 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [454

the Germans, were favorable to the reform.^^ At least nine
hundred homes in Lyons were suspected of Protestantism in
1560. Discontented with their social state, the working
class offered a marvelous field for the propagation of
Protestantism. The struggle between capital and labor,
between the bourgeois aristocracy and the gens de metier,
was making itself felt in 1560. It was taken up by the
printer's trade where the occupation placed the workmen in
intellectual relations with authors, home and foreign. Thus
there was opened up a new horizon so that the first cham-
pions of the reform from the working class came from the
printers' ranks. Though the bulk of the Lyonnais com-
merce was in the hands of 12,000 Italians, the latter did not
oppose the reform. This is not surprising in view of the
fact that they were mainly natives of north Italy, from
Genoa, Milan, or Florence. Foreign Catholic merchants
and artisans were none too kindly disposed toward their
Catholic majesties, Francis II and Charles IX, who mulcted
Lyons of loans more often than any other French city.'^L-*
The presence of many Swiss and Germans in the town gave /
Jacques de Savoye, Duke de Nemours, the governor, great
anxiety because of the large quantity of arms smuggled into
the city under guise of merchandise.^^ Foreign soldiers
disguised as merchants attended the Lyons fair in Aprif,
1560. The hand of the Guises was evidently preparing
for the inevitable in a city where many causes facilitated
the reform. For a long time Lyons had combated the tern- J
poral domination of the archbishops. It did not covet the
rich domain of the church, like the princes of the north, but
even more resolutely than Germany, the town disliked eccle-
siastical government.^^ The great numbers of strangers
attending the fairs acted as effective Protestant missionaries
in a cause already agreeable to the native.

Just as today, many of the prominent French bankers in I

20Hauser, De rhumanisme de la reforme en France, in Revue
Historique, vol. Ixiv, p. 271.

21 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 619, Oct. 10, 1560.

22 St. Sulpice, p. 266. ^

23 Montf alcon, Histoire de Lyon. 9 vols. ; vol. ii, p. 660. "^

4553 "^^^ RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 47

1560 were of Huguenot persuasion. The Protestant war J\
chest for many years was replenished through the abihty.^T'
of these men of finance to negotiate loans at home and
abroad. The resources of the large numbers of the nobility
and clergy who professed the reform between 1558 and 1562
were also at the disposal of the Protestant movement. To
Lyons fell the honor of instituting the first French bank,

in 1543. The system was introduced from Italy to replace, J

the money changers, whose business in those days of di-
versified coinage was decidedly profitable. Six years after
Lyons' innovation, Toulouse established a bank, in 1549,^*
followed by Rouen in 1556. Many Italian banking firms
were invited to install branches in 1560. In the meantime
the standards of money had improved.^^ ..^

At the same time the right to strike coins was not a L
royal monopoly and it is interesting to note that the Protest-
ants possessed a distinct money of their own. Independ- "^
ence and financial programs dictated such a procedure, but
of its history only a little is known. It is to be deplored
that material dealing with a practice which must have been
very common is scarce. That mine of historical informa-
tion, the annual Bulletin of French Protestantism, describes
coins discovered in and about Orleans, the central strong-
hold of Protestantism, which bear the features of Prince j
Louis of Conde and the legend " Louis, Roi." Conde was 1
really a king at Orleans. He ordered all the gold andU^T

2* St. Leon, Martin, L'Histoire des corporations de metiers de-
puis leurs origines jusqu'a leur suppression en 1791, p. 277.

25 Levasseur, Classes Ouvrieres, p. 37.

Until 1533 the great variety of moneys proved a real impediment.
Under Francis I a reform was instituted. The standard in the six-
teenth century in France was the livre tournois (20 sous, = 60
cents). It was not a piece of money but a value, or representation
of a quantity of precious metal, varying from 98 grams of silver
under St. Louis to 11 under Henry IV. Avenel considers the livre
tournois of 1561 to 1572 equivalent to 3 francs 11 centimes, or 9
francs 30 today. Levasseur estimates it for the same period at 4
francs 84. In contrast to the livre of value was the gold coin, ecu
d'or, equivalent to exactly two livres in 1561, and varying during
the wars of religion from i livre 16 sous to 2 livres 5. The extensive
trade with England served to circulate the gold crown of 51 francs
tournois and the " rose " nobles of 6 francs 12 sous.

48 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [456

silver from the churches to be brought there, while coins
were struck from sacred vases and rehcs, and cannon were ^
cast from church clocks.^*^ At the outbreak of the first civil
war the Protestants seemed to have plenty of money for
immediate necessities, thanks to the riches of the churches <
of Orleans and Bourges and the Abbey of Marmoutier.
The families which coined were those of Conde, Navarre, '^
Porcien, Anjou, Nevers.^" Damville, son of Montmorency,
established a mint at Beziers in 1586. William of Joyeuse
had mints at Toulouse and Narbonne. After their accept- ^^
ance of Protestantism, the people of Montalban made their 'v. p
own money. When Sommerive, governor of Provence, '^^ ^-
drove the Protestants from his district, he found many new
coins serving as nioney.^^ Many nobles, recent professors <
of the reform, were minting in their castles by the time of
the close of the first war of religion.

Naturally the Protestants were no longer obliged to pay' -
Papal or other foreign tribute. This released a magnificent
sum for the home treasury. It is related by the Venetian <q^
ambassador in 1560 that the amount of money sent by
France to Geneva was incredible.^^ Moreover, it was a
superfluous requirement of the edict of January (1562) <.
that any raising of money among the Huguenots was to be
wholly voluntary and not in the form of assessment or r

imposition. Calvin never had to urge voluntary giving upon < N
the French Protestants, who numbered, according to the -f
estimate of Montesquieu in 1560, half a million out of a \>^p ^
population of twenty millions.^° ^ \^3^

"Of the 17 departments contributing the deniers of the"! s^
king, only three are free, while the others are in the hands

26 Lettenhove, Les Huguenots et les Guex. 6 vols., Bruges, 1885 ;
vol. i, p. 75. Weill, Le theories sur le pouvoir royal en France
pendant les guerres de religion. Paris, 1892, p. 107.

27 Tobiesen Duby, Monnaies des Prelats et des Barons de France.
2 vols. ; vol. i, p. 329.

28 Ruffi, Histoire de la ville de Marseille. 2 vols., Marseille, 1696;
vol. i, p. 338.

29 Relation des embassadeurs venetiens, p. 413.

30 Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois. 2 vols., Geneva, 1748; vol. i, ch.
xxiii ; De la Barre-Duparcq, Histoire de Henri H, p. 55.

457] THE RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 49

of the Huguenots or useless on account of obstacles in the
highways," wrote the Catholic bishop of St. Croix, on June
I, 1562.3^ The Protestants let no money pass from the ^
provinces under their control, even destroying the govern-^
ment registers in the towns which they took. Chantonnay, ^
the Spanish ambassador, shrewdly commented that if the
Roman Catholics were as active in this manner they would
be better off.^^ In some quarters provisions were obtained^
by forced contributions from the Catholics. The Huguenots^
intercepted a portion of the dauphin's revenues, which ac-
crued mainly from two widely separated provinces, Dauph-
iny and Brittany. The latter contributed 520,000 francs
yearly. The gabelle of 50,000 crowns on salt and other
royal rights in Rouen and Dieppe were diverted when those
towns openly declared for Calvin. One writer claims that
"Huguenots or robbers" intercepted 13,000 ecus d'or sent
by Philip to Catherine from Flanders in February, 1563.^^
Loans from Catholic Germany, Tuscany and Venice were <
also appropriated, evoking vitriolic denunciation from the
Guises. One arrogant measure led to retaliatory tactics on
the part of the Protestants. An arret of Parlement of Au-
gust 5, 1562, ordered that "arrears of rents belonging to
rebels shall not be paid them."^* In answer to this decree '^^
Conde seized upon government receipts from the gabelle and
other taxes of the king in all the villages and elections con-
trolled by the Protestants, including even the moneys of the
royal domain and revenues of the churches. The taille was
imposed on all Huguenots in all towns under Protestant
control to find money to pay the cavalry and to obtain other
essentials. The priest Claude Haton confesses that the
Protestants paid for everything they took (to eat); "not
so with the Roman Catholics."^^ In contrast to the Hugue-
nots' method, forced loans were imposed upon small mer-

21 St. Croix, p. 171.

*2 Great Britain, K. 1497, No. 33, May 2, 1562.

*' Revue historique, vol, i, p. 490.

** Memoires de Conde, vol. i, p. 542.

** Memoires de Claude Haton, vol. i, pp. 279, 444-5.

50 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [458

chants at the beginning of the second civil war, and even
the peasantry were constrained to forced labor.

Financial negotiations between Elizabeth of England and
the French Protestants proved tedious and disheartening.
The Huguenots looked to England for a loan of ioo,ocx) ^
crowns, offering as security their leaders' notes, or else bonds I
of some of the most notable Reformed churches, as Lyons
and Rouen. Guise sent Count de Roussy to England to
discover Elizabeth's intentions and the miHtary state of Eng-
land.^^ Early in April, 1 562, Conde had asked support from
Elizabeth, after receiving assurances of her interest in
March.^'^ Beza remarks that if Elizabeth had said a few
firm words in espousal of the Protestant cause and had ex-
pressed her firm purpose never to return to the religion of
her bloody predecessor, she probably would have decided the
French nobles who were wavering between the two religions.
Possibly she was too much embroiled at home to be the most
powerful ally the French Protestants could have. Possibly
England could not break with Spain because of commerce
with Holland and Flanders. Whatever the cause, she re-
fused help to defend Rouen until too late. Two offers were"^
presented to Conde and Coligny by the English queen. On
condition that she should receive Havre, England would
pay in Strasburg 70,000 crowns, besides granting three host-
ages to the count Palatine. Twenty days after receiving;
Havre 40,000 crowns were to be paid at Dieppe, and in
twenty more days 30,000 crowns, to be employed by Conde
upon the defense of Rouen, Dieppe, and the rest of Nor-
mandy. Havre was to be returned when Calais was re-
stored to England and the advance of 140,000 crowns re-
paid. The Hampton Court Treaty of September 20, 1562, -
finally extracted the promise of 100,000 ecus d'or from
Elizabeth, who received Calais and Havre on condition of
manning the latter with 3000 troops. In the last analysis,
the niggardly policy of Elizabeth was fatal.^® ^

36Beze, T. de, Histoire ecclesiastique des Eglises Reformees. 3
vols., Antwerp, 1580; vol. i, p. ZTZ-

37 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 374, July 27, 1562.

38 Ibid., No. 289, Feb. 12, 1562.

459] THE RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 5 1

In further consideration of the foreign sources of revenue,
it is necessary to study the Huguenot ports and cities of
commerce together with the elaborate trade routes exploited.^
by the Protestants. Rouen was considered the second town I
in France by the Venetian ambassador. Even in 1535, there y
were two hundred ships in its harbor at one time. This
great Seine port flourished in spite of custom duties amount-
ing to one-third of the trade, and was rich in its four fairs
and cloth manufactures. In contrast to Bordeaux, the Nor-
man port had much wheat for export, but little wine.^^
Metals and lumber were imported from England, Spain,
and even Finland and Normandy ; skins from Germany and
Scandinavia; salt fish from England, Denmark, and Hol-
land; wines and oil from the Italian peninsula; salt and
spices from Brittany and Poitou; wines, honey, and wax
from Aquitaine; almonds, pepper, and spices from Italy.
The exports consisted of cloth, lumber, guano, worked iron,
coal, grain, salt, and cider of pears and apples.

Dieppe traded with Spain, Portugal, and Africa, and
claimed the navigator, Cousin, who touched the Amazon in
1488. Boulogne's trade was mainly with England and Ant-
werp. Harfleur was only a fisher village at the beginning
of the sixteenth century, but in 1520 Francis I made it a
seaport (Havre-de-Grace) and forever exempted it from
gabelles and tailles. Honfleur, across the bay, was noted
for its fishing. St. Malo, in Brittany, did an important
trading business with Spain during the sixteenth century.
La Rochelle exported wine and salt. The Protestants of
this port armed 29 " terre-neuviers " between August 27,
1 561, and March 6, 1563.^°

Bordeaux was the greatest wine port. All countries cele-
brating the mass had representatives at this Garonne city.
Dried fruits, grains, oils, and arms were also sent out, while
wool, leather, beef, cloth, and salt were being brought in.
Captain Lassalle, a Huguenot, suggested that eight warships

^9 Relations . . . venetiens. vol. i, p. 45.

*o Lehr, H., Protestants d'autrefois : vie et institutions militaires.
Paris, 1901, p. 95.

52 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [460

be constantly kept on the Guyenne coast.*^ Toulouse and
Agen would supply one ship each of 500, 200, and 100 tons.
The principal ports of the sixteenth century were on small
rivers, the ships registering a small tonnage. Artillery, he
said, could be secured from the metal clocks dismantled at
Bordeaux. To guard the entrance to the large rivers, Las-
salle suggested a floating battery-platform holding five hun-
dred men.

Narbonne as a port was not important after the fifteenth
century, while Montpellier declined just before the period
of wars of religion. Bayonne secured horses, silks, and
spices from Spain. The Basques were splendid sailors,
and their villages included many Huguenots. Marseilles ex-
ported wood, wine, cloth, wool, oil, carpets, saffron, soap,
and iron. Her imports included spices, silks, sugar, leather,
oils, wheat, ostrich plumes, and coral from Africa, and from
the Levant, gum, figs, aromatics, sponges, and Cyprus wines.^
Orleans, inland, was a great trading center. In November,
1560, the king imposed upon the Protestant stronghold,
** ce nombril du royaume," a tax of 10,000 francs*^ and de-*^
manded 100,000 more with which to pay his troops."*^ The <..
chief officials were notoriously Protestant. The reform
seems to have entered particularly those towns that had an
almost ecclesiastical complexion. J

Dijon, on the other hand, was a great commercial town
on the Savoyard frontier, with many nationalities in its
working and commercial classes. The Geneva influence was
paramount, and the first Protestants there came from among
the artisans.

From these ports and towns were despatched the expedi-
tions with which Coligny hoped to build a colonial empire.
In Brazil, Florida, Madagascar, Canada, Africa, and the
Indies, the Protestants played a preponderant part. Stu-

41 Archives historiques du department de la Gironde. 35 vols.,
Bordeaux, 1859 et seq. ; vol. i, p. 120.

42 Aumale, due D', Histoire des Princes de Conde pendant les XVIc >^
et XVIIe siecles. 2 vols., Paris, 1863-4; vol. i, p. 104. N

43 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 726, Nov. 18, 1560.

461] THE RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 53

dents, diplomats ,soldiers, doctors, merchants, and workmen,
fleeing abroad to escape persecution at home, were fitting
into the unselfish plans of the great Huguenot admiral.
The latter had been declared judge of war and merchandise
on the sea in 1549, just as commerce was making great for-
ward strides.** Courts and chambers of commerce were in- '
stituted by Charles IX in 1563, at a time when customs
duties were becoming a regular instrument of governmental <
finance and police, but influences were already at work to ,^
cripple the trade o-f the Huguenots. The ordinances of
1552 and 1567 prohibited the import into France of cloth "^
of gold, silver, silk, and cloth, while the exportation of
wool and " chanvre " was forbidden " without special per- <
mission of the king" (that is, of the Guises). The customs ^
in Protestant Normandy were equivalent to one-third of the
value, so that the peasants were forced to leave Picardy and
Normandy on account of the imposts.*^ ^

Protestant expeditions estabHshed spheres of influence in
North America, the Indies, the Levant, north and northwest
Africa, Spain, England, and Scandinavia. The religious
and commercial program actuating every sincere Huguenot
was simply expressed by an average draper, quoted by La-
planche:*^ '*But in all affairs in which those of the religion
try luck with us, I consider them brothers and good friends.
I know of a good number of our trade, who before they
were separated from our religion were as honest people as
it is possible to find. I begin with the third estate. The
merchants traffic with foreign nations, gain the friendship
of kings, find out news, enterprises, and deportment of the
same, and acquire experience in several things. Silver and
gold come from that. While a gendarme hazards his life
once in a while, the merchants risk theirs ceaselessly. The
wisest and most learned in virtue and prudence were once
merchants, like Solon and Plato."

So vast was the project of Coligny and his followers that

**Levasseur, Commerce, vol. i, p. 194.
*5 Relations . . . venetiens, vol. i, p. 407.
*« Laplanche, vol. ii, p. 239.

54 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [462

Montaigne was impelled to write: "J'ai peur que nous
ayons les yeux plus grandes que le ventre, et plus de curi-
osite que de capacite.^^ Yet, with all this extended horizon,
Africa was easily the cynosure of the Protestant advance.
The Barbary states, opposite Marseilles, first appealed to the
French. Two merchants of that town, Carlin Didier and
Thomas Sinches, began to traffic with the coast tribes.
They obtained the Sultan's consent to establish coral fish-
eries near the isle of Tabarca, in 1560, immediately follow-
ing the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis. They then founded an
exchange station and coral fishing twelve leagues east of
Bone, the " Bastion de France."*^ The coral of Algeria
was known in antiquity. Ezekiel refers to it in describ-
ing the commerce of Tyre. In Rome it was worn as an
amulet to keep off diseases and lightning. There had been
coral fishing all during the middle ages by Christians off
Algeria and Tunisia, the best species being obtainable off
the rocks of Morsa-el-Kharaz.*^ By many it was preferred
to the Venetian, Neapolitan, Sicilian, and Ceutan.

French merchants at Algiers imported oil and olives
from Tunis; dried beef and butter from Bone; dates and
garments for the Moors from Constantine ; dried fruits from
Numidia; cheeses from Majorca; different colored mantles
from Tlemsen; gold, silver, honey, and sugar from Fez
and Tetuan.^^ From Europe they introduced cloths of
striking colors, carved woods and tables, silks and brocades,
saffron, cottons, furs, quicksilver from Istria, iron work,
and trinkets. The best medium of exchange between the
Arabs and French was firearms, in which trade the Protest-
ant element did not heed the papal bulls which forbade the
sending of arms to Africa. Constantine, in north central
Algeria, not finally wrested from the Arabs until 1837, was
a great commercial center in the sixteenth century. It ex-

*'^ Levasseur, Commerce, vol. i, chap, iii-iv.

48 La Primaudaie, La Commerce et le navigation de I'Algerie avant
la conquete frangaise. 2 vols., Paris, 1865; vol. ii, p. i.

*^ Boutin, Anciennes Relations commerciales de la France avec
Barbaric. Paris, 1902, p. 285.

50 La Primaudaie, p. 190.

463] THE RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 55

ported alum, resin, figs, dates, leather, fine wood, table
cloths, bed spreads, tunics, soaps, horses, perfumed woods.
Gold and precious stones were brought from the famous
gorge of the Rummel, which today is spanned by a bridge
second in height only to that at Victoria Falls. Other native
products included silk stuffs, spices, cotton, essences, arms,
bernous, carpets, fruits, and tin at the same time. It is safe
to say that the Protestants seldom indulged in the most
lucrative of all African trades, that in slaves.

The provinces of Dauphiny and Provence sent many
traders to Bougie, another Algerian coast port. This town
was noted for its leather, wool, oils, and wax, but was strictly
ruled by the Mohammedans. While the muezzins called
from the minarets the invitation to prayer each Friday, the
foreign shops had to be closed with the French inside. True
to the Koran, the Moslems vexed their merchant guests as
much as possible, but in spite of the law the Arabs of
Bougie liked the wine from Marseilles and Bordeaux.
Rigorous duties were imposed upon the merchants to the
extent of one-tenth the value of exports and imports.
Agreements were entered into from time to time and the
Mohammedans liked the *' treaties," for every renewal meant
new presents. On the other hand Moorish corsairs con-
stantly cruised off Dauphiny and Provence, on the lookout
for slaves. Roman Catholic captives were preferred, for
the Algerines were under the impression that the confession
rendered them more faithful and obedient. Some masters
even required that their slaves go to mass.^^ At the same
time French slaves were cheaper, for the emirs never knew
when the French king might withdraw them by treaty,
although the corsairs only observed the agreements when
they pleased.

Mas-Latrie gives a similar list of the exports and im-
ports of French north Africa.^^ Slaves, salt fish, horns,
leather, wheat, barks, sugar, wax, cloth, tinctoral sub-

51 La Primaudaie, p. 196.

52 De Mas-Latrie, Traites de Paix et Commerce avec les Arabes
au Moyen Age, vol. i, p. 397.

56 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [464

stances, herbs, basket work, salt, metals, fruit, carpets, went
to be sold in France. Mauretania received arms, birds-of-
chase, money, perfume, mercury, hardware, wood, metal,
precious metals, dyes, wines, cereals, medicines, glasses,
spices, textiles, lacquer, jewels. The opportunities of the
Huguenot merchants were therefore numerous and lucrative.

The foreign trade of the Protestants in France penetrated
also into North and South America. Even Malaysia was
visited as early as 1527.^^ Brazil, as we have seen, had
been the site of the Protestant expedition under the traitor
Villegagnon. From the stupendous territory of the Amazon
the traders took skins, glassware, spices, parrots, rubber,
and a splendid quality of cotton. The present French
sphere of Guiana was anticipated when indigo, dyes, and
pepper were obtained from the north coast of South
America. The Spanish monopoly in the fabulously rich
land of the Incas was threatened when the French trading
vessels touched Peru and Chile, furnishing gold, salt, skins,
and silver. Canada, a prolific source, was neglected during
the wars except by fishers of cod and dealers in skins.

In the Levant the French political and commercial influ-
ences in Moslem states was predominant in the sixteenth
century. Urged by the great Huguenot admiral, the
mariners of France penetrated to the Aegean, the Black, and
the Red seas. Always favored as a universal language,
French vied with Arabic in the Levantine bazaars. The
Lion of St. Mark of Venice and the pennants of Genoa
were not better known in Greece, Turkey, the Barbary
States, and the Aegean islands than the flag of France.
Relations with Turkey were close. Francis I had concluded
several treaties with the Sublime Porte, in order to secure
his aid against Charles V of Germany. Enemies of France
and Francis have maliciously hinted that had not the diflPer-
ences been so great, the French monarch would have em-
braced Islam, if only to further his political aims. The
contest continued with others,^* and it was only natural that

s' Levasseur, Commerce, vol. i, chap. iv.

5* Lettenhove, Les Huguenots et les Gueux, p. 10.

465] THE RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 57

Henry II should continue to thwart the plans of Spain.
The demonstration off the Naples coast by the Turks in
1558 was obviously the result of an arrangement with
France, yet in the same year the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis
left out of consideration entirely the Sultan Soliman, and
that ruler might well feel that he was simply a pawn in
European politics. To an ambassador of Henry II, he sent
this message : " Write your master that if it is difficult for
old friends to become enemies it is less so for old enemies
to become faithful friends/"'^ The death of the king ended
the official French treaties with the Porte. In 1563 a
French envoy to Constantinople was four years overdue.
Here was the opportunity of the Huguenots. Skillfully they
emphasized to the sultan the difference between Catholics
and Huguenots, between the respective foreign policies of
the Guises and court favorites, and of Coligny. The ad-
miral very probably grasped the opportunity and allayed
Moslem dissatisfaction by installing French consuls of
Protestant persuasion in the ports of the Levant.

French consulships to the Orient date from 1557.^^ The
roots of the consular institution go back to the second half
of the middle ages. In the commercial towns of Spain,
France, and Italy the merchants were in the habit of ap-
pointing by election one or more of their fellow-merchants
as arbitrators in commercial disputes, who were known as
" Juges consuls " or " Consuls marchands."^^ After the
crusades Spanish, French, and Italian merchants settled in
the Levant, built factories, and introduced the institution of
consuls, the merchants belonging to the same nation electing
their own consul. The functions of these consuls became,
moreover, gradually more extended through treaties, called
"capitulations," between the home states of the merchants
and the Moslem monarchs on whose territories these mer-
chants had settled.^^ Finally the power of consuls included

^5 St. Priest, L'ambassade de France en Turquie, p. 42.

56 Ibid., p. 282.

5^ Oppenheim, International Law, vol. i, p. 482.

** Sir Travers Twiss, The Law of Nations, vol. i, sees. 253-263.

f GFTJTH

58 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [466

the whole civil and criminal jurisdiction over, and protection
of, the privileges, the life, and the property of their country-
men. The institution of consuls spread to the west during
the century preceding the French religious wars. Soon
after the period of Coligny permanent legations were re-
sponsible for the decline of the importance of the consular
office. In European states the functions of the latter now
shrank into supervision of the commerce and navigation of
their home countries. In Mohammedan states, however,
consuls not only retained their original jurisdiction, but by
treaties and custom secured exterritoriality, inviolability,
ceremonial honors, and miscellaneous rights. Their posi-
tion in non-Christian states was from every angle excep-
tional, not agreeing with early or modern principles of inter-
national law otherwise universally acknowledged. This was
naturally necessary since the ideas of justice of Moslem
states were far from approximating the Christian ideas ; the
foreigner's Hfe, honor, and goods were constantly in
jeopardy without the intervention of the consul in the native
courts.

In 1568 Bodin wrote: "French merchants have shops at
Alexandria, Cairo, Beirut, TripoH, and are credited at Fez
and Morocco the same as Spaniards.^^ The Barbary States
and Egypt comprised only a portion of the Mohammedan
market exploited by the Protestants under the surveillance
of Coligny. The rich field of Asia Minor was entered from
the north through the Black Sea ports of Trebizond and
Samsun, from the west through the commodious harbor
of Smyrna, from the south by way of Adalia, Tarsus,, and
Mersina. From the days of the crusaders French mer-
chants had frequented the bazaars of Damascus, the oldest
city in the world. The elaborate products of Syria were
exchanged for French wheat, salt, fish, wool, cloth, and
wines. From Cyprus the western sailors took the wines of
Famagusta. The Aegean islands of Lemnos, Mitylene,
Chios, Samos, and Rhodes were regular ports of call. The

•^ Levasseur, Commerce, vol. i, p. 204.

467] THE RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 59

Turkish lands of the Mediterranean border supplied the ]
Protestants with Damascene blades, steel, granulated metals,
brass, iron, wire, flint, tinplate, and white lead — all valuable
assets in the wars of religion. The Huguenot vessels also^
imported from the Levant needles. Angora camlets, crock-
ery, spikenard, verdigris, ambergris, quicksilver, cork, quin-
quina, tartar, tutty, spirits, furs, linen, cloth, dyed woods,
camphor, tortoise shell, syrup, coralwork, almonds, and
plums. '^

Not only the Mediterranean border of Africa, but the
remoter parts as well formed a magnet for the early Protest-
ants. Ten years after Luther nailed up the theses at Wit-
tenburg we find record of the French at Madagascar, which
now belongs to France. Even at Sumatra and other smaller
islands of the Malaysian archipelago there were French
mariners only thirty-five years after the discovery of
America. As the result of the foresight and expansion
policy of Coligny, France in 191 5 has in Africa one of the
mightiest empires of any age. The French sailor-merchants
exploited not only the north coast, from Morocco to Egypt,
but the Protestants soon pressed beyond the fringe. Cape
Town, 6000 miles from Tunis, and the 4000-mile east-to-
west parallel between Capes Guardafui and Verde were soon
charted by the aides of Coligny. The magnificent distances
attempted by the explorers and traders would have terrified
their fellows in France. Consider the broad northern half
of the supercontinent. The traveler mounts a mehari camel,
from time immemorial the " desert express." The day's
journey will average fifty miles. Six weeks are spent on
the trip from Algiers due south to the mouth of the Niger.
Eight weeks are consumed in the journey from the town
of Dakar, at Cape Verde, the westernmost point of the con-
tinent, due east to the western edge of Darfur, the extreme
boundary of the Egyptian Sudan. The trade route from
Tangier, opposite Gibraltar, southeast to Ubanghi-Shari, the
very center of the continent, can not be traveled in less than

«o St. Priest, p. 327.

6o FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [468

sixty-two days, though equivalent to the distance from New
York to Seattle. Huge kingdoms of the Sudan awaited in
1560, as now, a mercantile wedge. To the uninitiated it is
staggering to know that the area of the ten primary Sudanese
divisions extends over two million square miles. Beginning
in the east we find Kordofan, the size of England ; Darfur,
of France ; Wadai, of Italy and Ireland ; Bagirmi, of Spain ;
Kanem, of Greece and Denmark; Adamawa, of European
Turkey; Bornu, of Portugal; Sokoto, of Japan; Gando, of
Scotland and Ireland; Nupe, of Bulgaria.®^ Fate decreed
that the Huguenots, exiles from their home shores, should
lay the foundation of an enormous colonial domain in
Africa. Today the Sahara is a French sphere, as large as
the United States of America. Morocco, Algeria, and
Tunisia are equivalent to the Middle and South Atlantic
states, besides Ohio and Kentucky. The last named state
is only one-twenty-fifth the size of French West Africa.
The French Congo is eight times as large as Illinois, while
two states like Michigan could be carved from the Ivory
coast.

What were the incentives to trade in territory which even
three and a half centuries after Conde and Coligny is en-
titled the " Dark Continent " ? To enumerate exports from
France to west and central Africa would be to reiterate th.
list of staples which the Huguenots carried to all lands of
the Mediterranean basin and north Europe. The gold of
Ophir and the lure of Ethiopia and Abyssinia, the possible
home of the queen of She'ba, were powerful attractions.
Moreover, the ostracized Protestants had very real ideas of
revivifying the remnant of the Christian church along the
north and northeast borders of Africa. In the year 200
nine hundred churches had flourished along the African
margins of the Red and Mediterranean Seas. Even Arabia
as far as Muscat was inoculated with the new doctrine.
Meropius, a Tyrian savant, was responsible in 320 for the
penetration of Christianity into Abyssinia, which today most

«i H. Karl W. Kumm, The Sudan, London, 1907, p. 63.

469] THE RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 6 1

distinctly of any African kingdom reveals traces of that
pioneer effort in the form of the Coptic church.^^ xhe
dominion of Mohammed rose in the seventh century, and
the native churches, without the bulwark of a gospel in the
vernacular, speedily succumbed before the Koran and the
sword of Islam. The Coptic elements in Algeria, Egypt,
Nubia, and Abyssinia formed the nucleus around which the
Huguenots hoped to build strong Protestant communities.

For the moment, however, we are more concerned with
their mercantile prowess. Levasseur says that the French
went to the Guinea coast for powder of gold, ivory, and
gums.*^ Senegambia and the fertile Sudanese kingdoms
contributed then, as now, a wealth of vegetable products to
the mother country. Maize, said by Santa Rosa de Viterbo
to have been introduced by the Arabs into Spain in the
thirteenth century and thence by slave dealers into West
Africa, grew to the height of five or six feet. From it the
natives baked bread and brewed a kind of sour beer.
Millet, one of the earliest bread-making grains known, has
always been a tropical African product. Cultivated and
" hunger " rice was exported from equatorial Africa. Ac-
cording to a statement contained in a manuscript belonging
to the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, the use of coffee
was known at a period so remote as 875 A. D. A parch-
ment of 1566 credited to an Arab sheik stated that a knowl-
edge of coffee was first brought into Arabia from Abyssinia
about the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Moslems
of Arafeia and West Africa were not unanimously in favor
of the new beverage. Many used it as an antisoporific during
the strenuous abnegation of the annual month of Ramadan.
Others held it to be an intoxicant, and in consequence a
violation of the Koran. The priests were fiercely hostile
because the coffee-houses exerted a depressing influence
upon attendance at the mosques. The coffee bought by the
French in the western Sudan was the equal of the Javanese

♦2 Frederic Perry Noble, The Redemption of Africa, vol. i, p. 25.
•3 Levasseur, Commerce, vol. i, p. 208.

62 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [470

and Cingalese brands, and second only to the famous Mocha
of the Arabian Yemen.

Cotton has grown wild in the Sudan for many centuries.
Arab slave dealers introduced it from India, where it had
been used in domestic manufactures five centuries before the
Christian era, into Egypt and then West Africa. In 1560
Guicciardini, in a very full list which he gives of the dif-
ferent articles annually imported into and exported from
Antwerp, then the greatest commercial mart in Europe, men-
tions cottons among the goods obtained from Venice and
Genoa. Their sailors had brought it from Africa and
Arabia. We know that Protestant refugees from France
carried cotton manufacture to England at the close of the
sixteenth century. The Huguenot traders found in Africa
the leading species of cotton, and the French Protestants
became admittedly leaders in the European cloth industry.
Their best African cotton was obtained from the region of
Lake Chad.

Guinea corn, one of the Sudanese staples, was sent to
France after the December harvests. Ground nuts were
cultivated everywhere and exported to France with and
without the husks. The oils extracted from them took the
place of olive oil, though the latter had been introduced into
all Africa from Palestine in Biblical times. The chief con-
diment which contributed to the characteristic gastronomy
of France was pepper. Ashanti pepper, although bearing
the name of the Gold Coast colony, has always occurred
most abundantly in the country of the Niam-Niam ("great
eaters"), a more or less cannibal race in north central
Africa. This brand diiifers from black pepper in being
smaller and less wrinkled, but has the same pungency, due
to a resin. It was imported from the Grain Coast (modern
Liberia and Sierra Leone) by merchants of Rouen and
Dieppe — later two strongly Protestant towns — as early as
1364. Ebony wood was another article of export to France,
as it was to the Orient in the days of Herodotus.®*

6* Herodotus, Bk. iii, chap. 97.

47 1 ] THE RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 63

Two Other commodities which were taken from Africa
by the Protestant sailors were rubber and palm oil. Twenty-
one varieties of trees are available in the Sudan from which
rubber can be obtained,^^ and some have always abounded
in tropical Africa, particularly in the Senegal and Congo
basins. The product was already known for Herrera,
on the second trip with Columbus, mentions it in Hayti,^^
while Torquemada in a work of 1615 describes the trees
found in Mexico.®^ Oil from the palms of French Mada-
gascar and West Africa must have been sent to the mother
country at an early date. For centuries the utility of palms
to inhabitants of the tropics had been noteworthy. They
furnished shelter, clothing, food, fiber, sugar, timber, fuel,
building material, dyes, starch, oil, wax, wine, resin, and
many minor products.

The oldest trade routes in Africa were created for traffic
in salt. Herodotus tells us of the caravan trails connecting
the salt oases of the Libyan desert.^^ In the time of
Coligny, twenty centuries later, and even today, the Sahara
caravan trade is largely a traffic in that product. In 1560
the Protestants who entered the Sudan and eastern Africa
found cakes of salt being used as currency, just as it had
been in Abyssinia in the days of Marco Polo. One writer
states that in Timbuctoo and Kano, in 1560, a camel load
of salt (200 kilograms) was worth eighty-four ducats.^^
Timbuctoo, over a thousand miles from the Atlantic by way
of the Senegal and Niger systems, was at the converging
point of the main trade routes from the Gulf of Guinea and
from the Mediterranean across the western Sahara. The
Huguenots sent out by Coligny traded at Timbuctoo at a
time when it was the capital of the short lived Sonrhai
empire and the chief centre of Moslem culture for the na-
tions of the western Sudan. Salt was the great staple of

®5 Kumm, p. 166.

*6 Herrera, Historia, Bk. iii, chap, iv.

*'^ Torquemada, De la Monarquia Indiana. Madrid, 1723; vol. ii,
p. 663.

68 Herodotus, Bk. iv, chap. 181.
_<'9La Primaudaie, p. 196.

64 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [472

trade. With this commodity and cowry shells, an ancient
and modern African currency, the natives secured products
of European manufacture. Salt was always welcomed by
the French Protestants, for the home supplies of the Vosge^j
and the Pyrenees were dominated by the Roman Catholic
Guises of Lorraine and by Philip of Spain, respectively.
Kano, the other important Sudanese trade centre, lay eight
hundred miles by caravan route southeast of Timbuctoo, and
half that distance west of Lake Chad.

Of French trade with European nations in the middle of
the sixteenth century the most significant part was with
Spain. Besides Castile, Aragon, Navarre, Naples, Sicily,
Sardinia, Milanais, Roussillon and Franche-Comte, and the
Netherlands, Spain had under its jurisdiction Oran, the
islands of Madeira, Canary, St. Helena, Fernando Po, and
Anno Bom; Mexico, Peru, New Grenada, Chile, Paraguay,
Cuba, la Plata, Domingo, Martinique, Guadalope, Jamaica,
and the Philippines. In 1557 France and Spain were the
two great powers of the age : France excelled in land forces,
while Spain boasted the larger navy.*^^ Then, on St. Law-
rence's Day, 1557, the town of St. Quentin was captured by
the Spainards, and the event commemorated by the incep-
tion of the gloomy and labyrinthian palace of the Escorial,
outside Madrid. The capture of St. Quentin opened for
France a period of forty years subserviency to Spain.'^^
Many patriots excoriated the signers of the humiliating
treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, concluded in 1559. By the
terms of peace Francis gave Marienbourg, Thionville, Dam-
villiers, and Montmedy in exchange for St. Quentin, Ham,
Catelet, and Therouanne. It gave without price Bouvigny
and Bouillon to the bishop of Liege, while Spain retained
Hesdin. In Italy, France evacuated Milanais, Montferrat,
Corsica, Montalcino, Sienna, Savoy, Bresse, Bugey, and all
of Piedmont except five towns."^^ Calais remained French.

■^0 Baschet, La diplomatic venetienne, p. 238.

71 Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny. London, 1904, p. 61.

72 Ruble, Baron de, Traite de Cateau-Cambresis. Paris, 1889, pp.
27, 196.

4733 "^^^ RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 65

Another stipulation was that Philip and Henry II should
obtain from the Pope the convocation of a universal council.
This was to crush them, said the Protestants.

In spite of the new subservience of France to her neigh-
bor, Spain offered a very promising field for Huguenot
trade. The decadence of agriculture and industry in Spain
and Portugal was marked. Farming declined on account
of decreasing population, devastation by troops, and the emi-
gration caused by the inquisition. For example, in 1553 the
kingdom of Navarre had but 154,000 inhabitants.^^ The
decay of industry was attributable to the high price of work,
increased imports, the prohibition against selling manu-
factures abroad, the prejudice against the mechanical arts,
and most of all, to the new infusion of wealth from the
colonies. Galleons of Philip II made him the richest in
gold of any monarch, but he left the crown charged with
de'bts and embarrassed in a thousand ways.'^* The new
influx of gold and silver had made Spain neglect her ancient
industries. Portugal was so enervated from the same cause
that the kingdom, far from profiting by the sacrifices of
Vasco de Gama and Albuquerque, actually was annexed by
Philip in 1580. Moreover, the disastrous expedition led by
the duke of Medina-Coeli against Dragut in North Africa
in 1559, the year of the first war of religion in France,
exerted a depressing effect upon Spanish industry. Into
this new field flocked many French workmen, especially from
Auvergne and Limousin. The fact that numbers of the
best artisans of France, the Huguenots, fled abroad to escape
persecution, did not deter them from venturing into the
home of the Inquisition. In Aragon and Navarre nearly
all the carpenters, turners, stonecutters, masons, vinedressers,
drivers, saddlers, rope-makers, harness-makers, and wheel-
wrights were French.*^^ The Moors had introduced into
Spain silk, rice, cotton and sugar, while their canals for

^^ Weiss, L'Espagne depuis la regne de Philippe II, vol. i, p. 21.

^* Baschet, Diplomatic, p. 238.

^" Levasseur, Commerce, vol. i, p. 208.

66 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [474

inland trade antedated those in France constructed under
the direction of da Vinci. Much of the cotton, oHve oil,
oranges, almonds, dried grapes, spices, confitures exported
to Bordeaux, Bayonne, and Toulouse by Spain was prepared
by Frenchmen. Spain procured wheat, salt meat, pastel,
linen, wool, paper, and hardware from France.*^^ Carcas-
sone and Perpignan furnished fine cloths. Spanish silks
ceased to figure in the French importations about 1560.

France had -been tributary to Venice for glass and cloth.
To the cloth of Tuscany, however, succeeded that of Lan-
guedoc, Picardy, and Normandy. All that France had to
oppose to Italian, Spanish, and Flemish industries at the
beginning of the sixteenth century were some silk factories
at Lyons, Nimes, and Tours ; glass factories at Argonne and
in Burgundy and Agenois ; fine sculptured furniture at Paris,
Rouen, and Tours; and admirable enamels at Limoges."^^
Her artists were rivals of the Italians in the trade without
being their equals. In 1500 there were no industrial work-
men comparable to those at Rome, Florence, Milan, and
Venice. By 1560 the Huguenot artisans would have to be
included in this category. Paris had approached Venice in
printing with eight hundred publishing houses while Lyons
boasted quite as many. Silk and glass factories were being
founded at Lyons. '^^ Although their country was to be de-
pendent upon Italy for many years for scarlet cloth and
articles de luxe, the French dyers turned out 600,000 pieces
in 1560.

Flanders sent to the Huguenots armor, trappings, cotton,
serges, linen, carpets, morocco leather, and lace.'^^ Alsace-
Lorraine, just as today, traded more with France than
beyond the Rhine. The formidable Protestant cavalry de-
pended upon Germany and the Low Countries for war
steeds. The latter country exported a tremendous amount
of salt herrings to France. French wine-casks filled with

'^^ Levasseur, Commerce, vol. i, p. 208.
^7 Pigeonneau, vol. ii, p. 57.
■^8 Baudrillart, Luxe, vol. iii, p. 440.
79 Levasseur, Commerce, p. 205.

475] THE RESOURCES OF THE HUGUENOTS 67

Bibles, arms, and gold were smuggled from Switzerland
through Catholic provinces. The three Scandinavian king-
doms bought from their French co-religionists safran, salt,
pastel, and wine. Linen cloth, wine, and dried prunes were
included in French exports to the British Isles. /j

The politics of protection in France became clearly de-
fined for the first time about 1560, and Protestant manu- <
factures and skilled labor were efficacious in emancipating .
France from industrial dependence upon foreign countries. '^
At the outbreak of the first war of religion there was a sen- •
sible decline in importations. By 1560 the government
realized that new sumptuary laws should accompany the^
new policy of protection. In the reign of Henry II pride"^
in all the estates grew with the acquisition of wealth. T\it^
love for luxury created by the Renaissance did not harmon-
ize with the economic straits described in a previous chapter.
Villagers wished to dress like townsmen, the latter like
gentlemen, and so on. At the epoch of the religious wars,
it was lamented that the villagers wore colored cloths and
sumptuous habits, instead of dressing according "to their
degree of laborers and vine-trimmers."^^ Taxes might ^
wait, as long as their tables contained many varieties of
viands and fowl. " The laborer wants to make a gentleman
of his son," wrote Palissy. Accordingly, the government
made luxuries no less burdensome than imports. An ordi-
nance of 1 561 forbade under penalty of fine all foreign per- -
fumes, and gilding on lead, iron, wood, enamels or jewelry.
A rule of April, 1561, dealt with embroideries, lace, and silk <^
robes. The ordinance of January, 1563, prohibited the -
wearing of vertegrades of more than one ell,^^ while one of
1567 forbade garments of velvet and silks and the use of "^
pearls, unless in bracelets, by the bourgeois.^^ There was
a rapid succession of eight sumptuary laws between 1543 ~
and 1570. _j

The effect of piracy upon the Huguenot trade remains

^0 Baudrillart, Luxe, vol. iii, p. 248.

81 54 inches in France.

*2 Pigeonneau, vol. ii, p. 173.

68 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [476

to be examined. By treaty of 1535 France secured from
the Porte exclusive rights to coral and deepsea fishing off
the Moslem coasts. The half dozen articles referred to
individual liberty and responsibility, religious liberty and
protection, inviolability of domicile, exemption from all
taxes, and interdiction from slavery. It is almost super-
fluous to state that the Barbary corsairs observed the treatiea^
only as they pleased. Protestant mariners did not suffer I
as much as Catholic, for the pirates in their quest for slaves
were imbued with the notion that the religion of Rome and
faithful servants were synonymous. But trade in the Medi-
terranean was not as badly paralyzed as in the seas of
Flanders, France, and England. During the second period
of the religious wars the sea was no safer than the land.
Possibly on account of a tacit agreement, there were few
examples of the civil conflict of French vessels at sea.
Rather did the corsairs of La Rochelle attack Spanish and '^
Portuguese boats, while the vessels of Brittany preyed on ^
English commerce. The thousands of piratical acts did not
cease until the treaty of Troyes of April 11, 1564, whereby
England accepted 120,000 gold crowns for Havre.®^ On
French soil the Hundred Years' War was being reproduced
by the Spanish and German soldiers of Philip and Guise. J

83 Ruble, Traite de Cateau-Cambresis, pp. 193-194.

CHAPTER III
The Organization of the Calvinists

The ecclesiastical and political organizations of Calvinism *
were identical. The unit of each was the congregation. [
The neighboring churches or congregations were grouped
according to number and convenience into colloquies, or ^
classes, which met from two to four times each year. The
colloquies of each province comprised the '* Synods," while
the national synod^ was composed of all the provinces. The )
congregations, synods, and colloquies constituted both taxa- ^
tion units and military "cadres."^ The temple was the -<
center of the Protestant community, but unfortunately none
of these are extant and they live only in descriptions. The
most elaborate example of Huguenot edifices was the
sumptuous temple erected by Coligny at Dieppe. Reared
in two months as a facsimile of the Coliseum it took Vieille-
ville three days and nights to demolish it.^

The grand lines of political division followed the historic
provincial boundaries of France, although smaller provinces
and parts of the larger ones, such as Languedoc and
Guyenne, were associated. The first national synod conven-
ing in Paris in 1559, divided France into 16 Protestant
provinces,* but this administrative partition was effective for

1 Discipline of Reformed churches in France Received and En-
acted by their First National Synod at Paris in 1554, chap. 7, publ.
in Quick, Synodicon in Gallia reformata, 2 vols., London, 1682.

2 Relations . . . venetiens, vol. ii, p. 115,

3 Floquef, Histoire du Parlement de Normandie, 7 vols., Rouen,
1840-49 ; vol. ii, p. 331.

* The Protestant provinces of France were as follows: (i) Ile-de-
France, Chartrain, Picardy, Champagne, Brie; (2) Normandy; (3)
Brittany; (4) Berry. Orleans, Dunois, Blesois, Nivernais, Bourbon-
nais. La Manche ; (5) Anjou, Touraine, Loudunois, Maine, Ven-
dome, Perche; (6) Upper and Lower Poitou; (7) Saintonge, Aunis,
La Rochelle, Angoumois ; (8) Lower Guyenne, Perigord. Gascony,
Limousin; (9) Upper and Lower Vivarais, Velay and Le Foret;

70 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [478

only four years, however, for the first civil war demon-
strated the weakness of the system. Several of the prov-
inces contained too few Protestants, so in 1563 the map
was charted into nine ecclesiastical divisions. Brittany
added Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, formerly an independent
province. Chartrain was detached from Ile-de-France and
annexed to Orleans. All the country watered by the
Charente was knitted together by combining Upper and
Lower Poitou with Saintonge, Aunis, and Angoumois. The
Burgundian division absorbed the small province of Vivarais.
The most interesting consolidation occurred in the south of
France where the formation of the huge province of Lan-
guedoc entailed the obliteration of the former divisions of
Provence, Dauphiny, and the Cevennes. The only original
ones unchanged were Normandy, Bear% and Lower Gu-
yenne. After all eliminations, the sixteen geographical di-
visions were reduced to nine: (i) Ile-de-France; (2) Nor-
mandy; (3) Brittany; (4) Orleans; (5) Poitou-Saintonge ;
(6) Lower Guyenne; (7) Languedoc; (8) Burgundy;

(9) Beam.

The official beginning of the Protestant church occurred
at Orleans, in 1557. The center of France, with its great
commercial towns, enjoying almost unlimited municipal
privileges, had been in the habit of governing itself, and had
frequently manfiested almost republican tendencies. It was
to be expected, therefore, that Orleans, the Protestant
" nombril de royaume," would be among the first to adopt
the machinery of Calvin's admirable institution, still a
model today — the democratic republic. Near the close of
the year 1558, fifteen months after the constitution of the
church at Orleans, several pastors at Poitiers were the first
to speak of the utility of a conference of faith and discipline.
Accordingly, the first National Synod of these Protestants

(10) Lower Languedoc, including Nimes, Montpellier and Beziers;

(11) Upper Languedoc, Upper Guyenne, Armagnac, and Upper
Auvergne, Toulouse, Carcassone, Quercy, Rouergue; (12) Bur-
gundy, Lyonnais, Beaujolais, Bresse, Gex, Lower Auvergne; (13)
Provence; (14) Dauphiny and Orange; (15) Beam; (16) Cevennes
and Gevaudan. Discipline, chap. 8, canon 15.

479] "^HE ORGANIZATION OF THE CALVINISTS 7 1

convened at Paris May 26, 1559.^ At this constituent as-
sembly, under the direction of Morel, the Ecclesiastical
Discipline and the Confession of Faith were prepared,^ but
only eleven churches were represented at the Faubourg St.
Germain, so perilous were the timesJ Delegates from only
six of the sixteen ecclesiastical divisions constituted at the
same synod were successful in reaching Catholic Paris in
time to fulfill their double mission of establishing a discipHne
and adopting a confession of faith. Pursuant to the de-
sires of their constituencies, pastoral and lay delegates of
Paris, Orleans, Dieppe, St. L6, Angers, Tours, Chateller-
ault, Poitiers, Saintes, St. Jean d'Angely, and Morennes
transacted the business of the First National Synod.

Each province established a synod which named deputies
to the national synod, in which twice a year all ministers of
the provinces assisted. Colloquies of pastors and deacons
were also held. Consistories, or particular counsels, charged
with watching the behavior in each church comprised four
elders, two deacons, a secretary, and a treasurer. The
western provinces of Angoumois, Aunis and Saintonge were
among the pioneers in establishing the synod. In church
matters no church had any primacy or jurisdiction over
another.* Ministers brought with them to local colloquies
or provincial synods one or two elders chosen from their
consistories.^ Elders who were deputies of churches had
an equal power of voting with the pastors.^^ The authority
of a provincial synod was subordinate to that of the national
synod, and whatever had been decreed by provincial synods
for the government of churches in their province had to
be brought before the national synod.^^

3 Crottet, Histoire des Eglises Reformees en Saintonge. Bordeaux,

1843, p. 36.

«de Beze, Histoire ecclesiastique des Eglises Reformes, vol. i,
pp. 201-220.

''Bersier, Eugene, Coligny avant les Guerres de Religion. Paris,
1884, p. 150.

8 Quick, chap. 6, canon i.

* Ibid., chap. 8, canon 2.

10 Ibid., chap. 8, canon 8.

11 Ibid., chap. 8, canons 9, 14.

he I
in I

72 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [480

One of the few sidelights upon early ecclesiastical organ- i
ization is the order on distribution of alms of the Protestant
church of Paris to the poor of that city.^^ Under date of
December lo, 1561, are six provisions: (i) there shall be a.
bureau of eight notable citizens, assisted by four inspectors
from the consistory (changed monthly) and deacons; (2)
the said bureau shall be elected by the people before the
service; (3) for alms there shall be twelve boxes, with a
key; (4) deacons, six each from the town and university,
shall pass the boxes at each service; (6) no other clerks
shall officiate besides the eight citizens, the deacons, and the
inspector.

The administration of the sacrament was gratuitous in
practically all of the 2150 Protestant churches of 1560. In
the Parisian faubourgs, however, the rich and the poor were
expected to pay twenty and seven sols, respectively, at the
communion of the Lord's Supper, the sum to be employed
for the needs of the new religion.^^ A prohibition was the
rejoinder of Antoine of Bourbon, King of Navarre, who
claimed that the money should go for war and threatened to
hang the Calvinist pastors. ^ /

The strong elements in the Protestant organization were
its simplicity and the universal vigilance, from provincial
chiefs to simple pastors. In 1559 Correro, Venetian am-
bassador at the court of Henry II, wrote to the Doge : " If
our priests were half so energetic, of a certainty Christianity
would be in no danger in this country."^* A slight digres-
sion may suffice to impress the startling contrast between the
priest and the pastor of 1559.

Indictments of the clergy of the state church were not
confined to one sect. "Isn't it a very ridiculous thing,"
asked Chancellor Jean Gerson of the ultra-Catholic Uni-
versity of Paris, " that a simoniacal, avaricious, lying, exact-
ing, lewd, proud, pompous father, in a word, a demon, pre-
tends to have the power to unite and disunite heaven and

12 Conde, vol. ii, p. 535.

1^ St Croix, p. 121 ; March 31, 1562.

1* Relations . . . venetiens, vol. ii, p. 115.

481] THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CALVINISTS 73

earth P"^** Claude Haton cites a piece of verse found upon
a Roman Catholic priest in Mount St. Victor: "Notre
prescheur, au lieu de prescher I'Evangile, ne fait rien que
rotter I'aspre guerre civile. Feu ardent, sang humain son
estomac vomit."^^ The rabidly anti-Calvinist Parlement of
Paris found it necessary in August, 1560, to issue a decree
ordering all bishops and curates to reside at their churches,
the former being prohibited from henceforth proceeding
in the matter of religion against anyone except Calvinist
preachers or persons in whose houses Huguenot meetings
were held.^^ One historian, commenting upon his own
church, recorded that " until the end of the war the benefices
were filled with soldiers, laymen, male and female favorites.
There were households in the bishops' houses and even in
the abbeys." The clergy often stooped to distortion of the
truth. The Jesuits and mendicant friars diffused the rumor
that Calvinists had confessed to eating children.^^ Pamph-
lets disseminated among the credulous vague reports of the
strangling by the heretics of old men and women.^' Catho-
licismi was the highest form of faith, for consider "their
great men for the past 1600 years.'* What verdict is ren-
dered by the two representative Protestant historians, La-
planche and Conde ? The former calls it the duty of the king
to correct the abuses of the priests, the most unlearned and
rude since Christ's time, "though some of them studied 20
years." They were "rich, poor in spirit, revelling day and
night."** Their mercenary spirit led them to charge eight
ecus for baptisms, to sell pardons and absolutions, and even
prayers and cemetery lots. Ten livres was a funeral fee.
They were perfumed like priests of Venus while their homes .
vied with courtiers*. Conde records that as many as nine /

i"* Henne, Histoire du regne de Charles V. en Belgique. 10 vols.,
Brussels and Leipzig, 1858 ; vol. iv, p. 275.

18 Haton, vol. i, p. 157; Bibl. Imperiale (Paris) MS., No. 359.

1'^ Baudrillart, Alfred, L'Eglise Catholique, la Renaissance, le Prot-
estantisme. London, 1908, p. 124.

18 Castelnau, Memoir es, 1559-70, p. 20.

19 Capefigue, Histoire de la Reforme, de la Ligue, et du Regne de
Henri IV, vol. ii, p. 99.

20 Laplanche, vol. ii, p. 66.

74 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [482

dimes (tithes) were extracted from the people in one year
for church and government expenses. "The priests speak .
only of dimes." On August 23, 1560, the same historian
witnessed that there were " forty lazy bishops in Paris "
instead of in their dioceses.^^ They had sold their benefices
to " cooks, barbers, and lackeys." The priests were hateful
to the people on account of their debauchery, greed, and
ignorance. The edict of July, a sop to the priests, was
anachronistic and absurd, for at a critical juncture it had re-
enacted several severe penalties against conventicles. In
July, 1 56 1, the prelates broke the rule of Philip le Long,
passed in 13 19, that ecclesiastics should not enter the Council ^
or Parlement.^^ An ordinance of the king of April 22, '
1 561, held that ecclesiastics should dress modestly, discard-
ing silks and other superfluous luxuries.^^ So ludicrous 7
were the dress and actions of many of the clergy that the
young son of Queen Catherine actually gave a masquerade
on November 15, 1561, in which he appeared in a mitre.
The bishop of St. Croix in his memoirs deplores the ridicule
thus heaped upon the clergy.^* y.

In vivid contrast to that portion of the ecclesiastics were »
those priests who wavered for a time between the two cur-
rents of Protestantism and Catholicism. It is well known
that the Reform was often the work of the Roman clergy.^
Suspected of heresy as early as 1542 the convent of the
Cordeliers provoked public censure from the ultra-Catholic
Sofbonne in 1540. Such types were exceptionally superior
to the rank and file of the clergy of 1560.

The mental and moral preparation of the Protestant
preacher was very thorough. Examination before the col-
loquy preceded the election of pastors, three of the seven ex-
aminers being from the candidate's home synod.^*^ There
being no age limit, youths of nineteen and twenty years be-

21 Conde, vol. i, p. 542.

22 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 342.

23 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 343.

24 St. Croix, p. 5.

25 Felice, Paul de, Les Protestants d'autrefois, vie interieure des
eglises, moeurs et usages. Paris, 1898, p. 2.

483] THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CALVINISTS 75

came eligible. Within forty-eight hours the candidate must
prepare two sermons, in French and Latin; besides, there
were three trial sermons at his future church. Ministers
were assigned to special churches.^^ These were erected
upon one principle — seat the most in the least space. For
this reason there were no lateral chapels-^"^ In the Huguenot
temples there were no images or crosses, no pew rents. The
consistory building, sometimes used for teaching, stood about
one hundred feet from the temple, behind which was the
cemetery. Communion was celebated eight times a year.
As to outward appearance, the Protestant ministers usually
wore long beards ; not a singularity, for, although the Sor-
bonne decided against beards in the Roman church, in 1561,
even the popes did not shave. Beards in other lines of life
were attacked by the press. ^*

With no tribute to pay to Rome, and gratuitous adminis-
tration of the sacraments, the Protestants could found
schools and hospitals. This was not a new idea, but Luther
was the first to organize schools for the people.^^ They
were the logical consequence of the fundamentals of the
Reform. The Calvinist theory of education was, however,
in advance of the age. The Protestant nobles of the States-
General of 1560 asked the King to levy contributions on
church revenues for reasonable support of teachers in every
town for the instruction of the needy youth, and, moreover,
to require all parents under penalty to send their children
to school. The demands of the nobility were not regarded
and there was a long eclipse in the cause of public primary
instruction. The primary school is the child of Protestant-
ism which associated knowledge with faith.

The *' petits ecoles " of 1559 were very numerous, although
there is little account thereof.^" They were the equivalent

26 Felice, Vie interieure, p. 13.

27 Felice, Les Protestants d'autrefois : les temples. Paris, 1896,
vol. i. p. 121.

28Quicherat, J., Histoire du Costume en France. Paris, 1875, p. 369.

29 Compayre, Gabriel, Histoire critique des Doctrines de I'Educa-
tion en France depuis le i6e siecle, p. 113.

30 Felice, Vie interieure, p. 87.

76 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [^484

of the modern primary schools. Childhood, said the Calvin-
ist, is Hke an empty vase, in that it conserves the odor of
the first liquid poured in it. At the baptism, in the temple,
a Biblical rather than a classical name was conferred upon
the infant. At the age of five, the child became familiar
with Beza's Petit Cathechism, and began to memorize. At
eight, there were four hours of Latin daily ; at nine, arith-
metic; at ten, history, taught by conventional method, and
geography, with a globe; at twelve, geometry.^^ Luther
always recommended mathematical studies and was partial
to history, but did not advocate the liberal arts.

There is no account of the instruction of girls, though the
Reform called for it. Only private tutoring is mentioned
in our period, 1559 to 1562, although as early as 1541 there
were girls' schools in Geneva. There seem to have been
mixed schools in France under the Reform before sepa-
rate ones came into vogue. The Reform undoubtedly pro-
voked the intellectual emancipation of sixteenth century
womanhood. In the recent past there had been special
trades for women, operating under royal charters, such as
the making of ribbons, hats, embroideries. Widows were
allowed to keep their husbands' workshops as long as they
should remain widows. In the mixed trades women had
less rights. Comparative salaries, says Hauser, in "Works
of Women," were probably three-fourths of a man's pay in
the fourteenth century, and about one-half in the sixteenth.
In addition to the gates of industry, the portals of Protest-
ant education were now thrown open to the women of
France. There was need of this for in the middle of the
sixteenth century the Jews of France were more enlightened
than the Christians.

Spontaneity, free thought, and free inquiry constituted
the basis of Protestantism. By its success in developing
these qualities, the new religion imposed still greater efforts
upon the Roman church. As is natural for innovators, the
thought of the teachers of the century was marked by en-

31 Felice, Vie interieure, p. 54.

485] THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CALVINISTS 77

thusiasm rather than by precision.^^ They were more
zealous in pointing out the end to be attained than exact in
determining the means to be employed.

No account of the ecclesiastical and educational organiza-
tion of the Reform would be complete without mention of
the Protestant press. Printing had been introduced into
France between 1483 and 1500, and Protestantism in many
instances started with pamphlet reading.^^ Calvin organ-
ized the societies of colportage of Protestant books, and in
Montpellier where the Reform dated from 1554, the first
martyr was a colporteur.^* The "paper war" found the
Protestants distinguished by the fertility and prolixity of the
press, for the use of which the declarations, confessions of
faith, forms of prayer, protests, and the letters of Conde
were principally edited by Beza, at the great literary center
of Orleans.^^ In 1562 Beza finished Marot's psalter and
during the same year twenty-six different editions of the
Psalms were published by the Calvinists. Of these Geneva
printed nine, Paris seven, and St. L6 one, besides five others
without a name. Fourteen editions were released in 1563,
with ten more in the following year.^^ Lyons, at the gate-
way to Switzerland, was the capital of printing, and nearly
all its printers, especially the Germans, were favorable to the
Reform. Discontented with the social state, they offered
a marvelous field for Protestantism. The Protestant press
threw into circulation thousands of Greek, Latin, Italian,
Spanish, Belgian, German, Gascon, Basque, and Perigordian
works. ^^ Restrictive measures immediately appeared.
Letters of the king to Parlement of August 16, 1561, for-
bade the printing of any work without the permission of
the King and Parlement. A letter of the Catholic envoy

32 Compayre, p. 84.

8* Buet, Charles, L'amiral de Coligny. Paris, 1884, p. Z7-

2* Corbiere, Histoire de I'figlise reformee de Montpellier. Mont-
pellier, 1861, p. 10.

35 Aumale, Conde, p. 107.

3« Baird, H. M., Theodore Beza. New York and London, 1899,
p. 281.

»' Chasles, P., Etudes sur le i6e siecle, Paris, 1848, p. 219.

78 FRENCH protestantism: 1 5 59-1 562 [486

St. Croix, of March 26, 1562, depicts the capture by a lieu-
tenant of the king of a barque load of books from Geneva
concealed in wine casks.^^ It was futile, however, to at-
tempt to check the infractions of the embargo by the con-
stituencies of 2150 Protestant churches.

The political organization of the Protestants was effected
through the medium of an association, a form of organiza-
tion of which there are many examples, both Catholic and.^
Protestant, during this troubled period. The nucleus of the '
Catholic leagues, after which the Protestant organizations
were partly patterned, seems to have been the local guilds.>C
These were closely connected with the body of tradesmen,
each trade having its patron saint and banner, as well as
fixed places and days of meeting.^^ The south of France .
was far more aggressive than the north, and, to the dis-
quietude of the government, many anti-Protestant associa-
tions were formed in more than one-half of the provinces.
The earliest seems to have been that of Bordeaux, in 1560:
this was the germ of the Roman Catholic league which
later expanded over Bordelais and Gascony. The Parisians
manifested their prejudice in an organized military form
as early as 1562. On May 2 of that year the Parlement of
Paris passed an ordinance directing the echevins and all
loyal Catholics in each quarter of the city to organize under
arms.'*'' Leagues were formed at Aix in Provence in No- .
vember, 1562, and at Agen-on-Garonne in Gascony on
February 4, 1563.*^ Cardinals Armagnac and Strozzi were
sponsors of the famous Catholic League of Toulouse, "^
launched on the third of March, 1563,*^ which D'Aubigne s/
called the prototype of all the leagues afterward formed in
France.*^ Ten days later the League of Cadillac in Guyenne ^

^® Conde, vol. ii, p. 435.

39 For history and descriptions see, among others, St. Leon, 267 ;
Ouin-Lacroix, L'Histoire des anciennes corporations d'arts et metiers
de Rouen. 8 vols., Rouen, 1850 ; vol. i, p. 520.

*o Popeliniere, vol. viii, p. 499.

*^ Monluc, Blaise de, Commentaires et lettres, 1521-76. A. de
Ruble. 5 vols., Paris, 1864-72; vol. iv, p. 190.

^2 Devic et Vaissete, vol. v, p. 249.

*3 D'Aubigne, H. M., Histoire de la Reformation du i6e siecle.
5 vols., Paris, 1877-8 ; vol. ii, p. 137.

487] THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CALVINISTS 79

came into existence as a result of the efforts of Candalle,
Montluc's lieutenant in the Bordeaux region.**

In its sixth article the Edict of Pacification on March
I9> 1563, forbade the formation of any new leagues and
ordered the dissolution of those already existing.*^ The
provision was a dead letter. After the first war many
leagues, particularly those of Toulouse, Provence, and
Agen were well organized. On March 31, six days before
the edict was promulgated, Catherine sharply rebuked the
red-handed Montluc for the inception of new organizations
in Guyenne.*^ This blood-thirsty captain had been nick-
named "Brule-Banc" because of the devastation wreaked
upon Protestant communities by fire and sword. In April,
1563, a weak Catholic association sprang up in the Rouen- '^^
nais and lower Ile-de-France, while leagues were started in-
some of the Angevin and Maine towns.*^ What made the
league of Agen, in Guyenne, so peculiarly formidable was
the fact that it was organized and continued without the
knowledge or consent of the crown. After August, 1564,
it was called the league of Guyenne. North of the Loire
there were to be no considerable associations of Catholics
until 1568.

One of the very earliest forms of Protestant organiza-
tion can be traced to Lower Guyenne, which was constituted
an ecclesiastical province under the dispensations of 1559
and 1563. Especially at Nerac Montluc early experienced
a strong combination of the Huguenots. In Guyenne the
intensity of the democratic, revolutionary^ character of
Protestantism was partly due to the memory of the revolt
of 1548 and its merciless supression.*^ In 1559 the Catholic w"
jurisconsult des Autels said that the " rebels " were organ- \
ized into three divisions : those who covered themselves with
the mantle of rehgion; those who desired to be reformers

** Commentaire de Montluc, vol. iv, p. 214.

*^ Isambert, vol. xiv, p. 145.

*6 Great Britain, Gal. St. P. For., No. 1000. ,

^"^ Mourin, La reforme et la ligue en Anjou. Angers, 1856, p. 21 :^!zr

*8 Revue historique, XGVII (1908), p. 341, note 6.<~^

8o FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [488

of the police; those who preached the benefits of liberty .*•
In the south of France there were other organized Hugue- y
not agitations by June, 1561. At Montpellier, in Langue-^
doc the Protestant movement in September had taken the
form of a definite league, with the sweeping motto : " No
mass, no more than at Geneva. "°° The operations of this
league were so thorough that many Catholics were about to
emigrate to Spanish Catalonia. ^

The association formed at Orleans on the eleventh of
April; liSs^, presents characteristics typical of contempor-
aneous Protestant organizations. The preamble of its in-
strument of government disclaimed any private motives on
the part of those who were parties to the association, and
asserted that the sole purpose was to liberate the King from
"captivity" and punish the insolence and tyranny of the
disloyal and of the enemies of the church. Idolatry, vio-
lence, blasphemy, and robbery were forbidden within the
territory of the association, in order that all might know
that it had the " fear of God before it." The association
was to expire at the king's majority.^^ Its rules were as
much a body of military regulations for the discipline of the
army as they were a political pact. There was, however,^
little of the politico-military character of the Roman Catho- 7
lie leagues about it. In fact, with the exception of the ^
Huguenot association in Dauphiny, there is no early ex-
ample exactly similar to the leagues in the Catholic prov-
inces. After the treaty of Amboise, March 19, 1563, theC
Protestant association of Languedoc maintained its organi- (

zation, raised money, and levied troops. ^^ When the govern- )

ment required the razing of the walls of Huguenot strong-
holds, like St. L6, Orleans, and Montauban, the Protestant
leagues resisted. In spite of this, not until after the Bayonne
episode of 1565 do we find a solid federation of Reformed

*8 Weill, George, Les theories sur le pouvoir royal en France pen-
dant les guerres de religion. Paris, 1891, p. 36.

50 Archives Nationales, K. 1495, No. 47, June 19, 1561.
«i Great Britain, Gal. St. P. For., No. 1003.
« Ibid., No. 896.

489] THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CALVINISTS 8 1

churches: the first crucial test of Protestant organization
was made at the beginning of the Second Civil War. The
consensus of opinion of authorities is that not until after
1572 did the Protestant organization reach a high point of
military and political development.

Correro, the Venetian ambassador at the court of Henry T
III, wrote in 1569 that there were three classes of Protest-
ants : the great, the bourgeois, and the gens du peuple. The
first division, he claimed, were Protestants in order to sup-
plant their enemies; the second, to enrich themselves; the
last, because they had been led by false opinions.''^ It was [
characteristic of the Latin Catholics to attribute the Hugue-
nots* change of heart to mercenary motives. Modern his-
torians are almost unanimous in recording that the political
Huguenots took arms against the authority of monarchs and
pseudo-regents, and that the religious Huguenots rose
against the authority of the mediaeval church. One stu-
dent of the period classes the political Huguenots into sepa-
rate groups : ( I ) monarchists, associated with Elizabeth of
England, who desired to make Louis of Conde king of
France; (2) the democratic faction, which aspired to a re-
public, the ultimate ideal of Calvin.^* After a thorough
study of the sources concerning the political organization of
the Protestants it is the opinion of the writer that the Hugue-
not state cannot be thus divided, but was a mixture of the
popular and the aristocratic elements. It was a republic
within the monarchy.

The aristocratic element in the Huguenot party triumphed {
over the ''Geneva party" of stern Protestants as a sequel
to the treaty of Amboise, March 19, 1563.^^ By the terms ^
of the latter, Conde was to succeed to the position of the
late King of Navarre ; the new religion was to be protected^
in all towns, except Paris; the Huguenot army should j
be paid by the central government; in every bailiwick the^

"Relations . . . venetiens, vol. ii, p. 113.

** Sichel, Catherine de Medicis and the French Reformation, p. 105.
*■ Capefigue, Catherine de Medicis, p. 260.
6

82 FRENCH protestantism: 1 5 5^-1 562 [490

king was to appoint one town where the gospel might be
preached ; all gentlemen holding fiefs in mean justice might
have preaching in their homes; all nobles enjoying high
justice should be permitted to have preaching on their
estates; property confiscated from either church was to be
restored.**®

The military system of the Protestant organizations de-
serves particular consideration, for the Huguenots developed
institutions which produced soldiers of another temper from
those of the royalist armies. These associations gathered
rapidly and from 1562 formed a general and permanent
organization. The militia was constituted like a church,
though one might think it was more of an army than a con-
gregation.*^ The tactical unit of infantry in the sixteenth
century was the "bande" or " enseigne." In 1560 such a
company contained two hundred or less, but within a few
years this number was reduced to seventy or eighty. The
strength of the Catholic company was maintained at the
larger figure, including two sergeants, six corporals, two
drummers, one fife, and one quartermaster.^® Each local
Protestant church furnished an "enseigne," or infantry
company. Sometimes the consistories of a district united to ^^
form a company. Some towns, like Castres, near Bordeaux,
contributed three; others, as Rochelle, a dozen. Symmetry .
was sacrificed to conditions. J

Companies of the same colloquy were grouped into a
regional regiment, although united only administratively.
All the colloquies of the same province combined to form
an army corps, having at its head a permanent staff. All |
army corps were united under central authority, so that
nearly all the elements of present day military institutions
were then present. This territorial organization did not
include cavalry, artillery, and foreign auxiliaries. Of the
infantry Coligny said that the Protestants could put 200,000 ^

56 Isambert, vol. xiv, p. 135. Thompson, p. 191.

•5^ Lettenhove, p. 31.

58 Archives Nationales, K. 1496, No. 112.

491] THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CALVINISTS 83

in the field. His opponent Montluc exclaimed, with an
oath : " What churches are these which turn out captains ?"59j

The Turkish envoy who was an eyewitness of the battle
of Dreux declared in his admiration : " If my master had
6000 horsemen like those whitecoats (Huguenots) he would
be master of the world ! "^° In this particular battle the
Protestants did have excellent cavalry. Often the "grandl
army," which in full force was 25,000, either lacked light
horse and dragoons, or was supported by horsemen badly
mounted and equipped, without cohesion. Often the cavalryj
was divided into cornets of one hundred, attached to no
regiments whatsoever. The Huguenot cavalry company in-
cluded one trumpeter, one sergeant-major, and two quarter-
masters. The light pistoleers could do little against the
heavy reiters, partly due to the fact that the Protestant^^
organization lacked the cuirasse, or breast-plate. In con- j
trast to this branch of the Huguenot service, the strength
of the Catholic army lay in the cavalry, a condition attribut-
able to several causes. On the one hand the German and
Swiss mercenaries had been for centuries available as in-
fantry, and on the other the French feudal nobility had
hated to see arms in the hands of common people and
peasants. ^

At the outbreak of hostilities most of the artillery was
in Catholic hands. Those cities in which the Protestants
predominated quickly built walls at their own expense, but
only a few of the churches possessed arsenals or cannon
foundries. As soon as a central arsenal was established,
however, cannons, falconets, and culverins were soon stiffen-
ing the Huguenot lines. The falconets were especially effec-
tive notwithstanding that the diameter of the bore was only
four and one quarter inches. As a whole the ordnance was
very diverse in form, length, and calibre, but had the same
sized gun carriage, " monuments of proved solidity and
fantastic weight." Spanish and Breton ships with cargoes

59 Commentaires de Blaise de Montluc, vol. i, p. 228.
'<> Blackburn, Admiral Coligny and the Rise of the Huguenots, vol.
ii, p. 67.

84 FRENCH protestantism: 1 5 59-1 562 E492

of metals were often intercepted by the Huguenot cruisers,
in order that the Protestant foundries might not lack ma-
terial for ordnance. One Catholic envoy avers that on May
14, 1562, the Protestants tore off the roof of the Rouen
Cathedral to obtain lead for buUets.^^ References to the
artillery in action are scant, yet by a clever manouver on the
twenty-first of April, 1562, nine days after the prince of
Conde formally assumed command of the Huguenot forces,
cannons were brought upstream to Orleans from Tours, at
the juncture of the Loire and the Cher.^^

There were always two sections in the Huguenot camps,
the "bataille" and the "avant-garde." The advance guard
consisted of arquebusiers while the main body and rear-
guard was hedged with pikes. Not serried ranks but liberty
of movement was the order. At the sound of the bugle
mobilization took place with great celerity. At the outset
Coligny was handicapped in forming an army because there
was no " cadre " or framework with which to start, the
majority of the permanent forces being in Catholic hands.
Yet by the period of Dreux he could assemble in four weeks
8000 horse and 25,000 infantry, a feat the king could not
perform in less than four months.^^ Even in the most anti-
Protestant city of France mobilization of Huguenots oc-
curred upon such a scale that at the citizens* request there
was enacted on May 2, 1562, an ordinance of the King
taking away the arms of all in Paris who belonged to the
Reform.^* By the first of June there were 24,000 infantry
in the capital to fight for the Queen.^^ Most of the Hugue-
not regiments were temporary and were paid off at the end
of a campaign, although there existed always an "old
guard."

One reason for Huguenot mercantile superiority lay in the
fact that although the artisans of both religions left their

61 St. Croix, p. 167.

62 Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, p. loi.

63 Lettenhove, p. 31.

6* Conde, vol. iii, p. 419.
65 St. Croix, p. 171.

.^^^

493] THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CALVINISTS 85

trades at the outbreak of hostilities, the number who re-
sumed their normal vocation was overwhelmingly Protest-
ant. As early as September 7, 1560, Conde had observed
that " foreign soldiers return to their trades after each war,
but not so with the French (royalists)."®^

The field discipline of the Huguenots was severe. The
chief innovation was public prayer, led by one of the officer-
chaplains. No dice, cards, women, or blasphemy were to
be found in the train of the armies of Conde and Coligny.
Theft and debauchery were severely punished. There was A^ U
a corresponding and probably resultant advance in the>i ^^
ethics of warfare of the opposing armies. On the nine- *
teenth of August, 1562, appeared a royal edict, recorded in 4^ ^^
the Archives Nationales, on the conduct of the army.®^ •fU^^i ,
"No soldiers, foot or cavalry, shall supply themselves with ^l^^ t
any arms or horses not belonging to them, on pain of death. ^^ ca'^^
Those found pillaging or robbing under whatever pretext, \\^^''^
shall be punished by the arms they carry, or as the council t^^'j^ic^'
shall dictate. The said soldiers shall pay their hosts for (^^^^^^jl^^
their entertaiment according to a scale given out by the ^
commissary. They are forbidden to start quarrels and
monopolies on penalty of death. The soldiers shall not
abandon their ensign without permission of said court and
of their captains." /

The Protestant soldiers dressed as they pleased. It was
customary, but not compulsory, to wear the chief's livery.
Probably because it was the color of Conde, the soldiers
wore white cassocks. After Vassy all Huguenot cavalry
did likewise, while their horses were caparisoned in white.
The officers of the mounted service dressed in white velvet ;
on their iron corselet was the heraldic scarf of white, and
on the helmet the legendary white plume. The standard
bearer always carried a flag of white. Red was Navarre's
color, while the Huguenots of the duke of Deux-Ponts
(Zweibriicken) wore yellow and black.^^ Because the gay

«6 Conde, Sept. 7, 1560.

«7 Archives Nationales, K. 1496, No. 112.

*^ Lehr, p. 10.

86 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [494

colors of feudal days had not yet been supplanted by the ^
neutral tints of modern warfare, the comparative casual- /^ \^
ties were much higher in 1560. ^

The Protestant military leaders were usually men of
letters and high culture, brave, but thinkers as well. Lanoue
regrets the diminution of nobles in the officers' corps in the
later civil wars. Cadets of foremost houses of France were
among the rank and file, but the captains and lieutenants
were often soldiers of fortune. Monluc was the only one
who ever spoke of the Huguenot leaders and soldiers as
mediocre. His opinion was based upon one incident only.®^
Aside from their greatest chiefs the Protestants had the
counsel of old veterans of the ItaHan wars. >j

The meagre accounts of the Huguenot military budget *
state that the army (or church) was divided into twenty-
four groups, with six chiefs each, paying each year a tribute
of 800,000 francs, of which 100,000 went to the Queen of ^^
Navarre, and 40,000 to Coligny.'^^ Although there is no
direct evidence as to the Huguenot scale of wages, an idea
of their salaries may be obtained by examining the royalist
pay roll. By the month captains of cavalry received one
hundred livres tournois, cavalry sergeant-majors and
cornets, fifty; each horseman and quartermaster, sixteen;
trumpeters, twelve. Captains of infantry were paid one
hundren livres; lieutenants, fifty; ensigns, thirty; sergeants,
twenty; corporals, eighteen; drummers, fifers and quarter-
masters, twelve each. The cuirassiers received ten Hvres
per month. Visored arquebusiers were paid ten, unvisored,
eight. Unarmored pikemen obtained a pittance of one
livre.'^^ Eight thousand Gascons, the best foot soldiers of
the royalist army, received without qualification four hun-
dred livres apiece each year. The Protestant reiters were
paid fifteen florins monthly, while the stipends of colonel,
lieutenant, and ensign were respectively 250, 95 and 75
florins. The British Record Office estimated the wages and

69 Monluc, p. 364.

70 Lettenhove, p. 31.

71 Archives Nationales, K. 1496, No. 112.

495II THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CALVINISTS 87

appointments of 4000 reiters and officers each month at
122,048 Hvres tournois or 81,532 florins. To each four
reiters was assigned at thirty florins monthly, a carriage
with four horses. The total expense of the 4000 reiters for
four months, including the levy, amounted to 569,792 livres "^
or 379,861 florins. Lansquenets, or German foot soldiers,
were levied at an outlay of a crown per month. An ensign
of three hundred men cost the Huguenots each month 3500 ^
livres. The fund necessary to satisfy this entire foreign
branch of the service was the quivalent of 395,000 livres or -<
263,337 florins every four months. At one period the
French army relinquished 80,000 francs in order that their ^
allies, the German reiters, might receive their wages.''* The
dilatory tactics of the English queen were responsible for
this shortage. Nor was the Catholic army immune from
financial embarrassment. On the twelfth of December,
1562, President Leguier informed the Parlement of Paris •<'
that Francis of Guise had told him there were owing the
soldiers fifteen months' wages.'^^ One week later occurred
the crucial battle of Dreux. .

One final word concerns the military organization of the
towns captured by the Protestants. These places were
linked together so as to form a chain between Orleans, the
" Protestant Rome," and the provinces where the Huguenots
were strongest, notably Gascony, Dauphiny, and Languedoc.

^2 Blackburn, vol. ii, p. 67.
7» Conde, Dec. 12, 1562.

CHAPTER IV
The Reform at Its Height

The progress of the pacific Reform may best be traced
through the series of royal edicts issued during the five years
preceding the first war of religion. The edict of Paris
(1549), of Fontainebleau (1550), and of Chateaubriand
(1551) made the Protestants subject to both ecclesiastical
and secular tribunals.^ The Edict of Compiegne of July
24, 1557, sentenced to death any one who publicly or secretly
professed other than the Catholic religion. The whole reign
of Henry II saw war without and persecution of the Protest-
ants within. Diane de Poitiers, Lorraine, St. Andre, and
Constable Montmorency, the four favorites of this king,
who was " of soft spirit, little judgment and easily led * par
le nez,'" continually persuaded him that religion was the^
enemy of all monarchy. Tavanes declared that it tended ^
to democracy.^ The Cardinal Lorraine possessed the king's J
conscience, while Diane was a sorceress who hated the
Protestants. " Not a drop of justice fell on France during
her twelve years (i 547-1 559) except by stealth," said the
Huguenots.^ This favorite also convinced the monarch that
the means of covering all vices was the extermination of
Rome's enemies, and thereupon began the activities of the
Chambre Ardente, before the creation of which heresy had
been dealt with by the regular courts. In June, 1559, the
month before the death of Henry II, the edict of Ecouan
provided for the execution of all heretics, without the least
reprieve or mitigation.*

Henry was mortally wounded in the tournament given in

1 Thompson, p. 10.

2 Tavannes, vol. ii, p. iii.

3 Blackburn, vol. i, p. 35.

* Castelnau, Bk. i, chap. iii.

497] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT 89

the double celebration of the nuptials of his daughter Eliza-
beth and Philip II of Spain, and of Henry's sister Mar-
guerite and the duke of Savoy. As the point of Mont-
gomery's splintered lance penetrated the right eye of the
King, the spectators recalled the previous omens of Henry's
death. Marshall Vieilleville had had sombre presentiments.
De Thou quotes an astrologer. Carloix records that Henry,
as he fell, said that he "had unjustly afflicted those people
over there," meaning prominent Huguenots who had been
executed.*^ Others noted in his death chamber the presence
of a suggestive and accusing tapestry of Saul on the Damas>
cus road. The Huguenots considered Henry's death as a
judgment of God.^ Moreover, persons of the communion
of Rome also viewed the fatal accident as a retribution,
although upon different grounds, Henry was accused by
the Catholic writer Pasquier of being proclaimed "pro-
tecteur de la liberte germanique " ; that is, heresy, the " pro-
found cause of the civil war."

Four months after the accession of the young King
Francis, a new edict of November, 1559, ordained that all
those who attended conventicles or participated in any
secret assemblies, should be put to death and their homes <
razed, never to be rebuilt. Letters-patent to this effect were
handed to the head of the Chatelet prison and judges were
appointed by Charles of Lorraine to decide without appeal.
The priests even resorted to erecting images of the Virgin
at intersections of thoroughfares in order that "unbe-
lievers " might be apprehended.

On March 27, 1560, the celebrated Michel de I'Hopital
was appointed to the chancellorship to succeed Olivier, who
until the day of his death had been a tool of the Guises.
The accession of this great statesman paved the way for the
edict of Romorantin, in May, 1560. According to this in- "7
strument the legal processes dealing with religion were trans-
f erred from the courts of parlement and lay tribunals to ^^

5 D'Aubigne, Histoire de la Reformation, vol. i, p. 237.
« Great Britain, Gal. St. P. For., No. 899, June 30, 1559.

90 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [498

ecclesiastical judges. This legislation meant that accused /
persons need no longer fear the death penalty, for sen-
tences might be delayed through appeals from the acts of
bishops to archbishops and even to Rome. In consequence j
many of those who had fled from France returned, among
them pastors from Switzerland and England, and many of
the 1400 families who had sought refuge in Geneva during
the reign of Henry 11.'^ This number was appreciably aug-
mented one month after the death of the second Francis
when there appeared under the seal of the new king, Charles
IX, January 7, 1561, a liberal Declaration of Toleration.^

A tentative Edict of July, 1561, was promulgated when it J^
became apparent that the convening of the Colloquy of
Poissy, wherein the religious issue was to be discussed by
both sects, was being postponed. This ordinance, while
seeming to pronounce judgment, really evaded the question
at issue.® Similar to the edict of Romorantin of May, 1560,
it gave the established church full jurisdiction of heresy,
the severest punishment for which was to be banishment.
False accusers were to be punished in like manner as the
accused, had the latter really been guilty. Under this edict 1
Protestant assemblies flourished. 1

The most decisive decree was that of 1562, generally']
known as the Edict of January. This, the " first promulga- j
tion of liberty of conscience," was the first ordinance that^
permitted the exercise of the Protestant religion in public.^®
It was L'Hopital's last stake: if it failed, civil war. The
new edict accorded to the Reform — (i) the right to hold
public reunions for worship; (2) to raise money for neces-
sary expenses and for the poor by voluntary offerings; (3)
to maintain their consistorial and synodical organization and
to enjoy the regular exercise of this three-fold right under
the protection of superior authority.^^ Upon these three

^ Levasseur, Emile, La Population f rangaise, vol. i, p. 190.
* Opera Calvini, vol. xviii, p. 337. Isambert, vol. xiv, p. 31.
•Thompson, p. 104.

loDargaud, Histoire de la liberie religieuse. 4 vols., Paris, 1879;
vol. ii, p. 89.
11 Delaborde, Vie de Coligny, p. i.

499] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT 9 1

points there were several restrictions. It was forbidden to
build temples in the towns or their environs (art. i). Any
assembly with preaching as the object could not be held day
or night in the towns (art. 2). Assemblies outside the
walls could only be held by day without arms (art. 3), and
if noblemen were not present (art. 5), only under the watch
of royal officers (art. 6). Ministers were to swear to preach
no doctrine contrary to the pure word of God (art. 10)
according to the Nicean agreement, and might not go by
force from village to village without the consent of the lords, A
curates, and vicars. As for the finances, alms and chari-
ties should not be made by imposition, but voluntarily.^
Unless a royal officer were present, there might be no meet- '
ing of any consistorial or synodical organization. Article ,
4 forbade all magistrates, judges, and others to molest the
Reformed assemblies, but at the same time all pastors were
advised not to use invectives in their sermons (art. 2). Ac-
ceptance of the conditions followed. The Parlement of
Rouen was the first to register the edict, on January 27.
Bordeaux and Toulouse ratified on February 6; Paris, one
month later. Dijon, normally with the Huguenot tenden-
cies, would not register, owing to the influence of Aumale
and Tavannes.

From the edict of January were deduced the two distinct
grounds upon which liberty of conscience might be de-
manded. One view, coincident with that of Locke, held
that the state owes to all creeds which do not infringe public
order equal protection, because no creed is self-evident, and
therefore no right to be enforced. The second theory was
that the relation between men's consciences and God is
exempt by its very nature from all legislative control. Un-
fortunately neither of these principles was widely recog-
nized in the sixteenth century. Coligny and L'Hopital ad-
vanced the view that the French Protestants asked toleration
not in the name of conscience and religious liberty, but be-
cause they were Christians accepting the Nicean and
Apostles' creeds. One writer suggests that had this theory

92 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [50O

been accepted two different religions would have existed in
France — very different from religious liberty.^^

In France, situated between the northern Protestant and
the southern Catholic countries, the population was so
heterogeneous in character and origin, that it would seem
as if that should be the nation which the great religious
movement of the sixteenth century would divide and dis-
tract above all others. But notwithstanding the presence of
both tendencies in the country it was not until 1559, when
the Reformation had triumphed in Germany, England, Scot-
land, Switzerland, Denmark, and Sweden, that it crystal-
lized in France. Teutonic independence, under the form
of religious Protestantism, undid the Roman Catholic yoke,
upset Germany, and invaded France. Francis I and Henry
VIII, in a corrupt and depraved age, were first responsible
for the disputes on religion. France, where the new doc-
trine was first taught, was the last in which it proved the
occasion of social turmoil and political division. In the
twelfth century France had headed the crusades; in the
thirteenth, the most brilliant intellects were found in her
universities ; the fourteenth found her monarchs triumphing
over the Popes. In the fifteenth century France had stood
out successfully for the rights of the church at large against
the claims of Rome at Basle, Pisa, and Constance. In the
sixteenth, however, as one writer points out, it was not the
French who discovered the telescope, rounded the Cape of
Good Hope, or gave an Erasmus to literature, or a da Vinci,
Cardan, or Copernicus to science.^^

Why did France, where the new doctrine was first taught,
proceed so slowly in the great religious movement? Unlike
some other nations, France found no political or ecclesi-
astical assistance with which to help her advance. Then,
as now, the French church was not groaning under the same
shackles as elsewhere. The French spirit of independence
allayed any fears that the Vatican might attempt to divert

12 Bersier, p. 292.

isHanna, William, The Wars of the Huguenots. London, 1871,
p. I.

501 ] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT 93

Gallic finances into Italian channels. The state and church
of France had not the same causes for quarrel with the
Pope as some other nations. In France there was less
material for the reformers to work on. Their activity was
viewed by the established church as a denial and demolition
of her proud authority. The royal power of Francis II
and Charles IX was in conflict with the growing municipal
freedom of the towns which it desired to curb and, with the
feudal independence of the nobles, which it wished to ob-
literate. The Reform, a product of liberty, extended aid
to both these enemies of royalty, and therefore drew down
its revenge.

In 1500 the Valois had been absolute. The beliefs of
Luther contained nothing dangerous for civil government.
The adherents of Calvin were instructed to obey God and
the magistrates. Calvinism itself would not have imperiled
royalty. The sovereignty of the people, however, was the
doctrinal notion of the Protestants, while the history of the
times presented a series of weak sovereigns versus virile
reformers. Yet opinions differ as to motives. LettenhoveT/
a Catholic, maintained that the Protestant conspiracy was
essentially feudal at the outset. He thought he noted a
double character: "anti-national," rejected by the people,
and "criminal," sustained by foreigners.^* Weill, in his
theories upon the royal power, insists that the Catholics
desired to rid France of her bad kings and to convene the
States-General, but with those objects insisted upon the re-
spect due the church.^^ The statement is indeed open to'
serious question that in reform projects the Protestants
tended to aristocracy and the Catholics to democracy. La
Boetie asked why millions of men submitted to the will of
one, often the weakest in the kingdom. As a matter of <^
fact the union of church and state in France was so firm
that it was thought impossible to infringe upon one without
the other. Therefore the Valois thought to defend both by
fighting the Protestants. J

1* Lettenhove, p. 25.
"Weill, p. I.

94 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [502

Broadly speaking, the Catholic church, royalty, and the J
universities were immediately responsible for the climax of
the pacific and martial Reform. The great religious move- J
ment of the sixteenth century had for its object the emanci-
pation of human conscience from ecclesiastical authority.
For generations there had persisted the need for a reform
of the ecclesiastical discipline, but the abuses, in spite of
Popes and councils, obstinately clung. In France the States-
General of Orleans demanded the urgent reform of the
clergy, the convocation of a church council, the suppression
of tribute to Rome, the gratuitous administration of the
sacraments, and the foundation of schools and hospitals with
the money of the clergy.^® Incompetence in spiritual and
temporal government was characteristic of the established
church of the century. Rome was more concerned with art
and politics. In the essentials of science, perfection of
man, human liberty, the dignity of the family, political
economy and prosperity, literature, useful knowledge, and
several of the fine arts, Catholicism was helping but little.

The errors of royalty by commission and omission, in so
far as they affected the Reform, have been considered in
the first chapter. The accession of a boy to the throne in
1559, the humiliating treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, and the
enormous debts left by Henry II, all combined to favor the
propagation of new thoughts. A third cause is to be found
in the universities. Many historians claim that the Reform
in France began in these institutions. It is true that the
first to hail the new doctrines were the lettered classes.
Among the artisans of the towns and villages, however, the
new faith effected the greatest and purest progress. As a
matter of fact, Protestant universities introduced two great
ideas of political and religious liberty,^^ yet Morin in his
" Dictionnaire de Scholastique " charges that the Huguenot
retarded the march of human progress and stopped the scien-
tific revolution inaugurated by those Catholic geniuses Co-

i« Barre-Duparcq, Histoire de Charles IX, Paris, 1875, P- 33-

1"^ Stocquart, E., Le mariage des protestants. Brussels, 1903, p. 120.

503] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT 95

pernicus and Columbus !^^ History records that the Reform
caused even the Roman See to improve in science and
morals.

Beza called Orleans University one of the three fountains
of the Reform, while Ruble referred to that institution as
the " arsenal " of the new movement/^ and well they might,
for Lutheranism had been powerful at Orleans as early as
1528, when Olivetan, a comrade of Beza, was expelled for
heresy. The celebrated Wolmar was one of the Protestant
professors. The university was widely known for Roman
law while Canon law had gradually become a field for study
and controversy on religious matters. The Orleans seat of
learning was in full splendor in the sixteenth century. The
questions which were agitating Europe were right in its
midst. Ten " nations " or republics were formed from the
various student nationalities, including hundreds of German,
Swiss, and Flemish students who introduced the germs of
Protestantism and deemed it an honor to " spread them in
the households "of the college town.^^ There are several
definite instances to show that although dormitories existed
many students overflowed into the homes of the townsmen,
there to further the new creed of their native lands. Simi-
larly, the " martinets " or externes of the University of Paris
did not reside in any college or pension, but in the homes of
the citizens.^^

As early as 1531 the new religion was evoking restrictive
measures. In that year Francis I compelled all candidates
for the doctorate to present certificates of orthodoxy before
the Parlement of Paris. The ten "nations" of students,
comprised largely of groups of nationals from northern
Protestant countries, were reduced to four: Germany, Ile-
de-France, Picardy and Champagne, and Normandy. Since
there were many Protestant students from Burgundy, Sain-
ts Buet, p. 37.

^^Lacombe, Catherine de Medicis entre Guise et Conde, Paris,
1899, p. 32.

20 Lacombe, p. 27.

21 Crevier, Histoire de I'Universite de Paris, 7 vols., Paris, 1761 ;
vol. vi, p. 33.

96 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [504

tonge, Poitou, and Rochelle, the intent of the reduction in
the number of " nations " is obvious.^^ It is needless to ex-
plain that mutinous students of all Catholic localities fanned
the flames against the Protestants.

The Venetian ambassador, Jean Michiel, wrote in 1561
that the University of Paris was frequented by twenty thou-
sand students, mostly poor.^^ The best subjects were theol-
ogy, Greek, Latin and French letters, in addition to phi-
losophy and mathematics. Many doctors and jurisconsults
were counted among the university graduates. The foreign
minister comments upon the low salaries and the great
obligations of the professors. The " externes " of the uni-
versity lived in the homes of the Parisians, and were not
under the professor's care after the lessons were over, but
the Procureur-General wanted it enjoined upon principals
and masters of colleges, upon penalty of losing their privi-
leges, to hold their students both in and out of the university.
The new religious liberty which had been introduced by
the native and foreign "nations" was beginning to annoy
the Guises. When the novel spirit commenced to permeate
the monasteries of St. Germain de Pres and St. Croix, and
to presage the desertion from the Catholic ranks of whole
convents and consistories in and around the rabid capital,
injunctions were secured to prevent the monks from assist-
ing in university processions.^* In a university far larger
than any American college, it would seem impossible to keep
the students exempt from religious divisions, yet an edict
of the Parlement of Paris of July 9, 1562, ordered all mem-
bers of the university to make confession of the Roman
Catholic faith.^^ The first civil war had then been raging
for months.

At Valence University there were from 1555 to 1563 two
great Reform professors, Cujas and Loriol in law. The
Protestant students met openly for the first time on Sunday,

22 Aldeguier, Histoire de Toulouse. 4 vols., Toulouse ; vol. i, p. 396.

23 Relations . . . venetiens, vol. i, p. 263.
2* Crevier, vol. vi, p. 80.

25 Conde, vol. iii, p. 524.

505] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT 97

March 31, 1560, at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., in the Cordeliers
church.^^ The Calvinists among the professors and stu-
dents at Toulouse University became so strong that they
threatened to overthrow the government with the help of
Montauban, than which no name in Huguenot annals shines
more brightly. Monluc discovered the plot, however, on
June 24, 1562, and the history of the civil wars produced
no greater ferocity than that exhibited towards one another
by the civilian populations of Catholic Toulouse and Protest-
ant Montauban. If the Romanists were savages, the Montau-
banese passed motions that all who were destined to " idol-
atry " were worthy of being burned.^^ Of all the seats of
learning in France the universities at Orleans, Bourges, and
Toulouse were classed by Beza as the chief places in which
the Reform had its inception. The church of the Hugue-
nots at Orleans, in 1557, and many others in university
towns, were directly due to Lutheran students and the influ-
ence of professors of civil law and humanism.^^

The progress of the reform may be profitably considered
according to the accessions from the ranks of the various
classes, the nobility, the clergy, and the third estate. Until
1555 the converts to Protestantism in France had mainly
been drawn from the middle classes — tradesmen, artists,
lawyers, doctors, teachers, and other thinking people. Be-
tween 151 5 and 1555 the only nobles professing the Reform
were Farel, Berquin, de Coct, Gaudet and Margaret of
Navarre.^^ Some have thought that the greatest Protestant
leaders, outside of Conde, were ladies. Conde's wife and
mother-in-law probably came over to the Reform in 1558.
The Huguenots made their supreme attempt to capture
France at the colloquy of Poissy, in the summer of 1561.
In the previous May Chantonnay reported to his imperial j

26Arnaud, Histoire des Protestants du Dauphine. 3 vols., Paris,

1875, p. I.

27 Le Bret, Histoire de Montauban. 2 vols., Montauban, 1668 ;
Tol. ii, p. 34.

28 Bulletin de la Societe de protestantisme frangaise. 60 vols.,
Paris ; vol. xxxviii, p. 86.

" Blackburn, Coligny, vol. i, p. 15.

98 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [506

master at Madrid a statement of the Prince Roche-sur-yon
that a majority of the nobiHty were Protestant.^® The
Venetian ambassador Michiel wrote to the Doge in the
same year to the effect that especially the nobles not over
forty years of age were being "contaminated."^^ Weill
bears witness that up to 1561 converts had not been made
among the nobles.^^ In Crespin's " Histoire des Martyrs "_;
for the preceding forty years there appear the names of
only three nobles and two country people. At the epoch of
the Poissy and Pontoise colloquies, however, the court was
being won over to the new religion, and by 1562 the Re-
formed churches found themselves ready for the contest,
because of the accession of a great many nobles, mostly fresh
recruits. The plot of Jacques de Savoie, due de Nemours,
to kidnap the young duke of Orleans, and the success of
Coligny in allaying opposition to Catherine de Medicis at the
Estates of Pontoise, may well have served to win over some
of the nobility to the Reform.

With two hundred names of Knights of the Order, privy
councilors, captains, and military leaders, the Protestant
party appeared predominantly aristocratic. Thenceforth the
Huguenot annals were to be adorned with such names as
Conde, Roman, Andelot Portien, Coligny, Rochefoucauld,
Chartres, Genlis, Senarpont, Prenne, Montgomery, Sombise,
La Noue, Morny, Chalons, Fouquieres, La Fayette, Mor-
villier, Bouchavannes, Puygreffier, Du Viger, Mouvans, St.
Aubun, La Suze, Duras, Teligny, Dummartin, Esternas, St.
Remy, Briquemault, Bussy, and St. Foye. In the words of
the Venetian representative in Paris, " heresy had corrupted
almost all the nobility and a great part of the French people.
Without doubt heresy had its root and germ among the
powerful; this was because of the plot of the Bourbons
against Guise. The Bourbons used religion as a means to
crush Guise."^^ To the Italian mind the chancellor

30 Archives Nationales, K. 1494, No. 83, May i, 1561.

31 Relations . . . venetiens, vol. i, p. 409.

32 Weill, p. 62.

33 Relations . . . venetiens, vol. ii, p. 55.

507] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT 99

L'Hopital was the head, and Conde the workman. The
latter was called the "capitaine muet" of the university
students who were accused of complicity in the Amboise
conspiracy. ^;

The court at Paris, or wherever the king shifted his head- '
quarters in order to elude his creditors, was not alone in
contributing converts among the first estate. Philip of i
Spain was informed by his henchmen at the French court
that many of the nobles of Languedoc, Provence, Lyonnais,
and Auvergne, provinces of the Rhone river valley, had
gone over to the Reform.^* Andelot, the brother of Co-
ligny, had accepted Protestant doctrines in 1557, and along
with pastor Carmel repaired to his estates in Brittany. In
Nantes, the Breton city celebrated for its edict of tolera-
tion of 1598, the Reform counted many people of letters ^
and several members of Parlement as early as 1559. In ' ^^^
Brittany and Picardy all the nobles and three-fourths of /!/ * Im\
the men of letters were Protestant by 1562.^^ Soon Ande- . ^^
lot was endeavoring to consolidate the new churches in Brit- ]
tany. The governor of Guyenne shocked the Guises by L Q^

declaring for the Reform. As a result of the Protestant J . . ^^
public preaching in Valence and Montelimart many lords ^Ca>**. ^^ a
left the Catholic party. Chief among these was the nephew / w^~-' ^
of Cardinal Tournon, Sire de Montbrun, who endeavored o-o^c-'V^
to prevail upon all his vassals to join the Huguenots. Cler-
mont,. lieutenant-governor of Dauphiny, was removed on*^
account of his leniency towards the new faith. In rural
feudal districts conversion was mainly due to the influence
of Protestant gentlemen- farmers, often retired bourgeois,
who purchased the country estates of the older nobility who
had been bankrupted by the Italian and Flemish wars, or
preferred to live at court. /

The nobles at the Protestant stronghold of Orleans were
emphatic in their response to the articles of peace sent by
King Charles IX on May 15, 1562. Seven items were in-
sisted upon. The January Edict should be observed. The

3* Archives Nationales, K. I495» No. 58, Aug. i, 1561.

85 Benoit, Elie, Histoire de I'Edit de Nantes. Delft, 1693, p. 19.

100 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [508

Guises must return to Lorraine. Protestant temples were
to be permitted. The royal government was named to sup-
plant the Guises. All things done in council during the
king's captivity should be declared void. The troops of
Antoine of Navarre must be disbanded. Upon the foreign
soldiers of the Guises an immediate check was to be put.^^^
Recognizing the increasing strength of the Protestant no- ]
bles, the Parlement of Paris on the thirteenth of July, 1562,
issued a proclamation enjoining all royal officers to make
profession of their faith in the Roman Catholic religion
upon penalty of forfeiting their positions.^^ ;

Society in the towns, which for a long time had not gov- ~*
erned themselves, was aristocratic and controlled by the no-
bility and clergy. The nobles and gentlemen dominated
the major portion of rural lands, and dictated public con-
duct from medieval fortified castles. More often, however,
they were at war or at court. The nobles alone constituted
the regular cavalry, which in the sixteenth century was the
principal arm of the service.^® Accordingly the nobility
wielded great power in the state and the acquisition by the
Huguenots of two hundred such adherents and their con-
nections had tremendous military and political significance. -

The second source of accession to the ranks of the Prot- \
estants was the clergy. The upper ecclesiastics had great
riches and ranked as great lords, while the lower clergy
were very poor. Noting the agitation among the classes,
the Italian Michiel in 1561 averred that the contagion of
Protestantism was spreading even to priests, monks, bishops, J
and convents, of which few were free from the " pest."^^
Even in Provence, Dauphiny, and Normandy, which claimed
the greatest number of Catholics of the provinces, " all ex-
cept those who fear loss of life and property are profoundly
affected." He adds that the prisons were being emptied,
doubtless in order to swell the riots against the Huguenots.

36 Conde, vol. iii, p. 375.

^"^ Ibid., vol. iii, p. 524,

38 Thompson, p. 18.

3^ Relations . . . venetiens, vol. i, p. 409.

509] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT lOI

Guyenne, except Bordeaux, was badly " infected," while the
priests, friars, nuns, bishops, and prelates were deserting
the established church in Touraine, Poitou, Gascony, Nor-
mandy, Dauphiny, Languedoc, and Provence.*^ Among the j
former priests who became Huguenot ministers were Mar-
lorat and Barelles, pastors at Rouen and Toulouse, respec-'
tively.*^ Whole convents came into the movement. The
Cordeliers and Dominicans at Die, Milhaud, and St. Foye y
in Agenois early in May, 1562, gave their convent to the f
Reform.*^ Preachers from Geneva seemed to act as mag-
nets to many of the thoughtful priests. Psalms were sung
at the court. The discussions permitted between the doc-
tors of the Sorbonne and priests with the Protestants upon
such subjects as images, baptism, mass, imposition of hands,
and the Eucharist often terminated in conversion to the new
faith. These individual cases persisted in spite of the fact
that the Sorbonne let it be freely understood that it would
never obey any order issued to the injury of the Catholic
religion, even should the crown change its faith. Numer-
ous priests were dissatisfied over the granting of bishoprics
and abbeys to sectaries, often foreign, rather than to good
Catholics. Others, observing the disinclination of the gov-
ernment to punish certain tumults on account of religion,
as well as the early favor of Navarre and the grandees at
court, declared openly for Protestantism.

The people of France, according to Caesar, had always
distinguished themselves above the rest of Europe in re-
ligious zeal, so now in both Catholic and Protestant, a glow-
ing earnestness seemed to characterize the church member
of the sixteenth century. One reason for the enthusiasm
on the side of Protestantism among the common people was
the fact that the Huguenot ministers preached in French
and avoided the mysterious Latin. After the sermon, serv-
ice was continued with prayer and singing . of psalms in
French rhyme, with vocal and instrumental music in which

*o Archives de la Gironde, vol. xiii, p. 132; vol. xvii, p. 256.
*i Floquet, Histoire du Parlement de Normandie, vol. ii, p. 307,
*2Arnaud, Dauphine, p. 114.

102 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM I I559-I562 [5IO

the congregation joined. But the attraction was not uni-
versal, for, although the French third estate contributed
largely to the 2150 Protestant congregations, the peasants
remained strongly Catholic. The primary reason for this
was social and on the whole the peasant was contented.
The economic changes of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-
turies were disastrous to the artisan, but reacted in favor
of agriculture. Economists tell us that the rent paid to the
landlord, immutably fixed in the twelfth and thirteenth cen-
turies, represented under the new values of money a light
burden, while the decline in the value of silver enhanced
the nominal worth of the products of the soil. Land
values were falling rapidly at the very time when the French
gentry, ceasing to be an aristocracy of gentlemen- farmers
and becoming' a court-nobility, were forced to dispose of
their estates in order to meet their expenses. When any
nobleman, from Lorraine to Navarre, desired to sell at any
price a portion of his estate, there was inevitably in that
particular section a countryman who had been hoarding for
years and now consummated the life-long wish to become
a land owner. The reigns of Louis XII and Francis I
marked an era of genuine prosperity for the peasants of
France. When this condition is contrasted with the state
of the German peasant, who at the period of the revolt of
1525 was relapsing into servitude, one may readily see why
there was not in France a violent religious and social up-
heaval. Economic conditions did indeed become more acute
for the peasantry, with the accession of Henry II in 1547,
but not nearly so crucial as for the artisans and others of
the common people. We do not find the peasants fleeing
abroad, as did many workmen, in order to escape persecu-
tion. Wherever the Reform took effect among the peas-
antry it can be traced to a quiet movement in the hearts
of men.

How did the component groups of the parties in the civil
war compare? On the Catholic side were the clergy and
the Romish masses. Queen Catherine, veteran warriors, bril-

51 1 ] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT J 03

liant courtiers, able statesmen, shrewd diplomats, keen
lawyers, distinguished courtiers, and Spain and Rome. In
the Protestant ranks was a scorned sect, a " company under
the ban, a crowd of malcontents,"*^ yet including nobles,
owners of castles, military captains, gentlemen, discerning
statesmen, freeholders, and several celebrated women.

The heads of the king's party were cognizant of the wars
in foreign countries on account of religion, but the common
people mostly knew nothing of them and could never believe
that there was such a great number of Protestants in
France. Estimates as to the proportion of Catholics and j
Protestants in the sixteenth century were widely divergent. {
Merimee accounts for one million and a half Huguenots,
with proportionately more wealth, soldiers, and generals
than the opposite communion.** The bishop St. Croix, who
on October i6, 1561, upon the occasion of his tour of
' France, reported to his Italian colleagues that he had found
no images or crosses broken, wrote that the "most clear
headed and circumspect in France assure me that there is
at most only one-eighth of France whose sentiments are not
Catholic."*^ His statement of January 7, 1562, expressed
the sentiment that the kingdom was upon the point of final
ruin with no escape. Giving testimony as to the over-
whelming number of heretics in France, the Catholic bishop
of Viterbo was so sure of the wrack and ruin of the nation
that he obtained his recall to Italy, as early as the middle
of May, 1561.*^ A remonstrance of 1562 to the Pope re-
iterated that one-fourth of France was separated from the ^^
communion of Rome.*^ A Venetian source of March 14, ^V^^^*^
1562, said that there were 600,000 Huguenots in France.*^ J r/^^
King Charles IX's remonstrance to the Pope called atten- '^

♦3 Blackburn, vol. i, p. 186.

** Merimee, Prosper, Chronlque du regne de Charles IX. Paris,
1856, p. 8.

*5 St. Croix, vol. i, p. 14.

*6Baird, Beza, p. 127; Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., May 17,
1561.

*7Cal. St. P. For., No. 1453 (1562).

*8 Ibid., No. 935.

104 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [512

tion to the fact that one-quarter of the kingdom was Prot-
estant.*^ The reader must remember that there were one
hundred and forty episcopal towns in France, each as " full
as possible."^'' Paris in 1559 had 450,000 population. Let- (
tenhove remarks that the Protestants were most numerous
in central France, and that it was there that the assemblies
most multiplied.^^ The Venetian ambassador estimated J
that scarcely one-third were heretical in 1567.^^ With con-
temporaries so wide apart in their enumerations the investi-
gator is obliged to be cautious with estimates.

Beza recorded 2150 Protestant churches. Orleans had
7000 members. Normandy boasted 305 pastors, Provence
sixty. The average congregation, however, must have been
much smaller than those in the Huguenot strongholds of
Orleanais, Normandy, and Provence. Montluc put the
population of France at sixteen millions. Had there been ^
1,600,000 Protestants, or one-tenth of the inhabitants, each
of the 2150 churches would have averaged 750 members.
Thompson considers that less than half this number would ^ qQ
be closer to the truth, with not one over three-quarters of w^ >
a million before the massacre of St. Bartholomew.^^ J ^o)^

A few figures upon the provinces and towns are available. ^
Suriano wrote on April 17, 1561, "there is not one single
province uncontaminated."^* Coligny told the king in 1560
that there were 50,000 Protestants in Normandy. ^^ Dijon [ i

was two-thirds Lutheran, according to an echevin of the . 4>^
city in 1554. Eight years later two thousand of them were \J
expelled by Tavannes. In the southwest Bordeaux had J
7000 Protestants and two ministers within the inner walls,
in 1561.^^ Toulouse, upstream from Bordeaux and Mon-
tauban on the Garonne, possessed a strong contingent of

*9 Conde, vol. ii, p. 812.

50 Suriano, p. 363.

51 Lettenhove, p. 73.

52 Relations . . . venetiens, vol. ii, p. 121.

53 Thompson, p. 231.

5* Great Britain, Cal. St. P. Ven., 272.

55 Floquet, vol. ii, p. 318.

56 Devienne (C), Histoire de la ville de Bordeaux. Bordeaux,
1771, p. 132.

513] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT 105

20,000. Often audiences of 10,000 would greet the pastor
at the suburban services, while five thousand more was not
an unusual assemblage in the city temple. Even in the little
town of Anduze, at the entrance of the Cevennes, three
thousand Huguenots would assemble at the service during
the year 1560. In the coast town of Dieppe in Picardy two
thousand met once a day.^^

The pacific reform reached its high water mark in France
and Beam early in 1560. Between that time and the out-
break of the civil war there were conflicts between the two
parties which need to be considered in connection with the
whole story of French Protestantism, for the previous thirty
years had also witnessed a series of attempts to crush it by
violence. The period after 1560 is the martyrdom of the
Huguenot church, Holland alone surpassed France in the
number of victims, and both were quite in contrast to the
cases of England and Scotland, where the pilgrim may
stand by every stake. In France a generation of the purity
of Protestantism, free from political alliances and fixed
creeds and forms of worship, may be said to have termi-
nated in 1560, to be followed by a fierce struggle for su-
premacy.

Among causes for conflict the images in the churches
seemed especially to incite the ire of the Huguenots.
Throckmorton reported the first instance of the year i56o*T
on February 27. Writing to Queen Elizabeth he said that
" idols had been cast out of the churches throughout Aqui-
taine, and the same procedure would speedily be instituted .

in Provence."^^ Chantonnay informed the duke of Sessa 1

on March 24 that some insurgents at St. Malo had killed
certain public officials and prevented an execution. The fol-
lowing day the cardinal Bourbon on his way to Rouen passed
a grove where two thousand Calvinists were listening to a
sermon. A riot ensued when a priest and a clerk called
them Lutherans. Two days later the preacher was burned

" Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 857, Jan. i, 1561.
** Ibid., For., No. 779.

io6 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [514

at the stake. ^^ On the fourteenth of April the ambassador
at Paris from Venice wrote home that the insurgents in
Provence "have stripped the churches and mutilated the
images. "^'^ In Dauphiny the achievements of Montbrun,
a convert of Beza, made him famous. Early in May the I
Huguenots became masters of Provence, by the admission
of the Italians. It was reported that "very free sermons #
have been delivered in the churches of Bayonne," in Na-
varre,^^ and the bishop of Agen wrote that the inhabitants
of that city were in a state of furious insurrection. On
May II, 1560, Calvin wrote from Geneva to the French
Protestants that he had not communicated with them for
six months on account of his deep sorrow that the Reform
should have taken up arms. The peace of Amboise had
marked the triumph of the aristocratic element of the Prot-
estants whose interests were identified with their political
purposes and feudal position, over the Geneva party.

The Pope's delegate left Avignon on the thirteenth of
August, 1560, in " disgust at the license" of the Dauphinese
Calvinists.^^ In the middle of October the people of Am-
boise and Tours stormed the prisons and released all those
confined as agitators on account of religion.^^ The valley
of the Loire seems to have been the storm center of these
provincial uprisings. On account of a personal affront.
Guise had taken an aversion to Tours and suggested that
the king punish that town.

April, 1 56 1, was signalized by Huguenot outbreaks at
Pontoise and Beauvais in Picardy, at Angers and Le Mans
in Poitou. Southern France was also disturbed. Chan-
tonnay wrote of the organized character of the Huguenot
agitations, especially at Toulouse, in June. By September 1
the Protestants of Montpellier in Languedoc had formed a
league with the motto : " No mass, no more than at Ge- /

59 Archives Nationales, K. 1493, No. 45.

60 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. Ven., No. 146.
^1 Negociations toscanes, vol. iii, p. 419.

62 Cal. St. P. For., No. 416.

63 Ibid., Ven., No. 200.

515] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT I07

neva,"** and in December, 1561, riots occurred in Troyes,
Orleans, Meaux, Vendome, Auxerre, Bourges, Lyons, An-
gers, Tours, Rouen, and Bazas. ^'^

The year 1562 was ushered in with many misgivings as
to the feasibihty of maintaining a state of peace in the king-
dom. Like a thunder clap came the massacre of Vassy on
the first of March. Manifestations of Huguenot activity
before the actual outbreak of war were ominous. In Paris
five hundred cavalry of Conde's retinue accompanied the
Huguenot preacher to service daily, according to Bishop
St. Croix.^® Nineteen days after the massacre Chanton-
nay informed the Spanish king that the nobles of Guyenne
were complaining of the insolence of the heretics.®^ On "*
Sunday, May 3, 1562, thirty-six Catholic churches in Rouen
were sacked by the Protestants. Worship in the Norman j
towns of Havre, Rouen, Caen, and Bayeux, and in Dieppe
in Picardy was suspended for six months. ^^ Conde testi-
fies that by May 23 there was not a recollection of the mass
in Poitou and Dauphiny. The Catholics of the latter prov-
ince and of Lyons fled to Savoy on the sixth of June.^^
Lyons had abolished mass on the first day of the same
month. In October, 1562, the Huguenots of Rouen, under
truce, demanded liberty of preaching and the permission to
live according to their religion. Furthermore, they re-
quested that the Edict of January be observed, and that they
might preach freely in the cities all over France. The terms
had included only worship outside the walls. In the coun-
ter proposals to Conde the Huguenots were to be allowed
to practice their religion peaceably in their homes, but public
worship not to be permitted even outside the towns. Po-
litical conditions caused a break in the negotiations, but on
December 9 there were recorded the three articles proposed
by Conde while he was besieging Paris. They foreshad-

•* Archives Nationales, K. 1495, No. 47, June 19, 1561.

^^ Haton, vol. i, pp. 195-198.

^* St. Croix, p. 94, March 19, 1562.

6'^ Archives Nationales, K. 1497, No. 16, March 20, 1562.

*8 Floquet, vol. ii, p. 390.

•^ Conde, vol. ii, p. 20.

io8 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [516

owed the outlines of future edicts of toleration, such as
those of Amboise, Longjumeau, and Bergerac. First, there
was to be liberty of conscience with free exercise of reli-
gion where demanded ; secondly, security of life and prop-
erty for all ; thirdly, a free council to be summoned within
six months, or if that were not feasible, a general assembly
of the realm. As later modified the articles provided (i)
that Calvinist preaching should be allowed in the suburbs
of frontier towns, or in certain designated places ; (2) that
it should obtain only in those localities where it had been
practised at the outbreak of hostilities; (3) exception to be
made that it should be lawful for all gentlemen and nobles
to have private services in their own homes; (4) that all
persons dwelling in sections where preaching was not per-
mitted should be allowed to proceed to the nearest towns
for the exercise of religion without molestation. In reply
the royal government stipulated that Paris and environs
should be excepted, and that Lyons was not to be consid-
ered a frontier town.'^® In the following February of 1563
Poitou, Guyenne, La Rochelle, and Picardy rebelled again.'^
The response to the Huguenot outbreaks was made with
pen, tongue, and sword. Some of the Catholic writers in-
stituted a literary crusade against the new faith. It was
insinuated that the upper classes, especially the nobles, had
left the established church because they w^ere of a race of
born sceptics. The new worship was destined to failure,
for the reason that the religion of the higher strata of so-
ciety was not often that of the lower. No leader domi-
nated the rest, nor was there unity among the Protestant
leaders. Writing a little later Pasquier declares that the
"new religion first harassed, then lodged itself among us
with furious insolence."^^ He condemns theoretically the
legality of wars of religion, but does not condemn war un-

70 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 1219, Dec. 9, 1562; Beza,
vol. ii, p. 121.

71 Cal. St. For., No. 395, March '3, 1563.

72 Les Oeuvres d'Estienne Pasquier. 2 vols., Paris, 1723 ; vol, ii,
p. 451.

517] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT I09

dertaken with purely religious motives. Henry II is blamed
for being proclaimed " protecteur de la liberte germanique "
— that is, heresy — which he calls the profound cause of the
civil wars. God punished France for protecting heresy
abroad. The proper means of banishing the new sect would
have been administrative and judicial persecution, less
bloody than war but more effective in the long run. In this
connection a Catholic eye witness of the struggle asserts
that the wars were the judgment of God, just when France
purposed to be most at ease." Upon the principle that for-
eign wars are the best antidote for domestic divisions, the
Huguenots, in order to attain full liberty of conscience,
rendered themselves formidable by calling in the assistance
of the Protestants of the Empire.

Reaction against violence was bound to ensue and a mod-
ern Catholic writer is doubtless correct in assuming that it
would be difficult for the Reform to combat the embellished
cathedrals, the patron saints, and the gold mitres of his
church, all of which appealed to the imagination of the
people. They might well ask if these were barbarians or
Moslems who destroyed the images."^* One of the Venetian
ambassadors wrote home that it seemed a paradox to say
that the war of 1 561-1563 was useful to the king, but that
such was the case, for when the Protestants began to pillage
the poor people exclaimed: "Where have they seen that
Christ commanded to steal and kill?"^^ Yet this should
be compared with the record of the Catholic bishop who on
February 28, 1562 (the day before the Vassy massacre),
wrote that the Protestants " complain that they are treated
like Jews and wish his majesty's permission to carry arms
for defence."^® Conde had previously remarked that the
king was acting like a good doctor who recognized the mal-
ady without knowing the cause. " Sickness of spirit is not
cured like that of the body."^'' It was true in France that

''^ Castelnau, vol. i, p. 30.

''* Capefigue, Histoire de la Reforme, p. 271.

''* Relations . . . venetiens, vol. ii, p. 119.

7« St. Croix, p. 64.

7^ Conde, vol. i, p. 542.

no FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [518

the activity of society was the inverse of the activity of the
state. The progress of Hberty in the heart of nations always
corresponds to the weight of the yoke on their necks.
"When the tyranny is an idea it is heavier than a sceptre,
causing a more energetic revolt," wrote Dargaud. All
France was full of libels and invectives, of responses and
replies. The Huguenot historian Laplanche marvelled that
the roots of Catholicism were not torn up by the torrent
of writing and pamphlets.

The violent means undertaken by the Catholics prior to"^
the civil wars to stamp out the Reform contributed greatly
to its success. A few instances must suffice. On May i, .
1 561, there occurred a rising in Aries against the Protestant*-^
minister.'^^ The following day the Parlement of Toulouse
issued an arret repressing all assemblies, congregations, and
the carrying of arms/^ and horrible punishments were meted
out in that town. A Roman Catholic writer admits that the
capitouls displayed no human traits,^^ and according to the
records at the city hall they vied for honors of inhumanity.
Bloody Montluc was astounded at the bloodier Parlement
of Toulouse, yet though the Garonne ran crimson, a year
later there were 20,000 Huguenots in the town. In Valence
La Mothe-Gondrin beheaded Duval, a Protestant pastor
and ex-Carmelite.*^ So great was the hatred against the
Protestants in Marseilles that on some mornings many
would be found hanged in different sections of the city.
The king in letters patent said that he had never intended
to include Marseilles in the Edict in favor of the Hugue-
nots, and that he desired no public or secret preaching in
that metropolis.^^ Partly in retaliation the Earl of War-
wick turned all the people out of the towns on the Norman
coast and seized the Catholic shipping after peace had been
signed, believing that Charles IX could not raise an arma-

78 Archives Nationales, K. 1494, No. 83.

79 K. 1495, No. 35.

80 Aldeguier, p. 396.

81 Arnaud, Dauphine, p. 55.

82 Ruffi, Histoire de la ville de Marseilles, vol. i, p. 338.

519] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT III

ment.^^ The social results were profound. In 1562 hus-
bandry was almost entirely neglected in France, while the
poor people fled from their homes rather than be exposed
to both enemies. Trades and the mechanical arts were
abandoned, for merchants and tradesmen closed their shops
and joined the armies. Justice could not be administered,--^
since force and violence reigned. Yet the number of Prot-
estants continued for a time to increase. J

The planting of the Protestant churches remains for con-
sideration. The Romorantin edict of May, 1560, and the
supplementary decree of August drew back into France
many of those who had left the country. Some of these
were ministers who gave new life to the party. Between
1555 and 1566 Geneva vSent one hundred pastors, among
them William Farel, who returned to Gap in November of
1 561 after an absence of thirty-eight years.^* In the
king's council, convened at Fontainebleau on August 20,
1560, the Huguenots demanded churches of their own.
Admiral Coligny presented petitions, one to the king, the
other to his mother, in which the sovereigns were requested
to grant two places of worship in two parts of France for
greater convenience, in order that private congregations ^
might assemble without molestation.^^ After the death of »
Francis II on December 5, 1560, a great number of refugees
returned from Germany. The declaration of toleration by
Charles IX, which followed on January 7, 1561, was so
liberal an edict that Paris soon abounded with Huguenot ,
preachers. Phihp of Spain was informed on the ninth of_|
March that there was secret preaching at Fontainebleau
and in the woods around.^^ On April 13 the Bishop of Va-
lence preached before the queen with the proposal that the
Bible should be read by every one in his own language and
the Psalms chanted.^^ Nine days later the Spanish ambas-

®3 Castelnau, vol. v, p. 248.
8* Arnaud, Dauphine, p. 81.

85 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. Ven., No. 195, Aug. 30, 1560.

86 Archives Nationales, K. 1494, No. 32.

87 Conde, vol. ii, p. 3.

112 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [52O

sador Chantonnay bluntly informed Catherine that some of
the bishops of the established church should not be allowed
to reside in their parishes simply because they could not
compete with the regular ministers of the Huguenots.
Through the deputies of the churches dispersed throughout
the realms of France the Protestants presented on June ii,
1 561, a request to the king,®^ in which they declared that
the reports of their refusing to pay taxes were false, and
begged to be permitted to build churches. The response
was to the effect that the July edict of Romorantin was to
obtain until the Colloquy of Poissy, set for the summer of
1 561. Directly after the colloquy even the Catholics ad-
mitted that the Reform was making great progress. Chan-
tonnay wrote to the duke of Parma that " Beza preached
yesterday the most abominable sermon ever made, and the
people flocked in by the doors and the windows with mar-
vellous eagerness. "^^ On the last day of August he con-
fessed to de Tisnacq that the Huguenot preachers there had
more assurance than the priests. The request made by the
deputies of the new religion to have temples, probably at
St. Germain en Laye, was handed in on January 22, 1562,
five days subsequent to the famous edict of toleration. Two
months later matters had gone so far that there was a re-
monstrance by the Catholics against placards placed in pub-
lic view on Parisian street corners by the Huguenots.^'^ ^
In which province did the Huguenot movement spread 1
most rapidly ? The gospel showed its first fruits and power
in the seaboard provinces. Lower Poitou and Normandy
were the chief Protestant provinces. Poitou, with its towns \
of Moncontour, Chatellerault, La Roche-sur-Yon, Poitiers,
Niort and Lusignan, had the most adherents and began the
agitation for a book of discipline. Normandy, for its size, "^l
was probably the most Protestant province, for there Cal-
vinism not only obtained in the ports and "good" towns,

88 Archives Nationales, K. 1495, No. 42.
*9Bersier, Coligny, p. 267.
*^ Conde, vol. iii, p. 100.

52l] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT II3

but in the country areas as well.^^ The coast trade with /
England and Holland undoubtedly explains Protestantism \
in Lower Normandy, but the reasons of its prevalence on
an extensive scale in the rural portion are quite obscure. -y^.^
The next to the southwest was Brittany, where Andelot, ' / r
Coligny^s brother, was endeavoring to consolidate the Hu- ->^ t*^ T^
guenot development. Adjoining Brittany and Poitou was^ ^T
the little division of Aunis, where the Reform was intro- n ^j^>'^
duced by several who had been in Brazil with Villegagnon. '"'^t^v^ /3
Here also lay Saintonge, in whose cities of Brouage, Saintes, -^<r'
and St. Jean d'Angely preaching was taking place. Just
across the border, in the inland province of Angoumois, was
Cognac, whose Protestant church was formed November i,
1558. As to Guyenne, on the coast of the Bay of Biscay,
Montluc said that in this large province Huguenotism was
prevalent among the peasants. ^^ Within its confines were
located the important subdivisions of Perigord, Quercy, and
Rouergue. The governor of Guyenne had joined the ranks '
of the Huguenots, along with Bouillon of Normandy and *^^
other nobles who came out openly at the death of Henry H. /
In Gascony there were evidences of the penetration of Prot-
estantism into the country districts to the extent that four
hundred churches had the liberty of preaching without fear
of punishment.^^ The adjacent province of Beam was rap-
idly won to the new religion. The seaboard provinces in
general were peopled by brave and hardy people, though
naturally addicted to luxury and excess. As a result of
the religious movement, however, the artist Palissy reported
that "banquets and superfluities of coiffure ceased: there
were fewer scandals and murders, and less licentious songs
and debauched men at the inns."^*

Provence on the Mediterranean and Dauphiny on its
northern border were Huguenot strongholds. Both prov-
inces fattened on the commerce from Italy through the

»i Crottet, p. 28.

** Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, vol. iv, p, 115.
»* Archives Nationales, K. 1495, No. 49, July i, 1561.
»* Crottet, p. 65.
8

114 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [522

Alpine passes and cleared through Lyons, the capital of
Calvinist printing in France. Upper Languedoc included
the divisions of Cevennes, Vivarais, and Velay. The piety
of the Protestant Cevennes and other hill countries of the
south of France was phenomenal in the sight of foreigners.
No stretch of the imagination could have classified the citi-
zens of Vivarais, north of the Cevennes, as devoted to the
crown and Roman Catholicism.^^ Their neighbors of Ve-
lay who were Huguenots met in the open with butchers,
masons, or tavern keepers as preachers.®^ i

In Lyonnais and Forez, just west of the frontier of
Savoy, there were few great lords to impose their domina-
tion. The nobility was poor and there were few great fami-
lies. Barring Lyons the inhabitants were stanch Catholics.
Lyons for a long time had fought the temporal domination of
its archbishops and, more resolutely even than Germany, dis-
liked ecclesiastical government. Altogether the city oflFered
a marvelous field for the Reform, and might have been the
capital of surgery ^s well as of printing had not Rome im-
posed obstacles. Owing to the restrictions in the profession
there were only five surgeons in Lyons to fight the plague
in 1564, although it had the oldest and best hospital in
Europe at the time. Protestants were not allowed at first
to be pharmacists, but this prohibition was removed after
they began to practise at Poitiers and Niort in Poitou.
Ramus said it cost 881 livres in 1561 to have a doctor or
surgeon.®^ Notwithstanding the many obstructions the num-
ber of Protestants increased. Lyons and the Dauphiny con-
stituted one ecclesiastical province and the churches held
four provincial synods in 1561, beginning at the former
town on April 13. The second and third synods were held
on the last day of July and the eighth of September. At the
fourth synod (November 25) the new churches of Macon,
Chalon, Beaune, and Buxy, in Burgundy, and all of those
in the Comtat-Venaissin, including Avignon, were incorpor-

®5 Steyert, vol. iii, p. 118.

86 Mandet, Velay, p. Q,'].

»7 Duparcq, Charles IX, p. 9.

523] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT II5

ated.^® There are evidences of the penetration of Protest-
antism into country districts elsewhere, as in Orleannais,
Nivernais, Blesois, the diocese of Nimes, and even in iso-
lated portions of Champagne in northern France. The
ecclesiastical department of Champagne and Brie included
Troyes, Chalon, Melun, Auxerre, Chaumont, Mezieres,
Reims, Sens, Langres, Sedan, and Meaux.^^

Fragmentary traces of churches are also found other than
those which have been previously described. St. L6,
Dieppe, and Caen, in Normandy, dared to have public
preaching. The movement in Tours awakened the resent-
ment of the Duke of Guise.^"^ Of Orleans Minister Faget
wrote Calvin on December 15, 1558, that everything was
prospering. In Paris the consecration of a child was the
occasion of the establishment of the first Protestant church.^''^
As early as September, 1555, M. de la Ferriere, from Maine,
moved the election of Jean Magon (de Launay) as a min-
ister, though the candidate was but twenty-four years of
age.^''^ The chancellor, L'Hopital, later permitted public
preaching in the Porte St. Antoine.^^^ The mother of the
Prince of Porcien opened her palace to religious assemblies,
while the guild halls of the city were free to Calvin's
preachers. Beza stated that after the Edict of Romorantin
the Reformers met in barns at Montpellier, Rouen, Nimes,
Meaux, Auxerre, Castres, and outside the walls at Angers,
Sens, Bordeaux, Bourges, Grenoble, and towns in Brittany
and Normandy.^^* The new church at Lanjon had Morel
as pastor. Otrand was minister at Pons. The remarkable
Charles Leopard began at Arvert, in Saintonge, in February,
1560. At St. Just nearly everyone abjured the Roman
church and new edifices sprang up in the neighborhood,

®8 Capefigue, Histoire de la Reforme, p. 94.

99 Blackburn, vol. i. p. 86.

100 Laplanche, vol. i, p. 234.

101 Lacombe, p. 19.

102 Blackburn, vol. i, p. 86.

103 Merki, L'Amiral de Coligny, la maison Chatillon et la revoke
protestante. Paris, 1909, p. 256.

10* Beza, vol. i, p. 600.

ii6 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [524

particularly at Marennes.^^'^ The first church at Nimes was
planted by Mauget, in 1560. Audiences, who were com-
pelled to meet in the daytime, averaged four thousand in
number.^^^ There is an account of a sermon in the same
town delivered on the sixth of October, 1560, by Vinet, a
remarkable orator of fifty years. Die adopted the Reform
en masse, to become effective on May i, 1562. This was in
emulation of Milhaud and St. Foye, in Agenois.^"^

Suriano wrote to Venice that "thirty cursed sects" had
sprung up, who argued that the king's authority did not ex-
tend to their conscience. He lamented that even in the
States-General speeches against the Catholics were allowed.
France in his opinion was approaching a popular state like 'I
the Swiss republic, on account of the new doctrine. *'Le
sujet n'est pas oblige d'obeir a son prince, lorsqu'il com-
mande de choses qui ne sont point contenues dans TEvan- .
gile."^^^ Indeed, in church polity the Protestants were J
carrying the change further than the Reformers elsewhere
in Europe. In England and Germany the Protestants still
adhered to many of the institutions of the medieval church,
retaining episcopates and inferior clergy as deacons, arch-
deacons, canons, curates, besides clinging to the vestments,
ornaments, and canonical habits.

As to names for the reformers there has been some con-
fusion. Among the thirty sects mentioned by Suriano it
has been a common error to identify " Huguenot " with
"Vaudois," but there seems to have been no historical con-
nection between the two. The Vaudois were almost a
memory when the term " Huguenot " was first applied by
the Comte de Caylus. In the despatch written on Novem-
ber 18, 1560, by this colonel of legionaries of Languedoc
sent to chastise the rebels we read : " II nV a plus de ces
seditieux huguenaulx rassemblees dans les Cevennes."^^®

105 Crottet, p. 42.

106 Corbiere, Histoire de TEglise reformee de Montpellier, p. 10.
lOTArnaud, Dauphine, p. 114.

108 Suriano, p. 378.

109 Devic et Vaissete, Languedoc, vol. xi, p. 347.

525] THE REFORM AT ITS HEIGHT II7

Among various explanations of the origin of the name the
CathoHc Davila asserted that the Calvinists in Tours met
near Hugo's gate ; hence, " Huguenots."^^^ Whatever the
origin it was a nickname applied by the Romanists, yet the
latter in great numbers thought their own name " Catholic "
fatal to Christianity. Under this title had not Germany
broken away under Leo X; England, under Clement VII;
France, under Pius IV ? The death of the latter pope, five
weeks after Henry II, was welcomed as a deliverance both
by Romans and foreigners. Of great talents, he ruled in
an extremely critical period. Even the term "catholique-
ment " in the various edicts entailed endless controversy and
confusion.

The high water mark of the French Reformation was
reached in the terms of the peace of Amboise, March 19,
1563. Conde was to succeed Navarre. The Reform was
to be permitted everywhere save in Paris. The king was to
appoint one town in each bailiwick where religion might be
preached. All gentlemen holding fiefs might have preach-
ing in their homes, while nobles enjoying high justice could
have preaching on their estates. Property confiscated from
either church should be restored.^^^

110 Davila (Henrico C), Historia de las guerras civiles de Francia.
Madrid, 1651, p. 64. The word " Huguenot " is thought by others
to be a corruption of " Eidgenossen," confederates.

m Isambert, vol. xiv, p. 135.

CHAPTER V

Friends and Foes at Home and Abroad

The wars of religion in France present a most complete
instance of the intersection of home and foreign influences.
This condition was largely attributable to the increasing
means of expeditious communication, among which the least
observable but the most potent was the royal mail. Louis
XI ascending the throne just one century before the out-
break of the first war of religion, had established royal post-
men. The astute policy of this monarch included land or
sea supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean, despite the
handicap of Moslem domination of Constantinople. At the
advent of Louis' son, Charles VIII, France boasted 230
relays of mail carriers. In 1495, the very year during
which Charles entered Naples without opposition, the mail
service was extended to Rome. The Due de Bourbon,
writing from Paris to the Italian metropolis on the 15th of
December, 1494, received a reply four weeks later on the
I2th of January.^ An ordinance pertinent to our subject is
that of Francis II, May 29, 1560, concerning the mails.- It
ordered that the route to Dauphiny, a Mediterranean prov-
ince, should be by way of Lyons, Grenoble, and Villeneuve.
It fixed the wages and number of carriers thus: thirty-six
on the route from Paris to Bordeaux; twenty- four, Paris
to Metz; eighteen, Lyons to Marseilles; seventeen each,
Bordeaux to St. Jean de Luz, Paris to Navarre, Blois to
Nantes, Boulogne to Paris; nine, Paris to Peronne. These
royal carriers were just beginning to be entrusted with the
mail of individuals. Until the middle of the century mes-
sengers of universities or of merchant corporations carried

1 Foville, La Transformation des Moyens de Transport, p. 184.

2 Limoges, p. 416.

527] FRIENDS AND FOES AT HOME AND ABROAD II9

private mail.^ Fourteen years after the first war of religion
the edict of 1576 regulated the departures and fixed the
prices of letters and their answers, and charged fifteen
deniers for a package of more than one ounce. The effect
of the improved means of communication upon the spread
of the Reform can scarcely be exaggerated.

One of the foreign countries with which the Huguenots
were in correspondence was Flanders where some of the
foremost friends of the Reform were to be found. The
similarity between the Flemish movement and the progress
of the political Protestants is very close. The connection
between politics and religion in France and the Low Coun-
tries was reciprocal. The regent of Flanders and Granvella,
the Spanish ambassador, implored Philip II to come to the
Netherlands in order to crush the heretics, but the monarch
pleaded ignorance of the language and poverty. Meanwhile
the Orange party practised so successfully with Margaret of
Parma that the regent inclined toward conciliation instead
of coercion. She proposed to convoke the States-General
in order to remedy the evils, a program which the nobles
enthusiastically advocated. The latter demanded. the recall
of Granvella, who was presently ordered to Madrid. Gran-
vella, in order to suppress heresy in its two most active
centers, proposed to imitate the method used at Paris, by
exacting a profession of faith, together with a pledge to
observe the laws, of all citizens who desired to remain in
the city. Recalcitrants were to be disarmed, compelled to
sell their property, one- third of which must be confiscated
for municipal and military expenses, and then banished.*
The prince of Orange protested vehemently.

In 1563 the activity of the French Protestants in Flanders
became a matter of serious apprehension to the Roman
Catholics. Demonstrations at Tournay and Valenciennes
became so bold in May, 1563, that it took six companies

5 Pigeonneau, p. 'J^i.

♦ Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur les Pays Bas. 4
Tols., Brussels, 1848-1859; vol. i, p. 277. Philip to Alva, Dec. 14,
1563.

120 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM I I559-I562 [52S

of infantry to keep the Huguenots overawed. The latter
city was the most aggressive in the province and was proud
of the largest number of converts.'' Brussels, too, boasted
a great church. The Protestants were especially numerous
in the Walloon provinces, where there were many ministers
from England and Geneva. By November, 1563, it could
be seen that a common purpose actuated the important
provinces of Flanders, Artois, Holland, Utrecht, and Zee-
land. Chantonnay cautioned Margaret of Parma to be on
her guard against the combination of Dutch rebels and
French Protestants.®

Adjacent to Flanders lay the three bishoprics which were
early famous for their interest in the new faith. The lax-
ness of episcopal discipline in the first half of the sixteenth
century contributed to this spirit, and finally led to a Catho-
lic reaction. Philip of Spain was anxious to see France
despoiled of Metz. On December 9, 1561, the English cor-
respondent recorded that there was some anxiety in France
lest the German Empire might seize the Bishoprics.'^ Ferdi-
nand, however, in addition to activities in Turkish and
Muscovite quarters, was at odds with the Pope over the
Council of Trent, and was friendly towards France. Mctz~\
inclined more towards Calvinism than to Lutheranism :
under French domination it passed definitely over to Calvin-
ism. Vieilleville, the governor, was moderate in his policy,
and granted the Protestants a church in the interior of the
town. During the first Civil War the Metz Protestants i
remained quiet, but soon after Farel visited the city for the
third time and stirred up its religious activity. Charles,
cardinal of Lorraine, suppressed Huguenot preaching in the
diocese and closed the church, and upon Charles IX's tour
of the provinces in 1564 the building was demolished. One
of the motives for the support of the Protestant cause by
John Casimir, prince palatine, was the promise offered by
the Huguenots that he would be given the government of

5 Papiers d'etat du cardinal Granvelle, vol. vii, p. 270.

6 Archives Nationales, K. 1497, Nos. 30, 33.

7 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 712.

529] FRIENDS AND FOES AT HOME AND ABROAD 121

Metz. Another 'bishopric was Treves-on-Moselle, eighty-
six miles south of Cologne. The see of Treves, which
claims to include the oldest town in modern Germany, had
appeared as an archbishopric in the ninth century. Among
its most powerful archbishops who attained considerable
temporal power was Richard von Greiffenklau, who as
early as 1531 distinguished himself by his opposition to the
incipient Reformation. Even the cardinal of Lorraine, how-
ever, was unable to cope with the influence upon the Tre-
varans of ministers from Switzerland and Champagne.^ In
the bishopric of Strasburg the Reform found ready accept-
ance, its foremost champion there being Martin Bucer.
During the ensuing period of religious dissension the city
was skillfully piloted by the " stadtmeister " Jacob Sturm.
The church at Strasburg was included in the important
Schmalkalden League of Protestant churches, organized in
1 53 1, and the period intervening before the first war of
religion saw the Strasburg congregation rise superior to
persecution.

The three Scandinavian countries were early bulwarks of
Protestantism and, like the other neighbors of France to the
northeast, supplied ministers and money to the Reform
movement. The Danes proposed that a French prince should
marry the sister of King Christian III, while they hoped to
induce the sovereign himself to become the fiance of Mary
Stuart.® Protestantism would have profited by these ar-
rangements, for the father of the Danish king, Frederick I
of the house of Oldenburg, had accepted the Protestant faith
in the year 1525.

The conditions which neutralized Protestant England's
position in relation to the French Reform have been discussed
in an earlier chapter. Looking elsewhere both friendly and
hostile sentiments might be found in Switzerland and Ger-

* British Quarterly Review, July, 1875 : article " Augusta Trc-
verorum," by E. A. Freeman.

8 La Place, P. de, Commentaires de I'etat de la religion et de la
republique sous Henri II, Frangois II et Charles IX. Paris, 1565,
p. 122.

122 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM: I559-I562 [53O

many. The term " neutral " could more reasonably be ap-
plied to the latter. In 1499 the Swiss had practically re-
nounced their allegiance to the emperor, the temporal chief
of the world according to medieval theory. In the six-
teenth century a great number of them did the same by the
world's spiritual chief, the pope. The scene of the revolt
was Zurich and the leader Ulrich Zwingli was both a poli-
tical and a religious reformer. He was ardently in favor of
securing for Bern and Zurich the chief power in the con-
federation, because of their importance and size, and can
be considered the founder of Swiss neutrality toward other
states. At the famous meeting at Marburg in October,
1529, Zwingli tried to come to an agreement with Luther
on the subject of the eucharist but failed, and the gulf
between the Swiss and German Reformations was widened.
Just before the first war of religion in France the Counter
Reformation, or reaction in favor of the old faith, began
to make itself felt in the confederation. Cardinal Charles
Borromeo, whose dispatches have been quoted previously,
lent his efforts to that effect upon entering upon his arch-
bishopric of Milan in 1560. Besides this nephew of Pope
Pius IV, Ludwig Pfyffer, commander-in-chief of the Swiss
mercenaries in France from 1562 to 1570, accomplished so
much towards the religious reaction at home that he was
termed the " Swiss King."

In 1559 the Swiss cantons numbered thirteen. The seven
Catholic members were Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug,
Lucerne, Freiburg, and Soleure. On the side of the Re-
form were Zurich, Glarus, Basel, Appenzell, Schaffhausen,
and Bern, which alone was thirty times as large as the
smallest Catholic canton and quadruple the size of the
largest. On the 29th of April, 1562, the Huguenots en-
deavored to persuade the Protestant cantons to prevent the
Catholic states from supporting the Duke of Guise.^^ The
Bernese told Conde that they, among other Protestant can-
tons, would not suffer the levying of any soldiers to fight

10 Great Britain, Gal. St. P. Ven., No. 285.

53 ij FRIENDS AND FOES AT HOME AND ABROAD 12$

against the Protestants. On the other hand, the Papist *
cantons, at a meeting of the Swiss Diet on May 22, 1562, j

at Soleure not five miles from the Bernese border, offered , >;
to send 6000 infantry to the aid of Charles IX.^^ One group < x"^ '^r
of states promised fifteen ensigns, who arrived at Blois on ^)p/^
August seventh, after using the Franche-Comte route, but
other cantons of Catholic persuasion balked at assisting
France, pleading penury. The fact that Bern acted as al
natural barrier between Paris and all the Catholic cantons
except Freiburg was an element of great weight. The
troops of the solid east central group of five Papal cantons
had to make a wide detour, no less than did the auxiliaries
of the five widely scattered smaller Protestant states.

The leading Protestant princes of Germany included the
elector of Saxony, the margraves of Baden and Branden-
burg, the landgraves of Hesse and Thuringia, the Count
Palatine, the prince of Anhalt, and the dukes of Wurtem-
burg, Mecklenberg Holstein, and Zweibriicken.^^ j^w ^gj-e
Lutheran except the Calvinist Count Palatine and the land-
grave of Thuringia. Confirmation of stories of grave dif-
ferences between the two Protestant denominations in Ger-
many, circulated chiefly by the Guisards, is lacking. In
border towns of both countries theological disputes were in-
evitable. Castelnau reported a brawl in Frankfort between
the Lutherans and Calvinists, both of whose assemblies
happened to be in session there.^^ The German princes
tried to prevent soldiers leaving for France. Wurtemberg
allowed none by way of Montbeliard, while Strasburg for-
bade enlistments under heavy penalties. The bishops of
the Rhine kept quiet. Hesse stopped cavalry recruiting.
Only Lorraine and the three bishoprics permitted unim-
peded enlistments. Roggendorf was a famous pro-Guise
recruiter. The turncoat Navarre on April 8, 1562, en-
gaged 1200 German mounted pistoleers and an equal num-

11 Revue Historique, vol. xcvii, p. 305.

12 Letter of F. Hotman, December 31, 1560.

13 Castelnau, p. 153. , '.

124 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [532

ber of horse, which arrived at Blois four months later. ^*
Yet twelve days subsequent to the hiring of these merce-
naries, the Count Palatine answered one of Navarre's let-
ters, pledging goodwill to the Reform in France.^^ Four
weeks before the mails could bring this reply, the vacillating
Antoine of Navarre had cast the die by attending mass on
Palm Sunday, March 22, 1562. Conde, his brother, pro-
posed to the German Protestant princes that if the Guises
tried to enlist in Germany, measures should be taken to
check the effort; that if the Guisards armed against Conde
and Coligny and were supported by Spain, Protestant Ger-
many should send assistance. On the second of May, many
of the Lutheran princes of Germany advocated an open
league of all Protestant states for mutual protection in the
hope that the mere knowledge of such a coalition would
restrain their adversaries.^® Men from Saxony and Bran-
denburg were recruiting for the Catholic armies in France,
with Frankfort as the distributing point.^^ There were no
regular Catholic armies as yet, but only mercenaries under
famous captains. On the 7th of May, Wurtemberg replied
to the messengers of Conde that he had commanded his
subjects not to enter the service of foreign princes.** On
the other hand, the English ambassador was authority for
the statement that soldiers were easily enlisted in the bish-
opric of Treves, on account of its proximity to the French
kingdom.*®

In protesting to the French government against import-
ing Germans to man the Catholic armies, the Protestant
princes were at the outset under a definite handicap. On
account of the machinations of Guise, for over a month the
envoys of the Count Palatine, Zweibriicken, Wurtemberg,
Hesse, and Baden were unprovided with safe conducts.^^

1* Memoires de Theo. Agrippa D Aubigne, II, p. 33, note ; Archives
Nationales, K. 1494, No. 105, Oct. 28, 1561.
15 Conde, vol. iii, p. 100.

i« Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 11, May 2, 1562.
1' Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generale de France, vol. v, p. 128.
1® Conde, vol. iii, p. 436.

19 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 414, May 19, 1562.

20 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., 674, May 19, 1562.

533] FRIENDS AND FOES AT HOME AND ABROAD 125

The same English despatch of June 13, 1562, carried the
news that these princes had put Roggendorf under their
ban. A paragraph of CathoHc origin of July 20 added that
the same princes warned that they would attack Brabant
should the Catholics initiate any repressive measures against
the Huguenots of the Low Countries.^^ Heidelberg com-
pletely snubbed D'Oysel, Charles IX's agent, when he asked
for aid late in July.^^ On August 26, Louis of Conde
thanked the landgrave of Hesse for his help of the Prot-
estant propaganda. Candor compels the statement that the
Roman Catholics as a rule were unsuccessful beyond the
Rhine and fortunate in Switzerland and the episcopal states.
The implacable and uncompromising enemies of the Re-
form abroad were powerful if not numerous. They should
not be enumerated without mentioning several smaller ones.
Among these Brittany, which opposed equally the French
Reformation and the Revolution, had been a part of France
only since 1532. Henry H and Charles IX were kings of
France and dukes of Brittany, the heiress Anne of Brittany
having been forced to marry Charles VHL^^ The Bretons
may more reasonably be considered as " foreign foes " when
it is remembered that they retained a separate parliament
until 1789. Even the small kingdoms of Greece and Al-
bania sent troops all the way to France to fight for the Duke
of Guise.^* This is no less surprising than amusing, since
from 1453 until the end of the eighteenth century almost all
the occasions on which the Greek people appear on the page
of history are episodes in which they were butchered or sold
into slavery. Greece in 1560 was under the sway of for-
eigners. Mohammed II a century before had personally
conquered the kingdoms of Albania, Elboea, Greece proper,
and part of the Peloponnesus, but the Lion of St. Mark,
which floated over many of the Aegean islands, was soon
in evidence in Athens. The Venetians owned large posses-

21 St. Croix, p. 176.

22 Cal. St. P. For., No. 414, Aug. 3, 1562.

23 de Calan, La Bretagne au i6e siecle. Nantes, 1908, p. i.
2* Lavisse et Rambaud, vol. v, p. 128.

126 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [534

sions in Greece and Albania and doubtless were responsible
for recruiting the Hellenes for the French Catholic forces.
As early as 1552 a Moorish ambassador of the King of
Argos reached Paris. ^^ Francis I started the connection
with the Turks, but the death of Henry H in 1559 had ended
for the time being the treaties with the Sublime Porte.

Savoy was the firm friend of the established church in
France. Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy established
in 1557 at the victory of St. Quentin his reputation as one
of the most brilliant generals of the century. The peace
of Cateau-Cambresis restored to him his states with certain
exceptions withheld by Spain and France. Previously the
duke had been governor of the Low Countries. One of the
conditions of the treaty provided for the marriage of Em-
manuel with the lovely Margaret of France, sister of
Henry 11. On June 30, 1559, the date set for the double
marriage of Philip of Spain and Elizabeth of France, and
of Emmanuel and Margaret, Henry II was mortally
wounded in a tournament. To make it more funereal the
ceremony, at Henry's orders, occurred at midnight, and
possibly the scene was prophetic.

The French marshal Vieilleville bewailed the aforesaid
treaty with Savoy. "What will become of those fine par-
lements of Turin and Chambery, and the chambres des
comptes which were instituted by Henry II? They all
speak French. The duke of Savoy [who lived until 1580]
will soon wipe out the French glory of thirty years. The
chance to obtain Milan is lost. These terms help Philip
II, who will soon thunder at the gates of Lyons, our new
frontier."^^ As the fruit of Chantonnay's interview with
Moreta, the Savoyard ambassador, early in April, 1562,
when he discussed a possible restoration to the duchy of
certain Piedmontese fortresses held by Philip II, Emmanuel
Philibert offered to the Catholic army of France 10,000
foot soldiers and 600 cavalry. Three thousand of the in-

25Bourciez, p. 51.

26 Carloix, Memoires de la vie de Francois de Scepeaux, sieur de
Vieilleville, 1527-1591. 5 vols., Paris, I757; vol. i, p. 28.

535] FRIENDS AND FOES AT HOME AND ABROAD 127

fantry and half the horse were to be armed at the duke's
own expense.^'" Just four weeks later the duke proffered
6000 infantry and 600 horsemen, promising to pay one-half
their maintenance for four months. ^^

In Rome there was an unalterable determination to tram-
ple down heresy at any cost. Spurred on by the colloquy
of Poissy, the consistory of the Roman Curia resolved on
October 10, 1561, to resist the Protestant movement in
France. On the eighth day of the following June the con-
stable Montmorency appealed to Rome through Santa Croce
for a body of soldiers and a loan of 200,000 ecus.^^ The
pope offered 50,000 crowns per month. Venice, too, was
uncompromisingly anti-Protestant, though Catherine de
Medicis had refused a league with the city of canals.^^
French traffic with Venice had diminished when the silk
industry was inaugurated at home by the Huguenots, and
when spices were introduced from Lisbon.^^ The Vene-
tians, however, were kept closely in touch with the progress
of the French Reform through the assiduity of their am-
bassadors, upon whose despatches historians of this period
largely rely. Genoa seems to have taken but little part in
French affairs during the sixteenth century. The Genoese
rulers had for a time exhibited great inferiority, falling now
under the power of France, now of Milan, until the national
spirit appeared to regain its ancient vigor in 1528. In that
year Andrew Doria was successful in throwing off the
French domination and restoring the old form of govern-
ment. A mariner of Genoa not long before had given to
Spain that new world which might have become the posses-
sion of his native state had Genoa been able to supply him
with the ships and crews which he so ardently begged her
to furnish. In the first war of religion Genoa furnished
crossbowmen who had formerly fought in the western king-

27 Archives Nationales, K. 1497, No. 21, April 8, 1562.

28 Conde, vol. ii, p. 20.

2» Archives curieuses de I'histoire de France (Cimber and Dan-
jou). Paris, 1834, vol. vi, p. 86.

30 St. Croix, 176, July 20, 1562.

31 Levasseur, Commerce, vol. i, p. 205.

128 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [536

dom. The republic's star was setting. Her Aegean and
Syrian fortresses were being abandoned, although many-
exist even to-day around the Mediterranean basin, even to
the summit of Mt. Gerizim in the Holy Land. France was
to be overrun with the ferocious German cavalry because
the inevitable mercenaries of the decadent Italian states
were needed at home.

Philip H of Spain has been considered by many historians
the real pope of the period of 1560 rather than the incum-
bent at Rome. "Whoever wishes to be well acquainted
with the morbid anatomy of governments," wrote Macaulay,
"whoever wishes to know how great states may be made
feeble and wretched, should study the history of Spain."^^
The empire of Philip II was undoubtedly one of the most
powerful and splendid that ever existed in the world. In
Europe he ruled Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands on both
sides of the Rhine, Franche-Comte, Roussillon, the Mila-
nese, and the two Sicilies, Parma, Tuscany, and the smaller
states of Italy were completely dependent upon him. In
Asia the Spanish monarch was master of the Philippines,
and of all those rich settlements which the Portuguese had
made on the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar, in the Ma-
lacca peninsula, and in the spice islands of the Eastern
Archipelago. In America his dominions extended on
each side of the equator into the temperate zone. The in-
fluence of Philip on the continent was as tremendous as that
of Napoleon, who in his day longed in vain for the ships,
colonies, and commerce which had proved both bane and
blessing to Spain of the sixteenth century. Spanish as-
cendancy had been gained by unquestionable superiority in
all the arts of policy and war. The Swiss phalanx and
French chivalry were no match for the Spanish infantry.
Nevertheless, more sombre and gloomier than his Escorial
palace-dungeon Philip even seemed born old and sad.

The support of Philip was a vital factor in French poli-
tics. His wife, however, even though she was a daughter

^2 Macaulay (T. B.), Essay on Lord Mahon's History of the War
of Succession in Spain.

537] FRIENDS AND FOES AT HOME AND ABROAD 129

of French royalty, had no influence over the sullen king.^^
On the other hand, many French noblemen took up arms
against their government because they did not relish Cath-
erine de Medicis' unpatriotic dealing with Philip.^* Her
vacillating policy wavered between fear of Spain and anx-
iety on account of the Huguenot insurrection. Political
dictates demanded that Philip prevent heresy in France, for
the latter lay like a wedge between Spain and the Spanish
domain of Burgundy and Flanders. The monarch feared
the results of French national councils and assemblies such
as that of Meaux. The latter, for example, had been called
by Charles IX for three reasons : hearing the grievances of
everyone, composing the religious troubles of the kingdom,
and solacing the people on account of tributes.^^ Such re-
sults would be the antithesis of the ends desired by Philip.
To forefend the proposed national council he offered as
early as September 28, 1560, to give the French aid at his
own expense in suppressing all rebellion and schism. In
the southwest four thousand infantry were stationed near
Bayonne, together with a large body of Spanish cavalry.
At Narbonne, on the Barcelona-Perpignan highway, five
miles from the Mediterranean, two thousand more troops
were available. In Flanders 3500 infantry were at the dis-
posal of the French government. ^^ Ten weeks subsequent
to this offer the frail Francis II succumbed before a com-
plication of maladies. Philip sent De Manrique ostensibly
to congratulate the new young ruler Charles IX, but really
to win over Montmorency, to steel the French nation against
the Protestants, to deter any movement towards a national
council, and to urge the marriage of Guise's niece, Mary of
Scots, to the Spanish king's son, Don Carlos.

Chantonnay concocted a scheme to put an end to Cath-
erine's moderation. At his suggestion Philip wrote a com-
mon letter to Guise, Montmorency, the duke of Montpellier,

*' Baschet, La Diplomatic Venetienne, p. 238.
•* Duparcq, Histoire de Henri II, p. 107.
•5 Laplanche, vol. ii, p. 63.
«• Great Britain, Gal. St. P. Ven., No. 199.

130 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [538

the chancellor, St. Andre, and Brissac and a joint note to
the cardinals Tournon and Lorraine. To the constable
Montmorency and St. Andre, however, he wrote separate
letters, proposing a combination of reactionary forces.
Urged by his Roman Catholic wife, Madeleine of Savoy,
the constable formed on the 6th of April, 1561, just four
months after the accession of the boy king, Charles, a tri-
umvirate consisting of Navarre, St. Andre, and Mont-
morency. Under this act of Spanish conception it was
planned to keep France in a deluge of blood until the here-
tics were wiped out. Thus the cordon of Iberian influence
was tightening about France. Philip's armada patrolled
the coasts. On the Flemish, Burgundian, Bearnese, and
Lyonnais frontiers, the kingdom riven by religious contro-
versy was menaced by the Spaniard. So domineering was
that power that when a misunderstanding arose between
England and France concerning the city of Havre, Alva
and Alava brazenly proposed that this second seaport of
France be temporarily entrusted to Philip, who would me-
diate between the two countries.^^

Within the borders of France itself there were several
important personages who were hostile to the Reform and
whose influence must be considered. Foremost was Cath-
erine de Medicis daughter of the Florentine ruler Lorenzo,
and born in central Italy in 15 19. When but fifteen days
old her mother died, and in less than three more weeks the
infant was left an orphan. At the age of fourteen her
destiny was settled when she was married to the duke of
Orleans, later Henry II. During the lifetime of her hus-
band the queen exerted no political influence, but on the
contrary was hated as an Italian.^^ Henry was ever com-
pletely under the influence of Diana of Poitiers, and the
short reign of Francis II was dominated by his wife Mary
Stuart and her uncles, the Guises. Therefore, during these
two reigns, from 1547 to 1560, Catherine was living a pas-

87 L'Ambassade de St. Sulpice, pp. 137, 151.
*8 Relations . . . venetiens, vol. i, p. 105.

539] FRIENDS AND FOES AT HOME AND ABROAD 131

sive, but observant life. In person she possessed big eyes
and thick lips, was fond of good living and ate irregularly.
The Venetian ambassador chronicled that the queen was
never still, and was noted especially as a great huntress, yet
retained an olive complexion in spite of much exercise.^^
At fifty she walked so fast that no one at court was wil-
ling to follow.*^ From the period of the peace of Amboise,
Catherine continued to fill her subjects with astonishment.
Her industry in public business was amazing. She even
followed the Catholic armies, often on foot, and revelled in
sieges.

" The famous Roman temporizer, Fabius Cunctator,"
wrote the ambassador of Venice, "would have recognized
his daughter in this astute woman of Etruria."*^ For fear
of being sent back to Florence or staying in France without
influence Catherine for a quarter of a century played the
two parties of religion against each other, but her "bridge
policy," instead of uniting France, kept it divided. With
monotonous recurrence it happened that the queen marred
or ruined the progress she had made with the aid of one
party's support by her own envious fear of that party's
predominance. In the life of the "most respectable bad
woman on record " there were four determining elements :
Guise, the Protestants, Philip, and Diana of Poitiers.*^

The councilor Dubourg was burned for heresy in spite of
intercession by the Catholic wife of Montmorency, of Mar-
guerite of Savoy, and of the Count Palatine, two days be-
fore Christmas, 1559. Directly afterward Catherine saw
an opportunity to make headway against the Guises by play-
ing into the hands of Conde and Coligny. Henry II pos-
sessed neither the vivacity of spirit, eloquence, or chivalry
of Francis I, but was the embodiment of ostentation, vio-
lence, and selfishness. Catherine emulated him in these
qualities, to which may be added jealousy, particularly of

39 Relations . . . venetiens, vol. i, p. 409.
*o Ibid., vol. ii, p. 155.

*i Baschet, La diplomatic Venetienne, p. 499.
*2 Sichel, p. 4.

132 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [54O

the Guises. She begrudged their position in a place which
naturally and traditionally was her own, had the regencies
of Blanche of Castile and Anne of Brittany been consid-
ered as precedent.*^

Tavannes says that Catherine went so far as to instigate
the conspiracy of Amboise which startled France about the
middle of March, 1560. Were that true, it was presumably
to check the power of the Guise brothers. After the con-
spiracy the queen arranged an interrogation of the Prot-
estant historian Laplanche upon the state of the kingdom.
The cardinal Lorraine, whom Catherine cleverly persuaded
to eavesdrop in an adjoining room, certainly could not have
felt flattered during the interview.** The prompt action of
the queen mother after the death of Francis II on Decem-
ber 5, 1560, turned the scales against the cardinal and the

/ duke. The government of the minor, Charles IX, was
organized around Catherine, with the three Bourbon
princes, Navarre, Conde, and the Cardinal Bourbon, and
the further assistance of the Constable Montmorency, the
brothers Montpensier and Roche-sur-Yon (a Catholic duke
and a Protestant prince), and the three Chatillons, Coligny,
D'Andelot, and Cardinal Odet. The Guisard faction of
Aumale, Marquis Elboeuf, the grand prior of France, and
the cardinals of Lorraine and Guise all left the court at the

[same time without exhibiting any hurt pride. The Parle-,
ment of Paris passed an act in which Catherine declared
that the withdrawal of the Guises from court carried no
prejudice to their honor. *^ The queen adroitly avoided their
influence by arranging in the Privy Council, March 27, 1561,
that she and Navarre should rule jointly.*^ Her duplicity
or anxiety, as we care to view it, was immediately in evi-
dence. The queen mother's plan to govern through the
'Catholic constable and the Huguenot admiral, leaving Na-
varre only nominal authority, received a shock on April 6,

*3 Thompson, p. 42.

** Laplanche, vol. i, p. 8 (preface).

"** Conde, vol. iii, p. 512.

*6 Relations . . . venetiens, vol. i, p. 433.

541] FRIENDS AND FOES AT HOME AND ABROAD I33

1561.*^ On that date the Triumvirate was formed. The
Protestant world was startled, for only ten days before
Catherine had contrived to have Navarre named as co-
regent.

The year 1562 was marked by continued contradictory
actions on the part of Catherine. A Catholic authority re-
corded that the queen on the 5th of February changed the
governors of her sons from the Huguenot to Roman Catho-
lic. In the same chapter we find that Catherine's fear of
the Triumvirate led her to take up an abode near the Prot-
estant forces."*^ Yet on Friday, the loth of April, she wrote
to the cardinal Odet of Chatillon, asking him to influence
his brother Louis of Conde to lay down arms.'*® The ques-
tion might be asked if Catherine sought to win the favor of
the Reform because her bitter enemy, Henry's favorite
Diana of Poitiers, hated them. From 1547 to 1559, said
the Protestants, not a drop of justice fell upon France ex-
cept by stealth, thanks to the beauty from Poitou. But
although Catherine may have resolved not to allow the Hu-
guenots to be utterly crushed in order to use them as a
counterpoise to Diana, Philip, and the Guises, she was by
habit, if not by conscience, a Catholic. Montluc was de-
lighted to inform the duke of Alva that " they may saw the
queen in two before she will become a Huguenot."^**

By April 19, 1562, the Protestant uprising had so in-
creased the fears of Catherine that she completely sur-
rendered to the Triumvirate and resolved to appeal to Spain
for assistance. At her instance Navarre, St. Andre, and
Montmorency formally solicited Philip's military help.^^
Lettenhove said that the queen asked for 10,000 infantry
and a like number of cavalry.^^ Exactly one month later
the Spanish monarch acceded, promising the full quota of

*'^ Negociations toscanes, vol. iii, p. 448 ; Archives Nationales, K.
1494, B. 12, 73, April 7 and 9.
*^ St. Croix, pp. 64, 94.
*9 Bethune MSS., vol. 8702.

50 Blackburn, vol. ii, p. 40.

51 Archives Nationales, K. 1496, No. 61.

52 Lettenhove, p. 80.

134 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [542

foot soldiers and 3000 horsemen. Both branches of the
service were to be largely composed of Italians and Germans.
Henceforth Catherine was to be the Circe of the Calvin-
ists. Like so many of the Italians of her century, who were
almost destitute of moral sense, she looked upon statesman-
ship in particular as a career in which finesse, lying, and
assassination were the most admirable, because the most
effective weapons. An attendant once said to the queen:
"I have noticed that whom you hate you call friend, and
/^never stop until you have destroyed."^^ On June i, 1562,
<V V fifteen new chevaliers of the order were elected in order to
^ I ensure the affection of a few doubtful nobles to the queen. ^*
Catherine believed the middle of the year to be the time to
degrade before the tribunals of ecclesiastical jurisdiction
those nobles and clergy who were opposed to the Roman
faith, while the Council w^s assuredly Catholic. She now
seemed convinced that Alva was correct when he shouted:
" Catch the big fishes. One salmon is worth 10,000 frogs. "^^
The upper classes who professed Calvinism she desired
first to cajole and then condemn to a judicial death; the
middle classes she aimed to drive from the Reform by vexa-
tious interference and refusal of a chance to worship.. Nev-
ertheless, even after the battle of Dreux the Huguenots
admittedly throve. Catherine was compelled to exclaim,
" the more fire, the more of this novel faith."

In the course of one year these changes had occurred in
Catherine's relations to the new religion: (i) the Edict of
January, 1562, had been under her auspices : she now minded
it no longer; (2) the Reformers had been protected, but
she now turned against them; (3) her best adviser and
finest support had been among the Huguenots : she now dis-
dained their advice and forgot their fidelity ; (4) once Conde
had been besought to take up arms in her defense : she dis-
avowed him when he took the field.^® The Talsy confer-

53 Blackburn, vol. i, p. 47.
5* St. Croix, p. 171.
33 Blackburn, vol. ii, p. 40.
'« Delaborde, p. 55.

543] FRIENDS AND FOES AT HOME AND ABROAD 1 35

ence between Catherine, Conde, and Coligny was worse than
futile.

The other great hypocritical friend of the Reform was
Antoine of Bourbon, sieur de Vendome, and king of Na-
varre, the first prince of the blood in 1559. He was tall
and vigorous, generous to a fault, but vain and undepend-
able. When he first renounced the mass all France whis-
pered that it was for the purpose of becoming the head of
the Huguenot party. Suriano relates that the Protestants
themselves called him a hypocrite.^^ His hobby was to
regain the kingdom of Navarre. This ambition might have
been achieved had Antoine, the logical leader of the party,
definitely cast his lot with the Protestants, but the pusillani-
mous prince not only hesitated, but allowed the Guises to
imprison and nearly behead his brother of Conde, besides
losing the governorship of Guyenne.^^ Dargaud said that
Antoine was only a prince, not a man. He was sought by
both parties and became much inflated with a sense of his
own importance. He negotiated especially with Philip and
the Pope for the restoration of his former kingdom. Chan-
tonnay as early as May 16, 1561, told Antoine that he would
probably be rewarded thus if he would help in keeping
France true to the established religion.^^ Fifteen days pre-
viously Chantonnay had written his master that he was
parleying with Vendome (the Spaniards would never con-
sent to call Antoine "Navarre") for the transfer of Ma-
jorca and some other islands of the Mediterranean.^** Even
Antoine's patience was being taxed so that on the 7th of
December, 1561, Philip offered another proposition to the
prince.*^ Should Navarre succeed in banishing from the
French court every Huguenot, and from France all the
Protestant pastors, along with Conde, the Chatillons,
L'Hopital, and Montluc, bishop of Valence, he would re-

•T" Relations . . . venetiens, vol. ii, p. 47.

»8 Great Britain, Gal. St. P. For., No. 716, Nov. 17, 1560.

»» Great Britain, Gal. St. P. Yen., No. 259.

«• Archives Nationales, K. 1494, No. 83.

"GaL St. P. For., No. 116.

136 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 C544

ceive as a reward the "kingdom of Tunis." Geographical
ideas of the sixteenth century were often ludicrous. Mont-
morency thought Tunis an island! Antoine realized that
the Turks were still in possession, so Philip proposed that
" M. Vendome " exchange Navarre for Tunis and Sardinia,
and promised to conquer it for him.®^ One condition was
that Jeanne d'Albret should also relinquish her rights to
Navarre. Jeanne and Antoine had already quarreled be-
cause the latter insisted upon receiving instruction from a
Jesuit, while she refused to allow the future Henry IV to
be escorted to mass. To add to the complications the queen
of Navarre abjured Catholicism at Christmas, 1561.

On the 5th of January, 1562, Navarre told St. Croix that
he was being toyed with; that he saw nothing in Italy or
the Low Countries which would give him satisfaction. Na-
ples or Milan, with absolute mastership thereof, was his
latest demand. Two days later Chantonnay assured St.
Croix that Philip was nearly ready to turn over Sardinia,
except the fortified ports, to Navarre.®^ Antoine, enraged
at the thought of what he would do with the interior of the
large island, wreaked his vengeance upon the Huguenots.
In July, five months after the massacre of Vassy, numbers
of persons of all ages were drowned at night with stones
about their necks at Tours, Amboise, Blois, and those towns
which capitulated to the king of Navarre.^* The reckoning
came on October 26, 1562, when he died from a wound
sustained at the siege of Rouen. He was a " trimmer " to
the end, on his deathbed professing the confession of Augs-
burg, a doctrine intermediate between Catholicism and
Calvinism.®^

«2 Bordenave, Histoire de Beam et de Navarre. Paris, 1873, p. 108.

®^ St. Croix, p. 14.

«* Thompson, p. 154.

^5 Despatches of Michele Suriano and Marc Antonio Barbaro,
1560-1563. (Ed. Sir Henry Layard, London, 1891), November 25,
1562.

CHAPTER VI

Guise or Valois ?

From 1550 the house of Guise directed and almost produced
events in France. Its leaders were the brilliant and terrible
meteors of the sixteenth century. The expansion of this
^S^n house became so great that the whole misfortunes of
France were attributed to it, and among the families of
Europe it rose to an eminence unrivalled. In the fourteenth
century the countship of Guise, a fief under the French
crown, had been carried by marriage to Rodolph, duke of
Lorraine. In 1508 Rene II, the conqueror of Charles the
Bold, divided his territories between his sons, Antony, who
became duke of Lorraine as holder of the Germanic por-
tion, and Claude, who had the French fief including Guise.
Claude of Lorraine thus became the founder of a great
family in which there appeared repeatedly a cardinal and a
duke side by side. It was the second duke and cardinal
who threw themselves into the Catholic reaction and became
the leaders of the resistance to the Reform in France.
Until the day of Richelieu the Guises stood between the
nobility and the king, fortified by an imposing array of lord-
ships bequeathed to them by Claude of Lorraine; Guise,
Aumale, Elboeuf, Joinville, Harcourt, Mayenne, Long-
jumeau, Lanbesc, Boves, Sable. Alliances with the houses
of Nevers, Joyeuse, Ventadour, Sully, Mercoeur, and Aiguil-
lon further strengthened the position of family. The car-
dinalate of Lorraine, the archbishopric of Rheums, the
bishopric of Metz, and various minor ecclesiastical positions
belonged also to the Guises, whose power was well repre-
sented in the arms of Claude of Lorraine, who as a foreign
prince and at the same time a peer of France, carried the
German-Lorraine double eagle and the quarterings of eight

137

138 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [546

sovereign houses, including the kings of Jerusalem, Hungary,
Naples, and Aragon, and of the lords of Flanders, Bar,
Anjou, and Guelderland. In 1527 this Claude was created
duke of Guise, and gathered to himself riches by all means,
fair or foul. His brother John, first cardinal Lorraine, also
was so grasping that in consequence the reputation of the
whole Lorraine country suffered for centuries. Francis, the
eldest of the six children of Claude who attained their
majority, was born in 1519. Charles, born in 1524, became
the second cardinal. The younger brothers included Claude,
duke of Aumale, Louis, cardinal of Guise and archbishop of
Sens, and Rene, marquis of Elboeuf.

Claude of Guise died in 1550, and was succeeded by
Francis, the "grand Guise," with whom we have to deal.
He was liberal, chivalrous, humane. A fearful face scar,
received at Boulogne in 1545 while defending his country,
was the outward symbol of his devotion to France, and
heightened his popularity with the lower classes. His re-
nown reached its height after he had repelled Charles V at
Metz in 1552 and wrested Calais finally from the English
in 1557. With his brother Charles, the duke of Guise was
practically co-regent during the reign of Francis 11. If
Francis of Guise was " le grand Guise," the cardinal Charles
of Lorraine was the ablest, and in 1559 was in his early
prime. He had a fine face, a striking figure, and was gifted
with rare eloquence and an astonishing memory.^ His
ability as a linguist was only exceeded by his great insight
and intuition, but he was avaricious, licentious, vindictive,
envious, quick to anger. As we shall have occasion to see, the
cardinal's duplicity was so great that he seemed never to tell
the truth. "Le cardinal Lorraine est plus habile que per-
sonne dans I'art de dissimuler." As between the two
brothers Balzac's opinion that "the passion of the French
for this man [Francis of Guise] was almost idolatrous"* is
not confirmed by the facts, while the most biased writer has

1 Relations . . . venetiens, vol. i, pp. 435, 437'

2 Buet, p. ID.

547] GUISE OR VALOIS? I39

never been so rash as to give a similar estimate of Charles,
Cardinal Lorraine.

The machinations of the Guises are an integral part of the
rise of French Protestantism, 1559 to 1562, and are naturally
considered under three aspects, political, religious, and
financial. Their political position was due in part to the
accidents of nature, for during the estates of Orleans, the
Marquis de Beaupreau, practically the last prince of the
blood, died after a fall from his charger. Eighty years be-
fore, the princes of blood were numerous, but of the old
titles in 1559 only Bourbon names remained (Vendome,
Montpensier, and Roche-sur-Yon). The new names were
practically hmited to the prince of Conde and his children.
If women might have occupied the French throne, the
daugther of Louis XII, the duchess of Ferrara, would have
been more nearly in line than Francis.* Urging the Salic «
law, Francis of Guise in 1559 obtained control of war
affairs, while his brother the Cardinal assumed the manage-
ment of finances and state politics. When Henry II passed I
away the Guises immediately seized the person of the heir
apparent, the frail Francis II.* As guardians they held the
young king in their control and virtually a prisoner from the
age of seventeen to the day of his death. They said they
would see the kingdom in ashes rather than leave the king.
The young monarch was forced to utter the following on
December 15, 1559: "We know of no better selection than
our much esteemed and beloved uncle, Francis of Lorraine,
on account of the perfect and entire confidence we have in
him, to entrust the credit and authority of such affairs."''
As Francis neared his majority the Guises were glad, for now
they could manage him without a council. This was in spite
of the law of the land, for at Tours in 1484 it was deter-
mined that in case of a minor king the three estates should
meet and elect a council. This was to contain princes of

^ Suriano, p. 364.
*Castelnau, p. 68.
* Conde, vol. ii, p. 342.

140 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [548

the blood and no foreigners.^ Now the Guises made it
treason to the king to speak of the estates, for they well
saw that the demand for the States-General was the voice of
France against Guise. The nobility were to be considered
traitors for approaching thus near to the king of France.

Men were at work tracing the genealogy of Guise back
to Charlemagne.'^ Futile as the attempt was, there is little
doubt that the brothers intended to seize any opportunity to
supplant the weak Francis II, the second from last of the
house of Valois, with a revival of the "Angevin dynasty."
Henry II had addressed an injunction to all his provinces to
obey the commands of the Guises as if they came from
him.^ When Queen Catherine interceded in favor of the
condemned Baron Castelnau, she had to interview "ces
nouveaux rois," the Guises. Lorraine was called the " Car-
dinal of Anjou" while he was in Rome,^ but Henry II
obliged him to release him from a promise that he would
bestow the title Anjou on him when he was king. After the
battle of Jarnac, the duke of Guise erected a shaft inscribed
"Erected by a great French prince." In spite of his .
lawyers the duke inserted "Anjou" in his marriage con-^
tract.^° In Dauphiny he signed merely " Francis " like a
king, and used royal seals of gold. In Parlemeht he alone ,
of the nobles wore a sword. The younger brothers also 1
were permeated with the consuming ambition. Aumale,
upon the occasion of his marriage at Ferrara, signed as the
" due d'Anjou."^^

The unscrupulous policy of the Guises is illustrated in
their machinations against royalty. Prince Louis of Conde,
of the house of Bourbon, stood near the throne in case a
prince of the blood should be chosen to reign in the place
of the weakling children of Henry II and Catherine de

« Laplanche, vol. i, p. 40.
"^ Conde, vol. i, p. 406.
^ Laplanche, vol. i, p. 412.

9 Ibid., vol. i, p. 158.

10 Bersier, p. 26.

11 De Thou, Histoire universelle. 16 vols., London, 1734 ; vol. i,
p. 164.

549] GUISE OR VALOIS? I4I

Medicis. Conde, gay, gallant, laughter-loving, lively, way-
ward, still was chivalrously honorable and had genuine and
strong religious convictions.^- Though he was very poor,
bribes of every kind were spurned. Since he would not
countenance or support the ambition of the Guises, this rival
must be eliminated. As the prince of Conde with his
brother, Antoine of Navarre, on October 30, 1560, rode into
Orleans where the States-General were to convene, he was
arrested and imprisoned, upon the charge of implication in
the Amboise conspiracy and the insurrection at Lyons.^^
Only two persons were sufficiently powerful and concerned
to invesigate this audacious seizure of so eminent a noble.
It was to the regent Catherine's interest to avoid strong
measures and to play the Catholic Guise against the Hugue-
not Conde, hence all signs point to the cardinal Lorraine
as the author of this move. To be sure, as late as March,
1562, Guise was denying that he was responsible for Conde's
imprisonment,^* and tried to avert public scrutiny of his
motives by a voluntary statement of the object of the Am-
boise conspiracy. It was intended, he said, for the death of
both sovereigns, the king's brother and all the princes, and
the foundation of a republic.'^'^ History records that several
times did the Guises lay themselves open to suspicion on the
first of those very charges. Davila chronicles one. The
frail king Francis eventually succumbed to a malady of the
ear and head. One day in 1560 the monarch suffered a
fainting fit while in the barber's chair.^® The ugly rumor
reached every province that the Guises had caused the
barber to put poison in the king's ear. The Pope and Philip
of Spain were both advised that the heretic Conde would
soon be executed. The prince was saved only because the
Guises were trying to draw both Navarre and the constable
Montmorency into the same plot. Fair trial with the exist-
ing venality of justice would have been the exception. The

** Hanna, p. 24.

*^ Negociations toscanes, vol. iii, p. 425.

1* Conde, vol. iii, p. 156.

^'^ Venice was about the only republic well known to France. ■

^* Davila, p. 64.

142 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [550

death of Francis II on December 5, 1560, thwarted the
efforts of Guise to have the great Conde executed or kept
in iperpetual confinement.

Another instance of flagrant tampering with royalty is re-
corded by the ultra-Catholic ambassador Chantonnay,
Philip's minister at the court of France, in a letter of No-
vember 9, 1 561. The young king Charles IX had left his
room after an illness. The duke of Orleans, his brother,
was in the king's room and met the duke of Nemours, a
relation of the Guises. To the question whether he was
Papist or Huguenot, young Orleans answered that he was of
the religion of his mother, the queen. Nemours asked " s'il
ne luy plaisoit pas qu'il luy dis 25 paroles," then took him
aside near the door of the king's cabinet and said : " Sir, I
see that the kingdom of France is lost and ruined by these
Huguenots, and the King and yourself are not secure, be-
cause the King of Navarre and Conde wish to become king,
and will cause both you and the King to die: thus. Sir,
if you wish to avoid this danger, you must guard and if
you wish, M. Guise and I will aid and succor you, and send
you into Lorraine or Savoy."^^ Orleans replied that he
did not wish to leave his mother and the king. Nemours:
" Think well of what I tell you, it is to your profit." The
duke did not reply. Nemours : " You do not trust in Car-
navallet and Villequier?" "Yes." "Do not tell them of
what I have told you and what we have been talking about
thus at length. If they ask you, say we were speaking of
comedies," said Nemours, and left him. At this juncture,
the duke of Guise, who had been standing before the fire
talking to his son the Prince of Joinville, approached Orleans
and said, " Sir, I have heard that the Queen wished to send
you and the duke of Anjou (Henry Ill's fourth son) into
Lorraine, in quite a splendid castle, for a vacation: if you
wish to go, we will make you much at home." Orleans:
" I do not think the Queen my mother wants me to abandon
the King." Joinville: "If you wish to come to Lorraine

^"^ Conde, vol. iii, p. 375.

55 1 ] GUISE OR VALOIS? I43

and enjoy what- M. de Nemours has told you of, he can fix
it all right." The next day Joinville came to Orleans,
speaking in the same strain, saying that if he wished to
know the means of accomplishing the departure he would
tell him. The young duke would like very much to know.
Joinville : " You will be taken away at midnight, after being
lowered from a window opening on the Pont de Pare : after-
wards you will enter a coach, and will be in Lorraine before
any one finds it out." Orleans did not answer, and left the
prince. The following day Nemours was to leave and at his
departure whispered to Orleans : " Remember what I have
told you and tell no one." Only an accident frustrated this
plot of the Guises and Nemours to spirit the dukes of
Orleans and Anjou into Lorraine, their stronghold.

"La tyrannie guisienne " was no fiction. The brothers )
built up a system of government wholly their own, espe-
cially in the provinces. Dependent upon Guise's lieuten-
ants were about six thousand who had been raised to vari-
ous positions in the government of the provinces.^^ In 1559 ^
there were almost as many to whom tyranny seemed profita- |
ble as those to whom liberty seemed agreeable. The gov-
ernment of the provinces and frontier towns was changed,
and Guisards were installed. The frontiers of Champagne,
Picardy, Brittany, Poitou, Gascony, and Dauphiny espe-
cially were furnished with adherents of Guise. All gen-
erals, governors and towns were ordered to obey Guise as .
the king himself. Not content with their foreign andj
French fiefs, the Guises set about increasing their holdings.
Claiming to be descendants of Charlemagne, they wrested
two of Henry IPs chief provinces, Provence and Anjou,
besides the duchy of Bar, which domain Lorraine asserted
had been taken away originally only by force. The Guises
threw a sop to the princes by advising the king to create
two new governments in the center of France. To Mont-
pensier was given the government of the province of Tou-
raine, the duchies of Vendome and Anjou, and the coun-

1* La Boetie, Discours de la servitude volontaire, p. 85. /C^-^ .

144 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [552

ties of Blois, Maine and Dunois.^^ His brother, the prince
de la Roche-sur-Yon, received the government of Orleans,
the duchy of Berry, the " pays " Chartrain, the Beauce, and^
Montargis. We are not surprised to find, hov^ever, that 1
the new offices were subject to provincial lieutenants under
Guise, Sipierre in Orleannais and Savigny in Touraine. To
balance these allotments the constable Montmorency was
deprived of the government of Languedoc. ' J

Italy was the scene of the majority of the foreign machi-
nations of the Cardinal Lorraine and his brothers. At
Rome the Guises played with sustained credit, possibly be-
cause Italians held one-third of the benefices in France and
infinite pensions.^^ At first the cardinal had requested
Henry II to use his influence to secure the tiara for his
uncle, John, later Paul IV. This Giovanni Pietro Caraifa
had been head of the reactionary party at Rome, bent on
crushing all tendencies to religious innovation. After tak-
ing part in two important conclaves, Caraffa was unexpect-
edly elected pope on May 23, 1555, after the death of Mar-
cellus II. The cardinal Lorraine seems to have been instru-
mental in raising Paul IV to the pontifical throne, notwith-
standing his personal unpopularity and the positive veto of
Charles V. Caraffa rewarded Lorraine by openly espous-
ing the cause of France as against Spain and Catholic Ger-
many. His death in 1559 so crystallized the detestation of
the Roman people, that the hawkers of earthenware and
glass were compelled for a time to discontinue their usual
cry of "carafe" and substitute "ampoUe." Immediately
the Guises, always fishers in troubled waters, brought to
bear all their resources. The cardinal aspired to the throne
of St. Peter f^ for his brother Francis of Guise he sought
the throne of Naples.^^ Against Pius IV, the pope suc-
ceeding Paul IV, the cardinal warred for four years, and

i^Oeuvres completes de Brantome. Lalanne, 11 vols, Paris, 1864-
87; vol. iii, p. 278.

20 Laplanche, vol. i, p. 331.

21 Baschet, La diplomatie Venetienne, p. 497.

22 Tavannes, vol. ii, p. 185.

553] GUISE OR VALOIS? I45

declared the French king the protector of the duke of Parma
(the second of the Farnese Hne, Ottavio) and the house of
Farnese, whom the pope had anathematized. Now, at the
height of their power in France, the Guises longed also for
the Papacy and the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily.

Through the jealousies of the Montmorencies, Francis of
Guise had been sent in 1557 to assume charge of military
operations in Italy. His recall, necessitated by the events
leading up to his laudable coup at St. Quentin, prevented
one more addition to the long list of military reputations
ruined in Italy. But the sojourn was the foundation for
his future enterprises at Rome. One of these was the con-
templated alliance of a brother of the duke with Ferrara's
daughter. Two expeditions instigated by the cardinal in-
volved losses to French prestige in Italy. In one of these
the papacy was the prize. The other goal was the kingdom
of Naples (and Sicily), which rich territorial prize covered
the entire south of the Italian peninsula, just as in the day
of Napoleon. To further his aims, Francis of Guise made
capital of the inveterate hatred of the Neapolitans for the
Spanish rule. Prior to 1559 the Guises had not cultivated
the deference to Philip II which is so conspicuous after the
outbreak of the wars of religion.

The sudden change in Guise's attitude toward Spain, in
the epoch-making year of 1559, is partially explained by
the close alliance of Cardinal Lorraine and Granvella, the
Spanish ambassador to the Low Countries. In the same
year, as will be shown, the attitude of France became anti-
Protestant instead of anti-Spanish. One of the most astute
diplomats of all time, Chantonnay, the Spanish ambassador
at the French court, was an overshadowing factor in this
result. On February 4, 1560, Guise wrote Philip: "I will
obey. Sire, any good and praiseworthy advice it will please
you to give me."^^ On January 31, 1561, Lorraine assured
the Spanish monarch of his loyalty. ^^ On April 21, 1562,

2' Capefigue, Histoire de la Reforme, vol. ii, p. 92.
2* Archives Nationales, K. 1494, No. 35, Bibl. Nat.
10

146 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [554

an assuring note was handed Philip from the new Trium-
virate, which was a reaHty as soon as Marshal Montmorency
determined to join Marshal St. Andre and Guise in their
ambitious program. ^^ Another ill-omen for France lay in
the coincidence that the colors of Spain and Guise were
identical, red and yellow. The accord of the Triumvirate
provided for (i) Philip II to be the head; (2) Navarre to
cooperate; (3) Emperor and Roman Catholic princes of
Germany to blockade France during the war; (4) Roman
Catholic cantons to prevent the other cantons from assist-
ij^gj (5) Ferrara to be head of the Italian troops ; (6) Savoy
to attack Geneva and murder every one; (7) German
Lutherans to be massacred. ^^ In answer to Conde, the Tri-
umvirate on May 4, 1562, presented a request to Charles
IX, asking him to proclaim that he does not wish diversity
of religion and that all officers shall observe the same reli-
gion.2^ It may be added that it would probably be impos-
sible to find any Huguenot leader who ever thought of sub-
ordinating the government of France to a foreign ruler for
the maintenance of the faith he believed in, as did Guise,
St. Andre, and Montmorency.

Scotland was aspired to by the house of Guise through
enterprises in favor of Mary Stuart. They had a lien on
that country on account of the two Marys. Mary I of
England had married Philip II and restored the Catholic
faith, while Mary queen of Scots was the daughter of Mary
of Lorraine and James V of Scotland. At the age of six
she was betrothed to the dauphin Francis and started for
France. Imperial Rome at its darkest could not have over-
shadowed the society in which the child was reared. De-
bauchery of all kinds and murder in all forms were the
daily matter of jest to the circle of satellites around Cath-
erine de Medicis. After ten years' tutelage by the woman
whose chief instrument of policy was the corruption of her
own children, Mary was married to the dauphin on April

25 Archives Nat'ionales, K. 1496, No. 64.

26 Conde, Jan. 31, 1562.

27 Ibid., vol. iii, p. 419.

555] GUISE OR VALOIS? I47

25, 1558. To serve Guise they were married long before
marriageable age, Francis attaining to fifteen years and
three months and Mary one month older. " By a singular
combination of events and lineages Mary Stuart was neces-
sarily almost the cornerstone of the universal monarchy
Philip II dreamed of forming in Europe, her possession of
the Scottish crown, her claim to England, her relationship
with the Guises, united with the religion she professed,
made the furtherance of her power the most practicable
means to that end."^^ Louis of Conde was the power who
thwarted Guise's plan to make Francis II, " King of France,
Scotland, Ireland and England. "^^ The Guises plucked
courage from the fact that under the pretext of preparing
for a Scotch war in favor of Mary Stuart, they could fill
France with soldiers, to meet any French, German, or Swiss
Protestant contingency.^" Their agents had been at work
among the mercenary princes of Germany for months,
20,000 men being engaged by the middle of 1560.

The leading Protestant princes of Germany were concen-
trated upon by the Guises in an effort to inject into the
minds of the Germans an unmerited confidence in them-
selves and a suspicion and dislike of the Huguenots.^^ Ger-
man Protestants had been tricked into France to fight their
fellow Protestants. The Count Palatine and the Land-
grave of Thuringia were Calvinists. The other leaders.
Augustus, elector of Saxony; Joachim, margrave of Bran-
denburg ; John Frederick, duke of Saxony ; Wolfgang Wil-
liam, duke of Zweibriicken ; Joachim Ernest, prince of An-
halt; Charles, margrave of Baden; William, landgrave of
Hesse; and Christopher, duke of Wiirtemberg, were all
Lutherans. ^^ Their participation in the wars of religion
will appear in another chapter, as will the conference of
Francis of Guise with the duke of Wiirtemberg, at Saverne,

28 Thompson, p. 244.

29 Aumale, Histoire des Princes de Conde, vol. i, p. 51.

30 Archives Nationales, K. 1495, No. 2, July 11, 1560.
81 Letter of Fr. Hotman, Dec. 31, 1560.

32 Conde, vol. iv, pp. 1-38.

148 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [556

February 15, 1562. Francis went so far as to emphasize
that he was essentially a Lutheran. To this perjury was
added the promise not to molest the Huguenots any more.
The original plan of Philip, Chantonnay, and Guise called
for such a distortion of the facts that the audiences with the
Protestant princes of Germany might even result in the
enlistment of Lutheran forces against the French Calvin-
ists. The Saverne meeting was simply an expedient to
"endormir les Protestants."^^ Christopher of Wiirtem-
berg was soon undeceived. The duke of Guise immediately
crossed the French frontier into Lorraine and on to one of
his estates at Joinville, in Champagne. On March i, ten
days after the Saverne conference, the duke's retinue passed
through the village of Vassy. In perfect accordance with
the Edict of Toleration of January 17, 1562, a Huguenot
congregation was at worship in a barn outside the village.
History will probably never obtain a true account of what
followed, but an epoch was marked when the duke's follow-
ers butchered the defenseless people. The January Edict
had been made in the absence of the Guises and against
their wish. Vassy was the result. Guise had said: "This
sword shall cut the bond of that edict, though never so
strait."^* The historian Ranke tersely remarks that
"whether the duke intended the massacre or not, it is
enough that he did not prevent it."^® Vassy was the imme-
diate cause of the disastrous and paralyzing wars of reli-
gion. Agents of Guise circulated printed apologies for
Vassy, though one of the duke's train boasted having
brought down six of the pigeons who tried to escape over
the roofs !^^ Even by May, 1562, Guise had not been ab-
solved by the Guisard Court of Parlement or by the peers
of France for this atrocious deed.

The kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden had been at war
for seven years. The German princes were fearful lest the

ssVarillas, Histoire de Charles IX. 2 vols., Paris, 1683; vol. i,
p. 153-
®* Davila, p. 97.

35 Ranke, L,, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France. 2 vols., p. 211.

36 Popeliniere, vol. i, p. 327 ; Hanha, p. 33.

557] GUISE OR VALOIS? I49

Guises should use this favorable opportunity to move into
Denmark and put their relative, the Duke of Lorraine
(brother-in-law of Christian II, exiled King of Denmark),
on the throne.^^ Denmark wanted a French Protestant
prince to marry the Danish king's sister, and offered an
alliance between the sovereign and the widowed Mary
Stuart. Naturally this pro-Protestant proposal was frus-
trated by Philip and the henchmen of the Guise party.

The foreign political intrigues of Guise, to be considered
under separate titles, cover an amazing range. In addition
to the countries referred to the plans of the ambitious
family included Switzerland, Flanders, Holland, the Three
Bishoprics, Savoy, Venice, Barbary, Turkey, and even
Greece and Albania. It seemed as if each month saw the
heart of some foreign prince alienated from the French
king and his country through the schemes of the Guises.
The Venetian ambassador wrote home: "II n'y avait rien
que en ne branlait et tremblait sous le nom de Guise."^^ .

Naturally, the subservience of the parliaments of Paris
and the provinces was essential to these political plans.
Most of the sacred laws of France were trampled upon.
Ordinances and edicts were changed. Legislation and jus-
tice were degraded, and one has but to open the records of ^
1559 to 1562 to discover how the Guises repeatedly upset
decisions of the courts of Parlement to obtain favorable
judgments. If it is too much to say, with Beza, that Guise J
was "meurtrier du genre humain,"^^ still it was a constant
epithet in all of western Europe. Lorraine pursued under
the name of heretics all who blocked his ambitions or re-
fused to serve them.^" The Parlement of Paris, dominated '
by Ultramontanes and Guisards, was his chief instrument. ^^
Other parliaments assisted, especially those of Aix and

37 Correspondance du Cardinal de Granvelle, 1565-1575. Ed.
Poullet et Piot. 11 vols., Brussels, 1878-85; vol. i, p. 126.

38 Relations . . . venetiens, vol. i, p. 435.

3^ Aymon, Les synodes nationaux des eglises reformees de
France, vol. i, p. 82.

40 Dufay, Pierre, Histoire, actes et remonstrances des parlemens,
2 vols., Paris, 1826 ; vol. i, p. 63.

150 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [558

Toulouse. Unknown persons carried the response to cer-^
tain slanders of the cardinal to the parliaments of Paris and
Rouen. The latter body sent it to the king, but the Guises,
fearing a libel, sent the magistrates home without seeing
the king.*^ Forms of law were seldom, if ever, used in
capital punishment: the victims' names were never pub-
lished. Wherever the king was sojourning, distinguished
heretics were hanged, strangled or burnt, especially for the
amusement of the ladies of the court. The guiltless Du-
bourg was incarcerated in the Bastille at the motion of the
Cardinal. A man was arrested if he stopped in front of
the prison. Only the sudden death of Francis II kept
intact the head of the great Conde. That event affected
also one of the most important diplomatic moves made by
the Guises, which was the great effort made to attach to
their party Brissac, governor of Piedmont under Henry 11.
The hope of playing him against the constable Montmo-
rency and the Bourbons was ever a dominant impulse.*^
Their extended system of checks and balances was inter-
rupted only when the fusion party of the chancellor L'Hopi-
tal displaced the ultra-Catholic Guises at the death of
Francis.

Concluding the survey of the machinations of this am-
bitious house in so far as they were political, one important
observation remains. Jurisconsults of Germany and France,
and likewise theologians and doctors, said that the usurped
government of the Guises could be legitimately opposed by
arms if need be. The sequel is to be found in the chapter
dealing with the armed progress of the Reform. The
Protestant rising was based on definite legal grounds.
Nothing is more curious in the period of the wars of reli-
gion than the Protestant passion for legality. Legists, pas-
tors, commanders, all sought legal basis for their action. ^^

Just as the political and religious schemes of the house of i
Guise were executed to the detriment of the nobility and

*i Conde, vol. ii, p, 360.

*2 Paris, Negociations relatives au regne de Frangois II, vol. ii,

p. n-

559] GUISE OR VALOIS? I5I

the clergy, so their financial dealings were most often at
the expense of the other great order, the Third Estate. A
famous anagram current in 1560 voiced the sentiment of
the common people in various transpositions of the letters
of " Charles de Lorraine " :

II cherra I'asne dore (he worships the golden ass)

Hardi larron se cele (bold thief hides himself)

Renard lasche le roi (fox, let go the king)

Racle a Tor de Henri (raked up from the gold of Henry)

The amount " raked up from the gold of Henry " was
independent of the ordinary income of the Guises. Their
patrimony, church property, pensions and benefits from the /
king amounted to 600,000 francs (nearly $500,000 today),
the cardinal having half that sum. The estates inherited j
from their ancestors of Lorraine would have sufficed for
any one save the ambitious brothers. Although an attend-
ant of Marshal de Brissac said that one hundred houses in
France yielded nothing to the Guises in grandeur, nobility,
and antiquity,*^ yet the records would seem to show that
the house of Lorraine was second to none in opulence. It 1
is the more surprising therefore to read the Venetian am-
bassador's comment on the "shameful cupidity and du-«/
plicity of the cardinal."** In the same letter this Catholic
envoy refers to the "great Babylonian beast, avarice, inv^
whose path follow so many superstitions and abominations."
One of the cardinal's crowning acts of dishonesty appeared'^
when he forced Queen Catherine to divide with him the ^
fees arising from the confirmation of offices and the privi-
leges accorded towns and municipal corporations in the
time of Henry II, which sums lawfully accrued to her. /
Then he cut her share in half by a fraudulent estimate in
livres instead of ecus d'or.*^ ^xi

The conspicuous blot upon the public financial policy of *
Guise was the extraordinary imposition of taxes from 1558

^^ Laplanche, vol. ii, p. 311. ^ i

<* Relations . . . venetiens, vol. i, p. 435 • " Sa violence etait telle /
que dans tout le royaume on ne desirait que sa mort."
*5 £cu d'or = 2 livres tournois under Francis I.

152 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [56O

to 1563. Tallies were redoubled. Imposts on grain, wine V

and salt were so increased that the poor subjects found P.

peace more intolerable than war. Loans purporting to re- »/ ,-

lieve the royal treasury went to swell the Guisard ex- ^
chequer. A famous journal, Le Tigre de 1560, aptly
wrote :

Le feu Roy devina ce poinct
Que ceux de la Maison de Guise
Mettroient ses enfants en pourpoinct
Et son pauvre peuple en chemise."*''

Laplanche declared that the cardinal would sell the air! .
" We must increase the course of the sun twice in order to
double the crops to meet the exactions of Guise."*^ An
economic catastrophe was nearly precipitated when the for- .
eign merchants refused to submit to these exactions. They
were assured no profits if they dealt with the Guises, con- .
sequently France remained full of wine and grains and ^
empty of money. Public revenues were diverted. Most v
of the timber land in France was in Normandy, Cham- /
pagne, Burgundy, and Dauphiny, forming, as it were, a
dotted line across the kingdom from northwest to south-
east. These "vacant lands" were rented out, but the re-
turns never reached the royal treasury. j
To add to the universal dissatisfaction due to the finan- *
cial situation, these redoubled tailles of the " real kings " . /■
were not used to alleviate conditions. The king's army
itself developed the most acute situation. Gendarmes, in-
fantry, and cavalry were obliged to go for a long time with- ^
out pay, although the Guises' foreign mercenaries were '
always provided for.^^ Even the salaries of officers of jus- /
tice were far in arrears. The henchmen of Lorraine and
foreign satellites consumed funds which were diverted from ^
their customary channels. As far as possible the greatest ^
offices on land or sea had been secured by the Guise ^
brothers to their servants. Often their dependents bar-

*6 De Thou.

^"^ Laplanche, vol. i, p. 326.

*8 Conde, p. 408.

56 1 ] GUISE OR VALOIS? 1 53

tered for the offices of justice.*^ From governors to petty J.
officials their obsequious adherents formed an anti-mon- ^
archical and anti-Protestant chain, from Flanders to Dau- ^.
phiny, from Navarre to Brittany. For their friends they ^
created new offices, and were quite unabashed when, on "^
April 2, 1 561, a member of the Parlement of Paris declared \J
that the "government had fallen into the hands of harpies
and griffins, who deserve looo gibbets ! "^° Some promi-
nent persons were so deceived that they even transferred
their inheritances to the duke.^^ It would be difficult to-
day to picture adequately the venality of justice, for the y
prostitution of offices of justice to the Guisard adherents ^
was the rule. Reform in such affairs would have straight-
ened out the conditions of noble, military, merchant, and
laboring classes. ,

The inevitable intersection of Italian and French rela- (
tions was never more apparent than in financial matters.
In the public complaint of the French people, April 9, 1560,
it was stated that the Guises had hired 8000 Italians for
their enterprises, mercenaries who were paid with the ^
deniers of France. The nobility are chased into the sea,
while the English are incited into a new war on account of
the ambitions of Guise. Four months later, on August 23,
1560, at the council of Fontainebleau, Marillac, the liberal
archbishop of Vienne, in his speech on the program of the
religious and political Huguenots, remarked : " Foreign
prelates, chiefly Italians, fill one-third of our benefices, have
an infinite number of pensions, suck our blood like leeches,
and in their hearts, laugh at our stupidity."^^ The impor-
tation of money from Germany into Lorraine was no se-
cret.^^ One apothecary, on the Franco-Italian border, said :
"I know of 150 villages robbed of straw, oats, wine, and
money for Guises' table and stable."^* \

*9 Laplanche, vol. i. p. 598.

50 Response to pamphlet Pour la majorite du Frangois II, in Conde
Memoirs.

51 Laplanche, vol. i, p. 309.
62 La Place, pp. 53-55.

53 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 789, Jan. 8, 1562.
5* Laplanche, vol. ii, p. 300.

154 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [562

The evidence shows that ecclesiastical foundations were I
not immune from the financial greed of the house of Lor-
raine. Did the Guises hold to Catholicism on account of »/
their 400,000 livres revenue from the church? The fact
that it was quite facile for the duke and the cardinal to
prove religious turncoats on several important occasions
would seem to show this, while at the same time they were
piling up pluralities of bishoprics and abbeys. Two exam- j
pies of absorption will suffice. The rich abbey of St.
Thierry des Rheims, paying 12,000 livres, became vacant
in 1558. Before Henry II heard of it, those "three har-
pies. Guise, Montmorency and Diane de Poitiers," all ap-
plied for it.^^ Happily the king pretended he had already
given it to the Marshal Vieilleville, who was one of his
many creditors. Usually the monarch, like the Guises, had
a way of scattering sedition by threatening his -creditors.
In another case the titles of the monastery of Monastierende
in Champagne were burned and the monks driven out, to
enrich the house of Joinville-Lorraine. Evidently the
Guises were plagiarizing the question of Henry II : " Is it
better to lose a kingdom, or take the money of the church ? "
Aside from Paris, where the echevins were called on to con- |
tribute eighteen times by Henry II in the dozen years of
his reign, even to the gold and silver plate of the bourgeois
(1553), the church of France was the grand pillar of gov-"**
ernment finance. The clergy yearly received a sum equiva-
lent to two-fifths of the entire annual exports of France, or
15,000,000 livres gold.^^ j

In the attempt to maintain religious uniformity there were
several ways of ferreting out Huguenots. In various towns
the host, or consecrated wafer, was borne in solemn pro-
cession, often for the sole purpose of discovering heretics
who would not salute the symbol. For a similar purpose
little children bore sacred candles through the streets. The
complaints of and to the Parlement of Paris on this subject
were continual. Wily spies pounced upon the unwary who

*^5 Williams, H. Noel, Henry II: his life and times, p. 171.
56 Suriano, p. 368.

563] GUISE OR VALOIS? 1 55

did not contribute to the money boxes nailed to the cor-
ner lampposts. House-to-house visitations of collectors of
money with which to persecute the Huguenots helped to
fill the unspeakable prisons of Paris of the sixteenth century
with the followers of Calvin and Luther. Against Tours
on the Loire the Guises had special malevolence, and in-
voked the king to punish the heretics, ^^ but one of the pro-
cessions just referred to met with such clamor in the streets
of Dieppe on April 30, 1559, that the cardinal Lorraine
lost his head and departed that night under cover of dark-
ness. He justified the drastic policy of the government by
saying : " It will be more than necessary to apply violent
remedies and proceed to fire and sword, as otherwise unless
provision be made, the alienation of France, coupled with
that of England, Scotland, and Germany would by force
draw Spain and Italy and the rest of Christendom to the
same result. "^^

Divergence in the opinions of contemporaries as to the
cardinal's qualities of religious leadership is great. In the
spring of 1560 the Venetian ambassador wrote: "During
the whole of this Passion Week nothing has been attended
to but the sermon of the Cardinal Lorraine, which gathered
very great congregations, not only to his praise, but to the
universal astonishment and admiration, both on account of
his doctrines and by reasons of his very fine gesticulation,
and incomparable eloquence and mode of utterance."^^
Perhaps it was in such a moment of inspiration that the
prelate bequeathed to posterity an evidence of conscience
usually conspicuous by its absence. Eight months later
than the period at which the Venetian ambassador wrote,
Francis II lay dying, before attaining his eighteenth year.
His last prayer, dictated by Lorraine, was : " Lord, impute
not to me thy servant the sin committed by my ministers
under my name and authority."^^ The proffer of Charles

57 Laplanche, vol. i, p. 234.

58 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 952, April 6, 1560.
89 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. Ven., No. 149, 1560.

•0 Sichel, p. 105.

156 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [564

and Francis of Lorraine to the German princes (February
15-17, 1562) to enter the confession of Augsburg might
have evinced reHgious penetration and statesmanship had
not the massacre of Vassy twelve days later labelled the
proposition a conspiracy. The Protestants despised the
scholastic philosophy which the cardinal had studied at the
Sorbonne.®^ Their ministers knew Greek and Latin, but
the priests did not. The duke of Guise evidently was of no
assistance to his brother in theology. He told him that the
Bible was good for nothing, having been "written last
year,**2 while Christ died 1500 years ago." The cardinal
replied to the witnesses: "My brother is in the wrong."
His inability to cope successfully with Protestant doctrines
is shown by the Huguenot historians in his act of 1560,
where he prevented the meeting of Catherine and a Calvin-
ist minister at Rheims, at the time of the coronation of
Charles IX.

The most glaring instance of quibbling due to deficiency
in theological training was his conduct at the very impor-
tant Colloquy of Poissy. Simultaneously in the summer of
1 561 there met the States-General at Pontoise, north of the
Seine, and the assembly of picked leaders of Catholicism
and Protestantism at Poissy, south of the same river. The
estates had to face the stringent financial crisis described in
another chapter. Aside from Paris, the church of France'\
was to prove more than ever the pillar of government
finances.^^ Economy and retrenchment, honest and effect-
ive administration, no longer would avail. Jean Bretaigne,
of Autun, the spokesman of the Third Estate, argued that
the immense resources of the clergy must be used to bolster
government finances. All offices, benefices, and ecclesias-
tical dignities not actually officiated either in person or in
a titular capacity, must yield their revenues. The riches of
deceased bishops and monks, and of benefices in litigation

ciVarillas, Charles IX, p. 11.
®2 Hanna, p. 79.

«3 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 396, Aug. 11, 1561 ; Thomp-
son, p. 107.

565] GUISE OR VALOIS? 1 57

should be taken over by the government. A scale of one-
quarter to two-thirds was to be applied to those benefices
ranging from 500 to 12000 livres in annual income. As for
incomes exceeding the latter figure, the government was to
retain all but 4000 livres in the case of the clergy, all but
6000 in case of cardinals, archbishops, and bishops. The
plan as it touched the religious orders was severe. From J
the Benedictines, founded in Italy in 529 A.D., to the
Jesuitesses, established in Flanders by an English woman
in 1554, all revenues except a pittance for support were to
be appropriated. Further sumptuary laws would increase «
this total. As a last resort all ecclesiastical property might
be sold directly. Before such a proposition the nobility
was in a dilemma, but finally a compromise was attained.'
The royal domain was all to be redeemed by the clergy by ^
January, 1568, and the rest of the debt to be cleared by

1574.^^ J

The Colloquy of Poissy between the leaders of Protest-
antism and Catholicism was being held simultaneously with
the session at Pontoise. It had been called for July 2, 1561,
but inadequate means of travel and other delays had post-
poned the actual convening until September 15.*^^ Indeed
the financial and religious issues were so urgent that the
Parlement of Paris had met daily except Sundays from
June 18 till July 11, 1561.^'' The advantages between the
parties represented wxre not at all equal. On one side were
fifty-two rich prelates (present only through royal com-
mand) masters of the situation and ready to close the debate
as soon as it seemed unfavorable. Some of the delegates
of the Spanish clergy on their way to the council of Trent
paused in their journey to gloat over the discomfiture of
the heretics. Lainez, the Spanish Jesuit general, appeared
at Poissy without summons, to give the meeting another
touch of intrigue and violence.*'^ On the other hand the

«* Great Britain, Gal. St. P. For., No. 750, Dec. 28, 1561.
«* Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, vol. vi, p. 137.
«« Gonde, vol. ii, p. 396.
*'^ Dufay, Parlemens, vol. i, p. 68.

158 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [566

Protestant ministers came under a precarious safe conduct,
and were watched more than protected by the guards.

Having already kept the Protestants waiting sixteen days
before opening the conference, Charles, cardinal of Lor-
raine, addressed the colloquy on the second day of the debate
(September i6, 1561), delivering one of the "very long
speeches " which according to Suriano were made by all the
delegates. His address dealt with two points : one, that
the king, not being the head of the church, might not act as
a judge in religious matters; the other, that the authority
of the church was extended even over princes. The car-
dinal directed a shaft at the Huguenot pastors by defining
the church as " the company of Christians in which is com-
prised both reprobates and heretics, and which has been
recognized always, everywhere, and by all, and which alone
had the right of interpreting Scriptures."^^ The inclusion
of "heretics" in this description was probably more from
temporization than connection. The cardinal attempted to
reply to only two of the points emphasized by Theodore
Beza, the Huguenot leader. He asserted the Real Presence
in the Eucharist, denied by Beza, and further argued that
the church is no mere aggregation of the elect. The church-
man quibbled with Beza as to whether on one occasion the
latter had written that Christ was not more in "Coena"
that in " Coeno."®® In spite of Addison's declaration that
" a pun can be no more engraven than it can be translated,"
Charles was accusing Beza of the impossible sacrilege of the
statement that Providence was not more in the supper than
in the mire!

The cardinal's malice was instrumental in causing the
Protestant ministers to stand back of the rail in the assembly
room as they spoke. Their demands included the proposi-
tions: (i) The bishops, abbots, and other ecclesiastics should
not be constituted in any way judges of the Huguenots, in
view of the fact that they were their opponents; (2) That
all points of difference be judged and decided according to

68 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 507, Sept. 17, 1561.

69 Baird, Beza, p. 136.

567] GUISE OR VALOIS? 1 59

the simple word of God, as contained in the New and Old
Testaments, since the Reformed faith was founded on this
alone, and that where any difficulties arose concerning the
interpretation of words, reference should be made to the
original Hebrew and Greek text/^ But the gulf between
the two parties seemed hopeless. The colloquy dissolved
on October i8. Coligny and the Chancellor L'Hopital
thwarted, if they did not dominate the Papal-Spanish party.
L'Hopital's scheme was two-fold: (i) to assure Protestants
of liberty of conscience; (2) to make royal power the pro-
tector of all creeds, and not a party head/^ This policy was
finally carried out under Henry IV. Witty Madame Cursol
said to the cardinal Lorraine after Poissy : " Good man for
this evening, but tomorrow, what ? "^^ The next day
Charles boasted he had overcome Beza and brought him over
to his opinion, but as a matter of fact the Guises made more
Protestants than the preaching of all the Protestant apostles.
Their religious policy should at this point be considered.

Many councils, canons, and courts had forbidden ecclesi-
astics from mixing in secular affairs, especially war. Un-
fortunately for France, the ecclesiastic position of the " Car-
dinal de la Ruine" kept him from being responsible to
secular judges. He could not be reached, for one of the
elements in the strength of the Guises lay in their vast
clerical influence. Four cardinalates and eleven bishoprics (
were answerable to the house of Lorraine. Nevertheless no
biography of Charles and Francis has ever proved that
they were pious Catholics. The unbiased reader will find
numerous instances of their using religion as a life-line.^^
Even more often they will be suspected of subscribing to a
cult similar to that of Catherine de Medicis and many others
of the sixteenth century who professed no religion what-
ever. In 1559 they who had been simply Guisards decided
to change their names to Catholics.

■^0 Archives Nationales, K. 1494, No. 96.
''I Baudrillrat, Theories Politiques, p. 52.
72 Baird, Beza, p. 145.
T3 La Boetie, p. 17.

i6o FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [568

The indictment of introducing the Inquisition into France
was preferred against the Guises by the three Electors,
Wiirtemberg, and the duke of Zweibriicken, on March 19,
1558. Doubtless this accusation related to the most serious
religious or political misdemeanor ever advanced against the
house of Lorraine. Rather would the French populace
have forgiven usurpation of the throne of the Valois.
Under guise of assisting and defending the purity of Chris-
tendom, " misericordia et justitia" the motto, the most fla-
grant injustice and those cruel "tender mercies" mentioned
by the Book of Proverbs made up the Inquisition. The
latter had passed from Provence into France in 1255, when
Alexander IV named the provincial of the Dominicans and
the head of the Franciscans at Paris his inquisitors-general
for France at the insistent request of St. Louis, whose piety
was of the narrowest crusading type. (Were he living
today he would be horrified to know that the Moslems of
Tunis revere him as a saint who died in the Moslem faith !)
But the Gallican church, resenting this interference of the
inevitable ultramontane influence, even opposed and helped
defeat the innovation. When Ferdinand and Isabella united
Castile and Aragon, the Inquisition had been reorganized
in Spain under a code of thirty-nine articles, drawn up by
the famous Dominican Torquemada and later revised by
Cardinal Ximines. Llorente, a competent authority, says
that in Spain alone, until Napoleon suppressed it, 31,912
were burned, out of a total of 341,021 who were punished
and handed over to the auto-da-f e."^* The Guises wished to
gratify the Pope and establish the Inquisition in France as
in Spain.*^^ At least this was the word brought to Henry
II by Cardinal Carafifa, according to the brilliant cavalry
leader Tavannes. So, in 1557, the Inquisition in its latest
form was introduced into France. It was through no fault
of the Guises that its hold on French soil was always small.
Its success would have furthered their religious, political,
and financial plans. One characteristic would have par-

^* J. A. Llorente, Historia Critica de la inquisicion de Espafia.
75 Tavannes, vol. ii, p. 185.

569] GUISE OR VALOIS? I6I

ticularly pleased the Cardinal Lorraine, namely the hope of
a rich booty from confiscation. One illustrious victim
whom the Guises hoped to betray was the Cardinal Chatil-
lon, the brother of Coligny. Through the craft of Lorraine
this churchman was placed on the French board of Inquisi-
tion with three other cardinals. '^^ In the opinion of the
writer, chancellor L'Hopital urged the edict of Romorantin,
in May, 1560, to prevent the Guises from introducing the
Inquisition. Furthermore, this royal decree was a sop to the
priests, for it removed completely the jurisdiction of legal
processes from the courts of parHament and from lay judges
who had been empowered to render summary judgments,
and restored it to the ecclesiastical judges. D'Aubigne
proves that this move was an assurance to suspected persons
that the death penalty was no longer a serious menace,
thanks to the opportunity of appeals from the acts of
bishops to archbishops and from thence to Rome."^^
As has been said, the brothers of Guise preached :

" Un Christ tout noircy de f umee

Portant un morion en teste et dans la main

Un large coutelas rouge de sang humain.'"^8

In addition to the inquisition their savage policy pre-
sented many other angles. The treaty concluded between
France and Spain in 1559 at the little French town of
Cateau-Cambresis was aimed at the Reform. The presence
in Paris of the duke of Alva confirmed the prevailing im-
pression that Philip II and Henry II intended to establish
the inquistion in France. Even before the Romorantin'^ ^tiu^^c
Edict of 1560, the Parlement of Paris formally declared Le tM^si^f^-
against the large increase in the powers of the ecclesiastical tcs tut-^f^
courts and the corresponding decrease in those of the regular ^ c&t^rA.
legal tribunals. It further protested against conversion by y^^:-*-^^**^*.*-.^
persecution, and the Spanish form of the inquisition.'^^ It Aj^ jL ^ #
was proposed that the inquisitors be empowered to appoint 0 ^ r

76 Beza, Histoire ecclesiastique des eglises reformees, p. 137.

77 D'Aubigne, vol. i, p. 274.

78 Lettenhove, p. 79.

79 Armstrong, Wars of Religion in France, p. 4.
II

l62 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [57O

diocesan tribunals, which could decide without appeal. The
Parlement of Paris absolutely declined to register this edict,
but the king entered the Mercuriale, or the famous Wednes-
day assembly, and broke with tradition by ordering the
arrest of five members, among them the advocate Du Bourg,
who had protested against the introduction of the inquisition.
jT^ This action placed one of the most influential elements
of the kingdom in an unfriendly mood toward the govern-
ment, and since the grievance was the sequel of the religious
program of the Guises, it had a marked tendency to create
j^y O a "rapprochement" between the reformers and the judicial
^' 4l classes. The most eminent jurists in 1560 were in the
Protestant minority. Even the Roman Catholic historian
Florimond de Remond records^^ that the youths who were
present at Du Bourg's execution at the stake on December
23, 1559, cursed the judges. "This punishment did more
harm to Catholicism than 100 ministers would have done."
To entangle one other powerful personage in the state was
the aim of the Guises and he barely escaped the net. This
was the Chancellor L'Hopital, to whom with Coligny accrued
the credit of the Edict of Romorantin and other lenitive
measures. The Huguenot writer. General La Noue, over-
heard the duke of Alva exclaim : " Catch the big fishes !
One salmon (L'Hopital) is worth 10,000 frogs."^^
J Other instances of Guisard cruelty " for the good of the
true religion" are plentiful. Maugiron was instructed to
sack and put to fire and sword all of the reformed in

^ , Dauphiny.^2 After the conspiracy of Amboise in the middle

of March, 1560, Guise ordered the masters of the forests
of the Orleannais, Berry, and Poitou to kill all suspects,
without bringing them to him, and ugly rumors circulated
hat the Guises and Diane de Poitiers, Henry IPs favorite,
maintained at Paris a special staff of Italian and Spanish
physicians for the purpose of making an unobtrusive end of
the owners of certain benefices.

80 Bulletin of French Protestantism, vol. xxxvii, p. 529-

81 Blackburn, Admiral Coligny and the Rise of the Huguenots,
vol. ii, p. 40.

--^82 Arnaud, Dauphine, p. 47.

CHAPTER VII
The Arsenal of Protestantism

The certainty of civil war was assured by the turn of
events in 1562. In less than fifteen years after that date
a million perished in war in the name of religion. The
struggle was bitter, for the sixteenth century was a period
of ardent passions and little regard for human life. The
contest was further intensified in that the Protestants were
obliged to combat the authority of a long established mon-
archy as well as the mediaeval church. Indeed, it has been
asserted that all excuses for the Huguenot revolt rest upon
the minority of two of these kings,^ and a Protestant biog-
rapher of Coligny, writing from another point of view, in-
sists that the Calvinists were defeated because in a war for
freedom of worship they were obliged to contend with the
prestige of the king's name.- Furthermore at the out-
break of the war the Catholic party was strongly intrenched
in the local government of the provinces. Not less than 1
nine of the fourteen governors were of the royal faction.^ , .

As early as July 26, 1561, Philip of Spain had learned '^^

from his minister Chantonnay that " in Brittany and Nor-
mandy things are turbulent as always."* Two months later
the Huguenots had seized the Garonne valley towns of
Castres, Lavaur, Revel, Rabastens, and Realmont. The

1 Weill, p. 39.

2 Bersier, p. xvi (preface).

3 Laplanche, vol. i, p. 399. From the council of August, 1560, the ^ ,
lords went out to the following assignments: Montmorency, Isle-de- -'''"r:j|^yj^>i \
France; St. Andre, Moulins; Brissac, Picardy; Thermes, Loches; ^ 'JL ^^v
Villebon, Rouen; Nivernais, Champagne-Brie, then to Troyes; '^ ^»~^ _ ^
Montpensier, Touraine, to which were annexed the duchies of Anjou ^r^^tcf^^
and Vendome, and the counties of Maine, Blois, and Dunois ; La J
Mothe-Gondrin, Dauphiny; Roche-sur Yon, Orleannais, duchy of

Berri, Beausse, Chartrain and Montagris.
* Archives Nationales, K. 1495, No. 54.

•63

^'Uu

i64 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [572

letter of the Catholic Joyeuse to Montmorency, dated Sep-
tember 30, also bore the information that the great Notre
Dame Cathedral at Montpellier in Languedoc had been
taken by four thousand Protestants.^ At intervals during
December of 1561 Chantonnay reiterated in his reports the
unrest in France. Utilizing Sundays to write his royal
master at the new capital and " unica corte " of Madrid, the
ambassador described on December 7 and 21, the great
revolt in Gascony and at Amiens, in Picardy.^ On the
29th of December there came from the same source an
account of a great insurrection at Meaux, a Huguenot center
twenty-eight miles to the east of Paris.''

The year 1562 was ushered in with the Edict of Tolera-
tion of January 17, but a violent conflagration soon threat-
ened the kingdom. We may pause to ask if this could
have been avoided, ihi view oi/(he fact that Henry H in
his day had given aid to^rm^ Protestants, would not the
incidents of Dreux and e;^^ual civil war have been pre-
vented if the wise Coljgliy's ao^k^e to send help to William
of Orange against tile Spanish AlvKhad been followed ?

It was not Spanish intervention, but the massacre of
Vassy, in Lorraine, on March i, 1562, which immediately
precipitated the first war of religion. On the 15th of Feb-
ruary, as we have seen elsewhere, Francis of Guise had
temporarily hoaxed the Protestant duke of Wiirtemberg at
the conference of Saverne. On his way to Paris from the
family estates at Joinville the retinue of Guise rode through
the village of Vassy. On the outskirts a little Huguenot
company of townspeople were worshipping in a barn on
the Sabbath morning. Their assembly was according to the
Edict of January, then but six weeks old. Yet the hench-
men of Guise shot and hacked the men, women, and chil-
dren of the congregation. The exact provocation and cir-
cumstances, authorities agree, will always remain sealed.
Ranke tersely concludes that "whether the duke intended

5 Conde, vol. ii, p. 435.

« Archives Nationales, K. 1495, Nos. 95, 105.

7 Ibid., No. 107.

5731 THE ARSENAL OF PROTESTANTISM 165

the massacre or not, it is enough that he did not prevent
it."«

March, 1562, was an eventful month. In less than three j
weeks the Huguenots had seized three dozen large towns.®
The importance of these cities may be realized when it is
stated that the majority coincided with the famous itinerary
of pacification of his kingdom undertaken by Charles IX in
1564-66. Beginning at Sens, southeast of Paris, the Prot-
estants proceeded to capture Chalons-sur-Saone and Magon
in Burgundy; all the country about Lyons, west of La
Bresse in the divisions of Forez and Lyonnais ; Montbrison,
southwest of Lyons, and Vienne, south of the same town,
on the Dauphinese Rhone ; then Romans, Tournon, Valence,
and Montelimart, on the left bank of that river as it flows
towards the Mediterranean. In eastern Dauphiny the im-
portant town of Grenoble was taken by the Huguenots, as
were Gap, in the modern Hautes-Alpes, and Sisteron on the
south side of the Durance river, forming the boundary be-
tween the divisions of Hautes- and Basses-Alpes. The
Protestants of the Comtat-Venaissin subdued Avignon, at
the juncture of the Rhone and the Durance, and the terri-
tory around this provincial capital, particularly Orange,
directly north. From the southeastern corner of the king-
dom the wave of Huguenot successes undulated to the
Spanish boundary. In the northern (Velay) center (Vi-
varais), and southern (Cevennes) subdivisions of Upper
Languedoc, Protestant successes were the rule. In Lower
Languedoc five towns dotting the main highway to the
Spanish frontier fell before the Huguenots : Nimes, Aigues-
Mortes, Montpellier, Beziers, and Castelnaudary, in addi-
tion to Castres, further north. The Bearnese, in the ex-
treme southwest of France, led by their capitol, Pau, ea-
gerly accepted the new doctrines.

As we traverse in imagination the western side of the
square-shaped kingdom, we find that Lectoure in Gascony,

8 Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, p. 211.
^ Mandet, Histoire des Guerres civiles, politiques, et religieuses
dans les montagnes du Velay pendant le i6e siecle, p. 70.

i66 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [574

Agen, Montauban and Milhau in Lower Guyenne, and La
Rochelle in Aunis, opened their gates to the swift moving
Huguenots. In the north, Havre, Rouen, Honfleur, and
Dieppe declared for Conde, during the month under con-
sideration, March, 1562. Possibly the Protestants at the
outset were best entrenched in central France. The river
Loire, coiling about the heart of the kingdom, was a favorite
locality with the new sect. Starting at the mouth of the
great river system. Angers, Pont-de-Ce and Saumur (An-
jou), Tours (Touraine), Blois and Beaugency (Orlean-
nais), Bourges (Berry) and Mouhns (Bourbonnais) suc-
cumbed to or sided with the Huguenots. The culmination
of the activities during March, 1562, was reached when
Conde started from Meaux in Ile-de-France for Orleans.
Ever since the promulgation of the Edict of January the
great Louis had been preparing for the inevitable outbreak.
Now after two months his forces were ready on March 29
to cross the Seine and advance upon Orleans, which for 1
many years was destined to be the Protestant metropolis. <J

To the dismay of Catherine and the Guises the prince,
along with Coligny, D'Andelot, and three thousand cavalry,
appeared before the gates of Paris on the 29th of March.^*'
The draw-bridges, however, were raised, and all prepara-
tions made for a possible attack by the Protestants. Conde
issued an edict to the effect that the young king was literally
a captive of the Guises. When the Catholic leaders went
further and abducted the sovereign to Melun, negotiations
ceased and the Protestant leaders set out for Orleans. The
Huguenot march to the capital of the Loire consumed five
days, ending on the 2d of April. St. Cloud, Longjumeau,
Montehery, Etampes, Angerville, Toury, Artenay, and Cer-
cottes heard the thud of Huguenot cavalry. Three days
after the arrival of Conde at Orleans, Montmorency ordered
the Calvinist temple near the Parisian Port St. Antoine
razed and the contents burned. On the 8th, and again on
the 25th of April, Conde accused the Triumvirate of begin-

i» Great Britain, Gal. St. P. For., No. 967, March 31, 1562.

575] THE ARSENAL OF PROTESTANTISM 167

ning the war, 'declared Vassy to have been a violation of
the January Edict, and defended the Protestants for begin-
ning hostilities, but his apology, although correct, did not
win the universal approbation of the Huguenots. The'^
town of La Rochelle and warm sympathizers like Louis de
Gonzague, duke of Nevers, and the duke of Bouillon (so
strongly Protestant that Aumale replaced him as governor
of Normandy), refused at first to follow the lead.^^ ^iJ
Sunday, April 12, three weeks after the day when his
brother of Navarre attended mass and definitely declared
himself a Romanist, Louis of Conde formally assumed
command of the Huguenot forces. The first of the wars
of religion had begun.

Hostilities now broke out all over France. Ile-de-France
and Burgundy adhered to the established religion, the for-
mer from inclination, the latter on account of Marshal
Tavannes. This cavalry leader retook Macon and Chalons-
sur-Saone from the Huguenots, and prevented Dijon from
falling into their hands. Montbrison retired to Lyons, leav-
ing Burgundy clear of the Protestants.^^ In Dauphiny and
Provence great massacres took place on both sides. The
natives of these two provinces of the fiery south of France
seemed cruel and warlike. It was in the same vicinity
three hundred years previously that the Waldenses had
sprung up. To assert that in any national commotion of
such a nature the excesses were on one side only would be
to assume that a portion of our race are angels. Generally
the excesses of the oppressed party were retaliatory, hence,
both iniquitous and defensible, and it may suffice to mention
two noteworthy "butchers," one of each party. Baron des
Adrets, starting the war on the Huguenot side, proclaimed
all the Catholics in Dauphiny, Lyonnais, Burgundy, and
Limousin rebels to the king. He captured Grenoble, Va-^
lence, and Chalons, in spite of the fact that Tavannes was
said to have 8000 foot, 1500 horse, and 6000 Swiss from

1^ Castelnau, p. 166.
12 Castelnau, p. 183.

i68 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [576

Berne and Lucerne. From the roof of a castle at Mornas,^
in Dauphiny, Adrets caused two hundred men to be hurled :
the hands which clutched at the window bars were severed
with sword and ax.^^ But the achievements of the baron
pale into insignificance before those of the famous Monluc.
The latter boasted that he " rather inclined to violence than
to peace, and was more prone to fighting and cutting of
throats than to making of speeches."^* As early as January,
1560, the veteran had been commissioned as the "conserva-
teur de la Guyenne." We read that in one case his troops
"were so few that we were not enough to kill them all,"
while before Agen the Huguenots "no sooner heard my
name but they fancied the rope already about their necks."
Pope Pius wrote Monluc: "You are making a glorious*^
name."^^ A historian of Upper Languedoc compared
Adrets, who one month after the massacre of Vassy suc-
ceeded the deceased La Mothe-Gondarin as governor of
I Dauphiny,^^ to a Tartar of the seventh century. ^^ He and J

^^ '' ^„- his satellite Blagons, like Monluc, were accused of leaving

y^^^j^^"^ ruin behind them.

if^ April, 1562, was almost as epoch-making as the preced-

ing month. In addition to the cities already enumerated,
the small towns of Ponteau-de-Mer, Pezenas, Pierrelot,
Mornas, Montlinas, and Viviers were controlled by the Hu-
guenots.^^ Sens in Champagne, Toul in Lorraine, Abbe-
ville in Picardy, Tours, Cahors in Quercy, Toulouse, and
Agen were the scenes of bloody riots. ^^ In the latter city
Charles IX called upon the governor of Guyenne to repress
the violence.^^ On the fifth of the month Montmorency
raided the homes and chapel of the Protestants of Paris at
3 a.m., burning books and benches. It was claimed that

13 Castelnau, p. 183.

1* Monluc, vol. iv, pp. 11 1-225.

1* Blackburn, vol. ii, p. 47.

1^ Capefigue, Histoire de la Reforme, p. no. *

1'^ Mandet, Velay, p. 27.

18 Haton, vol. i, p. 189.

19 Beza, vol. i, p. 416.

20 Inventaire des Archives communales d'Agen, Villeneuve-sur-
Lot, 1876, XXX, p. 28, Apr. 17, 1562.

■^V

577II THE ARSENAL OF PROTESTANTISM 169

seventy Huguenot soldiers were discovered in concealment
in the home of Rose, avocat du roi. Two days later the
Protestant military heads issued an urgent appeal for as-
sistance from each of their 2150 churches. ^^ On the nth
of April the recruiting captains of the king in Normandy
and Champagne were prevented by the Huguenots from en-
listing soldiers in Rouen and Troyes.^^ Eight days later
the thoroughly frightened Catherine bade the triumvirate
formally to invite the support of Spain. This was done on
April 21.2^ The same day Rochefoucauld with four hun-
dred horsemen and Grammont with four thousand Gascons
started from Provence and Languedoc. Before they could
join the Orleans troops, however, the force from Gascony
was compelled to turn to the southeast to meet the Spanish
reinforcements poured into Fortarbia to thwart a possible
Huguenot attack upon Navarre. A despatch of the Catholic
bishop St. Croix under date of April 29, 1562, conveyed the
news that since the massacre at Sens eighty of the Reform
had been killed and thirty of their homes burned at Paris.^*
Conde, on the last day of the month, reported the capture \
of Lyons "by the faithful in the king's name."^^

By the end of April Conde dominated these provinces :
in the northwest, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and much of
Normandy, including Dieppe, Rouen, and Caen; in the
west, Poitou, besides much of the middle Loire country ; in
the southwest, parts of Guyenne and Gascony, in which
latter province the Huguenots were constantly intercepting
couriers between the French and Spanish courts; in the
southeast, Provence and Dauphiny, in addition to Lyons.
The month of May was ushered in by the ordinance of
Charles IX, issued on the second, which permitted those
citizens of Paris fit to bear arms to form companies under
chosen captains. ^^ On the eighth the young king formally

21 St. Croix, p. 121.

22 St. Croix, p. 133.

23 Archives Nationales, K. 1496, B. 14, No. 61.
2* St. Croix, p. 133.

25 Conde, vol. iii, p. 350, 4 j.

26 Ibid., vol. iii, p. 419.

lyo FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [578

begged military aid of Philip II, who granted it exactly
one month later.^^ Havre-de-Grace, at the outlet of the
Seine, was captured by the Protestants on May 14, much
to the dismay of the Guises. Great was the alarm of the
Catholics at the Huguenot occupation of Dieppe and Havre,
for Paris was in danger of starving, once these two keys
were assured to the enemy.^^ Almost simultaneously the ?
government of Rouen was assumed by the Protestants.
Before the end of the month Vendome, Montargis, Auxerre
(Champagne), La Charite (Nivernais), Poitiers, and most
of the western provinces of Saintonge and Angoumois had
declared for Conde. j

In order to secure much needed funds the Huguenots '-)
took charge of the money in each province under their con- ,^
trol, even to the extent of destroying the government reg- ^
isters in the towns. On one corner of a manuscript of the^^ ^
correspondence of Chantonnay found in the Archives na-
tionals of Paris the Spanish king laconically wrote that
the Catholics would be better off were they as active as the
Huguenots.^^ Futile negotiations for peace were conducted
between the i8th and 28th of May. Unless the citizens of
Paris were more generous in their contributions it appeared
that the royalists would not possess sufficient ordnance for
the defense of the capital against any Huguenot assault.
The Venetian ambassador in France recorded that at the
opening of the first war of religion the Catholics could mus-
ter only twenty-two pieces of artillery. ^^ Even in the
middle of May only twenty-five cannon were available.^^
Suriano is authority for the information that all the French
(Protestant included) artillery and ammunition were of
uniform and convenient size.^^ On May 26 the turncoat*^

27 Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur les Pays Bas, vol.
ii, pp. 218-221.

28 Daval, Jean, Histoire de la Reforme a Dieppe, 1 557-1657. 2
vols., Rouen, 1878; vol. i, p. 10.

2» Archives Nationales, K. 1497, No. 33, May 2, 1562; Thompson,
p. 147.

30 Relations . . . venetiens, vol. ii, p. loi.

31 Great Britain, Gal. St. P. For., No. 106, May 28, 1562.

32 Suriano, p. 361.

579] "^^E ARSENAL OF PROTESTANTISM 171

Antoine of Bourbon proclaimed that all Protestants should
be expelled from the capital and that their possessions might
be confiscated by the financially embarrassed Catholic

bourgeois. ^^ J

Parleys rather than fighting marked the cold month of
June, 1562. On the third of the month Aurillac in Au-
vergne was entered by the Huguenots. On the other hand
four thousand Swiss from the Catholic cantons had enabled
the brilliant cavalry leader Tavannes to save the Burgun-
dian cities of Chalons-sur-Saone, Dijon, and Macon for the
king. The May negotiations had failed because the brother
of Coligny, Odet cardinal Chatillon, protested to Catherine
de Medicis that peace would be impossible unless the Trium-
virate were banished from court. A truce, ending June 21,
was declared by the opposing forces near Orleans, com-
manded by the brothers Conde and Navarre. The Catholic
Bourbon urged his brother to heed the king's proffer to
allow the Huguenots to remain unharmed in their homes
until a council could settle the mooted questions. Liberty
of conscience was promised. To Conde's insistence that
the January Edict be observed in Paris there was point-
blank refusal. The truce of Beaugency terminated when
the Catholics, presumably through the Triumvirate, de-
manded that Conde, the three Chatillons, and all Huguenot
officers and clergymen should be banished from France
until Charles IX attained the age of twenty-one, that is, in
1 571. Prince Louis returned from audience with the queen
to the Calvinist camp, and war commenced anew on June
29.^* The warfare during the several months must have
been more than fairly successful from the Huguenot view-
point, for Chantonnay recorded on the 6th of June that all
the horrors of the Goths had been surpassed.^^ On the 3rd
of July the prince of Conde captured Beaugency, then re-
tired towards Orleans. The despatches of the English am- 1

83 Great Britain, Gal. St. P. For., No. 107; Gonde, vol. iii, p. 462;
Archives Nationale, K. 1497, No. 36.
3* Weill, p. 107.
35 Lettenhove, p. 79.

172 FRENCH protestantism: I559-1562 [580

bassador of the date of July 12, 1562, were to the effect
that the inhabitants of Caen, Bayeux, and most of the places
in lower Normandy were defacing images and intercepting
the king's revenues.^^ Montbrison in Auvergne, one of the J
less noted parts of the theatre of war, was attacked on July
13 by Adrets, and in the account we read that it was pil-
laged for two days by four thousand soldiers.^'' On the
twenty-first of the month the duke d'Aumale took Honfleur
for the king. In the same Norman province the city of
Rouen was such a hotbed of Calvinism that Charles IX
issued a declaration transferring the Rouennais Parlement
to Louviers.^^ Less than twenty-four hours separated the
last two episodes. The king ordered Baron Castelnau to
make a magazine of the Seine valley as far as Havre, but on \
both sides of the river all Normandy was waste. Trade
was dead. Many of both sects lived in caves. It was in /
vain that Aumale offered to relieve the peasants from all
taxes and dangled visions of the sack and loot of chateaux. ]
In late July St. Andre captured the capitals of Poitou and
Angoumois, while the duke of Guise further north was sub-
duing the Touraine towns of Chinon and Loudun.*^ In
the meanwhile Aumale had been commissioned at the in-
stance of the Triumvirate to levy necessary troops to per-
petuate the Catholic cause in Burgundy, Champagne, and
Brie. During the closing days of the month 6000 lansque-
nets were marching across the Ile-de-France to Blois. To i
assist Joyeuse, lieutenant-governor of Languedoc, the Ro-
man pontiff Pius IV despatched his own nephew at the
head of 2500 troops.*® About the same time Roggendorf, j
the famous Catholic recruiter, arrived in France with twelve
hundred pistoleers from Germany. Encamped in Cham-
pagne were the Rhinegrave, with two hundred pistoleers
and two regiments of infantry, and the Swiss captain Froe-
lich, commanding fifteen Helvetian ensigns.

3« Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 303, July 12, 1562. ^-^

37 Duparcq, Charles IX, p. 152.

^8 Conde, vol. iii, p. 524.

89 Archives de la Gironde, vol. xvii, p. 270.

*^ Negociations toscanes, vol. iii, p. 492.

58 1 ] THE ARSENAL OF PROTESTANTISM 1 73

One writer divides the internal troubles of mid-year, 1 562,
into six parts: (i) Dauphiny; (2) Provence; (3) Langue-
doc; (4) Perigord, Limousin, Agenois; (5) Anjou; (6)
Bretagne.*^ The first three represent the southern theatre,
the fourth the southwest, and the last two the far north-
west. When the war broke out the Roman CathoHcs in the
northwest arose against the Protestants, with the spirit
which animated La Vendee during the Revolution: in the
southwest the Huguenots took the initiative. August seems
to have been noteworthy chiefly for the siege of Bourges,
in Berry, by the Catholics. Inside the town were 3500
Huguenot defenders with sufficient food but no superior
ordnance. The garrison was anxiously awaiting succor
from D'Andelot, who had crossed the Rhine to obtain as-
sistance. The Protestant leanings of this younger brother
of Coligny had so angered the king during one interview
that it was reported that the monarch hurled a plate at his
head.*^ At this crisis his effort to bring in German cavalry
was too late by three weeks to save Bourges, which capitu-
lated on the last day of August.*^ Philip of Spain grum-
bled at the reasonable terms of surrender, which included
the assurance of life, property, and liberty of conscience to
all the soldiers and civilians of the town in exchange for
50,000 livres. Surely those of the Reform would never
thus have entrusted themselves to Monluc in Guyenne or
to Cursol in Languedoc. The racy memoirs of Monluc
, p\ inform us that in many towns the Protestant ministers
^^j^c^f>rom\sed the king's soldiers heaven, if they would desist,
*^i , ri^'^and the author adds that many actually accepted the offer,
^e, especially at Montauban.**

The Protestants were in daily expectation of the arrival
of the German pistoleers and footmen who were to be led
by Casimir, second son of the Count Palatine. The foreign
princes were so tardy in their response that Louis of Conde

*i Duparcq, Henri II, vol. ii, p. 157.
<2 Hanna, p. 38.

*3Raynal, Histoire du Berry, 4 vols., Bourges, 1844-47; vol. iv;
Negociations toscanes, vol. iii, p. 494.
** Monluc, Commentaires, p. 220.

174 FRENCH protestantism: 1559-1562 [582

tried to stimulate activity by promising their troops the pil-
lage of Paris.*^ Under these circumstances the first ava-
lanche of the fearsome reiters descended upon France. On
September 22, 1562, ten troops of cavalry (2600) and twelve
battalions of lansquenets (3000) crossed the Rhine under
the command of Hesse, whom Castelnau considered a very
indifferent soldier.^® It was the long expected force of
D'Andelot. The day before Monluc for the king had cap-
tured Agen, in Lower Guyenne.^^ On the twenty-fourth
the English proclamation for the expedition into Normandy
was promulgated, one fortnight subsequent to the signing
of the treaty of Hampton Court by Elizabeth of England
and the Prince of Conde. September saw the Protestants
enter Lyons and abandon the siege of Pertuis, while Sis-
teron, one of the keys of Provence, was retaken by the
Catholics.

On October i the English set sail for Havre and the place
was occupied three days later. Fifty miles up the Seine
the troops of Aumale had been besieging Rouen for over a
month, while the vacillating policy of the English govern-
ment refused to allow the earl of Warwick to leave the
coast to succor the beleaguered town. The theory of Cas-
telnau was that Rouen could have been captured in twenty-
four hours by the Catholics, but the king and the chan-
cellor would not hear of it, because the trades of the town
would expect full satisfaction and guarantee from the sov-
ereign.*^ On Friday, the i6th of October, Montgomery,
the defender of the town, parleyed with Catherine and
Damville, second son of the constable Montmorency. The
Huguenots proposed that the edict of January should be
amended to include Calvinist preaching inside, as well as
outside, of the French cities.*^ Simultaneously the royal
government was treating with the prince of Conde, stipu-
lating that town worship was to be confined to Huguenot

*5 Conde, vol. iii, p. 630,

*® Castelnau, p. 171.

*7 Conde, vol. ii, p. 20.

*8 Castelnau, p. 174.

49 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 901, Oct. 23, 1562.

583] THE ARSENAL OF PROTESTANTISM 175

homes. The counter proposal to Conde's suggestion that in
the event of peace the king should reimburse the reiters
on the Protestant side, was that both German auxiliaries
and Huguenot troops should first drive the English from
French soil. In each case the opponents were hopelessly
far from a compromise. Three days following the truce
arranged by Montgomery, Charles IX issued an order pro-
claiming pardon to all who would assist in expelling the
English and Germans.^^ Meanwhile great breaches had
been caused in the walls of Rouen by mines and large shot
and through these the Catholic Germans and French
swarmed on October 26. The sack was terrible. For eight
days the city was plundered, especially by the courtiers, gen-
erally the "greatest harpies." Eventually the order was
given to leave the town, but the " French suffered them-
selves to be killed rather than quit the place while there was
anything left ! "^^ The crimes committed at this siege made
a deep impression upon the remainder of the kingdom.
When Joyeuse, lieutenant-governor of Languedoc, mar-
shalled all the Catholic forces of his province and of Prov-
ence for an assault upon Montpellier, in the far south of
France, all its citizens rushed to the defense, regardless of
religion.^2 At Rouen, Pastor Marlorat and two elders of
the Reformed church were officially executed at the conclu-
sion of the siege.

November was noteworthy for Conde's march upon Paris.
The Catholic historian Aumale admits that the prince could
have captured Paris had he pressed forward on November
28.^^ The lost chance did not occur again. The rapid
march upon the capital had found many of the royal sol-
diers on a furlough, with only meagre rations stored in the
city. In order to offset their unpreparedness Catherine and
the Guises played for time. At Etampes, where the prince's
cavalry arrived on November 25, Conde was cajoled with

50 Conde, vol. iv, p. 38.

51 Castelnau, p. 174.
«2 Ibid., p. 188.

53 Aumale, p. 145.

176 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [584

peace overtures. On his part the Bourbon leader claimed
the position of lieutenant-governor of France and proposed
several modified demands along lines of religious toleration.
In the first instance, Huguenot preaching was to be allowed
in the suburbs of frontier towns, or in several designated
ones; secondly, these sermons should be delivered only in
those towns where they had been permitted prior to the out-
break of hostilities ; thirdly, all nobles and gentlemen might
lawfully hold private services in their own houses; finally,
those persons residing in places where preaching was not
allowed should be permitted to proceed to the nearest towns
or other places for the exercise of their religion, without
molestation. In reply, the government excepted Paris and
its suburbs from these conditions, but consented to consider
Lyons as an interior rather than a frontier city.^*

It was not until the 3rd of December that the government
and Conde accepted these articles. Suddenly the royalists
terminated the negotiations. To everyone but Conde the
reason was obvious. Paris during the truce had been so^
replenished with Gascons and Spaniards that more than
fifteen thousand troops were now available. Conde, with
less than half that number, felt compelled to withdraw
towards Normandy and sought to effect a junction with
the earl of Warwick. In the several weeks preceding De-
cember 9, the date of Conde's withdrawal from Paris, the
Huguenot operations had been chiefly in Normandy, where
they had taken St. L6, Vire, Bayeux, Dieppe, and Honfleur.^^
Brissac suggested that the king move the army of Guise
from the siege of Orleans to Normandy before all the mari-
time ports should fall into English hands. Unfortunately
the prince of Conde was south of the Seine. To join War-
wick he must cross the river, which was guarded at Poissy
by Francis of Guise and at Pont de TArche, near Rouen,
by Villebon and the Rhinegrave. On the 19th of Decem-
ber, 1562, while Conde's forces were endeavoring to cross

'^^ Beza, Histoire des eglises reformees, vol. ii, p. 121, ed. 1841.
'^^ Castelnau, p. 223.

■'5;

585] THE ARSENAL OF PROTESTANTISM 177

the river Eure, a branch of the Seine, the famous battle of
Dreux was begun.

Duparcq estimated that at the time of this battle, the royal
armies comprised 55,000 men in the field, with an additional
45,000 in the different garrisons.^^ Castelnau is authority
for the figures at Dreux. The royal army, according to
him, had 14,000 infantry and 2000 cavalry; Conde, 8000
foot soldiers and 4000 horsemen.^'^ Throckmorton, the
English ambassador, recorded that there were 6000 French
infantry and 2000 native cavalry, besides 3500 reiters and
4000 lansquenets from Germany. Accepting this higher
estimate the Calvinists were yet inferior in numbers to the
Catholics. Furthermore, the Protestants were wasting their
strength upon local enterprises scattered about the provinces. - . -. ,
The effect of concentration in one or two main drives of u^l 1
the military resources of 2150 parishes would have been y^oj ^jui.^ «-/
incalculable. The history of the periods of Louis XIV and '^^^^ *
Napoleon would probably read quite differently had the
Huguenots, by the addition of several thousand native
soldiers, won a decisive victory in the battle of Dreux.

The duke of Guise commanded the advance guard of the
Catholics against Admiral Coligny for the Protestants; the
main army of the former was led by St. Andre, opposed by
D^Andelot and his reiters, who had received no wages for
three months. ^^ The two rear guards were commanded,
respectively, by the constable Montmorency and Conde. At
the outset the Huguenot cavalry under Coligny captured
Montmorency, who was despatched to Orleans, the Protest-
ant capital. The lumbering reiters of D'Andelot supported
the next charge so clumsily that the prince of Conde, un-
horsed, was left a prisoner in the Catholic array. Although
the strife was so fierce that the commander of each rear
guard was captured by the enemy, the Huguenot infantry
lost the day by retiring in disorder without making even a

5^ Duparcq, Charles IX, p. 548.

5^ Castelnau, vol. iv, p. 205.

«8 Great Britain, Cal. St. P. For., No. 16, Jan. 3, 1563.

178 FRENCH protestantism: 1 559-1 562 [586

charge. A priest estimated the Protestant losses at over
6000, the Catholic at one-third that number.^^ But the dis-
solution of the famous Triumvirate now began. St. Andre
fell in this battle, while the constable was made a prisoner.
Within two months the great Francis of Guise fell under
the dagger of the assassin Poltrot.®°

On the 8th of March, 1563, eleven weeks after the battle
of Dreux, Conde and Montmorency were simultaneously
released from captivity. As men of the hour, now that Guise
was dead, their counsel was necessary in the peace overtures.
On March 19 Charles IX formally decreed religious tolera-
tion. Prince Louis of Conde, the Bourbon, "one of the
arms of the [king's] body,"^^ with whom the temptations
used upon his brother Navarre had been of no avail,^^ was
appointed lieutenant-general of the realm.®^ This Peace of
Amboise, March 19, 1563, terminated the first of the four
civil wars of religion in France.

59 Haton, vol. i, p. 311.

60 A contemporaneous cavalry leader recorded in his memoirs sev-
eral remarkable happenings at Dreux: the generosity of the Swiss,
and their great proofs of valor ; the long patience of Guise in attain-
ing the decision; a five-hour battle, instead of one of the usual
duration of one-third the time ; the taking as prisoners of two rival
generals. (La Noue, p. 605.) Moreover it seems to have been evi-
dence of mutual exhaustion that news of the battle, which terminated
at dusk on one of the shortest days of the year, did not reach Paris,
only twelve leagues distant, until 3 A. M. Six hours later, on the
quiet Sabbath morning, Sieur de Losses rode through the St. Honore
gate, crying : " Guise has won the battle ; Conde is prisoner ! "
(Vieilleville, p. 323.) The chronicler of this information, Vieille-
ville, accepted the marshal's baton, succeeding St. Andre, killed in
action.

61 Lettenhove, p. 80.

62 Aumale, p. 94.

63 Great Britain, Gal. St. P. For., No. 473, March, 1563.

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don, 1693.

. Synodicon in Gallia reformata. 2 vols. London, 1682.

Rasle, Frangois. L'Histoire de notre temps contenant les commen-
taires de Tetat de la religion et de la republique . . . 1559^1563.
Paris, 1566.

l82 FRENCH protestantism: I559-I562 [590

Regnier, seigneur de la Planche. Histoire de I'Estat de France;

1595H1560. Ed. P. Paris. 2 vols. Paris, 1836.
Ruble, Baron Alphonse de. Antoine de Bourbon et Jeanne d'Albret,

4 vols. Paris, 1881-86.
Saint Marthe, M. de. Choses memorables recueillies selon la verite

et advenues selon les dates depuis le mois d'Avril, 1561-mois

de Mai, 1562. Paris, 1562.
Sorbin de Saincte-Foy, A. Histoire de Charles IX. Paris, 1574.
Tavannes, Gaspard de Saulx. Memoires; 1530-73- Collection Peti-

tot XXIII-XXV.
Tommaseo, N. Relations des ambassadeurs venetiens sur les af-
faires de France au 16^ Siecle. (Coll. doc. inedits.) 2 vols.

Paris, 1838.
Weiss, Charles. Papiers d'etat du cardinal Granvelle. 9 vols.

Paris, 1841-52.
Zamariel, A. Histoire des persecutions et martyrs de I'Eglise de

Paris, 1557, jusqu'au regne Charles IX. Lyon, 1563.

INDEX

Admiral of France, jurisdiction
of, 38.

Africa, French commerce with,
54, 59.

Algeria, French commerce with,
54.

Amboise, peace of, 117.

Antoine of Navarre, 124; char-
acter, 135.

Arabia, commerce with, 60.

Aries, atrocities in, no.

Artillery, 83; supply, 170.

Associations, political, 78.

Association of Orleans, 80.

Bankers, Huguenot, 47.

Bayonne, commerce, 52.

Bibliography, 179.

Bodin, Jean, quoted on com-
merce, 58.

Boulogne, commerce, 51.

Bordeaux, fairs at, 43; com-
merce, 51.

Brazil as Protestant colony, 39.

Brittanny and reform, 125.

Calvinists, organization of, 69-

87.
Canals, 17.

Cateau Cambresis, treaty of, 161.'
Catherine de Medicis, character,

130; relation to reform, 134.
Catholic League, 78.
Cavalry, Huguenot, 83.
Clergy, catholic, 'JZ-
Clergy and the Reformation,

ICO.

Coinage of Protestants, 47.

Coins, values of, 47.

Clothing, cost of, 25.

Coligny, political ideals of, 38;
colonial enterprises, 63; battle
of Dreux, 177.^

Colloquies, ecclesiastical, 71.

Colonization, Huguenot, 39.

Commerce, foreign, 44; of Prot-
estants, 52; France and
Europe, 64.

Commercial classes, 40.

Compiegne, edict of, 88.

Conde, Louis, Prince of, de-
mands freedom of worship,
107; character, 141; leader of
the Huguenots, 167; military
activity, 169; march on Paris,
175 ; peace overtures, 176 ; cap-
ture, 177; lieutenant general,

lA
Consistories, powers of, 71.
Consular system, origins, 57-
Cost of living, 13, 21.
Costume, sixteenth century, 26;

military, 85.
Dauphiny, reform in, 113.
Dieppe, Reformation begins, 39;

commerce, 51.
Dijon, commerce, 52.
Discipline, mililtary, Huguenot,

85.
Dreux, battle of, 177.

Ecclesiastical divisions. Hugue-
not, 69.

Economic discontent, 11.

Ecouan, edict of, 88.

Edict of Pacification, 1563, 79-

Edicts against Protestants, 88-
92.

Elders, powers of, 7i-

Elizabeth of England, policy, 50-

England and French reform,
121; assists the Huguenots,

174. , .

Fairs, commercial importance,
42.

Financial measures of Hugue-
nots, 48. .

Flanders, commerce with, 00;
relations with French reform-
ers, 119.

Forest products, 24.

France, public debt, 13.

Francis II, 146; death, 155.

Germany and French reform,
123, 147.

183

i84

INDEX

[592

Gold and silver values, 31-

Granvella, Cardinal, 119.

Greek allies of Catholics,

Guilds, see trade corporations.

Guise Francis of, 138.

Guise, powers of the house of,
137; their system of govern-
ment, 143 ; relations with Italy,
144; with Spain, 145; with
Scotland, 146; Beza's epithet,
140; illegality of rule, 150;
financial policy, 151; venality
of justice, 152; consequences,
153 ; religious policy, 159.

Guise or Valois, contest, 137-162.

Hampton Court Treaty, 50.

Harfleur, commerce, 51.

Henry H, expenditures of, 9;
financial expedients, 12; rela-
tions with the Protestants, 39;
death, 89.

Holy days, economic effect, 22,
32.

Housing, cost of, 30-

Huguenot, origin of word, 116.

Huguenots, resources of, 38-68;
classes of, 81 ; numbers of,
103-105; friends and foes, 118-
136.

Image breaking, 105.
Industrial history, periods, 40.^
Inquisition, introduction in
France, 160.

January, edict of, 90. 164.

Labor, hours of, 33.

Land values, 29.

Languedoc, reform in, 114.

La Rochelle, commerce, 51.

Leagues, Catholic, 78.

Levant, French commerce with,

56.
L'Hopital, M. de, chancellor, 89.
Lorraine, Cardinal, 138, hatred

of, 151; as a preacher, 155, as

a theologian, 276.
Lyons, fairs at, 43; printing, 45;

Protestantism in, 45; mass

abolished, 107.
Mary, Queen of Scots, 146.
Marseilles, commerce, 52.
Metz, Protestants in, 120.

Military organization, Protestant,

82.
Military budget, Protestant, 86.
Militia, guild duties in, 35.
Monluc, Blaise de, violence of,

168, 173.

Navarre, Antonie of, see An-

toine.
Navarre, population, 65.
Nobility and the Reformation,

98-100.
Normandy, reform in, 112.

Orleans, guild ordinance of, 36;
commerce, 52; center of Prot-
estantism, 70; association of,
80; university of, 95.

Paris, population and housing,
30; university of, 95; first
Protestant church in, 115;
seige of, 166.

Pasquier, on reform, 108.

Peasantry and the Reformation,

lOI.

Philip II, power of, 128; sup-
ports French Catholics, 129-
130, 145.

Piracy in the Mediterranean, 68.

Plague, bubonic, 27.

Pontoise, States General of, 156.

Poissy, colloquiy of, 156.

Poor relief, Huguenot, 72.

Population, 29.

Postal routes, 118.

Preaching, Huguenot and Catho-
lic compared, 112.

Printing trade, 66; Protestant,

77-

Protective policy, France, 67.

Protestantism, official begin-
nings, 69; the arsenal of, 163-
178.

Protestants, financial system, 48;
numbers in France, 48; com-
mercial expeditions, 53 ; classes
in France, 81, 97.^

Provence, reforni in, 113.

Provinces, ecclesiastical, 70.

Provinces, comparative strength
of reform, 112.

Public debt, 13.

Reform at its height, 88-117.

593]

INDEX

185

Reformation in France, reasons

for, 92-95
Roads, 16.
Rouen, commerce, 51; sack of,

175.
Rome aids French Catholics, 127.
Romorantin, edict of, 89; effect,

III.

Sacrament, Huguenot adminis-
tration of, 72, 74.

St. Malo, commerce, 51.

Salt tax, 24.

Savoy, ally of Catholics, 126.

Scandinavia, reform in, 121, was
in, 148.

Schools, Protestant, 75.

Scotland, relations with France,
146.

Silver and gold values, 31.

Social and economic forces, 9-37.

Soldiers, pay of Protestant, 86.

South America, French com-
merce with, 56.

Spain commerce with, 65.

Strasburg, reform in, 121.

Sudan, French commerce with,
62.

Sumptuary laws, 10, 67.

Suriano on reform, 116.

Switzerland and French reform,

122.
Synods, powers of, 7i-

Tavannes, Gaspard, military ac-
tivity, 167, 171.

Toleration, edict of, 1562, 164;
decree of March, 1563, 178.

Toulouse, commerce, 52.

Trade corporations, 32; reforms
in, 36.

Transportation, cost of, 16;
water, 17.

Travel, expense of, 16.

Treves, Protestants in, 121.

Triumvirate, the Catholic, 172,
178.

Turkey, French treaties with, 56.

Universities and the Reforma-
tion, 95.

Valence, university of, 96.
Vassy, massacre of, 107, 148, 164
Vaudois, 116.
Wages, 34.
War finance, 86.
Wine production, 20.
Women, education of, 76.
Worship, right of, 81.

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